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After Japanese: Korean or Chinese? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| BiaHuda Triglot Groupie Vietnam Joined 5364 days ago 97 posts - 127 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Vietnamese Studies: Cantonese | Message 9 of 19 23 August 2010 at 3:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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How useful is French in Vietnam? [/QUOTE]
There is alot of French influence in Vietnam. Most of the architecture is well preserved and many of the streets still bear French names. I would think that spoken French would have more utility in the North. I am surprised that quite a few older Vietnamese that I have met can speak French. I have noticed this mostly around Hue and Hanoi. I think that as Vietnam is becoming more affluant, French as a language and French culture in general is held in high regard. That is an interesting point about Korean influance in Thailand also. Korean cuisine is very popular in Vietnam. There also seems to be alot of Korean expats. The major burger chain in Vietnam is Lotteria, a Korean enterprise. Edited by BiaHuda on 23 August 2010 at 3:15am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6295 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 10 of 19 23 August 2010 at 11:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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How about Manchu or Mongolian?
Everyone seems to be studying Mandarin or Korean these days and there are materials about Manchu and Mongolian in Japanese that are not available in other languages. Similar grammar too. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| waiawy Newbie China Joined 5214 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes Speaks: Mandarin* | Message 11 of 19 31 August 2010 at 4:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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Japanese borrowed Kanji from Chinese , but the vocabulary is much smaller. As far as
I know , nowadays Japanese are using about 2000 Kanji , comparing Chinese has about 5000-6000 Kanji as it's frequently used character. And there's another issue , Japanese uses kanji in it's traditional form , while in China mainland we are using simplified form ,which could cause a little extra work to do. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5650 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 12 of 19 01 September 2010 at 1:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Japanese has simplified their kanji, but not to the extent of mainland China. And while you may only need 2000 kanji, you usually need to know 2-3 readings for each character, so it's basically learning 4000-6000 anyway.
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| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6851 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 13 of 19 05 September 2010 at 7:43am | IP Logged | |||||
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Since I am also planning to enter a PhD program related to Chinese (either historical linguistics or history), and have given this topic a good bit of thought and research, maybe this will help.
It really kind of depends. If you are entering a PhD program in Japanese linguistics (in an Asian Studies type of department), you will almost certainly need to learn Chinese, bottom line. If you plan on entering a Linguistics department, you may not need to learn another Asian language at all. It really depends on your area of specialization. So you may want to learn Korean because of similarities, or you may decide to set out to prove once and for all that Japanese is an Altaic language (I'm not taking a position either way), in which case you may want to learn Turkish, Azerbaijani, Mongolian, Manchu, or even the now-extinct Jurchen (which has an incredibly interesting script, by the way). By the way, you'll need to have that specialization nailed down pretty well before a department will accept you. Without a clearly defined statement of purpose, your chances of getting accepted are slim to none. Then, once you matriculate, you will sit down with an advisor who will tell you what languages you will need to gain proficiency in for your research (though with some reading you can have that fairly well figured out already). Another thing is that unless you have a Bachelor's in Linguistics or Japanese (or something very closely related), you should probably think about doing an MA in either Linguistics (again, in a Linguistics department) or Japanese Linguistics (in an Asian Studies type department) before trying to enter a PhD program. Some PhD programs will require you to have an MA first even if your BA is in the field. Doing an MA first will give you an idea of the current state of the field so you will know what particular areas of specialization are possibilities. Also, expect to be required to be able to read in French or German, or both, no matter which PhD program you enter. Fortunately, learning to just read and not to speak or write isn't all that bad. I'd recommend getting started on one or the other now, as a sort of lower-urgency side project. It will only help the strength of your application and make it easier for you to focus on your research when you start your PhD instead of having to focus on passing your language exams. So, the short answer is to find out what area of the field interests you. That will lead you to a decision on other languages. In the meantime, think about doing an MA, and start your other language during your MA so you will have made good progress by the time you start your PhD. Start French or German now if you possibly can. Doing the passive wave only of Assimil is great for learning to read either language, and it only takes around 15 minutes per day. Hopefully this helps! 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6851 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 14 of 19 05 September 2010 at 8:00am | IP Logged | |||||
That isn't quite accurate. Vietnamese was not really influenced by Cantonese as much as by Old and Middle Chinese. Cantonese more closely resembles MC than does Mandarin, but it wasn't around during the Song Dynasty ~1000 years ago when Chinese occupation ended. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6438 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 15 of 19 05 September 2010 at 10:50am | IP Logged | |||||
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Korean is like a harder version of Japanese. The grammar is similar, but for every rule that Japanese has, Korean has 2 or 3 variations and exceptions for it.
You can learn the writing in a day, but probably even after a few years you still won't be able to correctly hear/pronounce the difference between their different versions of the same consonant. At least I can't. And I studied Korean for the first time at 16. Their writing system gets bonus points for having spaces between words. There are a ton of homonyms, and even more words that will sound like homonyms to you and me but actually aren't. I don't know much about Chinese, but I hear the grammar is relatively simple. Of course the writing will be hard. Either choice will be useful. Congrats on mastering your first Asian language. Edited by IronFist on 05 September 2010 at 10:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5650 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 16 of 19 05 September 2010 at 2:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Korean consonants are not as hard as people say. Yes, in the beginning, 2 out of 3 sound exactly the same to a native English speaker, but lots of listening and just learning vocab takes care of that problem.
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