What language should I learn?

Question

I wanted to learn some sort of Asian language. I was thinking about Chinese, Japanese, or Korean because they are probably the most useful languages to learn. I would not be taking these languages in school because they are not taught where I live :( But I really wanted to learn one.
Please tell me which one(s) would be the most useful, the easiest to learn (in my situation), and which one(s) is the most enjoyable to learn. Thank you!

Answer 1

Of the languages you listed,



Most useful - Mandarin, as it's most popular (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers), most widespread (don't have citation but it's pretty obvious), the most users on the internet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_used_on_the_Internet#Internet_users_by_language), and probably rapidly growing in content language.



Easiest - I don't know what languages you speak besides English, but if you're a monolingual English speaker, then Mandarin is the easiest. The National Virtual Translation Center has thinks that out of all languages you listed, Japanese is the most difficult, while the Foreign Service Institute says Korean is the most difficult (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difficulty_of_learning_languages#Native_English_speakers).



Most enjoyable - that's up to you. What are you into? Chinese is good for studying history, philosophy, literature, poetry, politics, general linguistics, and is a good gateway through which you can study other East Asian languages. Japanese has a strong pop culture with anime, manga, video games, etc. Korean has also recently emerged with a strong media presence with the Korean wave. Read up on each language and culture on Wikipedia to get a grasp of what you might enjoy learning the most.

Answer 2

All three are difficult for native English speakers (see http://www.effectivelanguagelearning.com/language-guide/language-difficulty). Korean might be the easiest to learn in terms of writing system since it has a considerably logical writing system (and use less Chinese characters) while Japanese and Chinese use Chinese characters everywhere. However, Korean has many closed sounding vowels/consonants, making it quite vague when listening to, this is not the case with Chinese and Japanese. Mandarin is a tonal language, so pronunciation might be a bit harder at the beginning (but then again, it only has 4 tones, not so difficult for English speakers, while Vietnamese --my mother tongue-- has 6, we use Latin alphabet though. Anyway, Vietnamese has the easiest grammar that I have ever encountered elsewhere).

Answer 3

Mandarin Chinese

Answer 4

Well they're all good, but I would suggest Japanese and/ or Korean, I'm learning both, but Japanese is better to do first because it will make Korean easier. I wouldn't like Mandarin or Cantonese or any other Chinese language because it take so long to learn, that you would almost never use it! Seriously, there was a guy that learned it for 15 years, and he's still not "fluent" only advanced. Besides, with Chinese, they have a lot of local dialects within dialects o.O Here are some good resources for each language:



Japanese Resources:

http://123japanese.com/

http://www.maggiesensei.com/

http://www.japanesepod101.com/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071747869/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_g14_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0XE0QPAPRGTATK4MDWET&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846



Korean Resources:

http://www.amazon.com/Survival-Korean-study-written-Arirang/dp/B001RFOD96/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340319654&sr=1-1&keywords=survival+korean+stephen+revere

http://www.talktomeinkorean.com/

http://www.learnkoreanlanguage.com/

http://www.koreanclass101.com/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071737588/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_g14_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=10X8QWXYXY1Y6SBKE4YN&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846



and buy random dictionaries to learn general words for each language, i suggest Random House or Berlitz.

Answer 5

China is famous all over the world for its time-honored culture and natural scenery, with a history of over 5,000 years, so it's an ideal choice for you to learn Mandarin Chinese,because it's easy to learn and full of fun.

Answer 6

Japanese! Anime!

Answer 7

I would study Mandarin Chinese, because although it looks hard with all the strokes, but the grammar are not that difficult.

Answer 8

Polish or a Slavic language but you will never be able to master it just a heads up

Answer 9

Telugu

Answer 10

Chinese! They will be running our country in a decade or so! Better start now!

Answer 11

1

Answer 12

ASL !!! ITS FUN AND HELPS WITH DEAF :D .. AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE