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Ideas for Asian-themed language hitlist | ||
Tags: Hit List | Asian Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Leftcoaster Diglot Newbie China Joined 5032 days ago 22 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Russian | Message 9 of 28 23 March 2011 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'm fairly surprised to see how many people have Indonesian on their hitlist, it seems to be more popular here than I
previously thought!
I haven't had the time (and probably won't for several years) to start on Indonesian so beyond its reputation I have no idea about how hard it might be. How do you see it as a useful language? I'm kind of curious, I want to learn Indonesian simply because it sounds so beautiful but I never thought much about its usefulness. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sanghee Groupie United States Joined 5069 days ago 60 posts - 98 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Korean | Message 10 of 28 24 March 2011 at 1:42am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Since I'm only learning my 2nd language now, my hit list in general is pretty small. I'm not sure which other languages will catch my eye in the future. However, I am very interested in Asian languages, much more-so than European language, so my hit list already is almost completely Asian languages.
Korean - Currently learning, and have wanted to learn/flirted with the language for about 2.5 years before I started to seriously study it a few months ago. Almost every aspect of media that I'm interested in is Korean; I can easily tell you what's going on in Korea, who's having concerts, what's going on in the lives of idols, which dramas are currently playing, etc. I couldn't tell you what's playing in the theater around the corner from my house. This is a huge motivation even though I don't live near many Korean speakers and don't have immediate travel plans. Mandarin - Through Korean media, I was introduced to Chinese media and fell in love with the sound of the language. I don't plan to start learning this until I am much more advanced in Korean, but I do have fun reading up about the language in my free time. If the only 2 foreign languages I ever learn are Korean and Mandarin, I'd be satisfied :) [Excluding future interests, anyway..] Filipino/Tagalog - No real plans of when I'll learn this, if ever. I have a lot of Filipino friends and the language seems really interesting, but many (most?) Filipinos already speak English. I just think it'd be nice to not have to ask for a translation when they talk with each other, and be able to speak to them in their native language too. Japanese - I don't have much of an interest in learning Japanese currently, though that may change in the future. It's mostly on my list of future possibilities due to its similarities with Korean and Mandarin, both of which I'd already know before getting to Japanese. So, my list isn't very large, and the only 2 I'm kind of "set" on are Korean and Mandarin. I don't feel really qualified to list a lot of languages since I'm still on my first. Add French and Esperanto to this list and you have my full possible hit list. :P 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Phantom Kat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5064 days ago 160 posts - 253 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Finnish | Message 11 of 28 24 March 2011 at 2:03am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Very small hit-list, but my favorite languages are mostly Germanic and Slavic, with the exception of Finnish.
Mandarin There's just something about the tones that makes Mandarin a thrill to listen to. It's like a song or a rollercoaste that excites you. The Chinese characters, though a daunting task whenever I think about it, does have its beauty. My brother-in-law is a native Mandarin speaker from Taiwan, and I would love to speak to him in Mandarin and get to know him better. Whenever my sister decides to have children, I sincerely hope Mandarin will be taught, along with Spanish. As for when I'll learn it I won't attempt until I became comfortable with Finnish (and later German). Japanese I admit, I've grown to love Japanese due to anime. However, I love the sound of it. While Mandarin is like adrenaline shot through the veins Japanese is a relaxing language that still has some kick to it. The pronounciation reminds me of Spanish while the use of Kanji, Hiragana and so on makes it appealing to the eye. Japan also seems like a wonderful country to visit, and to go and speak the language while enjoying the sights would be like a dream come true. Like Mandarin, I won't attempt this just yet. I'll wait how Finnish and German pan out. - Kat Edited by Phantom Kat on 24 March 2011 at 2:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6551 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 12 of 28 24 March 2011 at 2:49am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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If I had a 5-language asian only hit list, obviously the big three would be on it:
1) Mandarin 2) Japanese 3) Korean The last 2 are harder to choose. But if my slate were clean, I would probably choose 4) Cantonese 5) Vietnamese Of course, I'm hopelessly in love with Thai, but I was just trying to write sort of a general polyglot recommendation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 13 of 28 24 March 2011 at 3:25am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I feel obliged to post in this thread given my language list :-)
Japanese - this language is very close to my heart. It's been with me for many years now, and I don't even slightly regret the thousands of hours I've invested in it. So much interesting stuff to read, watch, and listen to in this language. The script is fantastic. Mandarin - tried this one before learning Japanese, but didn't make it far at all. Now that I have experience learning languages, and a full bag of Kanji in my repertoire, things are going MUCH more smoothly. I'm immensely enjoying it. I love languages, Chinese characters, and geopolitics, so Mandarin is a no-brainer for me. Vietnamese - tried this one long ago too, because of its prevalence in my social circle, but between the tones and the crap learning resources, I couldn't crack it. I'll have another go at it after I become proficient in Mandarin. Those are the Asian languages that really matter to me. If in the far off future I have the time, I would also gladly learn a number of other Asian languages, first and foremost Indonesian. Edited by lichtrausch on 24 March 2011 at 3:32am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6950 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 14 of 28 24 March 2011 at 3:47am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Sorry if my comment offended you, Nguyen. I don't know about the number of Vietnamese speakers worldwide, but when I said "small" I was referring both to the population and the influence that extends outside the country's borders. That is to say, it's not used as an international lingua franca like some of the major European languages, and it's not typically considered prestigious or useful, so for most language learners it must be a puzzling choice. However, these considerations obviously don't apply to me because I've chosen to study the language for personal reasons, not for utility or for speaking to as many people as possible. I guess that people who choose to learn Swedish or Hungarian must feel the same way.
Well, "open" and "oppressed" are relative terms, I suppose. I get my information from Vietnamese-Americans who risked their lives to escape the country as refugees, who fear for their relatives still living in Vietnam. But I don't wish to turn this into a political discussion, and am far from an expert on the subject, never having been to Vietnam! I'd be happy to hear what you have to say via a PM.
These are thought-provoking points, and useful for those of us trying to evaluate the "usefulness" of Asian languages. Thank you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5346 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 15 of 28 24 March 2011 at 3:55am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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My personal "Asian languages" wish list (perhaps more accurately labeled simply as non-European languages wish list):
Russian Armenian Yiddish Hebrew Turkish Arabic Persian Hindi Urdu Bengali Gujarati Marathi Telugu Kannada Tamil Sinhalese Pali Sanskrit Burmese Thai Malay Indonesian Tibetan Chinese Mandarin Classical Chinese Korean Japanese Edited by Juаn on 24 March 2011 at 4:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5274 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 16 of 28 24 March 2011 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It depends on what is meant by Asian. If we break it down into three cultural regions: Middle East, South Asia,
and East Asia, then I would go with the following: 1.) Middle East: Farsi-Tajik, Turkish, Arabic (MSA), classical Hebrew, and an Arabic dialect such as Egyptian Arabic (other good choices are the other dialects of Arabic and modern Hebrew) 2.) South Asia: Hindi-Urdu, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu (other good choices are Gujarati, Punjabi, Sanskrit, and Kannada) 3.) East Asia: Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian-Malay (other good choices are Thai, Burmese, Filipino-Tagalog, classical Chinese, Yue, Miin, and Wu). To pick just five from the entire continent of Asia is just too hard, there are too many great choices. Edited by Merv on 24 March 2011 at 1:43pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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