Hey guy's, my son starts High School next year, for the first time Mandrin will be available, he is not sure which one would be better. what do you think?

Depends on what he could use more in the future.

A mandrin is used as a stylet for a catheter. Hope the son won't need it.

My answer is always French, since I love the language and literature, but Mandarin would be close behind on my list of languages I'd choose to study.

I suppose one point to consider is that he's more likely to achieve a useful level of fluency in French than in Mandarin.

French, no brainer.

I assume your son speaks English so French, although not easy to learn and eventually to master, will probably be less frustrating than Chinese for him to get the hang of it. The french culture, like the country, is fanfastic. Learning French will allow him to have access to la francophonie; 29 countries have French as their official language. Vive la jolie France.
Rock and Roll,
Mops

I'd say go for Mandarin. I reckon anyone who's fluent in it will never lack employment for the foreseeable future. It has a much greater cool factor as well, which might sell it to him. Everybody learns French....

You might have to scrape me off the floor at the end of the tour, but it'll be really good scrapings. - Mick Jagger

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Han
I'd say go for Mandarin. I reckon anyone who's fluent in it will never lack employment for the foreseeable future. It has a much greater cool factor as well, which might sell it to him. Everybody learns French....

Agree ... go for Mandarin.

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Han
I'd say go for Mandarin. I reckon anyone who's fluent in it will never lack employment for the foreseeable future. It has a much greater cool factor as well, which might sell it to him. Everybody learns French....

How feasible is it for a kid(english spoken) starting Highschool to learn Chinese? I am not knocking down the Mandarin language(I love everybody) but I have been working in a cafeteria for 3 years now with five chinese ladies, they speak chinese among themselves. I haven't picked up one word.It's extremely hard for european to pick up an asian language especially if you aren't immerse into the culture. To think that a kid starting Mandarin in high school will be able to speak it or understand it maybe unrealistic, I believe.
Rock and roll,
Mops

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rollmops
I have been working in a cafeteria for 3 years now

Piccadilly ? I love Piccadilly Cafeterias !

Especially the ones that play Muzak versions of Stones tunes in the dining room !

Q:
What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
A:
Bilingual.

Q:
What do you call someone who can speak three languages?
A:
Trilingual.

Q:
What do you call someone who speaks one language?
A:
American.




(Rim-Shot)

I'd say French. I've been learning since last year this time, and it's been great fun. Mandarin would probably be fun too (no idea), but I've always loved the French culture.

You got the Sun, You got the Moon,
and you've got
The Rolling Stones

It's nice to hear those good things about french and french culture,
merci les amis !

It's reasonable to think that in the near future Chinese people who'll do business with foreigners will all speak English. So you might opt for French which is totally different from English in its structure so that might be a great mind opener intellecually speaking (wow, long sentence)

Plus since Spanish and Italian are quite close to the French language, learning bits of these two will be easier after your son has some decent French in his sleeve.

Just saying...

Just another point which might help: remember that French is spreading rapidly in Africa as African populations rise, education improves and more people come to cities and need a language in common. It's estimated that there were 79 million African francophones in 1997 and to 115 million in 2006.

I wouldn't want to emphasise that too much since I think it's important that languages with few speakers are learnt but it's something to consider.

look at the world now - who needs french? mandarin or spanish will be much, much better for his future. don't get me wrong, I learned french too, but if it's a decision on what might be useful for him in the future, I'd go for mandarin (or spanish).

French will be an easier language to learn, and it's an intro to the whole family of Latin languages, making it easier to get a handle on Spanish, Portuguese, Italian etc. later on. Great for culture and literature, and yes, most of Africa that doesn't speak English or Arabic speaks French.

Mandarin is much more of an "alien" language. He'll have to get his head round the whole business of inflection, where it isn't just what word you say and how you pronounce it, but whether you say it in an upwards-inflected or downwards-inflected tone (think of the difference between saying "You do!" and "You do?" - and then consider that in Mandarin that difference in tone can mean that the words themselves have completely different meanings... aaaagh!). Much more difficult for an English-speaking person. On the other hand, probably a skill that will be very valuable in the future if he turns out to be any good at it.

So I guess it depends whether he wants his second language as a cultural thing or a marketable skill.

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Lorenz
look at the world now - who needs french? mandarin or spanish will be much, much better for his future. don't get me wrong, I learned french too, but if it's a decision on what might be useful for him in the future, I'd go for mandarin (or spanish).

I don't see that. As I say, French is very important in Africa (and although China and India are getting the headlines for now, African economies are growing rapidly). There's also a fair chance that it will be the EU's most spoken first language by halfway through this century (given the high birthrate amongst French speakers).

(Also, although my interest in languages is more on the cultural side of things, to learn a language spoken by a relatively small number of people could make good business sense eg. someone speaking Estonian or Lao as a second language could find that very useful. Although the area in which it could be used would be much smaller than for French or Spanish, you'd be competing with very few second language speakers).

I studied French, and love Paris. However, it has really become a less relevant language from a commercial standpoint. The only exceptions would be if your child ends up in Africa, France or parts of the Caribbean.

Spanish and Mandarin are the two languages of the future, in the global economy (besides English.....and no offense intended to French, German, Russian, Italian or other speakers).

Good luck to you son. Hopefully his school will allow him to take more than one language as he progresses. I convinced my daughter to take Spanish along with French (which she loved) and she is excelling in both, and loving both.

I know both langauges fairly well, and have lived in France and China. Both places/languages/cultures/literary traditions are fascinating. My advice to your son would be to explore France and China a bit (either through the Internet, films, books, or by going there) before making his choice. Trust the old gut feeling.

Money-wise I don't know. Westerners worry that everyone will speak Mandarin in fifty years, and the Chinese worry about English taking over. Anyhow, some knowledge of Chinese may prevent mistakes such as this:

[cs.finescale.com]

Good luck to your son!

Mandarin without a doubt. Apart from all the other reasons - the main one being the decline of French as a global lsngusge - French is much more likely than a non-Romance language to be easier for the average native English speaker to learn at any later stage of life. The younger a person is when learning a totally different language, the better.

I am surprised -on a good way -of how so many people are attracted to French language
andFrench culture ,poetry ,fashion,and food

Vincent, IMO the question should be "What is an useful language " ?
"Which language will be a useful and profitable language to learn ,considering your son's professional plans in a close future ?

I had myself this concern for my daughter.
Of course,the 1st foreign language she learns is English.
Buut still our French -traditional- schools give the choicefor a 2d language between Spanish,Italian or German .


I've been told many times that Chinese, not Spanish, is language of future.


Is Mandarin a useful language to learn right now ?

Chinese is a hard language to learn imo,mainly because the "alphabet" is different .

As a Frenchwoman, I learnt English & Spanish at school .I came very close to two other foreign languages that hadn't the same alphabet and it's a hard work,because in this case, you can talk fluently but you never will be able to "read" it easily .



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

Chinese will never be the second (or third or fourth etc) language of the world, unless the Chinese will literally conquer the whole world, not economically but military, and will put the rest of the world under their imperial control. That's very unlikely ever to be happening. There's only ONE world language: English.

So it's nice and interesting to know more languages, but it's absolutely not necessary from an economical point of view. So the Americans are lucky. They don't need to learn any foreign language.

Btw: French is a Romance language, English a mixed language (half German, half Romance). So it's not difficult for someone who masters English to learn French and vice versa. Both languages have many words from the same origin (Latin). The structure of both languages doesn't differ fundamentally.

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kleermaker
Chinese will never be the second (or third or fourth etc) language of the world, unless the Chinese will literally conquer the whole world, not economically but military, and will put the rest of the world under their imperial control. That's very unlikely ever to be happening. There's only ONE world language: English.

So it's nice and interesting to know more languages, but it's absolutely not necessary from an economical point of view. So the Americans are lucky. They don't need to learn any foreign language.

Btw: French is a Romance language, English a mixed language (half German, half Romance). So it's not difficult for someone who masters English to learn French and vice versa. Both languages have many words from the same origin (Latin). The structure of both languages doesn't differ fundamentally.

Agreed,every idiot can read and write English,with the exception of me.

<< So the Americans are lucky. They don't need to learn any foreign language.>>

Ahem - Americans is far from being the only people on this planet with English as a first language!

But I disagree - it's the height of arrogance (and also bad for anyone doing business with non-English speakers) to assume that just because your language is English you don't need to learn any other language. Those are the kind of people who think that as long as they speak loud enough, they'll be understood by anyone. It's a cliche but true.

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kleermaker
Chinese will never be the second (or third or fourth etc) language of the world, unless the Chinese will literally conquer the whole world, not economically but military, and will put the rest of the world under their imperial control. That's very unlikely ever to be happening. There's only ONE world language: English.

.

lol...kleermaker ,you are so funny .
China is very close to conquer-economically talking- the whole world .
There is no need for weapons & military control for that.

But you are absolutely right ,the supremacy of language is nothing compared to a more obvious threat .

On the Importance of Knowing French ...I am kidding, don't take it seriously ,although it can be an useful link

[french.about.com]

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SwayStones
China is very close to conquer-economically talking- the whole world .

I'm not so sure about this.

It's my understanding that the vast majority of the population still lives in poverty.
I suppose I could be wrong about this.

I do believe that if China is allowed to keep exporting way more than they are importing, then eventually we could see China as "conquering" economic power.

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SwayStones

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kleermaker
Chinese will never be the second (or third or fourth etc) language of the world, unless the Chinese will literally conquer the whole world, not economically but military, and will put the rest of the world under their imperial control. That's very unlikely ever to be happening. There's only ONE world language: English.

.

lol...kleermaker ,you are so funny .
China is very close to conquer-economically talking- the whole world .
There is no need for weapons & military control for that.

But you are absolutely right ,the supremacy of language is nothing compared to a more obvious threat .

Don't worry Mme. SwayStones. The capitalist elites of the VS and China have already divided the loot peacefully. They'll support each other as much as possible and actually already are doing so.

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-01-24 12:31 by Amsterdamned.