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Russian is past, Chinese is future? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7107 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes  6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 17 of 150 26 June 2005 at 7:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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There's no doubt that Chinese is extremely unlikely to surpass English as a dominant language in the next century. But as the Chinese government loosens its emigration policies, more Chinese will be moving out to the rest of the world, and this would naturally spread the use of the language.
The point is that China will be an important economic power nonetheless, regardless of whether it will surpass United States' economy. China will have a big voice in international affairs (it is already one of the permanent members of the Security Council in UN, with veto power). And the Chinese aren't going to express themselves other than in Chinese. Russia, on the other hand, seems to be having less impact on the world than it did before. However, Russian will still be the unifying language of the CIS. Not to mention that Russia is one of the G-8 countries. I don't think one should learn a language based solely on the reason that the host country is "better" or "more powerful" than another. It is genuine interest in a language and its culture that will lead to success in learning. Edited by victor on 26 June 2005 at 7:22pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| KingM Triglot Senior Member michaelwallaceauthor Joined 6980 days ago 275 posts - 300 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian | Message 18 of 150 26 June 2005 at 8:25pm | IP Logged | ||
Good point, and both Russia and China have terrific culture and history that makes both of those languages very desirable apart from their socioeconomic power. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| timinstl Triglot Groupie United States timsviajes.com Joined 6906 days ago 88 posts - 92 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 19 of 150 07 July 2005 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was studying Japanese when I met a Japanese woman in Borders who was an interpreter, she spoke German, English, Mandarin, and Japanese. After speaking with her, she advised me to stop studying Japanese and to start learning Mandarin. I took her advice and have never looked back. I hope that by the time I learn Mandarin enough to use it that it will still be a useful language.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Magnum Bilingual Triglot Retired Moderator Pro Member United States Joined 6906 days ago 359 posts - 353 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian*, French Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 20 of 150 08 July 2005 at 3:31am | IP Logged | ||
Don't trust blindly. Someone might give you advice for thier benift. She might want less competition in her field. Talk to more than one source. :) If you love a language, no one person should take you away from it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| timinstl Triglot Groupie United States timsviajes.com Joined 6906 days ago 88 posts - 92 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 21 of 150 08 July 2005 at 2:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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That's good advice Magnum, and I do like Japanese but from everything else I'm hearing and reading (newspapers and college professors) Mandarin is the way to go.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Inna Newbie Russian Federation Joined 6805 days ago 22 posts - 30 votes | Message 22 of 150 10 September 2005 at 8:32am | IP Logged | ||
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It seems to me that the question is not formulated correctly enough.
If we look at the practical side of studying any version of Chinese, it does make sense. I fully agree that the economy of China is on the rise and that China's acquiring more and more weight politically. So, the language and culture of China tend to become more and more popular all over the world. Another question is individual prefernce. You know, a language can be studied not for practical use only, but for its 'beauty' and for the student's desire to learn more about this or that country. I fully agree that Chinese must be beautiful, but I have no reason to believe that any language is more beautiful than all the other languages of the world. I believe every language student forms some concept of a country and its culture and language before he/she decides what language to study. From this point of view there's no such thing as a language of the past and a language of the future. I can also add that the choice of the language one decides to study can also be influenced by individual characteristics of this or that person. What I mean is many speakers of Indo-European languages are very much confused when they set about studying, say, Chinese, as they can see no familiar roots and almost no familiar grammar rules. The spelling is so different it almost drives users of alphabet crazy. They face a different language logic, and this can be very confusing. Many just give up in despair. Finally, the choice of the language one wants to study depends on the possibility to study it with native speakers or in language schools, i.e. on the availability of resources. In many European countries and in the USA there are very many native speakers of Mandarin or Cantonese. At the same time, in the European part of, say, Russia, native speakers of Mandarin can be found only in Moscow, and they mostly don't feel like devoting themselves to language teaching career. If in the regions of Russia bordering on China it's much easier to find a Mandarin instructor, the greater part of Russians who would like to study Mandarin have no such possibility - the language is studied only in 2 universities, self-study courses are rarely available, one can't have any sort of language practice with native speakers or even with knowledgeable instructors, and finally, if you stumble upon a group of students studying Mandarin, the fee is exorbitant. I believe that all this can discourage a lot of prospective learners. I also tend to think that a lot of people desiring to study Chinese find themselves in a similar situation in other countries of the world as well.In this sense of the word neither Russian nor Chinese (Mandarin) is the language of the future, as the governments don't pay enough attention to propagating the language all over the world. Ironically, there's a sad joke in Russia. It says, "Optimists in Russia study English, pessimists study Chinese, and realists study military equipment." I believe the joke illustrates the degree of confusion in the minds of the present-day Russians about the present and the future of Russia and the role of its language in the world. I hope that China's inhabitants are much more optimistic, and rightly so. I wish every language and every culture of the world to have lots of students and admirers. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7107 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 23 of 150 10 September 2005 at 11:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Inna, thank you for your detailed post. I concur with what you're saying. No one can tell whether Russia will rise to the top or if China would overtake the world in economy. The importance is to study what one enjoys.
I think there are barely enough learning material for studying the Chinese language. The more extensive ones are published in China and are rarely found elsewhere in the world. Many institutions do not offer the opportunity to study the language and the instructors are even rarer. I still think, the fact remains that there are still relatively few who manage to successfully learn these "world power" languages. Be it an American learning Chinese, a Chinese learning English, or a Luxembourger learning Russian. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7165 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 24 of 150 10 September 2005 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | ||
Inna, I like this joke! Could you give it in Russian? It's quite clear that for non economical reasons, there are many languages outside Chinese and English that are hugely attractive. Russian will never stop attracting new learners even though some people who used to study it for political or professional reasons stopped. I'm all for Russian and found it a very rewarding language to learn although really complex. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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