<p>I plan to major in international relations and I'm already conversant in Spanish and plan to keep taking it throughout college. I'm also taking a gap year to go to Germany for a year. However, I want to take a second language in college and I am so torn between Chinese and Arabic. Im going to a college in the northwest so the Chinese programs at any of my possible schools are stronger, but otherwise I just don't know.
I'm thinking of maybe joining the foreign service or something like that. They both seem really interesting to me, although Arabic seems a little more so--at least right now. Thoughts on which one would be more useful?</p>
<p>Chinese for foriegn relations. Arabic if you want to help out the military.</p>
<p>my history teacher said the most useful languages now for the new international person is English, Spanish and Chinese. (since nearly a third of the world can speak Mandarin).</p>
<p>Chinese for business. Because the population of Chinese speakers is highly concentrated though, if you want to do something like international healthcare, working for an NGO, etc., you'd be better off with Arabic (actually, it'd be even better to do both French and Arabic, since a lot of African languages are based off of those).</p>
<p>I don't think there are any African languages based off of French or Arabic, but they happen to speak Arabic a lot in the north and french in the old french colonies (which is basically everything in central africa). Also, Chinese is like the scariest language ever; I think it would probably take a while to know enough to be practical, and it would definitely be harder than learning something like french. Either language would be ok though. I don't think it matters as much, because you can always learn whatever language you need to use, and you're probably going to forget whatever you don't use. Take whatever you find more interesting.</p>
<p>Both are challenging languages to speak well. Both will have significant challenges to over come. I would narrow it down not to a business/professional issue, but a personal interests issue.</p>
<p>Which region are you more interested in? Any truly fluent speaker of a language must have at least a basic understanding of the region and the history. You don't want to be bored to death reading classical Chinese literature/Quranic Arabic. Choose the one you think will be more interesting.</p>
<p>For example, I have only a passing interest in the Middle East and most Arabic speaking nations. I have an intense interest in Northeast Asia. So which do you think I'd choose?</p>
<p>chinese- unlike spanish, your chances to apply it are more limited while in college. it's one of those languages which you can't really say "I'm conversational" until you've lived there. But it is spoken by a lot of people. But like stated, it's very concentrated. Not necesary by any means.</p>
<p>Arabic-Arabic is just plain hard. But it's importance will only grow. </p>
<p>Take what you want because agreeing with ahvigjr, if you don't use it out of college, you'll forget it anyways. Might as well study something you enjoy right?</p>
<p>Hmm...Chinese is concentrated, but don't forget that there are a lot of countries with significant Chinese speaking populations outside of the PRC, including Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore.</p>
<p>well u already know numbers in arabic</p>
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well u already know numbers in arabic.
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<p>No you don't. Only two Arabic numerals are the same as European numerals: one/wahid and nine/tis'a</p>
<p>thanks for your opinions guys--it gives me something else to think about!</p>
<p>take it from someone who is fluent in mandarink and is learning simple arabic - chinese is much easier. discounting the fact that im ethnic chinese and am surrounded by many chinese people, the language, in itself, is really fun to learn. also, unlike arabic, it aint so confusing with the masculine and feminine differentiation and the right-to-left reading.</p>
<p>Arabic numerals are the same as the English ones. There's a seperate set used that only 1 and 9 are the same in, but the English numbering system is still called "Arabic numerals." Actually, the Arabic numbering system is actually based on Indian numerals.</p>
<p>I would go with Arabic, but that's just me because I'm more interested in their culture. I'm taking some Arabic classes in Boston next year.</p>
<p>Arabic is one of the easier languages to learn. Written, it wins hands down..But you shouldn't pick a language because of its "use," pick a language that you think you would enjoy learning about..Many of the businesspeople in China speak English, so you really wouldn't have much trouble.</p>
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Arabic is one of the easier languages to learn.
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<p>I tend to hear the opposite. What makes you think it's easy?</p>
<p>Maybe he means one of the easier "hard" languages. Such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hungarian, Finnish...</p>
<p>Or maybe he's insane.</p>
<p>I think he´s insane. Arabic is hard. :p</p>
<p>Though I'd say that Arabic would be easier to learn than Chinese. What type of chinese are you talking about though? Putonghua? The tonalities of Chinese + all the kanji are incredibly difficult, especially if you want to be fluent, not just simple speech.</p>
<p>Learn whatever you want to learn though. I would pick the culture you find the most interesting. If you have the drive you can do it.</p>
<p>kanji is insane. I know people who have lived in China for a few years, and still aren´t fluent though very conversational just because of how much you need to know to truly be fluent.</p>