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Arabic or Chinese? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6367 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 25 of 43 27 August 2007 at 12:51am | IP Logged | ||
Depends on what you want to do. If your interest is a quick visit or an isolated job position somewhere in the Gulf, then English and French will allow you to function pretty well. But if you are interested in the culture and the people, Arabic is necessary. I know people who've lived in large cities in the Middle East for years without ever learning Arabic, I can understand this in a city like Dubai where Arabic is a defacto minority language anyway (you're better off learning Hindi/Urdu), but not elsewhere. Without Arabic you won't be able to watch the movies, read the novels in their original state, get the jokes, have a heated conversation on a coffee shop, catcall pretty girls in Beirut, or curse at Cairo traffic. So it really depends on how much interest you have in the region, and what kind of interest. Most people will be friendly, and they will be more than glad to speak English or French. Surprise them with a little Arabic though, and it begins to get interesting as the layers start to peel off. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6979 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 26 of 43 27 August 2007 at 9:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Well if I ever get the chance I'd love to learn Arabic. It's ok to chat up the locals in Beirut? I guess it's a more open country. What about countries like Syria (often think the girls from here are really beautiful).
Still if your aim is to attract girls then Arabic countries don't have a great reputation for this. Certainly in Abu Dhabi you could never get near a local girl (in public) and to be eligable for marraige you'd have to be from the right tribe, city, family, income etc. Even from more open Arabic countries if you wanted to marry a Muslim girl then you would for sure have to convert to Islam. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FSI Senior Member United States Joined 6157 days ago 550 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English* | Message 27 of 43 27 August 2007 at 9:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Basically, your chances will be lowest with traditionalists, and highest with modernists - who, as always, are most often found in more metropolitan areas (big cities). People afraid of change, intermarriage, language, and skin complexions will be far more prevalent in less-populated regions (where everyone looks alike and acts alike). This, of course, applies regardless of which culture/country you're trying to break into. Edited by FSI on 27 August 2007 at 9:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nhk9 Senior Member Canada Joined 6602 days ago 290 posts - 319 votes Speaks: English* | Message 28 of 43 28 August 2007 at 2:14am | IP Logged | ||
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MSA is not the standard language that you would use in daily life. Yet if you are in the translation business the first thing you would learn is MSA.
If you are interested in Mandarin, it will be easy to find a speaker who is willing to teach you what he/she knows. Also the you should consider the stability of the regions involved. China is at least superficially a much safer place than the middle east. But you have to remember though, many speakers in China can speak English (perhaps to the level that's superior to many of us). For sensitive documents however, I'd imagine western companies/institutions would still want to hire its own people in translating into/from Chinese. Not that many foreigners are at that level yet, so I think you might still be in demand after you've mastered the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6979 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 29 of 43 28 August 2007 at 2:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's true what you say FSI but I think my generalisation is still valid. People with 'funny' skin colours and 'strange' appearances that speak with foreign accents will, I'm sure, have a much harder time finding a local partner in a modern cosmopolitan diverse Arabic city like Abu Dhabi or Dubai than say a cosmopolitan diverse city like London or New York (or for that matter a little town like Canterbury in England). Maybe the situation is much different in the US?
nhk9 like you say China is very safe but the UAE (Abu Dhabi and Dubai) feels in terms of crime one of the safest places in the world. Oh for learning Arabic the UAE could be a good place (aside from all the English spoken here). Because there's so many Arabs from all over the Arab speaking world most people groing up here who speak Arabic can understand many of the Dialects. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| morphy Bilingual Triglot Groupie France modernerasmus.com Joined 6188 days ago 68 posts - 71 votes Speaks: French*, Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Spanish, German | Message 30 of 43 31 August 2007 at 7:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know anything about Mandarin, but I believe it's spoken and understood easily between all mandarin speakers. That's not necessarily the case with arabic. Here's for the details: - Traditional-literary arabic is quite different from modern-spoken arabic; the difference can go from the structure of the sentence or the use of local words with an accent to the extent where the spoken arabic can seem like a whole different language than the written one. - Traditional-literay arabic is the arabic which you'll find in books, newspapers and on some TV programs. Any person who has learned arabic at school early on, can make the effort of speaking it to you and can fully understand it, even if he speaks a different dialect on a daily basis. - IF you learn the arabic of one region, you'll find it difficult to understand the arabic of another region unless you achieve fluency in arabic. I'm a lebanese native and often don't understand what people of the Maghreb are saying to each other! I understand egyptian arabic for example only due to the fact that egyptian cinema is widespread in the arabic world. - On a biased note, I believe that arabic which goes from Lybia accross to Irak is understandable for someone who speaks well, and it's closer to the Literary arabic than the arabic of the Maghreb. I have to disagree with some people who have stated that arabic grammar is difficult. It is, in my opinion, quite easier than french or Spanish grammar. For instance, it doesn't have the same number of tenses than romance languages: it's limited to past, present and imperative, the future being build on the present with the addition of a character. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| gennychin Triglot Newbie Hong Kong Joined 6110 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Mandarin, Cantonese*, English | Message 31 of 43 31 August 2007 at 9:35am | IP Logged | ||
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I am Chinese myself and I speak both the Standard Mandarin and Cantonese dialect. I've also taken an intro 5-week course to Arabic in the summer, and I am surprised to see that Arabic isn't as hard as I'd thought it would be. One major difference that sets the two apart (Both Chinese and Arabic have many dialects) is the lack of alphabets in Chinese. Virtually, everything has to be remembered until you've reached a point when you have acquired enough vocabularies to form sentences and essays.
Personally, if I were you, I would Chinese since its more widely spoken and China really is an amazing exotic place to visit. But again, it really is up to you. Which country will you visit more, and which language do you like best? Best of luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6979 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 32 of 43 01 September 2007 at 6:41am | IP Logged | ||
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I just got back to Beijing today from Dubai. Urgh the smog is terrible and the city is dirty makes me want to go back and learn Arabic. Well maybe not just the jetlag speaking. Glad to hear Arabic isn't considered so difficult as I would love to learn it someday.
I was talking to a Chinese lady on the plane from Xiamen in the south of China. Although she had a local dialect/language her Mandarin was great. Though she had a southern accent it was all very understandable. She told me that nearly everyone could speak Mandarin where she was. Also of note is the fact that she was definately not well educated and still communicating was not difficult in the slightest. I've met Northerners with 'standard' accents that I have more trouble with. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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