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Popularity of Chinese language. | ||
Tags: Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5653 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes  Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 17 of 23 08 June 2009 at 10:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I cannot give statistics, but Chinese is very common here in Honolulu, Hawaii. The reasons are obvious: a relatively large Chinese population, both long-time locals and recent immigrants; increasing numbers of Chinese tourists; lots of business trade with China and Taiwan; lots of local Chinese professionals in all fields; relatively easy access to classes in schools and to native speakers; lots of media exposure; plenty of Chinese culture popular with Chinese and non-Chinese parts of the community, from food to acupuncture to tai chi to Chinese New Year celebrations; a (good and authentic!) Chinese restaurant on every block; lots of mixing of Chinese and non-Chinese in the community, in neighborhoods, schools, marriages, and extended families; a thriving Chinatown. I don't visit the Mainland enough to know for sure, but I suspect that our Chinese cultural resources here are less diluted by mainstream American culture than in many Mainland locations, where there are relatively small "islands" of Chinese. Not all Chinese here are Mandarin, of course; we have every flavor of Chinese. But if you're looking for a part of the United States that's interested in things Chinese, Honolulu would be the place.
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| Ashiro Groupie United Kingdom learnxlanguage.com/ Joined 5804 days ago 89 posts - 101 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 23 20 June 2009 at 12:35am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't learn Chinese because:
* I prefer the sound, feel and culture of Japanese (which I plan to start in 12 months). * Spanish is the most interesting Romance language to me and I wanted a Romance language first. Because of history, Latin, the sound, culture, etc. * I'm not a fan of tonal languages. * I find the Japanese system of 3 alphabets easier than the Chinese system of 1. * I train in Ju Jutsu and not Wu Shu. Therefore I have a lot of Japanese instruction to look forward to in the future. :) Edited by Ashiro on 20 June 2009 at 12:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6052 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 20 of 23 20 June 2009 at 7:04am | IP Logged | ||
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This is from Forbes website, a survey of U.S. university students.
Spanish 52% French 13.1% German 6 % Italian 5% Japanese 4.2% Chinese 3.3% <----- Latin 2% Russian 1.6 % Arabic 1.5% Ancient Greek 1.4% 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5679 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 21 of 23 20 June 2009 at 11:36am | IP Logged | ||
Can you please describe the general attitude towards foreign language learning in Hawaii? Is it similar to that of the rest of the Anglosphere or is there more interest? Also, is Spanish as widespread as it is in continental America? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5653 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 22 of 23 20 June 2009 at 6:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Regarding language learning in Hawaii:
I don't know how to compare it to other places, since I have no statistics and I haven't studied the situation elsewhere. My impression, though, is that there's a lot of interest in language learning here. For about twenty or thirty years now, there's been a major resurgence of interest in learning the Hawaiian language, mostly among those with some Hawaiian heritage. There are now several Hawaiian language immersion schools at which children can study almost completely in Hawaiian. (Whereas the common language here, as on the Mainland, is English, though it's often heard in a local "Pidgin," which is technically a "creole.") Many young people here (though I have no idea of comparative statistics) learn languages for career purposes, particularly Japanese and Chinese. There are also after-school programs for those languages, mostly used by families of those ethnic backgrounds. I think that most high school students learn some French or Spanish, or maybe German or even Russian, but there is comparatively much more Japanese, Chinese, and Hawaiian available here in high school than on the Mainland. I'm not sure about other common languages here, such as the Filipino languages, Korean, Samoan, Vietnamese, Laotian, various Micronesian languages, etc. I don't know how much formal education is taking place, or how many non-natives are learning those languages, but there are definitely thousands of immigrants and their children who are keeping those languages alive for now. Spanish is not a major player yet; the situation is nothing like the Mainland. There are some Spanish-speaking immigrants, but Spanish is certainly not in the top 5 languages here (though it is probably learned widely in high school). I notice, btw, that you speak Urdu, Persian, Arabic, and Hindi, Paskwc. I read classical Persian and have begun Arabic. There are relatively few speakers of those languages here, but they exist. There's a Diwali celebration, for example, every year, and several dozen Persian speakers can sometimes be assembled for No Ruz. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5840 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 23 of 23 20 June 2009 at 9:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have never met a British person who studied Chinese in school, although I've met a few who became interested in learning it as adults. I know of one person who took it in secondary school in Stockholm (Kungsholmens gymnasium)
Elsewhere I have heard of students choosing Chinese as a tactical/strategic manner of getting accepted to the "high school" / "secondary school" / "Gymnasium" of their choice, without having any particular interest in Chinese. Chinese is definitely not a commonly available language for secondary school students. If the student states on his high school application that he is set on studying Chinese, and only one school offers it he'll have a good chance of getting accepted to that school. To answer the question about Spanish in Europe: Europeans who study Spanish as a foreign language often pick it because of connections in Spain, a nice stay there perhaps, and also in the knowledge that it is also spoken in South America by countless millions. For beach holidays in Spain it is not necessary to know Spanish :-) In fact, many Germans, Brits and Scandinavians even have holiday flats in Spain and can barely order a beer in Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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