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redbull13

Hello,
I'm currently attending school at IU and majoring in Economics. I need to take a lanaguage for my major, and I was wondering what you guys think would be good, assuming that plan to trade at a major Wall Street firm. I'm thinking either Japanese or Chinese right now. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Jimmy
 
Japan is heart of financial market in asia, with next hongkong, Singapore, S.Korea, Taiwan...

I have lived in asia long enough, I have been to most asian countries and i do speak Thai (I learned it for sake of lifestyle change, not financial market). Thai and chinese very similar in tones, vowels,...

I recommend you to learn chinese, once you learn it, you will have no difficulty learning Cantonese (hongkong), mandarin(Taiwan).....Also spoken widely in Singapore, malaysia, ......So more chance to get hired in Asia.

Remember, Japanese is lot easier to learn than chinese, but chinese are everywhere all over asia and world, and widely spoken, meantime most japanese do speak english.
 
I'm fluent in Mandarin, which will likely be the dialect that you would take at most universities - it the lingua franca of the People's Republic.

Once you get used to it (I guess, like anything else) it is not that hard.

If you can get to a good conversational level I think it would be beneficial for you in terms of the job you mention. Generally, people are really impressed by an outsider who has a decent command of the language - this might help you land a large account or two.

However, consider the fact that to REALLY get it down, you'll probably want to live in the PRC or the ROC for a year, minimum.

Thus, I'm biased but naturally I'd recommend Chinese - huge country which is changing at a breakneck pace. Absolutely fascinating.

Good luck in your endeavors.

wtm
 
I dont mean to piggback your thread but I have been wanting to learn Chinese for a little while and am wondering how difficult it is to pick up? How long will it take to speak/and understand?

The only experience I have at learning a for. language is Spanish back in high school.
 
Quote from Urkel:

I dont mean to piggback your thread but I have been wanting to learn Chinese for a little while and am wondering how difficult it is to pick up? How long will it take to speak/and understand?

The only experience I have at learning a for. language is Spanish back in high school.
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Most FarEastern languages are totally different than the way western languages are tought, you can't learn simply by reading books, you have to mix and match, that's why "wutianming" said you gotta live in China a year to have good command of it.


Want to imagine how difficult is chinese, i will give you tonal example in Thai (chinese is also all tonal, but harder) We have five tons for every word:

-Middle tone
-Rising tone
-falling tone
-low tone
-high tone

There are also Wovels which makes you talk like a Gay

if you want to say:
"New wood burns, doesn't it?"

Mai Mai Mai Mai :D All with different tones
 
I appreciate the input from everyone. As one person said, living abroad is a great way to learn a language, and that is something I wouldn't mind doing. I've always wanted to visit someplace in Asia. So let's narrow it down to Japanese or Chinese. Which one and why?
 
Quote from TF13158:

I appreciate the input from everyone. As one person said, living abroad is a great way to learn a language, and that is something I wouldn't mind doing. I've always wanted to visit someplace in Asia. So let's narrow it down to Japanese or Chinese. Which one and why?
More...

I recommand you hongkong,

Pros
-More US financial firms than any chinese city
-Nice city, exotic enviroments, great food, beautiful girls
-Everyone speak english

Cons:
-Expensive place to leave
-People not as friendly as china
-Small Island

If you choose china, then you have to be in Shanghai
Most cosmopolitan city

Forget Japanese, you won't need it. Japanese don't realy
care if you can't speak their language
 
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