<p>is mandarin really hard to learn? because that's what i want to start, having already taken 4 years of spanish, and i'm bored. But a new alphabet and sounds?</p>
<p>"is mandarin really hard to learn?"</p>
<p>Yes and no. It takes more time to learn since, for each new word, you have to learn both the pinyin (phonetic spelling) and character forms, but I have never found it to be too hard. Then again, since it is the only foreign language I have ever studied, I have nothing to compare it to. It may take some getting used to it, but dont let that scare you! Also, there isn't really a new "alphabet" per se- pinyin uses the same letters as English (+ umlaut) and there are a very limited number of sounds used, so it doesn't take long to master the pronounciation (although tones can be tricky...). If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>Also, if I were to take another language, it would be Spanish. I toyed with the idea of learning German, Latin, Italian, Greek, Irish, Norwegian, or even Slovak...lol, but I think that, in today's world, English, Chinese, and Spanish are the most valuable languages to know.</p>
<p>Also, random statistics for those interested. The 5 most spoken languages on the planet are:
Chinese---1,051,000,000
English---510,000,000
Hindi---490,000,000
Spanish---425,000,000
Arabic---255,000,000</p>
<p>Hahah, the reason that Chinese language has that huge number is because of Chinese population. Luckily for me, I am Chinese. However, I am not expert in Mandarine, but only with enough superfacial comprehension just to get by daily simple conversion. </p>
<p>I took three spanish classes when I was in High School (Just graduated). I found every aspects of the language to be very easy except at listening. Please don't talk fast in Spanish when speaking to me! :) I can read and write fundaments, but not too deep into the field. Let me tell you a secret. I don't even know how to pronounce most of the Spanish alphabet, but somehow I managed to get high A in every Spanish class I had. I even joined Spanish Club and did reasonably well. </p>
<p>Funny enough, my sister is trying to learn Korean after watching several Korean soap opera. So far, she is devoted to grasping the basics. I wonder when she will get tired of it.</p>
<p>Now back to the subject.
Well, you can take Latin if you want to major in Science field considering most of the scientific names are derived from Latin. Other than that, I can't think of any good use of Latin, unless you are planning to go Latin America.</p>
<p>Two of the current hottest foreign languages are Chinese and Spanish due to the ever increasing population of these groups and foreign affairs. In my mind, Spanish is a lot easier due to the resemblance with English language. You can master it very quickly. On the other hand, Chinese can be a challenge to a lot of people. Classroom lessions are not enough to ensure you with a good Chinese comprehension. Daily pracice with Chinese are needed. The best place to study Chinese, of course, is China. Even though I only got up to third grade, I can read hardcore Chinese novels(I was an exceptional student in which I had started reading Middle School's Chinese textbooks while I was only a third grader). When I was in China, I had met couple English people who were extremely good at Chinese. They had been in Chinese for seven to ten years. The choice is yours. :)</p>
<p>my cousin has been studying chinese for several years (4... i believe) including a year off and this summer is heading back to beijing to take more classes. one of the things she emphasized to me about chinese is that you can be fluent in university chinese (aka in class.. no prob) but when you ge to china.. it's like you don't know anything. Part of this is that chinese has a huge emphasis on tonal pronounciation.. for example... high-low tone may mean.... horse with one word where as low-high for the same phonetic word may mean...apple. Many western language speakers struggle with the tonal stuff because our language doesn't require it. so I think that said.... to truly master chinese is harder (in a sense that it takes more time) and takes dedication. but it's not ZOMG impossible.</p>
<p>helpful... or jsut confusing?</p>
<p>"Other than that, I can't think of any good use of Latin, unless you are planning to go Latin America."</p>
<p>This is a joke, right?</p>
<p>I would say Chinese is one of the harder (if not the hardest) languages to learn. You have to be committed, it is not for the casual language-learner.</p>
<p>I'm a comparative literature major with graduate school aspirations, and so am studying French and Arabic concurrently. It's fun stuff.</p>
<p>I've only taken four languages in my life.</p>
<p>Spanish.....very easy. I like it. I prefer the sound of American Spanish (North/South America) than European (Castilian) Spanish.
Lots of people speak it and if you intend to travel or settle down abroad, you can choose from one of several different countries, or you could work in the South (Florida) or Southwest doing translation or interpretation.</p>
<p>Italian....imo, more complex than Spanish, but still very similar. I like the history and culture more...its just more interesting to me. Plus, I love the sound of it....they make the best sounding operas. The dialects are numerous and unique. I'm going to Sicily at the end of the month!
Not as many people speak it, obviously, but its a great language. If you want to work in Switzerland, Monaco, or Italy, it would be a good idea.</p>
<p>French...I didn't like the language at first, but it grew on me. It's VERY easy imo for a native English speaker to learn French becaus ethere are a LOT of similarities. I love it. Like English, it's an international language...great for business or government related fields.</p>
<p>Hungarian...the most dificult by far....but I liked it. It's unlike anything you'll ever hear. The grammar per se is not terribly difficult but the case markings can be a pain to memorize. There are over 20 case markings! It gets confusing, but after about a month or so, it starts to click.....a little. I liked it and would continue it if I had the time. Great if you are into Central European studies.</p>
<p>mandarin is hard in that it has four different sounds, which is quite unlike english which is basically one-pitch. one word can be read in many different ways for some characters, so that gets confusing. however, that said, im sure chinese a language that can be mastered if one puts his/her mind to it.</p>
<p>as for the whole dialect thing, chinese manifests itself in many different forms... many dialects spoken by people from different provinces. chinese is the main one. people more or less comprehend it. and if you speak mandarin you would more or less comprehend other dialects.</p>
<p>Learning Mandarin is pretty hard imo since theres a lot to learn and the pronounciation is a little hard too. </p>
<p>I'd recommend Spanish however. Uses the same alphabet and has words similar to those in English which makes it pretty easy to learn.</p>
<p>i'm scared of chinese so i'm going to try arabic...don't know if it is any easier but i feel lame taking spanish since i took it in high school and i feel like i could pick it up quickly if i had to. (im plan on a government/IR and econ major) I'd consider Hindi, but i don't know how useful that would be. In India they use Enlgish or Hindi to communicate so i'm not sure if it would be worth it to learn Hindi</p>
<p>I'm probably going to minor in French. I think french is a really very useful language if you're going to be in Europe (or Canada) and since I'm doing fashion-related stuff for my major, I think french would come in handy for that as well. </p>
<p>I want to eventually learn Spanish too since that's basically the second language in the US now.</p>
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i'm scared of chinese so i'm going to try arabic...don't know if it is any easier but i feel lame taking spanish since i took it in high school and i feel like i could pick it up quickly if i had to. (im plan on a government/IR and econ major) I'd consider Hindi, but i don't know how useful that would be. In India they use Enlgish or Hindi to communicate so i'm not sure if it would be worth it to learn Hind
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<p>Hindi and Arabic have similar words ( although they its not as close to the similarity between Spanish - Italian ). This is because they both stem from Urdu. In terms of learning these languages, they'd be on the same difficulty level imo. They both use different scripts and a different alphabet from english along with their own distinct grammatical structure.. To a certain extent, the grammatical structure of Arabic is somewhat similar to Spanish so it might help to a certain extent ( not a lot though.. ) </p>
<p>Another thing to consider is that if you speak Hindi, you will be most probably be able to understand Urdu ( official language of Pakistan ) and some other dialects in India ...Knowing the local language will always give you an edge since it helps in bridging the culture gap..</p>
<p>To sum it up, Arabic and Hindi are easier than Mandarin but harder than Spanish :). They are both great languages though so good luck with whatever you pick.</p>
<p>Arabic easier than Chinese? Probably s because I'm a native speaker of the latter, Arabic script looks so odd and indecipherable to me. I really want to learn it in college though - Arabic and Persian. And improving my Chinese.</p>
<p>Being multilingual rocks. In a perfect world I would be fluent in Chinese, English, Spanish (the first 3 I will be very soon), Arabic, and Persian/Farsi.</p>
<p>I took 4 years of Japanese in high school. If I had time, I would like to conitnue my Japanese.</p>
<p>This is a dilemma I had recently. I already speak to languages, English, being the obvious, and Spanish being my first. After being born here and living here so many years I find myself more comfortable speaking English. I did take two years of Spanish in my school. Got a 98 on the Spanish regents and that was that. However I've always wanted to learn another language.</p>
<p>I'm going to go to Fordham University as a business major. They recently sent me a Freshman registration form and asked me about classes I'd want to take and even asked me if I wanted to minor in a foreign language. If I can recall correctly, the choices were Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Latin, and Italian. I might be missing two or three. At first I was thinking that maybe I should pick up studying another language. I figured this time I'm paying for my education and should take advantage of it. That would mean not taking Spanish since that wouldn't be a new language to me. I looked at all the other languages and it's not that they scared me but I wasn't too sure I wanted to put all that effort into learning another language. Ultimately I put on the registration form that I didn't want to minor in foreign language because I just couldn't decide what other language I could make use of. Not to mention if I did take up foreign language I would have my business-related classes delayed by a year. I might think it over though because being able to speak another dialect really is amazing. I mean I see movies with agents that go all across the world and sure the actor might not know what he's saying but he sure makes it seem like he does and its cool I think (of course he's an actor he has to make it seem like he knows what he's saying). I always wanted to learn Italian just to be able to go to Italy and talk to Italian girls. There's just something about them lol. I understand Chinese is the most spoken language now in the world, if not the second most spoken, but it sounds hard for someone who's never really had to learn another language by actually putting in the time to learn. I don't consider learning English at age 5 much since basically at that age you can learn just about anything.</p>
<p>Whoever said that Latin wouldn't be of any use unless you were going to get into science is off on their statement. Latin is often used in words even when you don't realize it such as suffxies and prefixes. And if I'm not mistaken it's the basis for the romance languages (such as Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, and Catalan). Being a Spanish speaker myself I can tell you that I've heard people talk in Italian, Portuguese, and French and I've been able to understand some of the words they've been able to say. I've been able to pick up some words just reading some of those languages too since I know Spanish. I don't speak Latin but if I did I would imagine it would teach me the basis for those other languages mentioned above and it would make the transition to learn those other languages much easier.</p>
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Arabic easier than Chinese? Probably s because I'm a native speaker of the latter, Arabic script looks so odd and indecipherable to me. I really want to learn it in college though - Arabic and Persian. And improving my Chinese.
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<p>In my personal opinion, Chinese is harder just because of the tones and the vast no of characters that one has to memorize.. phew! I'd rather learn the 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet if I was a beginner... If you spend some time on it, like anything else, it'll get easier. Also, Arabic/Farsi are a good combo of languages since they use the same script ( with a few minor changes )...</p>
<p>Wazzup, you don't need to remember a lot of Chinese characters in order to converse fluently. My old Chinese teacher told me once that, " It is better to know less characters and use them well, than know a lot and be confused about the usage." Knowing one to two thousands characters should be good enough for the rest of you life (That's not a lot). </p>
<p>When I was learning Chinese, my teacher told me to copy new vocabs one hundred times almost daily. It was well worth it. When I first wrote those characters, it was somewhat awkward. Practice makes perfect. After the 100 times, I started to incorporate my own writing style to these characters. </p>
<p>As for the Latin thing, that's for just myself. As a narrow-minded person I am, I can only see it as a major helper in Science field. Of course, there are other uses. :)</p>
<p>I doubt I will ever want to learn more than four languages (English, Chinese(I know three different dialects), Spanish and possibly French). I have a high tendency of mixing them up . :)</p>
<p>Arabic is really not as impossible as a lot of people think it is. The alphabet takes a little while to learn, but once you get it, it's just like any other alphabet--second nature. Besides, unlike a lot of the romance languages like French or English, there are not many exceptions to the rules in Arabic. Learn the rules, and for the most part, you're good to go.</p>
<p>にほんごがいちばんです。</p>
<p>Hopefully that's right :p</p>