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Westerners fluent in Asian languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6342 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes  1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 33 of 57 31 January 2010 at 9:59am | IP Logged | |||||
Then I guess Hong Kong isn't a good representation of the rest of China :/ I have met many bankers here and none could speak any language other than English even though several lived here for 10-20 years. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7021 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 34 of 57 01 February 2010 at 7:04am | IP Logged | |||||
That must be why there are so many Chinatowns all over the world... 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 6186 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 35 of 57 03 February 2010 at 10:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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To those writing about Korean.
I've heard of people named Stephen Revere, Jeffrey Jones, and Michael Harley. The first did "Let's Speak Korean," a boring and absurdly slow TV show from a few years back, the second owns some sort of national company, and the third is a lawyer who changed his citizenship, does commercials, and is buddies with the current Korean president. I've also heard of a French woman, or maybe she was German, who changed her citizenship too and is fluent. If you search in this site with the right keywords you can find a thread on a man named John Frankl who founded a form of Jiu-jitsu and teaches it in Seoul to both Koreans and foreigners. According to Jiwon he sounds 99% like a Seoul native. I know a man who can debate North Korean politics in English or Korean, and in fact does this as part of his job. Some of the women on "Chat With Beauties" have a fairly high proficiency. Oh yes and there is our very own Alexander Arguelles, though he did put the word in quotes in an old thread and admitted he had some weaknesses in the language. I hope to read, listen, and write "fluently" within the next year and a half. At least, that's what my school program expects from me. I'm not sure how much my speaking will improve by then since I don't have that many opportunities to speak. Right now I'm studying Korean politics, society, economics, and all that kind of fun stuff in order to beef up my vocabulary. It's not hard to find westerners walking around some of the big cities. Almost none of them can speak enough to have a conversation though. To be able to have a basic conversation in Korean is to exceed the abilities of many expats. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6316 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 36 of 57 03 February 2010 at 11:16am | IP Logged | |||||
If I remember rightly (I spend so much time on this forum to be remembering stuff like this), the word he put in quotes was "fluent" when he said he was "now basically "fluent" in the language", the quotes implying that the concept of fluency is such a vague term and has no specific, universally agreed upon meaning. According to his website, he puts his speaking ability in Korean at a 3- out of 3. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| eoinda Tetraglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 5948 days ago 101 posts - 113 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Spanish, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 37 of 57 04 February 2010 at 10:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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My Mandarin teacher is Swedish. She lived on Taiwan from 0-6 and studied Chinese at the university in Beijing. She speaks Mandarin at a near, if not comletely native level.
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| hombre gordo Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5583 days ago 184 posts - 247 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Portuguese, Korean | Message 38 of 57 05 February 2010 at 2:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
Depends on the European language. If an Asian was found speaking the likes of Spanish or French in those respective countries (in other words widely spoken lingua franca status European languages), you are right, not many people would raise an eybrow. In fact in most places in Spain, whether you are Asian or European, you would be expected to speak Spanish. Also western European languages are extremely popular, so people all over the globe studying them is not a surprise. However, an Asian speaking an Eastern European language (without lingua franca status) like Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Croatian, etc would certainly attract a lot of attention, possibly to the same degree or even more than would a European speaking Asian languages. By the way I have met Japanese people fluent in the likes of Czech and Russian. I understand that recently you have written a post voicing dissatisfaction against Anglo-Americo-centric values as the norm, but if you think a thread like this is silly I think you are going a bit too far! By the way, as a learner of two Asian languages (with the intention of adding Chinese at some point), I personally feel that Asian languages are "over-mystified" by quite a lot of people. At the end of the day, though they have their own individual difficulties, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc are languages just like any other. I dont see why they should be mystified so much. Any of them can be learned with sound methods and dedication. Still I dont see how this thread is silly or Anglo-Americo-centric. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6342 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 39 of 57 07 February 2010 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
But most of the Chinese immigrants living in Chinatowns try to learn some of the language of the country they are in and their children usually go to local high schools/colleges, get jobs in a local company, etc. People living in expatriate districts in China usually do not learn any of the language, they send their kids to American high schools where they also do not learn any of the language either, they work for American firms where everyone has to speak English and they hang out with other English speaking expatriates. Although I know many people who spent all their life in China and cannot speak the language, I have yet to meet a Chinese who grew up in the USA and doesn't know any English. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Haksaeng Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6198 days ago 166 posts - 250 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 40 of 57 07 February 2010 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You're comparing immigrants with expats, and they have entirely different motivations. Expats aren't in it for the
long-haul, so if their job doesn't require it, they don't learn the language. Immigrants, of course, are usually highly motivated to learn the language, because doing so will help them get ahead and improve their lives. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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