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Russian is past, Chinese is future? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| cameroncrc Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6306 days ago 195 posts - 185 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Ukrainian | Message 113 of 150 05 August 2007 at 6:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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In any big city I've been in (Las Vegas, Washington D.C., Toronto, London, to name a few), there is usually a high Chinese-speaking population. Many tourists tend to be either Asians or Americans here, so it is always nice to be able to help them.
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| Whiskeyjack Newbie Canada Joined 5521 days ago 36 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish, Spanish, Russian | Message 114 of 150 25 March 2009 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ive worked in russia before and am learning it know cause i want to go back :)
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| georgekozloff Newbie Australia axisenterprise.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5510 days ago 2 posts - 5 votes | Message 115 of 150 27 March 2009 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Russian language is still predominant throughout all of the northern china.
I'm currently living in Wulumuqi, its about 700 km from kazakstan and just below Siberia, Pretty much the entire city every sign is repeated with uigur arabic lettering, or Russian writing. I'm fluent in Chinese, I studied it for a year in a chinese university, its a simple language, far simpler than say English, German or any other more grammatical language. The hardest thing is just to get past the initial writing and reading it takes about 1-2 months then it becomes quite simple, the main reason chinese is so simple is that it has no grammar, all past tense words are simply made by adding a le了 or a 过 and future tense is with 会 before the subject or verb. the language mostly works by syntax and context. while in russian, there are nearly 100 different pronouns, just for me alone мне меня мой моя моё мое моего моему etc, but in chinese simple 我 wo. and in possesive form 我的 my. such a simple and easy to learn language compared to Russian. I think people are mainly simply impressed by how daunting the characters appear. though also quite easy to learn the method its simply 9 simple rules. From a business perspective chinese is invaluable for gaining chinese prices from factories. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| guesto Groupie Australia Joined 5530 days ago 76 posts - 118 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 116 of 150 28 March 2009 at 12:13am | IP Logged | ||
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The future is just too unpredictable to know whether it will be necessary for you to know Chinese. There are too many unknown factors. Who knows, maybe it could even be disadvantageous to know Chinese well. In Russia for example, it seems politicians who openly admit to knowing English well or have lived in the US can be seen as too pro-Western, pandering to the West or on the CIA payroll (for example, Kasparov). It can also contribute to creating ideological rifts between countries (think Saakashvili speaking very good English to the international media, which in the eyes of many Russians turned him irrevocably into a pawn with America's rather than Georgia's best interests at heart).
If the future is one of confrontation things like this could happen with Chinese, where Chinese speaking Americans could be seen as anti-American, people who need to be kept in check. So who knows, maybe it could prevent you becoming rich rather than help you? Of course, that's just empty speculation and is probably unlikely, but just another of hundreds of possible scenarios. I'm not saying you shouldn't learn Chinese, but just that "importance" is subjective and ambiguous and not necessarily a good thing for everybody. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| georgekozloff Newbie Australia axisenterprise.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5510 days ago 2 posts - 5 votes | Message 117 of 150 28 March 2009 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Whether or not knowing chinese will actually make you richer depends entirely on how you are going to use it. because shaakashvili used his English in pleas to the internationally community does make him more likely a candidate as an american pawn, though Putin himself can speak English, German, and a little bit of chinese, as far as I know. Though nobody has similiar thoughts about him. the usage of a foreign language can be seen as an intellectual quality in the hands of those who can use it sensibly.
if your doing diplomatic work dealing with asia for your government obviously it is going to make you a more likely person for any job. For business its a very good tool to know what the other side is thinking if they are ignorant to your language fluency. Any chinese factory owner may think they've hit business gold, when they see a well presented fluent client. its also possible to play on that and push for lower prices for any number of reasons, something totally uncapable without chinese fluency and a go between translator. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 5823 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 118 of 150 28 March 2009 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | ||
Russia has a dark history of treating multilingual people with suspicion. Knowing a western language was a certain way to disaster in the good old days of communism. Surely, you must be a spy of some sort if you speak English; Or even worse, French. I cannot imagine that sort of attitude surviving in the 21st century, not in Russia and certainly not in the States. In fact, it seems that American politicians are having quite the opposite problem ;). Anyway, this is off topic. I also support the opinion that there is far too much uncertainty in the world and it is not possible to predict if Chinese will increase in importance and to what extend. Edited by Sennin on 28 March 2009 at 5:18pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jbbar Senior Member Belgium Joined 5589 days ago 192 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English | Message 119 of 150 02 April 2009 at 9:00am | IP Logged | ||
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My take on this issue is that Russian will always remain important in one way or another, while Chinese is more uncertain.
First, consider Russia's geographical location. It's the world's largest country. It borders important Asian countries such as [North] Korea, China, Japan, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries; it borders Europe and North America (U.S.) as well. Always some room for territorial disputes and involvement in wars and conflicts. Second, the country has lots of gas and oil. It generally maintains good relations with the Central Asian countries where there's even more gas and oil. Plus, Russia is claiming parts of the Arctic which are said to contain - you guessed it right - even more gas and oil! All of which of course may lead to more conflicts but can also help Russia's economy greatly. And mind you, Russia's going to modernize its military. The country is a major arms producer and a major exporter of military technology, including to countries like Iran and Venezuela. Does that ring a bell? Again, lots of geopolitics here. Okay, its demographic picture doesn't look too well at this time. Huge abortion rates, and the white Russian population is shrinking. But you never know what turn history takes when it comes to things like this. Maybe once the economy is back on track a renewed optimism will generate more demand and procreation will take care of the supply. ;) As for China, demographics aren't exactly that good either. The one-child policy has created a huge population imbalance. Millions of men cannot find a woman to marry and will have to remain single. What's to become of them? This will eventually lead to problems. A huge population imbalance due to unnatural population control is irreversible. Low birth rates as is the case in Russia, are not. While China is a huge country, it is geographically limited to the Eastern part of Asia. And although it's a major political player in its own region, I believe it is unlikely that China will have a lot of political power in other parts of the world any time soon. At least not in the way the U.S. does. The country seems too isolated to me for that. Its political support among the Western countries isn't particulary high because of its lack of political freedom, and the country is also in conflict with India - another emerging economy and possible world power. Other major East Asian countries such as Korea and Japan aren't too fond of the PRC either (and vice versa). China's economy has certainly been growing exponentially, but the quality of its goods leaves a lot to wish for. Sure, lots of Made in China toys and stuff like that, but where's the Chinese versions of Daewoo, Samsung, Mitsubishi, Honda, General Motors, etc? Of course all these things can change quickly but all in all I think that on the long term, Russia may emerge as the stronger of the two. Just some of my thoughts. jbbar Edited by jbbar on 02 April 2009 at 8:22pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6022 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 120 of 150 25 June 2010 at 7:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Russia's low birth rate can change. First make the housing units larger. The Soviet's put families in one bedroom apartments. So the parents and child had one bed room and the living room. If Grandma lived with you that space became even more overfilled. Why would you want another child in that space? Second increase the average pay for workers. $250 to 500 dollars a month will not pay costs for a larger family.
If these two things are not changed Russia will not have population growth. Couples do not have the space or the money to have 2 or 3 children. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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