Which language should I learn: German, French or Spanish?
My grandfather used to say:English: the language of the worldFrench: the language of politics and the eliteGerman: the language of engineersGiven the fact that he was born in 1917 it might be a.bit back dated, still in Europe it largely applies.Traditionally German opens doors to Central, Eastern Europe and TurkeySpanish opens doors to Latin America traditionally, having said so.The choice between Spanish or German is difficult it depends on:LocationBusiness EnvironmentI”d say go for both. German opens doors door other languages like Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, SwedishSpanish opens doors to languages like Portuguese, French and Italian.As i said before if you master both you allow yourself open to some pretty good opportunities
Should I learn Mandarin or Korean?
What would you personally choose, and why? Obviously Mandarin is the most spoken language on this planet. And both will be difficult to learn. Which one is more beneficial?
Is Chinese the toughest language to learn in the world?
Dear Chinese friends:We need to talk about your language. Or rather, your view of your language.Sometimes when you say that Chinese is the toughest, or the most difficult, it sounds a little…well, it doesn’t sound all that modest, put it that way.This might sound harsh, so please remember that it’s coming straight from the heart. Guys, Chinese is not the most difficult language to learn in the world.Chinese is not the most difficult language to learn in the world.If you’re still with me, I just want you to remember that all languages are difficult. Now, I know what you might say:But, the tones! Yes, many people aren’t used to tonal languages. But a few diacritics here and a patient teacher go a long way. Also if the student has a background in singing, identifying and reproducing tones is really a walk in the park.But, the characters! Again, not impossible. For those who don’t have the time to practice handwriting, pinyin inputs on smart phones and computers are pretty straightforward.A lot of you have told me how much you want to learn French. Like English, French has both definite and indefinite articles. Unlike English, it has gendered nouns. Both concepts are nowhere to be find in Chinese, and so will likely prove difficult to master. In addition, there are a lot of sounds that might be difficult for you to produce. You will never, however, hear a French person say that French is the most difficult language in the world.I know that China is the land of superlatives: Largest population, army, high-speed rail network. The list goes on and on. I also know that you guys are forced into insanely cutthroat competition almost from day one. Seriously, that’s going to affect anybody. But I promise you: this isn’t a competition. All languages are hard. Let’s just leave it at that, okay?All my love,-AdamP.S. Your food is amazing. Seriously.
Out of Chinese, French, Russian, Hungarian, Polish, and Finnish, which one of these languages is the hardest to learn?
Finnish is hard to learn for everyone (excluding speakers of Estonian since it belongs to the same group but they have to learn it too) mostly because Finnish doesn't belong to the IE group of languages and has a complex grammar for the most part. Hungarian is hard for most Europeans. Finns and Estonians maybe have some advantages but they can't understand it without learning it. Chinese is hard for Europeans since it is an Asian language, you have to remember a lot of characters and it has a lot of tones so it is quite a challenge for speakers of IE languages. Chinese is maybe easier for Japanese/Koreans/Vietnamese but even they have to spend certain amount of time to learn it (since Japanese and Korean aren't tonal while Vietnamese is). Polish is hard because it has 7 cases and a complex grammar. It is hard for most foreigners, for Slavic speakers more or less, but even we struggle with it in some way. Russian is a Slavic language and it is a complex language for most English speakers because of the pronounciation and accent and it is hard for speakers of other Slavic languages although in a smaller portion. Other languages are easier for the most part.
What is more difficult to learn? Japanese or French?
All languages come with their levels of difficulty and that level of difficulty depends on your own mastering of your own language. I learned mandarin as a child and I am right now learning Finnish. So to tell which one is more difficult between French & Japanese, well what’s your first language? French is soft spoken and can get difficult because we’re almost one of the only languages in the world that the primary word link to the next word, here’s an example:Bonjour mes amis [hello my friends]. Basically you’d believe that we would say it integrally like Bonjour - Mes - Amis.Buuuuut here’s the way we would actually say it:Bonjour mes zamis.What just happened? Well “Mes” is the first word and “amis” is the last, since “mes” finished with an “s” and the next word start with a vowel, the S sound become a Z sound, therefore linking to the last word.French is one of the rare language that a word sound can be changed in the context that the first word finishes with an S, T or any other letters and the next word starts with a vowel, we linked them to the next word which make it sounds like a new word. Japanese language does not have that.But Japanese does have its level of difficulties. So they’re equally hard to learn.
Can I learn Chinese, Korean, and Japanese at once and not get confused?
Korean is a whole lot different with Japanese and Chinese. The pronunciations, the alphabet, and grammar are not alike. I am learning Korean right know and I really prefer it to the rest. But if u know a little Chinese and Japanese already, then I don't think it'll be hard, because Korean is easier!
Is it tough for English speakers to learn to speak Japanese?
Hmm.. tough is relative, it depends person to person. But I think most people would agree that for an english person it's going to be tougher than learning another european language. If you learn something like french, german etc a lot of the words are very similar because english shares common historical roots with these countries. Also because of the shared history of europe a lot of the concepts are very similar. This is one of the first problems with learning japanese in the beginning; it feels like a pretty alien language and culture, but you get over that pretty quickly. Other than that there are some other positives and negatives: grammar: straightforward and logical, much more so than most European languages.. i.e. the archaic french system or the numerous illogical 'exceptions to the rule' in English. Don't worry about the different sentence order, it really doesn't take long to get your head around. pronunciation: easy. again it's extremely straightforward, and spoken almost entirely flat i.e. you don't have to worry about crazy pitch differences like thai, chinese etc reading/writing: this is the area which really makes it harder to learn than say another european language because you have to learn a new massive alphabet/lexicon. Although this takes time, I wouldn't exactly call it 'difficult', it's mostly an exercise in memorization. In the beginning it can seem like an unclimbable mountain, but it goes in surprisingly fast. So I reckon it's definitely harder than your average language to learn for an english speaker.. but I don't really think it deserves the 'aura of impossibility' that surrounds it. People who can speak it, and even Japanese people, like to give the impression that it's really difficult language or especially impressive, but I think most of that is BS. Don't get too put of by people like that and just go for it.. Yeah it'll take you longer than learning spanish or whatever, but the way I look at it is if you learn japanese and then go on to learn another language, chances are it'll seem really easy and quick.