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Arabic or French? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| victoraero Newbie Brazil Joined 5545 days ago 32 posts - 33 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, Italian, Norwegian | Message 1 of 9 29 June 2010 at 3:17am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello guys, I'm new to this forum and I have a question:
By 2013 I'll graduate (Petroleum Engineering) and I intend to work in the Middle East. So I thought that besides English it would be nice to speak French or Arabic. So which one would be more useful for me? By the way I started this year my arabic course (MSA) but I'm still at the very beginning. Thanks PS: Please correct any English mistakes on my post, I would really enjoy it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zekecoma Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5343 days ago 561 posts - 655 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 2 of 9 29 June 2010 at 5:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Arabic if you are going to work in the Middle East.
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| arturs Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 5270 days ago 278 posts - 408 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English | Message 3 of 9 29 June 2010 at 7:47am | IP Logged | ||
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First of all Arabic, and then French, because many Arab speaking people also know French. Invest your time in both languages, just my opinion.
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| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6864 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 4 of 9 29 June 2010 at 5:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd learn MSA and/or Gulf Arabic, after all, thats where the oil is. French is useful for North Africa, but less so for the Gulf.
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| Saif Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5611 days ago 122 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Levantine)*, French | Message 5 of 9 29 June 2010 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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IMO learn Arabic (MSA) and continue to improve your English instead of studying French.
English is more important in the Middle East than French. Edited by Saif on 29 June 2010 at 5:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| victoraero Newbie Brazil Joined 5545 days ago 32 posts - 33 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, Italian, Norwegian | Message 6 of 9 29 June 2010 at 8:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ah! I forgot to mention that I may have the opportunity to study, besides MSA,
Syrian/Lebanese Arabic... Should I do it? I know it does not makes sense me (non Lebanese) talking to another non Lebanese in Lebanese Arabic but would it make easier to learn Gulf Arabic or other variant later? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fazla Hexaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6261 days ago 166 posts - 255 votes Speaks: Italian, Serbo-Croatian*, English, Russian, Portuguese, French Studies: Arabic (classical), German, Turkish, Mandarin | Message 7 of 9 29 June 2010 at 8:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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As you wrote from the beginning that you will work in the Petroleum industry, it's not much about Arabic or French, it's much more about what languages they speak in petrol exporting countries. And this map gives a clear winner between the two choices
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c2/Oil_producing_ countries_map.png Arab French speaking countries aren't really full of Petroleum (only Tunisia and Algeria have some as it seems), so, Arabic is the natural choice for you. But if you came on the forum because you disliked Arabic hoping that we will tell you "study French!!" than study French because you'll never master a language you don't like. Edited by Fazla on 29 June 2010 at 8:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| victoraero Newbie Brazil Joined 5545 days ago 32 posts - 33 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: English, Italian, Norwegian | Message 8 of 9 29 June 2010 at 10:45pm | IP Logged | ||
No, not at all, I really enjoy learning Arabic. I just think that Arabic is more difficult than French, at least for me (I speak Portuguese and Spanish already). I wanted to ask you guys mainly because a lot of people told me that I should be learning French, because: -Easier (but thats arguably, as you mentioned, desire counts too) -More useful (people told me that in many arabic countries, except those in the Gulf region, educated people should be able to speak French to some extent) Another information is that I know some people working in Algeria and they left to work there only knowing French (I know it doesn't apply for, let's say, Saudi Arabia or Iraq). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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