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After Japanese: Korean or Chinese? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| longwood Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6412 days ago 9 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese | Message 1 of 19 22 August 2010 at 7:55am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Hello all. I am interested in entering a PhD program, mostly likely for linguistics (CALL) and will need to have an
additional Asian language under my belt. I already am proficient in Japanese so I am contemplating whether I should do Korean or Chinese. Is there anyone who has done Japanese and then moved on to one of these two? With Korean, the grammar is nearly identical to Japanese (or so I have heard) and a number of words are similar, as well. Chinese would have a similar grammar to English and I could utilize my knowledge of Japanese kanji to assist in Chinese written language. Are there any other advantages/disadvantages of doing one over the other? Is there one that would be more interesting coming from an English/Japanese background? Any thoughts and opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6317 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 2 of 19 22 August 2010 at 3:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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As you imply, Korean will obviously be a much less strenuous task for you, while with Chinese you'll have to become familiar with a new grammatical system and tones. It kind of goes without saying, but it really depends on what you're planning to do in a postgraduate program. Chinese has had a profound influence on Japanese both culturally and linguistically, so learning Chinese will give you a deeper insight into the dominant cultural language among the East-Asian (and Vietnamese for South-East Asian) circle, something probably quite necessary if your focus is on culture. If it's on the linguistic side of things (as you say it probably will be), an acquisition of Korean will put you into a position to do comparative work between it and Japanese.
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| Tyr Senior Member Sweden Joined 5783 days ago 316 posts - 384 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 3 of 19 22 August 2010 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Chinese all the way. Far more useful and as said due to its influence on Japanese it could be more interesting to someone into Japanese.
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| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5341 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 4 of 19 22 August 2010 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I agree with the above two forum members' advice/suggestion. From a linguistic point of view, if you are interested to learn/understand more in depth the comparative aspect of languages, then Korean would be the one for you. However, given the strong cultural/linguistic influence of Chinese on Japanese (and other languages such as Korean and Vietnamese), I think Chinese might be more interesting/useful.
Eventually, it's up to which language really appeals to you :) On a side note, if I am not wrong, Vietnamese is more influenced by Chinese (though Vietnam is geographically Southeast Asia), while Southeast Asian languages are divided mainly between 'northern part' of Southeast Asia (languages spoken in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma) and 'southern part' of Southeast Asia (such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Phillipines), no? :) Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 22 August 2010 at 8:40pm 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 5 of 19 22 August 2010 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Can I assume you mean Mandarin? I have, and the learning curve is pretty steep, but I'm sure it's not as bad as with someone who hasn't studied Japanese.
If you mean Cantonese, I agree. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| longwood Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6412 days ago 9 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese | Message 6 of 19 22 August 2010 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thanks for the replies so far. I do mean Mandarin, yes. In terms of interest, both Korean and Chinese (Mandarin) are
at about the same level (moderately interested). I have never studied a tonal language and was slightly worried about that aspect. I understand that the decision is ultimately up to me, however, I didn't know if others before me found one more or less interesting and/or difficult. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| BiaHuda Triglot Groupie Vietnam Joined 5364 days ago 97 posts - 127 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Vietnamese Studies: Cantonese | Message 7 of 19 22 August 2010 at 10:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
The correlation between Chinese and Vietnamese seems to be taken out of context somewhat. Chinese loanwords are pretty much unrecognizable except for some fơod dishes etc. I live in an area of Ho Chi Minh City where I rarely encounter English speakers. Among my Vietnamese friends who are studying languages, the general concensus seems to be that English is easier to grasp than Mandarin. There is a Cantonese community in TPHCM also, however; there doesn't appear to be much intrest in learning Cantonese. There are probably more similarities but my wife who is a native Vietnamese, who also speaks Cantonese, fêels that the relationship betwêen Cantonese and Vietnamese is alot like the Vietnamese, Mandarin situation. Perhaps along the lines of English and Ancient Greek? There are also considerable cultural differences. 1000 years of Chinese occupation has caused many Vietnamese to view all things Chinese with a great deal of suspicion. A personal observation that I have made: Behind English the most studied language in Vietnam appears to be Korean given the amount of resources available. The bơok shops are full of Vietnamese-Korean dictionaries etc. I can't substantiate how many people study Korean but is seemes hugely popular. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6551 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 8 of 19 23 August 2010 at 2:15am | IP Logged | ||||||||
That's interesting. It's also a big deal in Thailand. I attribute it to the extremely strong Korean economy, and the very popular Korean soap operas. I have a colleague that grew up in a vietnamese/cantonese community, learned english, french and another Chinese language at a young age, and Mandarin from college roommates in the US. How useful is French in Vietnam? 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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