What languages should I study?
I am studying French and German As-Level (with other subjects of course) and Russian GCSE. I know that I want to study languages at University but don't know what combination to do.
I have recently fallen in love with Asiatic languages and I know I want to study one.
But Chinese or Japanese...?
The chosen language would be joint honours with French except for Leeds if I apply which will be Chinese or Japanese and Russian. (5 years)
Which language is more useful.
I was initially interested in Japanese and I still love it but there is something about Chinese that really makes me want to study it also.
Any advice?
I have recently fallen in love with Asiatic languages and I know I want to study one.
But Chinese or Japanese...?
The chosen language would be joint honours with French except for Leeds if I apply which will be Chinese or Japanese and Russian. (5 years)
Which language is more useful.
I was initially interested in Japanese and I still love it but there is something about Chinese that really makes me want to study it also.
Any advice?
Scroll to see replies
Try Persian.
Original post by JamesJones777
I am studying French and German As-Level (with other subjects of course) and Russian GCSE. I know that I want to study languages at University but don't know what combination to do.
I have recently fallen in love with Asiatic languages and I know I want to study one.
But Chinese or Japanese...?
The chosen language would be joint honours with French except for Leeds if I apply which will be Chinese or Japanese and Russian. (5 years)
Which language is more useful.
I was initially interested in Japanese and I still love it but there is something about Chinese that really makes me want to study it also.
Any advice?
I have recently fallen in love with Asiatic languages and I know I want to study one.
But Chinese or Japanese...?
The chosen language would be joint honours with French except for Leeds if I apply which will be Chinese or Japanese and Russian. (5 years)
Which language is more useful.
I was initially interested in Japanese and I still love it but there is something about Chinese that really makes me want to study it also.
Any advice?
Chinese is always in demand and that would definitely look good for future employers. I'm not sure how similar Chinese and Japanese are, but you would probably have an easier time learning one once you know the other. Where besides Leeds are you looking at?
Posted from TSR Mobile
I would say Chinese, since it's one of the officiating languages of the UN and more people speak it, plus there is the economic superpower that China is becoming also.
Original post by JamesJones777
I am studying French and German As-Level (with other subjects of course) and Russian GCSE. I know that I want to study languages at University but don't know what combination to do.
I have recently fallen in love with Asiatic languages and I know I want to study one.
But Chinese or Japanese...?
The chosen language would be joint honours with French except for Leeds if I apply which will be Chinese or Japanese and Russian. (5 years)
Which language is more useful.
I was initially interested in Japanese and I still love it but there is something about Chinese that really makes me want to study it also.
Any advice?
I have recently fallen in love with Asiatic languages and I know I want to study one.
But Chinese or Japanese...?
The chosen language would be joint honours with French except for Leeds if I apply which will be Chinese or Japanese and Russian. (5 years)
Which language is more useful.
I was initially interested in Japanese and I still love it but there is something about Chinese that really makes me want to study it also.
Any advice?
Basically echoing what's already been said - Chinese would be the more useful language. However, Japanese is still in the top 10 demanded languages and fewer and fewer people are studying it, compared to more and more opting for Mandarin. So although Japanese may not be in demand, there are fewer people graduating with it. Plus, there's a helluva lot of chinese students that study abroad/learn English, compared to fewer Japanese students who do so.
I would also say that Chinese is harder. I study French, German and Japanese at Newcastle Uni and from what the chinese students have said, Chinese seems more challenging. But then, I'd never be able to handle the tones.
As for any chance of learning one helping the other.... I'd say forget that. They are incredibly different languages. The person who commented that their chinese friend understands japanese no problem - that's really impressive. The chinese students I lived with in Japan had to study massively to be able to have conversations, although they could read things easily of course.
But even there, japanese kanji is different to Chinese. Mainland China uses simplified chinese, Japanese uses traditional. And some of the japanese characters have been simplified slightly differently to the traditional chinese characters used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. So if you learn Chinese, you might be able to read some things you see in Japanese but you're going to struggle. In the same way that when I went to China I could only read the absolute basics and couldn't communicate at all
Original post by matt_g96
I have a family friend who is Chinese, and he says that he is able to understand Japanese without any difficulty. And obviously there are more Chinese people in the world so Chinese would be more economical in a sense.
Either your family friend studied Japanese for a long time or they're lying. Chinese and Japanese are completely different languages, there's no way you could understand one just by knowing the other. I don't even think they're related to each other, English probably has more in common with Persian than Chinese has with Japanese.
Chinese is not more useful. It has more speakers, but they're all in one country - unless you're living and working in China then the number of speakers is irreverent. Chinese may be an official UN language but the only working languages of the UN are French and English.
OP, only study Chinese if you are genuinely interested. Realistically you won't ever reach a native-level Chinese fluency, and most people in China can speak English pretty well anyway.
Same applies for Russian and Japanese fyi.
i.e. study Chinese/Japanese/Russian if you genuinely love the languages, not for "employment prospects", because your Chinese/Russian/Japanese won't be that great at the end of the day anyway, but slightly awkward and clunky.
Same applies for Russian and Japanese fyi.
i.e. study Chinese/Japanese/Russian if you genuinely love the languages, not for "employment prospects", because your Chinese/Russian/Japanese won't be that great at the end of the day anyway, but slightly awkward and clunky.
Original post by Samual
Chinese may be an official UN language but the only working languages of the UN are French and English.
Absolutely true. +10
Original post by matt_g96
I have a family friend who is Chinese, and he says that he is able to understand Japanese without any difficulty. And obviously there are more Chinese people in the world so Chinese would be more economical in a sense. At the end of the day, choose whatever makes you the happiest 
Err.. Japanese and Chinese are not mutually intelligible.
Original post by sophia5892
Basically echoing what's already been said - Chinese would be the more useful language. However, Japanese is still in the top 10 demanded languages and fewer and fewer people are studying it, compared to more and more opting for Mandarin. So although Japanese may not be in demand, there are fewer people graduating with it. Plus, there's a helluva lot of chinese students that study abroad/learn English, compared to fewer Japanese students who do so.
I would also say that Chinese is harder. I study French, German and Japanese at Newcastle Uni and from what the chinese students have said, Chinese seems more challenging. But then, I'd never be able to handle the tones.
As for any chance of learning one helping the other.... I'd say forget that. They are incredibly different languages. The person who commented that their chinese friend understands japanese no problem - that's really impressive. The chinese students I lived with in Japan had to study massively to be able to have conversations, although they could read things easily of course.
But even there, japanese kanji is different to Chinese. Mainland China uses simplified chinese, Japanese uses traditional. And some of the japanese characters have been simplified slightly differently to the traditional chinese characters used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. So if you learn Chinese, you might be able to read some things you see in Japanese but you're going to struggle. In the same way that when I went to China I could only read the absolute basics and couldn't communicate at all
I would also say that Chinese is harder. I study French, German and Japanese at Newcastle Uni and from what the chinese students have said, Chinese seems more challenging. But then, I'd never be able to handle the tones.
As for any chance of learning one helping the other.... I'd say forget that. They are incredibly different languages. The person who commented that their chinese friend understands japanese no problem - that's really impressive. The chinese students I lived with in Japan had to study massively to be able to have conversations, although they could read things easily of course.
But even there, japanese kanji is different to Chinese. Mainland China uses simplified chinese, Japanese uses traditional. And some of the japanese characters have been simplified slightly differently to the traditional chinese characters used in Hong Kong and Taiwan. So if you learn Chinese, you might be able to read some things you see in Japanese but you're going to struggle. In the same way that when I went to China I could only read the absolute basics and couldn't communicate at all
This is a fantastic comment. It has my recommendation.
Original post by JamesJones777
I am studying French and German As-Level (with other subjects of course) and Russian GCSE. I know that I want to study languages at University but don't know what combination to do.
I have recently fallen in love with Asiatic languages and I know I want to study one.
But Chinese or Japanese...?
The chosen language would be joint honours with French except for Leeds if I apply which will be Chinese or Japanese and Russian. (5 years)
Which language is more useful.
I was initially interested in Japanese and I still love it but there is something about Chinese that really makes me want to study it also.
Any advice?
I have recently fallen in love with Asiatic languages and I know I want to study one.
But Chinese or Japanese...?
The chosen language would be joint honours with French except for Leeds if I apply which will be Chinese or Japanese and Russian. (5 years)
Which language is more useful.
I was initially interested in Japanese and I still love it but there is something about Chinese that really makes me want to study it also.
Any advice?
I study Japanese at the moment and I'm absolutely loving it. I actually study it alongside French and Spanish and one thing I would wholly recommend is: choose your language/s depending on how interested you are in the culture/language/literature etc. I'm in second year of university and it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to motivate myself with Spanish and French because I just love Japanese so much.
Therefore, decide on either Japanese or Chinese Mandarin depending on your interests. Languages are no easy feat.
Prospects-wise, I think that there are plenty with both of them. Don't think about that yet; at your age, I wanted to be a journalist or someone who works at the UN; but, now, I couldn't imagine doing either of those things - I want to work in Japan (possibly teaching). Things change a lot, so for now, go with what you like.
Just to reiterate what someone else said, Chinese Mandarin and Japanese are in no way similar spoken-wise. There is no way a speaker of either language with no experience in the other would be able to understand. Unless, we're talking about simple things like 1, 2 and 3 which are vaguely close.
Written-wise, they're slightly close. And, that's an extremely minuscule slight.From someone who has more experience, this is my advice to you: study what you're interested in.
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by Катя
OP, only study Chinese if you are genuinely interested. Realistically you won't ever reach a native-level Chinese fluency, and most people in China can speak English pretty well anyway.
Same applies for Russian and Japanese fyi.
i.e. study Chinese/Japanese/Russian if you genuinely love the languages, not for "employment prospects", because your Chinese/Russian/Japanese won't be that great at the end of the day anyway, but slightly awkward and clunky.
Same applies for Russian and Japanese fyi.
i.e. study Chinese/Japanese/Russian if you genuinely love the languages, not for "employment prospects", because your Chinese/Russian/Japanese won't be that great at the end of the day anyway, but slightly awkward and clunky.
You can definitely get away with having an intermediate/low advanced level in any of these languages for pretty much any type of job, even if you plan on working in the country. Whatever your level, languages are considered an asset by many employers in a large variety of fields. Of course not everyone has a near-native level in their target language, because it's not always necessary (and most of the time, employers aren't looking for that, they just want a decent level, they're looking for fluency, not mastery).
I studied Chinese at university and have also been studying Japanese as a hobby for a few years now, so I hope I can help you out a bit, if only in terms of a 'think about your future!' motherly kind of way.
Bit o' background: Chinese is by far the most difficult thing I've ever done, and it's very true that you will probably never reach a native level, or even a very high level of fluency, without some sort of obsession. Even with a lot of dedication, living in China for 1 1/2 years, and reaching highest level of the HSK (that's the proficiency test), I'm still not satisfied with my level and I know it's not as good as those friends who studied European languages at university. Japanese on the other hand is an obsession of mine. Like most people who are into Japan, I was a big fan of anime from youth and wanted to pursue at degree level, but was disuaded. I would just like to defend a comment quickly and say that no, Chinese and Japanese are not mutually intelligible, but having a high level of Chinese proficiency in terms of reading is helping my Japanese progress much quicker. That's where the similarities end.
I've done a lot of searching for a job that will use and abuse my languages skills and knowledge in the way that I would like. Very few exist. In terms of future career, it depends on two things: 1. Are you planning on living in said country for extended periods or, 2. Are you willing to have a language on your CV wit the sole function of making you look good.
In the foreseeable future, having 'excellent' Mandarin skills isn't going to do you much good, as most businesses on the Mainland have Chinese people who speak excellent English, and I mean really excellent. The way Chinese is taught in the West, we're never going to be as good at languages as they are. Fact. English is just much more accessible to them than Chinese is to us. Of course, roles do exist where 'mother-tongue English/fluency in Mandarin' are requisites, but they more often than not senior level positions require other qualifications in e.g. economics or finance, and require a lot of experience too.
There's a much higher demand for Japanese at a business level, especially if you want to live and work in Japan, but again there other exp points need. In general however, businesses are just starting to realise that China isn't really that easy to break into and many big firms (esp law firms) are starting to close down offices out there and retreat do to the lack of grounding/business. Japan welcomes foreign influence heavily, and one could predict a future comeback from the former giant very easily. Plus you can probably dip in and out of Japan much more easily (don't quote me there, I don't know much about doing business in Japan), but if you want to do well in China, you have to make a pretty solid commitment to staying out there.
Basically, there are few if any graduate jobs that actually allow you to use your Asian language skills - not even teaching abroad. My advice based on successful people from university - do a joint degree. You get as much language in, get to do the year abroad, and can still say you have all the 'knowledge'. That way, instead of settling for a crappy teaching job so you can 'further your skills', you can actually get a job in e.g. finance, business, law and will be top of the list when they want to send someone out to the far east. Even better, get experience writing for your student newspaper/journal - we could use some journalists who actually know a thing or two about China and aren't just copy and pasting from the China Daily.
I reckon in a few years some of this advice may be redundant and there'll be loads of opportunities specifically for Asian language grads outside of translation work, but right now there's just no market for it in the UK. If you want to live abroad that's fine, but you don't even really need Chinese...most of the UK businesspeople I met in China had a translator follow them around everywhere, and had mainly Chinese employees, again with impeccable English, and certainly very few of them had studied Chinese are university! I don't see a lot of change coming our way. (Check out the British Chamber of Commerce)
Also don't do Russian - everyone I know who did it is regretting it and people are now seeing that it probably shouldn't have been included in the BRICs in the first place (http://www.newstatesman.com/2014/01/after-brics-mints-austerity-britain-and-big-c)
Whew, sorry for the bombardment - I know you haven't even got to uni yet, let alone started thinking about careers! Hope it helps in some way, if not just ignore this old grad-codger and pursue your dreams!
Bit o' background: Chinese is by far the most difficult thing I've ever done, and it's very true that you will probably never reach a native level, or even a very high level of fluency, without some sort of obsession. Even with a lot of dedication, living in China for 1 1/2 years, and reaching highest level of the HSK (that's the proficiency test), I'm still not satisfied with my level and I know it's not as good as those friends who studied European languages at university. Japanese on the other hand is an obsession of mine. Like most people who are into Japan, I was a big fan of anime from youth and wanted to pursue at degree level, but was disuaded. I would just like to defend a comment quickly and say that no, Chinese and Japanese are not mutually intelligible, but having a high level of Chinese proficiency in terms of reading is helping my Japanese progress much quicker. That's where the similarities end.
I've done a lot of searching for a job that will use and abuse my languages skills and knowledge in the way that I would like. Very few exist. In terms of future career, it depends on two things: 1. Are you planning on living in said country for extended periods or, 2. Are you willing to have a language on your CV wit the sole function of making you look good.
In the foreseeable future, having 'excellent' Mandarin skills isn't going to do you much good, as most businesses on the Mainland have Chinese people who speak excellent English, and I mean really excellent. The way Chinese is taught in the West, we're never going to be as good at languages as they are. Fact. English is just much more accessible to them than Chinese is to us. Of course, roles do exist where 'mother-tongue English/fluency in Mandarin' are requisites, but they more often than not senior level positions require other qualifications in e.g. economics or finance, and require a lot of experience too.
There's a much higher demand for Japanese at a business level, especially if you want to live and work in Japan, but again there other exp points need. In general however, businesses are just starting to realise that China isn't really that easy to break into and many big firms (esp law firms) are starting to close down offices out there and retreat do to the lack of grounding/business. Japan welcomes foreign influence heavily, and one could predict a future comeback from the former giant very easily. Plus you can probably dip in and out of Japan much more easily (don't quote me there, I don't know much about doing business in Japan), but if you want to do well in China, you have to make a pretty solid commitment to staying out there.
Basically, there are few if any graduate jobs that actually allow you to use your Asian language skills - not even teaching abroad. My advice based on successful people from university - do a joint degree. You get as much language in, get to do the year abroad, and can still say you have all the 'knowledge'. That way, instead of settling for a crappy teaching job so you can 'further your skills', you can actually get a job in e.g. finance, business, law and will be top of the list when they want to send someone out to the far east. Even better, get experience writing for your student newspaper/journal - we could use some journalists who actually know a thing or two about China and aren't just copy and pasting from the China Daily.
I reckon in a few years some of this advice may be redundant and there'll be loads of opportunities specifically for Asian language grads outside of translation work, but right now there's just no market for it in the UK. If you want to live abroad that's fine, but you don't even really need Chinese...most of the UK businesspeople I met in China had a translator follow them around everywhere, and had mainly Chinese employees, again with impeccable English, and certainly very few of them had studied Chinese are university! I don't see a lot of change coming our way. (Check out the British Chamber of Commerce)
Also don't do Russian - everyone I know who did it is regretting it and people are now seeing that it probably shouldn't have been included in the BRICs in the first place (http://www.newstatesman.com/2014/01/after-brics-mints-austerity-britain-and-big-c)
Whew, sorry for the bombardment - I know you haven't even got to uni yet, let alone started thinking about careers! Hope it helps in some way, if not just ignore this old grad-codger and pursue your dreams!
Original post by Zelda91
x
Thank you for writing this! I found it very useful.
Just to add about the Russia/BRIC thing: that's not to say that Russian is a useless language
but it is very hard to pick up if you've grown up with English and English alone.Original post by JamesJones777
I am studying French and German As-Level (with other subjects of course) and Russian GCSE. I know that I want to study languages at University but don't know what combination to do.
I have recently fallen in love with Asiatic languages and I know I want to study one.
But Chinese or Japanese...?
The chosen language would be joint honours with French except for Leeds if I apply which will be Chinese or Japanese and Russian. (5 years)
Which language is more useful.
I was initially interested in Japanese and I still love it but there is something about Chinese that really makes me want to study it also.
Any advice?
I have recently fallen in love with Asiatic languages and I know I want to study one.
But Chinese or Japanese...?
The chosen language would be joint honours with French except for Leeds if I apply which will be Chinese or Japanese and Russian. (5 years)
Which language is more useful.
I was initially interested in Japanese and I still love it but there is something about Chinese that really makes me want to study it also.
Any advice?
I would definitely study Chinese; there's a much higher percentage of population in the world who speak Chinese than Japanese, so it is most likely more useful - I'm curious though, if you did study Chinese, would you learn simplified Chinese or traditional Chinese? I'd go for traditional Chinese - if you learn traditional Chinese, you will be able to understand simplified Chinese as well, but if you learn simplified Chinese, it's highly unlikely for you to understand traditional Chinese - and I know this from personal experience
Original post by Samual
Either your family friend studied Japanese for a long time or they're lying. Chinese and Japanese are completely different languages, there's no way you could understand one just by knowing the other. I don't even think they're related to each other, English probably has more in common with Persian than Chinese has with Japanese.
Chinese is not more useful. It has more speakers, but they're all in one country - unless you're living and working in China then the number of speakers is irreverent. Chinese may be an official UN language but the only working languages of the UN are French and English.
Chinese is not more useful. It has more speakers, but they're all in one country - unless you're living and working in China then the number of speakers is irreverent. Chinese may be an official UN language but the only working languages of the UN are French and English.
Did you know that Japanese was derived from Chinese? Which means that they are, in fact, related to each other - and while I completely agree that spoken Chinese and Japanese are different, there is no doubt that (and I did Internet research to confirm what I knew already) the writing system used by the Japanese originated from Chinese, hence the reason why Chinese characters can be seen in Japanese as well
Also, I'd like to point out that Chinese is not spoken 'all in one country' - Chinese is spoken in Taiwan, which is an individual country that is not part of China. The spoken Chinese in both countries is mostly the same but as for the written language - China uses simplified Chinese while Taiwan uses traditional Chinese
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by happysmile
Did you know that Japanese was derived from Chinese? Which means that they are, in fact, related to each other - and while I completely agree that spoken Chinese and Japanese are different, there is no doubt that (and I did Internet research to confirm what I knew already) the writing system used by the Japanese originated from Chinese, hence the reason why Chinese characters can be seen in Japanese as well
Prove it. I don't think there is any basis for that statement. The writing system is irreverent, Swahili uses the Latin alphabet but it isn't related to any European language.
As a language student myself, nobody can make this choice for you and you have to pick whichever language you are motivated to study. You will be expected to do a lot of reading and supplementary work in your own time and if you aren't interested in the language a lot, you'll really struggle to keep up with demand past first year.
So because Romance languages use the same alphabet and are derived from each other, someone who speaks Spanish can understand/read French perfectly? I don't think so. Sure there will be similarities and common vocab, but they are entirely different languages for a reason.
Also, you do realise that "Chinese" can refer to more than one language, and that these themselves are not mutually intelligible?
Original post by happysmile
Did you know that Japanese was derived from Chinese? Which means that they are, in fact, related to each other - and while I completely agree that spoken Chinese and Japanese are different, there is no doubt that (and I did Internet research to confirm what I knew already) the writing system used by the Japanese originated from Chinese, hence the reason why Chinese characters can be seen in Japanese as well
So because Romance languages use the same alphabet and are derived from each other, someone who speaks Spanish can understand/read French perfectly? I don't think so. Sure there will be similarities and common vocab, but they are entirely different languages for a reason.
Also, you do realise that "Chinese" can refer to more than one language, and that these themselves are not mutually intelligible?
(edited 10 years ago)
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