is japanese language worth learning or should i learn Mandarin

[noodle]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

There's an entire island of people called "Hong Kong" filled to the brim with trilingual people who speak English, Mandarin, and Cantonese extremely well.

You'd be surprised how bad a lot of people from HK are at English and Mandarin. But I agree with the point you're making.

As for the 4 tones thing... just count yourself lucky that you can manage it, lol. One by one, I agree it's very easy, but putting them together is VERY tough. It's like a tongue twister; each word is very easy to pronounce, but put together, they're a b***h!

[ozkai]

Originally Posted by MMM

Never been to Taiwan, so it would be in the US, but I hear it is considered the third language in Taiwan, and at least in urban areas is pretty widely known.

Of course, tell me if I am wrong.

The overall point still stands. Being bilingual in English and Mandarin does not make you a member of a particularly exclusive club.

If I can make a living translating Japanese to English, well, there's a reason for that.

No, the reason I asked is because I have met a lot of Taiwanese students in Cairns here studying English.. I guess I'm talking 20-25. They could not speak English.

I am not clued up at all regarding the Enlish speaking scene in Taiwan.

I know Singapore is fluent as my parents have told me so who are regular visitors.

On the other hand, I believe Korea is pretty much as Japan, possibly less fluent.

Thailand seems "broken" fluent.

[MilKyXxdreamXx]

Originally Posted by ozkai

No, the reason I asked is because I have met a lot of Taiwanese students in Cairns here studying English.. I guess I'm talking 20-25. They could not speak English.

I am not clued up at all regarding the Enlish speaking scene in Taiwan.

I know Singapore is fluent as my parents have told me so who are regular visitors.

i've known many taiwanese (also from my school), who does not speak english very well. most taiwanese i know does not speak english too well. (for the non-american born ones).

however, majority of singapore DOES speak english. they tend to speak english mix with chinese on a regular daily basis. or sometimes more of english than chinese.

(you can also tell if you watch singapore dramas or movies, or ever spoke to a singaporean person), they always speak at least 50% english in their sentences.

however, they have a strong singapore accent

[komitsuki]

Mandarin is popular in Canada these days.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by ozkai

No, the reason I asked is because I have met a lot of Taiwanese students in Cairns here studying English.. I guess I'm talking 20-25. They could not speak English.

I am not clued up at all regarding the Enlish speaking scene in Taiwan.

I know Singapore is fluent as my parents have told me so who are regular visitors.

On the other hand, I believe Korea is pretty much as Japan, possibly less fluent.

Thailand seems "broken" fluent.

Interesting. I met quite a few high schoolers from Taiwan who had come to the US to study, and their English was a lot stronger than the Japanese and Korean students, thought not as strong as the HK students.

[Retrogamer77]

This might seem random but how are the Vietnamese with speaking Mandarin? For the past 2 years literally 3/4 of my Chinese class has been Vietnamese students.

[KyleGoetz]

Originally Posted by MilKyXxdreamXx

i've known many taiwanese (also from my school), who does not speak english very well. most taiwanese i know does not speak english too well. (for the non-american born ones).

however, majority of singapore DOES speak english. they tend to speak english mix with chinese on a regular daily basis. or sometimes more of english than chinese.

(you can also tell if you watch singapore dramas or movies, or ever spoke to a singaporean person), they always speak at least 50% english in their sentences.

however, they have a strong singapore accent

Yeah, those Singaporeans speak English pretty well la! (or is it "le" there?) Haha!

[hatsuto11]

In fact, the topic of this thread is very confusing and difficult to answer. or to be more precise, it cannot be answered since there isn't a SPECIFIC reply. I think that you shouldn't learn a language only to exploit for your career. Learning a far eastern language should be fun for you! Actually, both China and Japan have a lot of English speakers and I don't think they really need another one! But what it is most important is to choose the language you like more. There's not use studying Mandarin as long as you don't like it for example. Plus, I think that learning a new language will not be useless anyway, you may need it once and you can learn it only as a hobby. Personally, I prefer Japanese which I consider more 'comfortable' to hear than Chinese. Furthermore, I guess that the current of the 'Chinese vanishing' is faster than that of the chinese! What i mean is that the Japanese people are usually more conservative to their culture and language. Moreover, it is dozens times more difficult to a japanese person to learn English as it is to a chinese person due to the grammatical similarities between chinese and english, while japanese is considered a non-relative language. And I think that a japanese person needs a lot of time to start thinking and forming their phrases like a western since their language works completely differently! Try to compare the Japanese sentence pattern with the English one and you can obviously realize the huge difference. Therefore, i think that studying japanese may be more profitable (especially for working as a translator) but bear in mind it will take much more time because japanese is honestly more difficult and sophisticated.

[MilKyXxdreamXx]

Originally Posted by MMM

Interesting. I met quite a few high schoolers from Taiwan who had come to the US to study, and their English was a lot stronger than the Japanese and Korean students, thought not as strong as the HK students.

actuallly, comparing to the ones that you just mentioned (besides HK), taiwanese does have a lot more of a stronger understanding and speaking skills of english. (for the ones that i've known also.)

Originally Posted by Retrogamer77

This might seem random but how are the Vietnamese with speaking Mandarin? For the past 2 years literally 3/4 of my Chinese class has been Vietnamese students.

you should know pretty well, since you have classes with them. lol

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Yeah, those Singaporeans speak English pretty well la! (or is it "le" there?) Haha!

actually, for HK and Singaporeans, they all use 'la', not 'le'.

[ozkai]

Originally Posted by MMM

Interesting. I met quite a few high schoolers from Taiwan who had come to the US to study, and their English was a lot stronger than the Japanese and Korean students, thought not as strong as the HK students.

yes.. Interesting indeed.