Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jg]

Straight forward enough, ehh? I guess the real debate is what you consider "practical"? Is is traveling round the globe stuff, business usefullness, # of people in the world who speak a language, something else?

It would be interesting to see what language people are interesed in that are not necessarily "practical" but people want to learn it anyway. If you list a "fun" language try to pick one you have already learned at least some of; of course everyone dreams about picking up one, but who already has and why?

Mine: Practical - Mandarin. Chinese people keep it real no matter where they go in the world. Thick as thieves, I'm telling you. Plus, 1.25 billion? Okay, all those aren't Mandarin speakers but most are. Mandarin is also my fun language. All that warbling and musical undulating...

[FierceInvalid]

Man, take English off the poll. It's obviously the most practical second language by a long shot...

For me, I guess French would be the most practical, being Quebecois with French-Canadian family and whatnot...but I've forgotten most of it since coming here.

The language I think I would most like to learn is Japanese, just because I think it's the coolest-sounding one, and looks awesome in writing as well. Very intersting culturally too.

[Bulsajo]

Practical, by what measure? Number of countries where it can be spoken? After English it would be French then Arabic followed by Spanish. Mandarin, well I guess if you only want to hang out in Chinatowns all over the world...

http://www.worldlii.org/catalog/53188.html

http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/DIS/OHSICS/forlang/french/30_franc.htm

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ABV

http://www.fhsu.edu/irc/spanish/spancoun.html

http://www.lechinois.com/howtolearn/whymandarin.html

[katydid]

OK, so maybe it's the early-childhood Sesame Street influence, but my vote is for Spanish....as I can think of many places in AMERICA alone where that would be the best language to know.

[bucheon bum]

Like Bulsajo said, Mandarian is useless outside China and chinatowns of the world. Furthermore there are a variety of dialects so if you learn the "standard" form of it, that doesn't mean you'll understand some hick from the back country. Many chinatowns used to speak predominantly cantonese as well since the bulk of immigrants came from south china. Now that's changing, but still should keep that in mind. And how many non-chinese people speak chinese? Bloody few.

Something similar could be said about Arabic. It is spoken throughout the arab world and any imam can understand it, BUT arabic has many dialects as well. Moroccan arabic is totallly differnt from Saudi Arabian arabic, while both are different from Egyptian. I know a man who became fluent in Iraqi and "standard" arabic but couldn't hold a conversation with a Moroccan, that's how different arabic can be.

As for Spanish, if you live in the americas, obviously it is the most important 2nd language to learn. Problem is if you live or travel anywhere else in the world (with the exception of spain) its useless.

Finally French.. It's widely spoken in Africa and, to a lesser extent, Syria and Lebanon. So it certainly is pretty useful.

So personally I think it is a toss-up between French and Spanish- assuming you're not including English. If you include English, it's a no-brainer.

[jg]

Mandarin will become more popular, I sometimes speculate. Probably not as popular as English... the further China opens economically? Watch out! Also the opportunities inside China will be so numerous that it will be studied more. I mean, China shares borders with so many countries, it is really cheap - and even if the median costs approached Japan or even Korea, it is too vast to be uniformly expensive.

As far as someone who speaks one language not understanding other dialects, how long can that last as inter-regional travel increases so quickly and the world medias grow? Plus anyone who claims fluency in Arabic should not have more than cosmetic difficulties understanding other Arabic speakers, or at least this is what native Arabic speakers have demonstrated to me. Perhaps any real confusion is more a question of someone's "fluency". The intake officer at my former hagwon in D.C. (hahaha) communicated in Arabic quite well with students from varying countries - she was Algerian and spoke with Moroccans, Suadi's, Yemenis, etc, many of whom had no other method of communication upon arrival.

I have heard non-native English speakers claim that English is the same, that they, although "fluent" in English, are bowled over by the Irish or Aussies. Nah! The same is true of Spanish - if you have trouble with Spaniards but not Peruvians; Puerto Ricans, but not Chileans, guess what? You ain't fluent!

Yeah, French carries weight too, of course... it will be interesting to see if, as many French speaking African nations open up for tourism/business, French stays strong there or does English gain more currency.

I am surprised no one has come up with a really boutique language as their fun one, something spoken only at lunch on rainy days in X-landia...

[rockr1]

What about Sporean? Spanish and Korean blended to make a new super-language. Examples:

Anyola - Hello
Adiosseyo - Goodbye
Gracihamnida - Thank you
Gringuk - Foreigner
Amigoo - Friend

... you get the picture. Sporea will also have a unique culture and cuisine, featuring flamenco spitting and kimchi paella.

Contributions to this fledgling but beautiful language much appreciated.

[Cedar]

I think that Mandarin may be practically a bit limited in use NOW, but as has been mentioned- give it a few years. Growing and growing- tourism is going to start to take off for Chinese (other than group tours), business is growing fast, and there are a lot of great thinkers in many fields who are Chinese.

And, incidentally, I have used Mandarin to converse with people in India, Thailand and Vietnam, not in Chinatowns. Here in Korea I make friends with the Chinese teachers and Joseonjoek (ethnic Koreans from China).

[bucheon bum]

First arabic. Trust me, Moroccan arabic is ver different from "standard arabic. Basic words such as yes/no, what/who/where don't even sound like standard arabic. The grammar is a bit different as well. Yes, perhaps the guy wasn't "fluent" but he was no dummy. Also met an Israeli in Morocco who had the same problem. She could communicate in Arabic with arabs in Israel and Jordan, but not in Morocco. And for both of them, it wasn't a problem of the moroccans understanding them, it was them unable to understand the moroccans. Ironically, me, the one who knew little arabic at the time, was better than them with the locals with my french.

As for your co-workers in DC, a couple factors allowed them to communicate. 1) obviously there are some roots and many common words, not saying they're totally different. One former arabic professor of mine used the analogy of spanish vs. french vs. italian, ie the romance languages. They have tons in common, but not carbon copies of one another.

2) Every Arab knows at least some "modern standard arabic" (MSA) since that is the language of writing and news reports, pan-arab tv programs, etc. The more educated you are, the more MSA you know. No doubt your co-workers were well-educated and could understand each other very well. Now if you took a bedouin from Jordan and had him talk to a camel herder from the Moroccan desert, you might have some communication problems

I'm not saying learning Arabic is pointless. If it were, I wouldn't have studied it for 2 years in college nor be planning on continuing my studies after I'm done here in Korea. All i'm saying is learning basic Arabic isn't as helpful as say, learning basic french.

as for mandarian, it is true that China is becoming a bigger player in the world. But two countries pop into my head: Germany and Japan. They are the 3rd and 2nd largest economies in the world. Japan's biggest source of wealth comes from exports. You'd think that this interaction with the rest of the world would make Japanese spread, yet how many people speak Japanese? Pretty much just the Japanese. Germany is less of an economic player globabally but still is significant. Yet very few people beyond northern europe know german.

Remember that English and French became global languages because they were the language of the ruling class. Even little ol' Portugal was able to make its language one of the most widely spoken languages of the world thanks to colonization. China isn't going to be colonizing anywhere.

So sure, if China were to become the biggest economy in the world and was the world's superpower, THEN it would very important to learn, but until then? Not really.

Cedar, what people do you talk to in those countries with? Natives I assume and not tourists? What kinds of backgrounds did they have? In the tourism business or what? Just wondering.

[mike in brasil]

if you live in California, you could argue Spanish is the most useful. if you live in Italy, it would be French. If you live in Toronto, French too.

if you want to travel the world, probbly French and Arabic will save your ass, as wel as English.

if you want to make $$$ in commerce, Mandarin.

German has no use cause they all fall over eachother to speak ENglish to you.

I�d say learn French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, and Mandarin and you have your bases covered.

Dutch is fun, but useless. . .. heb je een beetje hasje bij?

[Bulsajo]

[GirlFromMars]

I love what Jeremy Harmer writes in his excellent The Practice of English Language Teaching about where English fits in the world and the future of English compared with Spanish or Mandarin. Here's an extract...

[jg]

I am very pleased with the idea of Sporean! Well, pleased with everything but the word "Sporean" itself. This could be the official language of Paraguay and Los Angeles! I would love to add a few words but the entirety of my Korean vocab can fit neatly inside a quark.

Thats interesting about speaking Mandarin in India and Thailand. I too would like to hear more.

[Blue Flower]

I chose Spanish, because of all those South American countries that I want to visit, but i really want to learn French. Am thinking of teaching in France next year, if it is possible. I have always wanted to learn latin, greek, and to read Egyptian heiroglyphs. I took a free latin course at varsity once, but it was so hard i never went to the second session.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Buncheon Bum wrote: