The Linguist On Language

After doing this for the first 1000 characters I stopped. From that point on, when I encountered new characters in my reading I would write them out a few times and carry on. I learned 4,000 characters in 8 months, wrote the exam, where we had to translate newspaper editorials in both directions, write a diplomatic note, and take dictation. My handwriting was not pretty, but I passed.

When I was studying Chinese (it was a ful time occupation), I mostly read and listened a lot. I did write some, but not as much as I listened and read. I have now forgotten how to write by hand. I can write on a computer.

What would I do today? I do not know. I am not sure I would bother to learn to write by hand. I can read and type on a computer in Russian, Japanese and Chinese, and even a little Korean, but cannot write any of them by hand. It is not a skil I use, and it is definitely a skil you lose if you do not use it, IMHO.

CHAPTER VIII: WHICH LANGUAGE?

Which language should I learn and how long will it take?

I am assuming that by now you are raring to go and want to learn a language. Let's look at which ones are popular and how much effort will be required.

Which language to learn?

I recently said in a blog post that I thought that most people should be able to learn three or four languages. Wel , which languages should we learn? Here are a few statistics. I have rounded up to make it simpler.

First of al 45% of the world's population speaks an Indo-European language. This covers many of the languages of India, Persian, and most European origin languages. 22% of the world speaks Sino-Tibetan languages. This category includes Chinese, Thai and Tibetan, but not Korean and Japanese. Korean and Japanese are heavily influenced by Chinese, and a majority of words in those languages are of Chinese origin.

The first consideration in choosing a language is interest. This interest can be cultural or a situation of necessity. However, another consideration is utility, and certainly these two groups wil give you access to the greatest number of people.

If we look at individual languages we find that Mandarin is the most widely spoken first language at 875 mil ion people. There are also 180 mil ion second-language speakers of Mandarin; most of these are Chinese native speakers of Chinese languages other than Mandarin. If you know Mandarin you wil have an easier time with other Chinese languages and even Japanese and Korean. So Chinese wil give you access to lots of speakers, mostly geographical y concentrated in East Asia. But this is an area rich in history and with a growing cultural and economic influence in the world.

Hindi comes next with 370 mil ion native speakers and 120 mil ion second-language speakers. If you add in speakers of related Indian languages you probably get closer to the Chinese numbers, although not quite since the Dravidian languages spoken in the South of India are not related. Hindi is next on my list. This is a major part of the cultural history of the world. I do not intend to miss it.

Certainly it would seem worthwhile to invest in learning a language fr om each of these groups, and then taking advantage of that position to learn a few more.

Next comes Spanish with 350 mil ion native speakers and 70 mil ion second language speakers. If you add in the closely related Latin-based languages of Portuguese, French, Italian and others, you easily bring the number of Latin language group speakers up to 750 mil ion. I would certainly include a Latin-based language in my repertory. Get started with one of these, probably Spanish and you wil find the others easy, if you need them or are so inclined.

English with 350 million native speakers and 500 million second-language speakers is the most widely distributed and most useful language today, but who knows what wil happen in the future. English vocabulary is heavily influenced by Latin-based languages; wel over 60% of its words are of that origin.

Russian is spoken by 200 mil ion native speakers and another 100 mil ion second language speakers. If you add in Ukrainian, Polish and other Slavic languages you probably get up to 400 mil ion speakers. So that is why I am studying Russian (and having a great time).

German has over 100 mil ion native speakers and 30 mil ion second-language speakers.

French (part of the Latin group) has 70 mil ion native speakers and 60 mil ion second-language speakers. German is more widely used in Europe, whereas France has spread to other continents. Both are important European languages with a lot of history and culture to support them as choices for learning.

Arabic with 205 native speakers and 20 mil ion second language speakers is obviously important and rich in history. I am told that the regional differences are great to the point where this group may not real y be considered one language. I do not know but hope to find out when I learn Arabic.