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Svetlana
Joined: 22 Jan 2007
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 Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:33 pm Post subject: |
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| ���� �ڱ� �����̴� �㸦 �����Ѵ�! |
Im interested to know what this means in English~ Probably some angry rant, or an insult, because you saw some people writing in Korean. What they wrote was:
How much (doest it cost)?
Please cut the price.
Okay, so, let us know what you wrote in whatever language it is that I can not view on my computer. |
It says, The Kitty Cat likes Mice.
Last edited by Svetlana on Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:35 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:34 pm Post subject: Re: Which foreign langauges |
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Dutch and Italian.
Because they are awesome people! |
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Svetlana
Joined: 22 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:36 pm Post subject: Re: Which foreign langauges |
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If you are Russian, far more Russians study either Chinese, Japanese, English, or German. Those are the most popular ones to study among Russians as far as I know. |
The OP is undoubtedly not Russian. |
You are right. I am from Moldova. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:38 pm Post subject: Re: Which foreign langauges |
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| Adventurer wrote: |
| Svetlana wrote: |
I will be going back to study in September and I am taking a linguistics program. As part of the program I will have to study two languages. The choices are:
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The Languages offered to foreign students:
�� French
�� German
�� Spanish
�� Italian
�� Turkish
�� Arabic
�� Chinese
�� Japanese
�� Dutch
�� Swedish
�� Polish
�� Persian (Farsi)
�� Czech |
I am leaning towards Chinese and Arabic, as they would be the most useful in the business world. What do you all think? If you had the choice, which two would you choose? |
If you are Russian, far more Russians study either Chinese, Japanese, English, or German. Those are the most popular ones to study among Russians as far as I know.
I would say no to Czech (only country speaks it), no to Persian (only Iran speaks it parts of Afghanistan speaks a form related to ancient Persian), so that is not very useful either. Italian is romantic, but it is only spoken in Italy. Turkish is somewhat useful, because it is spoken in Turkey and Central Asia, but the problem with Turkish is there no such thing as Classical Turkish which would exist in Arabic. So, I would also rule out Turkish to some extent unless you want to focus on the Middle East. Swedish is only spoken in Sweden, though it is related to Danish and Norwegian. Most Swedes can speak decent English. Japanese is only spoken in China.
The ones I would say are useful are:
Spanish,
French,
Arabic,
and Chinese
Of course, all of the ones listed are useful depending on the situation, but the above languages are used the most.
You have many countries in Latin America that speak Spanish and you have Spain.
With French, you have France, Quebec, Switzerland, Belgium and large parts of West Africa.
With Chinese, you have a billion people who speak it and China is getting access to African resources and markets and governments.
As far as Arabic, it can be quite difficult, but if you speak Russian, you would be able to handle some of the difficult sounds. It is not something you can really learn on your own. You would need to rely much more on one-on-one with an Arab friend rather than with French or Spanish.
If I had to learn Spanish on my own versus Arabic, Spanish would be much easier. If you want to learn Arabic, you must have a certain game plan, a certain intensive institute like DLI in California or forget it.
So in conclusion, I would say French, Spanish, and Arabic, and then Chinese. These four are U.N. languages. You must consider which country you will be living in for the long-term. You didn't answer that for a proper answer to your question. |
Turkic languages go all the way into the Ukraine, Russia and China as well. Here's what the latest UN report gives:
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| 73 million in Turkey, nearly 25 million Iranians of Azeri descent, 23,6 million in Uzbekistan, 18 million in the autonomous Turkic republics in the Russian Federation, Tatarstan, Baskyrdistan, Cuvahstan, the autonomous Yakut-Saha republic, the autonomous Dolgan-Mens region, Kabardin Balkar, Tuva, the autonomous Crimean-Tatar republics, Hakasia, the autonomous Gorno-Altay region, the autonomous Dagistan republic, the autonomous Karacay region, 17,5 million in East Turkistan (China), 15,9 million in Kazakhstan, 7,6 million in Azerbaijan, 5 million in Kyrgyzstan, 4,6 million in Turkmenistan, 2,8 million in Tajikistan, 5 million in Afghanistan, 3 million in Iraq, 2,7 million in Germany, 1,5 million in Syria, 850,000 in Bulgaria, 400,000 in Georgia, 350,000 in Serbia and Kosovo, 300,000 in Crimea, 200,000 in Moldova, 200,000 in Austria, 354,000 in Holland, 150,000 in Australia, 176,000 in France, 135,000 in Greece, 97,000 in Macedonia, 120,000 in England, 112,000 in Belgium, 50,000 in Israel, 27,000 in the USA, 25,000 in Denmark, 16,000 in Romania, 10,000 in Canada, 7,500 in Switzerland. |
The other thing about Turkic languages is pretty much every country that uses them as an official language is doing phenomenally economically. Turkey has been doing very well, Cyprus if it gets the Turkish side in will make it a language of the EU, Azerbaijan grew at a rate of 34% last year (not 3.4% but 34%), Kazakhstan as well, and the Uyghur area is part of China. That doesn't mean I'd recommend it, because it's still an acquired taste for most.
As for the op, depending on language ability I might recommend concentrating on one area. There's nothing worse than halfassing the study of two languages when you could have learned one really well instead, and so picking two related languages might be the best bet. German and Dutch for example would put a lot of focus on Germanic languages and other languages like Scandinavian languages and Afrikaans could easily be done as well, and same if French and Italian were chosen - Spanish and Portuguese would be a breeze after that. |
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Svetlana
Joined: 22 Jan 2007
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| Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:42 pm Post subject: |
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| Forget Turkish. Turks are nothing but thieves and rapists. |
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debbiedowner
Joined: 15 Oct 2006
Location: far from heaven
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| Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:53 pm Post subject: Re: Which foreign langauges |
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| Svetlana wrote: |
| I am leaning towards Chinese and Arabic, as they would be the most useful in the business world. What do you all think? If you had the choice, which two would you choose? |
yes, as a moldovan wh0re, chinese and arabic will be the most useful for you as those will be your biggest clients. europeans and americans know better than to stick their pricks in a moldy wh0re. |
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huffdaddy
Joined: 25 Nov 2005
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| Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:12 pm Post subject: Re: Which foreign langauges |
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| Svetlana wrote: |
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If you are Russian, far more Russians study either Chinese, Japanese, English, or German. Those are the most popular ones to study among Russians as far as I know. |
The OP is undoubtedly not Russian. |
You are right. I am from Moldova. |
And yet nothing derogatory to say about the Russians? |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:14 pm Post subject: Re: Which foreign langauges |
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| huffdaddy wrote: |
| And yet nothing derogatory to say about the Russians? |
socks are a bit slow |
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Son Deureo!
Joined: 30 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:58 am Post subject: |
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| Svetlana wrote: |
Forget Turkish. Turks are nothing but thieves and
rapists. |
Maybe you should give us a complete list of all of the nationalities that you hate before we give you any more advice. Feel free to give us a list of nationalities that you don't hate instead if you think that would be shorter. |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:29 am Post subject: |
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| Svetlana wrote: |
| Forget Turkish. Turks are nothing but thieves and rapists. |
You are the one who put Turkish on your list. And there are plenty of thieves in Russia who will rob you in Moscow. I never saw anyone get robbed when I visited Turkey. I think they are generally nice people, but some are too much on the stubborn side. |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:01 pm Post subject: |
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I don't understand what it is you're studying.
Are you studying languages or linguistics? If it's linguistics it won't be a matter of "learning" a language. I think it'll be more about working out the syntax, grammar, phonetics etc of the language, instead of learning how to hold down a conversation.
In either case I still think the OP's right on the money with those first choices. Chinese and Arabic would be my picks. |
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johnevandavid
Joined: 30 Nov 2005
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| Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:26 pm Post subject: you mean languages? |
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| From what I know, linguistics does not need to involve learning other languages. I have looked at a master's degree program in this, which does not have any second-language requirement. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:05 pm Post subject: |
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OK, trolling or not... this is my take on anyone who wants to learn to speak Chinese for *business* purposes..
And before anyone doubt my qualifications on offering the following piece of my wisdom, let me just say that I AM Chinese, I DO business in China and I DO speaker Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), and I also understand the mentality of Chinese people...
There is absolutely NO POINT in studying Chinese to *do business*. Why? Simple: pride.
It's ironic that you people all want to learn Chinese, when the Chinese are all working their darnest to learn English. For someone with blonde hair, blue eyes; or brown hair, green eyes... whatever... the Chinglinks WILL, without fail, talk to you in English, whether they are good at it or not. They want to show off that they are able to master a different language and are able to do it well...
Much like Koreans (although I would say to a lesser degree), these chinglinks may very well refuse to understand what you are saying to them, even if you appear to speak it very well.
Unless you want to live in the country, there's no reason to learn the language beyond ni hao, xie xie, mei guan shi etc...
Understand the culture, however, is a bit different, but you don't need to understand superficial cultural differences by learning the language... cos you will rarely be able to delve deep enough to truly understand their (our) culture anyhow..
Wow.. do I sound patriotic or not...
Heh... nah, just my 2 cents... |
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yingwenlaoshi
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Location: ... location, location!
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| Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
OK, trolling or not... this is my take on anyone who wants to learn to speak Chinese for *business* purposes..
And before anyone doubt my qualifications on offering the following piece of my wisdom, let me just say that I AM Chinese, I DO business in China and I DO speaker Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), and I also understand the mentality of Chinese people...
There is absolutely NO POINT in studying Chinese to *do business*. Why? Simple: pride.
It's ironic that you people all want to learn Chinese, when the Chinese are all working their darnest to learn English. For someone with blonde hair, blue eyes; or brown hair, green eyes... whatever... the Chinglinks WILL, without fail, talk to you in English, whether they are good at it or not. They want to show off that they are able to master a different language and are able to do it well...
Much like Koreans (although I would say to a lesser degree), these chinglinks may very well refuse to understand what you are saying to them, even if you appear to speak it very well.
Unless you want to live in the country, there's no reason to learn the language beyond ni hao, xie xie, mei guan shi etc...
Understand the culture, however, is a bit different, but you don't need to understand superficial cultural differences by learning the language... cos you will rarely be able to delve deep enough to truly understand their (our) culture anyhow..
Wow.. do I sound patriotic or not...
Heh... nah, just my 2 cents... |
Ni shuo shenme? |
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yingwenlaoshi
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Location: ... location, location!
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| Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:36 am Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
OK, trolling or not... this is my take on anyone who wants to learn to speak Chinese for *business* purposes..
And before anyone doubt my qualifications on offering the following piece of my wisdom, let me just say that I AM Chinese, I DO business in China and I DO speaker Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), and I also understand the mentality of Chinese people...
There is absolutely NO POINT in studying Chinese to *do business*. Why? Simple: pride.
It's ironic that you people all want to learn Chinese, when the Chinese are all working their darnest to learn English. For someone with blonde hair, blue eyes; or brown hair, green eyes... whatever... the Chinglinks WILL, without fail, talk to you in English, whether they are good at it or not. They want to show off that they are able to master a different language and are able to do it well...
Much like Koreans (although I would say to a lesser degree), these chinglinks may very well refuse to understand what you are saying to them, even if you appear to speak it very well.
Unless you want to live in the country, there's no reason to learn the language beyond ni hao, xie xie, mei guan shi etc...
Understand the culture, however, is a bit different, but you don't need to understand superficial cultural differences by learning the language... cos you will rarely be able to delve deep enough to truly understand their (our) culture anyhow..
Wow.. do I sound patriotic or not...
Heh... nah, just my 2 cents... |
Nah. It's not that hard to understand Chinese culture.
I call BS on this because knowing the language can be beneficial. Plus I call BS on your claim of never being able to develop enough on the language. Not true. People do it. Even to an extent where they speak better than Chinese people. |
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