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then that takes a long time, especially an asian language
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<p>True. However, for someone interested in learning both Hindi/Arabic, I'd recommend picking a root language like say Urdu. Hindi and Arabic both originate from Urdu. Hence, learning Urdu will help in learning both languages. Learning Urdu will enable the person to understand Hindi much better and make it easier for the person to write the Arabic script. Urdu,Hindi and Arabic share common words so learning Urdu would kill two birds with one stone...</p>
<p>I am not very sure about Chinese and Japanese but I've heard that the Japanese script originated from the Chinese one so maybe those similarities would be an advantage to the beginner?</p>
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btw it took me about 600 hours to achieve that level in french...
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<p>Out of curiosity, Where did you learn french? at a university?</p>
<p>I am still a highschool prat... I have the course in school but I mostly learnt it my self(1~2hours per day for a year)</p>
<p>my mother-tongue is chinese but I still find it hard to learn japanese. I will try it if I have time in college though, cuz the language is pretty cool and useful</p>
<p>PS: about 50% of japanese words are from chinese, but the grammar and orders are totally different, more different from chinese than french from english I think.</p>
<p>I think (very personal opinion), if you are NOT BAD at learning languages, it takes about 2000 hours for both in order to be sounded sort of like native speakers and can really tackle some problems with them</p>
<p>is it possible to learn alone. I took mandarin in hs and it was really really hard (+ I never took it seriously). Right now, I am taking Japanese courses at my college and somehow I really wanna learn Mandarin again =P</p>
<p>I hate mandarin because i have to memorize the tone that each character has =__=.</p>
<p>if I were you I wont spend that much time on language cuz I think there are other things far more effective than that, but if you really interested in them, its possible to learn alone, but you really need to devote a lot of time, which is a lot (after french, I felt sick of learning language for a long time...)</p>
<p>PS: I read a grammar book with some basic textbooks for about a month or two than start to read french novels and also use some french listening practice tapes (by the way I have 3 hours french course in school per week, which I practiced my speaking)</p>
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True. However, for someone interested in learning both Hindi/Arabic, I'd recommend picking a root language like say Urdu. Hindi and Arabic both originate from Urdu. Hence, learning Urdu will help in learning both languages. Learning Urdu will enable the person to understand Hindi much better and make it easier for the person to write the Arabic script. Urdu,Hindi and Arabic share common words so learning Urdu would kill two birds with one stone...
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<p>What are you talking about?</p>
<p>Arabic DOES NOT come from Urdu (it's influenced by hebrew and aramaic). That doesn't even make any sense. Urdu comes from South Asia, Arabic comes from the Middle East. Civilization originated in the Middle East, thus Arabic is an older language and if anything would influence Urdu.</p>
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That doesn't even make any sense. Urdu comes from South Asia, Arabic comes from the Middle East. Civilization originated in the Middle East, thus Arabic is an older language and if anything would influence Urdu.
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<p>My bad.. I had it the other way around.. Arabic did influence Urdu/Hindi.</p>
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if I were you I wont spend that much time on language cuz I think there are other things far more effective than that, but if you really interested in them, its possible to learn alone, but you really need to devote a lot of time, which is a lot (after french, I felt sick of learning language for a long time...)</p>
<p>PS: I read a grammar book with some basic textbooks for about a month or two than start to read french novels and also use some french listening practice tapes (by the way I have 3 hours french course in school per week, which I practiced my speaking)
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<p>That does seem like a lot of work. I'd probably consider taking University language courses but dont have the dedication to do it on my own.,</p>
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And why are people still saying to learn Hindi? That would be a <em>huge</em> waste of time.
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<p>I disagree here, if you're going to be doing real business you're going to be deamaking and I think it's always great to be able to speak the person's native tongue if that's the case.</p>
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I dont think that will be enough for the fluency you need
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<p>How about if I coupled it with a semester abroad to the country of the language I'm learning? I figure that University courses are pretty intensive so they should be able to cover most of the theory..</p>
<p>it all depends on confidence, too... If you aren't worried about screwing up, you will be willing to practice the hard stuff and learn faster...</p>
<p>Ok kids, just because a country's population is over a billion doesn't mean it holds any relevance to today's society. Hell, considering that India's population is that large and its gross GDP isn't even in the top 5 just trivializes its power on the world stage. </p>
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there is no such language called "chinese" though. there is two languages called mandarin and cantonese
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Uh no. Cantonese is a dialect. There are hundreds of dialects in China. When people say chinese, it's usually a given that they are referring to Mandarin.</p>