<p>… I’m continuing with French, but I want to take up another one at my CC
-Also, I live in CA so Spanish would be beneficial, but I hate it
They offer:
-Arabic
-Cantonese
-Farsi
-Greek
-Japanese
-Korean
-Mandarin
-Punjabi
-Russian
-Tagalog
-Vietnamese</p>
<p>Which would be most interesting/practical, in your opinion?</p>
<p>Mandarin. (10char)</p>
<p>Most practical beneficial= Spanish or Korean
Most interesting= Punjabi</p>
<p>Mandarin has the greatest number of speakers, however I heard different dialects and pronunciation make it difficult to learn.</p>
<p>Spanish is number two. It is very beneficial now a days. Plus elementary Spanish is pretty much all vocabulary and basic grammar.</p>
<p>there isnt many dialect… coz mandrin is the official Chinese…</p>
<p>I guess it’s the pronunciations then.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t listen to this person ^iceosmunda, there are 8 very noticeable major different dialects of Mandarin, and they become more distinguished the further you get from Beijing.</p>
<p>However, this isn’t something that should keep somebody from learning the language. That’s like not learning Spanish because people in Spain pronounce certain words and use certain words differently than those in Mexico.</p>
<p>If you’re planning on spending a few years in China or Taiwan then I would absolutely learn Mandarin. However, if you will only be studying it for a few years in college then you’ll be largely wasting your time with any Asian language (Arabic, Cantonese, Farsi, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Vietnamese, etc.), and you will be much better off learning a Western language that will be easier to pick up.</p>
<p>You should pick a language that is attached to the culture that you’re most interested in, as truly learning any language goes far beyond simple grammar lessons in a classroom.</p>
<p>trust me… i know chinese coz i am… chinese language has many dialects like mandarin contonese, minnan and so on… that’s true. but we have only one mandarin as our official language. different reigions have different accents bt we can all understand each other. if you want to learn mandarin, you will learn the right one and you will be able to understand what we say. and 99.9999% of chinese can understand what you say, coz it is the official language in china and what we get taught in school.
virtuscience said there are 8 very noticable major different dialects of mandarin… that is wrong or right coz just as what i said, different region has different accent, like if you talk to new yorkers they will find that you come from west coast… same situation.</p>
<p>Be brave, take Mandarin.</p>
<p>It’s a shame you hate spanish, because that is by far the most practical language you could learn living in California.</p>
<p>What is your intended major?</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies! I’m planning on majoring in Biochemistry and going to med school. I’m in my fifth year of French because I love the language and culture, but I just wanted to pick up another one for fun, but also perhaps a useful one.</p>
<p>California med schools really like seeing Spanish proficiency, but if you’re not planning on staying in California or the southwest U.S. I don’t think it’s as important.</p>
<p>^iceosmunda, I understand what you’re saying, but I think you misunderstand the word “dialect.”</p>
<p>Dialects include all of the accents, pronunciations, and slang of an area.</p>
<p>For example, the Sichuan province has a different Mandarin DIALECT than Beijing, though they could absolutely understand each other clearly. My example of a Mexican’s Spanish compared to a Spaniard’s Spanish is correct. A more extreme example would be comparing Spanish and Italian, as they are such different dialects that they have developed into two separate languages, though they share many similarities and are even able to communicate with each other in their respective native languages.</p>
<p>Finally, another example is that Scottish English is a different dialect than American English, or even London English.</p>
<p>Here is a webpage that lists 10+ dialects of Mandarin:</p>
<p>[Mandarin</a> Dialects](<a href=“Glossika”>Glossika)</p>
<p>Your example of New Yorker English to Californian English (these are literally the names) is absolutely correct, however you must note that these are different DIALECTS of English, as they include much more than just different accents.</p>
<p>To the OP: back to your topic, if you’re looking for something for fun then I would steer towards Greek or Russian, depending on which culture you liked more as well as which nation you expect to actually spend time in. Personally I think both are incredible (and share many qualities because of their close proximity), so you can’t really go wrong.</p>
<p>haha, you r rite, i got misunderstanding… the reason why i said there is only one mandarin is that i am a chinese. so as a native speaker, i am easy to ignore that our topic is choosing a third language for a foreigner instead for myself. the web you posted is interesting, and i hv to confess that some of dialects of these regions even i couldnt understand… how sad…bt my points is in the US we have a official chinese teaching method which just focus on the purest mandarin. therefore, i think if one learn chinese in the US, he or she will understand when chinese people talk to him or her.
thank you for your post, u let me relearn the word dialect… hv a nice day</p>