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Mandarin vs Spanish, which should I learn???

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justin9213

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Mandarin vs Spanish, which should I learn???

I dunno which should I learn.

Spanish is a secound-language in USA,
Mandarin is most spoken in the world, because China is a big country.

Alot of people speak Spanish in the USA
Fewer people speak Mandarin in the USA

Spanish and chinese is more complex than English

Chinese is complex but uses a tonal language
Spanish is complex and dont ussa a tonal language


German used to be ammerica`s secound language , but something happened that they changed it to Spanish , so couldnt the same thing happen to Spanish?
 
Nobody changed America's second language to Spanish. It's that way because of the gigantic number of Spanish-speaking people in the United States right now. The United States has no official second or first language, and any language that holds one of those roles does so because of the number of people who speak it.

It's none of our business to tell you whether to study Chinese or Spanish. Plenty of people study Spanish and not Chinese, and vice versa. Spanish is probably easier to learn because it doesn't involve kanji, and because Chinese has tones, and several vowels and consonants that don't exist in English.
 
Whatever you do, please, pick one and stick to it. Also, try to secure a good understanding of the language before trying to teach it to any babies.
 
Study whatever langauge you want to study.
 
Ma Cherie said:
Study whatever langauge you want to study.
Click to expand...
Yeah, try to think what you would really most enjoy beyond the current trends. Or go to the library, check out the books on each and stick with whatever draws your interest the greatest. What is popular, most spoken where etc. aren't motivations anyway unless you plan to do something with it.
 
If you ask me, though, you should forget about both of those and learn Esperanto. It has very simple pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, and it will soon be spoken all over the world, so you'd only be helping yourself by getting a headstart.
Also, when you decide to teach it to an infant, it'll be that much easier for you.
 
justin9213 said:
Mandarin is most spoken in the world, because China is a big country.
Click to expand...
Mandarin is spoken by the most people, but the most widely spoken language is English not mandarin. I'd learn Spanish. Not only is it used within the US, it is also used throughout South and Central America, bar a few countries,, Brazil being one (Portugese). Spanish is also like English in respect that it evolves and will quite readily take foreign words and 'spanishify' them. Okay Spanishify is made up, but I think it fits
JimmySeal said:
If you ask me, though, you should forget about both of those and learn Esperanto. It has very simple pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, and it will soon be spoken all over the world, so you'd only be helping yourself by getting a headstart.
Click to expand...
That has been said for a great many years and doesn't actually hold much water.
 
You have to ask yourself, Why am I learning this language? I don't know if I would learn Mandarin on a lark, but if you are interested in international finance in the future, it's said to be a very good language to learn.

I'm learning Japanese because it helps me interact with Japanese people better, even in situations where we both share knowlege of English... in order to better understand the subcultures and writings... sometimes I feel that I may not put any of this knowledge to practical use, but learning a foreign language can be rewarding in and of itself.

Ask yourself, What language would I most enjoy learning? Right now it seems like you are standing before a dartboard full of languages and picking one at random.
 

Mandarin is becoming common currency, particularly in Asia where trade ties with the Middle Kingdom are supplanting those of the region's longtime primary partner, the U.S. Indeed, because English is spoken so universally, it no longer offers companies and employees the edge it once did,In many Asian countries, in Europe and the USA, Mandarin has emerged as the new must-have language.
 
It might be become a new must have language, but the language of international commerce is English. It is also the language used by air travel and maritime. About 90 to 95 % of net use is in English and more people in China than live in the US are learning English at any one time. There is not that kind of take up with Mandarin, especially when it is not spoken in regions within its own country of origin.
 
Just a couple of things. This might interest you on the worlds most influential languages. Notice Chinese, not mandarin is given as 6th, below English, French and Spanish.

Link
 
After weighing six factors (number of primary speakers, number of secondary speakers, number and population of countries where used, number of major fields using the language internationally, economic power of countries using the languages, and socio-literary prestige), Weber compiled the following list of the world's ten most influential languages:
(number of points given in parentheses)



1. English (37)
2. French (23)
3. Spanish (20)
4. Russian (16)
5. Arabic (14)
6. Chinese (13)
7. German (12)
8. Japanese (10)
9. Portuguese (10)
10. Hindi/Urdu (9)

Okey! I will learn Spanish.
 
What happened to learning what you enjoy?
 

I'm surprised French, Russian and Portuguese scored so high....certainly not for the economic power of countries who speak it which is what it seemed you were most interested in :?

Anyway, Spanish is probably the easiest second language for English speakers
and Chinese the most challenging so the choice depends far more on your own motivation and abilities than what everyone else is doing. :note:
 
justin9213 said:
Mandarin is becoming common currency, particularly in Asia where trade ties with the Middle Kingdom are supplanting those of the region's longtime primary partner...
Click to expand...
When you plagiarize material from places such as Time magazine, you should really cite your sources. I knew it sounded a bit too eloquent.
Elizabeth said:
Anyway, Spanish is probably the easiest second language for English speakers and Chinese the most challenging
Click to expand...
How d'you figure?
 
Last edited:
I supposed because it is very different from English.
 
Minty said:
I supposed because it is very different from English.
Click to expand...
For some people it may be Arabic or Finnish or Korean I suppose but that wasn't what this discussion was about....Japanese is all I'm sure should not be carelessly tossed on that pile.
 
Well if you're only talking about Spanish and Chinese, the correct wording is:

Anyway, Spanish is probably the easier second language for English speakers and Chinese the more challenging

Otherwise, without qualifying a range, it sounds like you're saying Spanish is the easiest of all second languages and Chinese the hardest.

There are dozens of languages that are surely more challenging than Chinese for many or most English speakers. Japanese, Greek and Russian, to name a few.
 
It was an intentionally exaggerated comparison designed to get the OPs attention. Of course I understand the difference between the most and one of the most.
 
Choose to learn chinese of course!!! There are chinese all over the world!
Chinese is the most fruitful race of all race!!!
 
Many people are taking Chinese/Mandarin because of business. If you go to Japan, and can't speak a word of Japanese, mime for a piece of paper and write down what you want in Chinese, and then give it to the person.

Chinese = Kanji. Sort of.

I like Chinese, but that's probably only because I'm from Taiwan.

I don't like Spanish, because I am fluent in English, and it sounds like a distorted version of English. And that confuses me. XD

Pick what you want, and have fun~~

[offtopic]
Hey, Nicholas Tse, is your name, like the singer? XD
 
yeah,learning Manderin is the best choicc,it's more intresting than hard
 

Couldn't have said it better. Totally agree.

My opinion: If you are neutral about this, try Chinese, this is, if you like it. Spanish is very complicated with all the verb forms(past, past participle and female/male articles). If I wouldn't be a native speaker, I doubt I would have any interest in learning it.
I, in my own personal opinion, like Chinese better. I am studying and it is entertaining. It doesn't have many articles and it is just like saying subject/verb/object without having to say it in singular and plural form. However, I must say that you must also learn all the characters in order to read, you know, like in Japanese.

Mauricio
 
in my opinion think about your future...if u plan on going into business then i suggest u learn both. (like me) but the thing is i gave up on spanish after two years and decided to learn french(but thats another story) spanish is easier for caucasians...because the tones and stuff is similar to english in a way. and chinese wow...too many words u need to know. like im taiwanese and dang when i went to taiwan wow i couldnt read like half of the words. yea so my family had to translate a lot of it or i had to go by pics. spanish is better for u if u live in the us because i guess its used more often unless u live in california then i suggest u learn mandarin because most asians there speak an asian language. so idk. either one is fun. but im learning japanese and french and i guess mandarin hahaha. so either one is good have fun learning them im sure they will both come in handy one day.
 
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