Choices, choices, choices...

Muerto_1991

Slight problem :confused:

i've applied to Salford University to read Spanish along with some Translation and Interpretation Studies... problem is which language should i do as well as Spanish?
Options are Mandarin Chinese, German, Arabic, Italian or Portuguese...
thank you for helping me decide ! :biggrin:

Reply 1

menagerie

12

Arabic, it's awesome. I started learning it but stopped for some unknown reason. I can just about read simple Arabic, and can understand a tiny tiny bit, but I want to learn more.

Arabic.

Would do arabic personally...

Reply 4

Fandellos

13

well spanish would help if you chose italian or portuguese...

Reply 5

Mrs.X

Mandarin/Arabic because if you know Spanish you'll be able to get the jist of other European languages anyway. Though I would side more towards Mandarin because they'll be the next superpower and everything :smile:

arabic

Muerto_1991

Slight problem :confused:

i've applied to Salford University to read Spanish along with some Translation and Interpretation Studies... problem is which language should i do as well as Spanish?
Options are Mandarin Chinese, German, Arabic, Italian or Portuguese...
thank you for helping me decide ! :biggrin:

If it's any help, I'm doing spanish russian and italian this year and I can tell you now, I find it difficult not to mix up spanish and italian - this has made READING italian easier, but trying not to mix them up is so hard :s-smilie:

Go for something unusual :wink:

Spanish and portuguese SOUND completely different, but I've heard that they're similarly written.

Chinese is going up in the world, so I'd probably choose that, apart from italian, but arabic is also widely spoken..hmm hard decision. I'm sure you'll be pleased with whichever you pick :smile:

Try having a look at how they're written through searching something you like on wikipedia, and putting it into a language (language selection on the left hand side of the page) - that's how I see if I can read catalan/portuguese

Good luck with the rest of your ucas anguish :smile:

Reply 8

bass_belle

11

I woul recommend arabic as alot of people in this country speak it and would set you in good stead for a job

Reply 9

kiss_me_now9

16

German (I'm somewhat biased though)

One thing I would say - Having tried to take up Japanese, I'd steer clear of anything that isn't in the roman alphabet unless it's your main subject and you have a clear interest in it (i.e you're not just picking it because you think it sounds cool) - It's so much harder than it looks.

Reply 10

Anatheme

18

Muerto_1991

Slight problem :confused:

i've applied to Salford University to read Spanish along with some Translation and Interpretation Studies... problem is which language should i do as well as Spanish?
Options are Mandarin Chinese, German, Arabic, Italian or Portuguese...
thank you for helping me decide ! :biggrin:

Don't choose a language because it's useful but because you want to study it. As attractive are Mandarin and Arabic, they require an amazing lot of committment and it's not a good idea to start one if you think you can put a lot of efforts in it. As said before, it's quite difficult not to get Italian/Portuguese/Spanish mixed, but it's doable and if you pick Portuguese, you can cover South America but also Europe, which is a good point.

It also depends on where you wanna work. I do believe that if you want your Madarin or your Arabic to be good, then you have to spend some time there, because you won't speak these languages as well as you could speak Italian/Portuguese at the end of a four years degree. They're both very interesting, but I think you may be put off them more quickly than you would with Italian/Portuguese, because of the pronounciation or the grammar.

Reply 11

amani-puresapphire

16

arabic i did it good choice in my opinion like someone already said theres lots of arabic speakers

Reply 12

Wat:Shark:Where

2

I'm thinking Portuguese or Italian which go well with spanish, personally I would do Italian though because I like the country (and the food!)

Reply 13

kiwi-93

7

i'd recommend mandarin chinese. the joy of it is that it's a very different language from any of the typical european/romance languages. also the culture behind the language, as it relates back to a country with a fascinating and long long history as well being an incredibly big contender for economic superpower type in the coming years. people say it's an incredibly difficult language to learn, and it's by no means easy, but the language itself makes sense, and the grammar is very easy in its simplest form (gets a bit more complicated as you go on). it's a beautiful language and also very clever in that in combining character we make different words which can be interesting/strange, but i would definitely recommend it.

Reply 14

youshouldknowbedda

I agree that Mandarin is useful and desirable in many business-orientated situations but I do not agree with people who claim that "Mandarin will overtake English as the next major world language."

First of all, China is a communism state; this limits its potential for economic growth due to the strict rules and regulations on the exporting of its goods etc.

Secondly, for most foreigners Mandarin is one of the hardest languages to learn. If Mandarin was to take over English as the next major world language, businesses would have to invest billions into training their staff to speak Mandarin and this would simply not happen.

Finally, at present, there are more Chinese people learning English than there are English learning Mandarin.

All of the above has hardly any relevance to the original question haha but I thought I'd say it anyway. I'm sure a lot of people will be able to produce a counter-argument too!

With regards to the original question: have a listen to each language and get a general feel of how each language works. You'll work most effectively at the language you like most so don't choose Mandarin if you don't like it and are simply doing it for its employability; choose the language/culture you are most interested in!

As you are studying Spanish at the moment, some might say it'd be easier to learn another Romance language such as Italian or Portuguese; however, you may find that as the two languages are quite similar, studying them at the same time will cause you to get confused between the two and, therefore, it would not be advised; German, Mandarin and Arabic are, in contrast, very different which would make it easier to keep your two languages separate.

I hope that helped a little!

Reply 15

Muerto_1991

OP

kiss_me_now9

German (I'm somewhat biased though)

One thing I would say - Having tried to take up Japanese, I'd steer clear of anything that isn't in the roman alphabet unless it's your main subject and you have a clear interest in it (i.e you're not just picking it because you think it sounds cool) - It's so much harder than it looks.

Japanese has two syllable alphabets as well as the Kanji yeh?

I'm actually a Visual learner so memorising the Mandarin Characters is easy for me :smile:

I think it's a much better system in some ways than our Roman Alphabet. The problem about Mandarin is the whole tonal range... which is why some places ask that you have some kind of musical gift :frown:

Reply 16

Muerto_1991

OP

Btw I just want to shout out a big THANK YOU to everyone here ! I seriously value your support !

Reply 17

kiss_me_now9

16

Muerto_1991

Japanese has two syllable alphabets as well as the Kanji yeh?

I'm actually a Visual learner so memorising the Mandarin Characters is easy for me :smile:

I think it's a much better system in some ways than our Roman Alphabet. The problem about Mandarin is the whole tonal range... which is why some places ask that you have some kind of musical gift :frown:

You've got Hirigana (the simplist), Katakana (used in names and borrowed words) and Kanji (basically, Chinese symbols). I'm a visual learner too but it is so much harder than it looks, I found it particularly hard because I had nothing to match the symbols to - Yes I had the sounds that they make but I didn't have any words to go with it. Wheras when learning a Roman script language I can tell that a = a, which might change it's sound in a word, but ape = Affe (German) is much easier to remember than a = *symbol* / apple = *japanese symbol/word for apple*

If that makes sense :p:

Reply 18

Anatheme

18

kiss_me_now9

You've got Hirigana (the simplist), Katakana (used in names and borrowed words) and Kanji (basically, Chinese symbols). I'm a visual learner too but it is so much harder than it looks, I found it particularly hard because I had nothing to match the symbols to - Yes I had the sounds that they make but I didn't have any words to go with it. Wheras when learning a Roman script language I can tell that a = a, which might change it's sound in a word, but ape = Affe (German) is much easier to remember than a = *symbol* / apple = *japanese symbol/word for apple*

If that makes sense :p:

Don't you like remember the shape of a sign better than it's meaning/sound?

Reply 19

kiss_me_now9

16

Anatheme

Don't you like remember the shape of a sign better than it's meaning/sound?

Not really, no. I have to have something to associate it with - which then lends itself to the problem that I don't know any Japanese words to associate it with. My mind is a confusing place :p:

Choices, choices, choices...

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