I’m starting uni in September and I have the opportunity to learn a modern Asian language - either Mandarin or Arabic. Which one would you say is more useful in finance/international relations? Thanks🙂
I’m starting uni in September and I have the opportunity to learn a modern Asian language - either Mandarin or Arabic. Which one would you say is more useful in finance/international relations? Thanks🙂
IR - both
finance - Mandarin.
they are both very hard languages to learn, with mandarin being much harder.
I guess it’s an option , as is heading to China I suppose. National security and diplomacy alphabet always interested me though. It’s hard to choose!
If you find it hard to choose, I guess asking 2nd year or 3rd year students would help. Best way I’ve found to contact ambassadors is through Facebook (for my course anyway).
If you find it hard to choose, I guess asking 2nd year or 3rd year students would help. Best way I’ve found to contact ambassadors is through Facebook (for my course anyway).
Yeah maybe that’s a good idea. I’m not sure which is harder but I’ve heard that Arabic has more similarities to European languages?
International relations at lse🙂 I’ve chosen to do the language specialism so my degree will be ‘IR with Mandarin/Arabic’
In that case, I might recommend Arabic. Most IR departments in the UK focus on the Middle East. So, it could be relevant to your primary subject.
It's completely up to you, though. I'd highly encourage you to do the language you're most interested in. It makes becoming fluent much, much easier. Either will be fantastic!
Yeah maybe that’s a good idea. I’m not sure which is harder but I’ve heard that Arabic has more similarities to European languages?
I personally found Arabic awfully hard but mandarin seems to be quite compatible for me.
Mandarin is quite interesting and most of the words are familiar to me I don’t know how - you know when you have the feeling that a certain word means something - like it just makes sense. Yeah I’m all in favour of learning mandarin lol
As for Arabic being similar, you might be right. I studied french and they are quite similar actually - the way you add a few letters at the end to change the tense, number or gender.
For me, the words in Arabic were too foreign and just didn’t stick like mandarin did. And addition to that, I did start watching Chinese movies and tv shows to help me improve - maybe that’s what made learning mandarin easier. For Arabic I didn’t do that oh well.
Another option to see which is harder might be to actually spend a few weeks in learning both the languages online. (I use Memrise). This way you’re familiar but also see which language you learn quicker/ which is easier to adapt to.
I personally found Arabic awfully hard but mandarin seems to be quite compatible for me.
Mandarin is quite interesting and most of the words are familiar to me I don’t know how - you know when you have the feeling that a certain word means something - like it just makes sense. Yeah I’m all in favour of learning mandarin lol
As for Arabic being similar, you might be right. I studied french and they are quite similar actually - the way you add a few letters at the end to change the tense, number or gender.
For me, the words in Arabic were too foreign and just didn’t stick like mandarin did. And addition to that, I did start watching Chinese movies and tv shows to help me improve - maybe that’s what made learning mandarin easier. For Arabic I didn’t do that oh well.
I can’t decide 😫. I’ve watched videos of both of them and I like how Arabic sounds but I can imagine mandarin having the better job opportunities