Boost your career by learning foreign languages

“Good command of English”, “excellent English knowledge”, “proficiency in English”, “English is a must”. One of these lines or a similar others referring to the mandatory character of knowing English is included in almost all the jobs advertisements. Looking for a job today without knowing English is a half-lost battle. Although English will help you get through most of the multicultural work situations, it does not represent a competitive edge anymore. If you want to see your career and salary boosting, knowing English goes without says, but is not enough. Experience has shown that the more foreign languages you know, the better your career will look. The less common the language you know is, the more and faster your career can advance.

There are a few reasons why knowing more foreign languages can help you in your professional endeavors. Alongside with the globalization, people focused on learning the language that helped them best handle any interaction with foreigners – English – which led to a shortage of people having command of other languages used internationally like French, Spanish, German or Portuguese. Not to mention the rarity of people able to manage communication with speakers of Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Greek, Turkish or other less used languages.  Handling this kind of languages has become a premium skill; therefore people possessing it have access to premium job opportunities and financial rewards. Last year, the Modern Language Association (MLA) reported a rise of the number of US college students interested in Chinese and Farsi, which were the most two popular foreign languages among them, next to Japanese, Latin and Russian.

It is good news that young people start to realize that knowing English is not enough anymore if you have high expectations. For example, in 2008 the foreign languages in high demand for FBI enrollment were Swahili, Urdu, Farsi and Bahasa Indonesian.

In today’s global business context, where relocation is a routine, knowing the language spoken by natives in the area you are about the move in is a strong advantage over any other candidate to the job, having the same professional skills and command of English. Knowing the language of the people your company is doing business with will not pass unnoticed either. Just knowing to say a few words in the mother tongue of a client or business partner can open doors, hearts and wallets. As a classical German adage says “the best language is always the customer’s”.

Even if better rewarding the command of uncommonly spoken languages is not a stated policy of a company, this is a skill that will indirectly help you stand out from the crowd. Imagine you have to do a research. By knowing more languages, you will be able to browse more Internet pages, not only the ones written in your native language and English. It will also help you to manage better multiculturalism situations. In the end, foreign languages can put you on light and boost your career. Never miss the opportunity of learning even the basics of a foreign language, because you never know how far these few words can take you.

Is there a certain language you would like to speak, but don’t have enough finances to attend a class? Learning a foreign language has never been easier. Come to Fluent Future and learn a language for free, meeting native speakers of the language you are seeking to learn, or pay rated teachers for individual lessons.

What is your China strategy? This is a question that website owners, webmasters and web-based start-ups have been hearing again and again. With the Chinese-language expected to overtake English as the number one language on the internet, and China being the country with the most internet users, it makes sense to at least consider having your website translated into Chinese. And if you are considering it, one of the questions on your mind is likely “Which type of Chinese should I use for my website?” There’s a few simple things about Chinese that you should learn before you can fully understand the answer.

First of all, Chinese is a language with many spoken dialects. There are so many dialects that people joke there is a dialect for every city and town and China. Indeed, some cities have more than one dialect. Some of these dialects are similar enough that speakers of two dialects could communicate with each other almost without a hitch. Others are so different that they could be considered separate languages. Luckily for your case, Mandarin was made the standard language of China. It is spoken in school, in politics and in business meetings. It is used on TV, in magazines and on billboards. So, when it comes to translating a website into Chinese, if you are targeting China or the global base of Chinese readers, it is best to use Mandarin on the Chinese version of your website.

Next, Chinese isn’t written with letters, but instead is written with “characters.” Most Chinese words consist of one or two characters and there are thousands and thousands of different characters. There are few technical issues to deal with to be able to use Chinese characters on a website. They can be typed with common English keyboards and viewed by anybody with Chinese fonts installed on their computer – and that’s everybody you would want to read your Chinese website. You would still have to consider which kind of Chinese characters to use though.

There are now two different styles of Chinese characters. Earlier last century, there was only one style, but then a “simplified” style was created, effectively splitting Chinese writing in two. Mainland China began to use the simplified characters, while Hong Kong, Taiwan and Chinese communities abroad continued to use the traditional characters. Nowadays, the simplified characters are used much more on the internet so, in most cases, you will want to use simplified characters for your Chinese website. The only time you would want to use traditional characters is if you are targeting Hong Kong, Taiwan or some other areas other than mainland China. If your website targets Chinese speakers living abroad, it would be best to check which style of Chinese they are most comfortable with.

So remember, for over ninety percent of the websites out there, the best form of Chinese to use is the Mandarin dialect written with simplified Chinese characters. However, if you are targeting a specific Chinese population not on Mainland China, you should consider having your website translated into a different Chinese dialect or written in traditional Chinese characters.

INTRODUCTION

Chatting is a common occurrence in secondary school language classes such as in Chinese. It often presents a problem to language teachers and has an adverse effect on students’ learning. Although various disciplinary measures can be taken to stop this type of disruptive behaviours in class, it could only be temporary and on the surface. Applying the Six Thinking Hats method created by de Bono (1985) could have a positive and everlasting effect on students as it will change each individual student’s behaviour from within. This paper reports on a case in Chinese where success has been achieved by employing de Bono’s (1985) Six Thinking Hats method. The paper intends to show to other LOTE teachers that if you walk with your students together to the heart of the problem of chatting in class, your students will see what they could not normally see only by following the conventional thinking method to approach this problem. This paper encourages the secondary school language teachers to mobilise their students to take part in the thinking process of solving the problem of chatting in class openly, collectively and creatively. This approach could help the students involved gain a better understanding of the problem concerned and improve their thinking skills in a fun, tangible and creative way. The thinking skills gained through this approach could also be transferred to the problem-solving in the teaching of other subject areas beyond the secondary schooling.

THE SIX THINKING HATS

Thinking has various modes: objective thinking, emotional thinking, negative thinking, positive thinking, critical thinking and creative thinking. de Bono (1985) used six different colours to represent these different thinking modes and created the Six Thinking Hats method. The White Hat possesses the feature of coldness; therefore, it represents objective thinking. When one wears a While Hat to think, one looks at the facts and figures only, not anything else. The Red Hat represents emotional thinking, because red is associated with anger; therefore, when one wears a Red Hat to think, one normally follows his or her emotions in the process of thinking. Black often suggests the negative and its feature is gloomy. When one wears a Black Hat to think, one will look at the issues under consideration more critically. Positive thinking is represented by the yellow colour. This colour is often related to the sun; therefore, its feature is bright and sunny. When one wears a Yellow Hat to think, one tends to look for all the positive things of a particular issue. Creative thinking is represented by the green colour which suggests fertile and growth; therefore, when one wears a Green Hat to think, one needs to search for new ideas. Blue symbolises the sky high above everything. When one wears a Blue Hat to think, one needs to look for the overall picture of a situation rather than only one tiny section of the problem area. Blue also suggest the Big Picture. According to de Bono (1985), people tend to wear one single colour hat when thinking of a problem.  This will result in a narrow understanding of the whole issue under consideration. The most effective way of thinking is to wear all six colour hats to look at an issue or a problem from all six directions. This will help put us in a good perspective to deal with the issue on hand.

EVIDENCE OF DIFFERENT THINKING OUTCOMES

Sixty Years 10-12 students of Chinese from four different classes were involved in this experiment in Term 1, 2007. Among them, 21 were from Year 10; 28 from Year 11; and 11 from Year 12. All studied Chinese as an elective in a Melbourne-based boys’ school. The steps to gather the evidence of different thinking outcomes include:

Based on the features of the Six Thinking Hats coined by de Bono (1985), the following from the students involved were obtained:

White Hat Thinking

Red Hat Thinking

Black Hat Thinking

Yellow Hat Thinking

After each group leader presented their group views on this issue from four directions represented by the colours of white, red, black and yellow, the students from each class were encouraged to move on to creative thinking by ‘wearing’ the Green Hat first and then the Blue Hat aiming for the best solutions:

Green Hat Thinking

Blue Hat Thinking

At the end of this problem-solving session, the students from each class were asked to make a choice to reflect their stance in relation to the problem of chatting in class. The following three choices were made in responding to the question of “I come to this class to”

Then, those who made the first choice were asked to move to the front of the classroom; those who made the second were requested to stay in the middle of the room; and those who made the third choice were requested to move to the back of the room. Being encouraged to keep wearing a Blue Hat to think about solving the problem defined, the students from each class were asked to label the three choices they made, thus:

Surprisingly, as soon as these labels were announced to each class, a couple of students who initially moved to the back of the classroom immediately joined the middle group. This suggested that they did not want to be singled out as a chatter box.

SOLUTIONS

After some physical movements within the classroom, the students from each class were explained that they would need a TEACHER to teach the LEARNERS; a KEEPER to keep the CONFUSED INDIVIDUALS; and a MANAGER to manage the CHATTER BOX. Since there was only one Chinese teacher (the author of this article) in each classroom, this teacher had to concentrate on the teaching of the group who made the first choice and those who made the second or the third choice had to go to a separate room to let another member of staff if available to manage them. After this explanation was given, the students from each class were asked to move again according to their new choices. Much to the author’s surprise, all said that they wanted to stay with their Chinese teacher to learn. After a full in-class discussion of de Bono’s (1985) Six Thinking Hats method, all four classes changed their culture and everyone concentrated on learning. If somebody chatted at any point of time in class later in the year, this student was called out as ‘CHATTER BOX’. Finally after the experiment, chatting in these Chinese classes has been kept to the minimum; this disruptive behaviour has been self-regulated by the students themselves; and the Big Picture of “coming to learn” has been maintained.

CONCLUSION

Employing the Six Thinking Hats method by de Bono (1985) with language students can be a fun way of solving behavioural problems in class. This method is more effective on students as they are more receptive to this type of approach compared with the direct authoritative and disciplinary approach practised by many language teachers in the past. Most importantly, it helps improve students’ thinking skills which could be transferred to solving problems in other areas of their life beyond their secondary education.

REFERENCES

de Bono, E. (1985). Six Thinking Hats. Little, Brown and Company.

de Bono, E. (2004). Parallel thinking – the Six Thinking Hats.

Creative thinking – how to use de Bono’s ‘Six Thinking Hats’ to improve your thinking skills.

Mind Tools: Six Thinking Hats. (1995).

One of the most fascinating aspects to study abroad in China is to explore the mystery of Chinese cultures alone with your Chinese learning. Sometime it could be different to say learn Mandarin and study Chinese. While the former is more referred to the language, the later can sometime also relate to Chinese cultural understanding. For language like Chinese, you can be sure how much the language and its cultural background are intermingled. With more than 5,000 years of uninterrupted civilization, the language has been evolving alone the history.

When you come to the learning phrases, sayings and idioms, it is always interesting. There are many proverbs, Chuyus, or Chinese idioms; you can understand them only in their historical context. So what you learn is not only the language itself, you are engaged into the culture that the language resides as well. The Chinese culture understanding hence will be the context for Chinese learning. The deeper you could grasp the culture, the easier your Chinese study could be.

As we know from our own mother tongue, for many cases, behind words, phrases, idioms, and sayings, there are stories and histories. Some of them are universal, which means you can understand them easily as the ideas are shared by many culture, like the saying “kill two birds with one stone” is understood in both English and Chinese. While others are more exclusive to particular cultures, as the Achilles’ heel means one’s weakness in English does not have any equivalent in Chinese.

To make Chinese leaning more interesting and keep you inspired to learn Mandarin. Now let’s take some more examples and say how similar or different some of these Chinese and English sayings are.

Almost identical

Some sayings in Chinese can literally translated to English and the meanings do not change. For example, ????, Huo3 Shang4 Jiao1 You2 is exactly the same expression “add the fuel to the flame” in English; ????, or Ge2 Qiang2 You3 Er3, can be almost translated word by word to “Walls have ears”; while in Chinese to say ??????, Bai3 Wen2 bu4 Ru2 Yi2 Jian4, literally translate as hundreds hearings is not good as one seeing is what to say ”seeing is believing”.

Similar in idea but you need cultural and historical understanding

There are sayings and idioms in Chinese and English express the same idea but you need certain background to appreciate them. “to teach fish how to swim” has its Chinese equivalent idiom????, Ban1 Meng2 Nong4 Fu3, meaning showing off how to use axe in carpentry in front of the master Luban, the legendary ancestor of Chinese carpentry. There is the similar idea of forcing people to make their mind by eliminate any possible ways to retreat in both Chinese and English context but with slight different narration. “burn one’s boats” in English, saying that in order to let his soldiers to fight decisively, Julius Caesar burned all the boats in case they thought they can flee by water. Similarly in China, the idiom is ????, Po4Fu2Chen2Zhou1, it was a historical account that the household warlord named Xiang YU, after led his army crossing the river for a tough fight, he commanded all boats to be sunk and all cooking tools to be broken so that his army would not have any other thoughts but fought for the victory.

Exclusive to Chinese context

Sometime for your Chinese learning, you just could not get your heart around some words, phrases and sayings if you don’t know the cultural background. The Chinese idiom????Dong1 Shi1 Xiao4 Pin2 is to describe a blind imitation with awkward effects. Actually it was parable told by Chuangtzu, one of Chinese most famous Taoist philosophers. There was a beautiful lady whose name was Xishi, she was so charming that ever when she was sick, people appreciate her elegance. There was a day, she got heartache, she was so painful that she clutched her chest and was heavily frowned when walking in the village. Despite this people still praised her and had pity on her. While there was this average-looking young girl, whose name was Dongshi. (“Xi” refers to the direction of the west while “Dong” refers to the opposite direction of the east) She admired Xishi so much that she imitated everything Xishi did. After seeing the sicken Xishi acted so weak, she herself even imitated Xishi’s sickness and walked around in the village. Instead of liking her, all villagers despised her did not like her imitation.

In Chinese to say ????,Bi1 Shang4 Liang2 Shan1, or force someone to go to the Mountain of Liangshan, is actually suggesting if you push somebody so hard, one could revolts. In a household Chinese novel, Liangshan was referred to a place where crowds of rebel assembled. Once good folks, they were forced to rebel against the government because various reason and all came to Liangshan and lived as rebels.

Just like there are many English words from Christianity like Adman’s apple, go the extra mile etc. When study Mandarin, you will find many phrases are from Buddhism, Taoism and you can be sure many from Confucianism. ????, Wu3 Ti2 Tuo2 Di4, was a ritual in Buddhism to show your respect by prostrating yourself on the ground. Wu Ti, or five parts of your body, refers to your hands, feet and your head. Now in Chinese language usage, it is to express great admiration and respect.

Words, phrases, sayings like these are abound in Chinese. The more you learn, the more you will realize in your Chinese learning that they are both interesting and inspirational. Like many of those Chengyus, or Chinese idioms, many have their origin in Chinese parables, and they are trying to communicate wisdom and values in Chinese culture.

Hence, if you REALLY want to learn Mandarin and understand Chinese culture, you might carefully choose your Chinese study program, especially if you are thinking of study abroad in China. It will be a wise to make a decision after you figure out your needs, what the Chinese learning should cover then you can choose appropriate options accordingly.

There are people who just love to learn foreign languages. They are in love with new words, the construction of sentences, and the musicality of the new language they acquire.
On the other hand, there are people who learn foreign languages because they need it. Most universities have foreign languages in their curriculum for their students. Some need it for their jobs, as an added skill.
Whether it be want or a need, learning languages will never fail to tickle our curiosity and imagination. Here are some things that foreign languages can bring into our lives:
Enhance Your Career Potentials
Knowing how to speak in a foreign tongue or two is a big advantage in the very competitive jobs market. If you have the skill to speak in different languages, it will open doors for promotions in your office or placement in a very good opportunity abroad.
Deepen your Perspective
Understanding how other people from different countries speak gives you a chance to immerse yourself in their culture. You can start appreciating films, music, literature, plays, and other things from foreign lands. Thus, you can enrich you view of life through foreign languages
Enjoy Your Holidays
When you visit another country for a holiday or as a tourist, there is an apparent lack of communication, a wall between you and the locals. If you know how to speak their language, this barrier is hurdled and you can immerse yourself into how their day to day life is. Ask questions in their native tongue and you can definitely get the best answers and recommendations to make the most out of your vacation.
Improve Your Marketability
Language skills being posted in your curriculum vitae will attract the attention of the HR department, the boss, and most companies. If you know to speak Chinese, French, German, or any other language they will see you as an asset to achieve their goals. So if you have mastered a language, by all means include it in your CV.
Increase Awareness of Other Culture and Race
Knowing a foreign language gives you a chance to learn about the history of other nations and races. This gives you the opportunity to compare the strengths and weaknesses of your own country and people. From there, you can figure out the differences that may count to improve your life.
Win More Friends and Make Life More Meaningful
Language traverse borders and you can win a lot of new friends if you can communicate better. Comfort zones are establish and you will realize that people open up to you for the reason that you sound or talk like the way they do.
Broaden Your Choices for Education
If you are thinking of the best universities for a certain field of interest, you can discard the limitations of your own geographical boundaries. You may consider overseas schools that can offer better programs or cheaper courses. The languages that you know will help you blend in and adapt easily to life in a foreign university.
Learning a New Language is Fun
Anyone will have a smile when you divert from your usual ABC’s and 123’s. It enriches your being when you hear the sound of different language and learn the basics of a different tongue.

Spanish is a language from Romance family of languages, which has its roots from the Latin language, the language spoken by the Romans. English language also has many words of Latin origin. These same Latin roots are at the base of many sophisticated words in English, so Spanish learners can also become more proficient in English. So in order to understand English, some Spanish words are used as well. Once you learn Spanish, it will also be easier for you to learn other languages. Spanish is a romance language, with a lot of similarities to other romance languages, such as French, Italian, and Portuguese. Spanish will give you a head start learning these languages, and just the practice in the process of learning Spanish with Rocket Spanish should help you learn more about the process of learning a language so that other languages will be easier to learn as well. Rocket Spanish has proved that learning Spanish is not at all a difficult task if you have the power and assistance of Rocket Spanish, the most intelligently designed Spanish learning product. The advantage with learning Spanish is that it is a very beautiful and uncomplicated language which can be learned with ease. It is one of the easiest foreign languages to learn. Much of its vocabulary is similar to English’s, and written Spanish is almost completely phonetic. I believe that the true learning of a language is when you see the beauty of the language and everything a second language offers: a better understanding of your own language, the ability to converse with people from other cultures, and more enjoyable travels in countries where that language is spoken. Learning a new language makes you bi-lingual and very employable because bilingual people are more marketable and have more career choices. Helps you enhance better critical thinking skills – being bilingual means seeing the world through more than 1 lens, a skill that can give you the much-needed edge in the job market. If you have the knowledge of Spanish, you will automatically have an upper edge in grabbing that opportunity. A technician who knows Russian or German, the head of a company who knows Japanese or Spanish, or a salesperson who knows French or Chinese can work successfully with many more people and in many more places than someone who knows only one language. Spanish is the world’s 3rd most spoken language, after Chinese and English, and ranks 2nd in terms of native speakers. So there is a better chance that learning Spanish will only help you to improve your job opportunities. Rocket Spanish is designed in a way that it gives you a better understanding of each and every little thing that is required to learn Spanish language easily and quickly. Rocket Spanish is a complete package that certainly makes the people to learn, understand and speak Spanish language easily and quickly. After doing the Rocket Spanish course, one would be able to feel confident and comfortable around the Spanish speaking people. Hence one can say that Rocket Spanish is a very useful product.

Recently, a trend has developed in high schools and communities around the United States. Many people want to or are now learning the Chinese language. This could be a good turn of events, but it can also be problematic. This is particularly so for those who know nothing about Chinese culture, history and the state of affairs in China today.

In mainland China they no longer use the traditional Chinese characters that go hand in hand with Chinese history. For some reason, the Chinese Communist Party decided to alter the Chinese language and thereby change the vehicle for written communication.

Traditional Chinese characters evolved naturally over a period of time from pictographs or small drawings. By contrast the simplified Chinese created by the Chinese Communist Party has watered many of the traditional characters down to the point that they no longer are rooted in more ancient traditions.

Here is an example. The traditional Chinese character for the word ‘love’ contains a picture of a heart in it. This makes sense because love is closely associated to the heart. Not so in simplified Chinese. There is no heart in the word ‘love’ in simplified Chinese. One may ponder how you can love without a heart.

Just as this example shows, in many ways the Chinese Communist Party has removed the heart of the entire language, distorting and altering it into a water downed version of its former self. In Taiwan, however, they still use traditional characters.

So if your community or children’s school is planning to teach Chinese, you may wish to ensure that you are getting the traditional variety. It more fully encompasses the rich history of China and the Chinese people. By contrast, those who teach our children simplified Chinese are from mainland China and unfortunately, they will also be passing on the values and ideas of the Chinese Communist Party. Whether they do so on purpose or automatically as a result of growing up in that environment, the end result is the same. Only you can decide if you want the influence of the Chinese Communist Party imparted to your children.

Be sure to insist that our children are taught traditional Chinese and not the simplified version. This way the richness of traditional Chinese culture can be more fully enjoyed and appreciated. There will be a more solid foundation to understand the more ancient Chinese traditions.

Happy Chinese or Kuaile Hanyu was specifically written for middle school students (age 11-16) and has 3 levels with a textbook, teacher’s guide, CD, Flashcard, and Software available for each level. It was written out of a collaboration by the British Council and National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOCFL) of China. The reason the series is called Kuaile Hanyu, or Happy Chinese is the goal is the learner will find learning Chinese to happy and easy, instead of boring and difficult. These products are easy on your pocket and they don’t cost you much. Thus you can save more on your Kids resources for learning Chinese. Happy Chinese textbooks are fun to practice along with this Kuaile Hanyu CD series and Happy Chinese flash cards are also interesting to learn Chinese characters with demostrations. Flash Cards are a great way to add to your vocabulary, and there are a number of Chinese Flash Cards Games you can play to make Learning Chinese Fun! The advantage of flash cards over software is they can be used in a group and are great for Learning Chinese in a classroom environment.Is your middle schooler bored with the beginner Chinese Materials for pre-schoolers?They will like learning Chinese with the Kuaile Hanyu series!Bigger kids will enjoy their computer time while learning Chinese with the Kuaile Hanyu series. This Learning-Chinese program emphasizes speaking and comprehension. Kuaile Hanyu features video clips, practice games, extensive practice of Chinese pronunciation, visual demonstrations of characters, sentence patterns and Pinyin. A Chinese-English dictionary is also included for learning new words. Kuaile Hanyu software features the adventure of two higher grade exchange students visiting Beijing. The video is fit for middle school children as it focuses on both Chinese vocabulary and sentences used in real life situations. Linda from San Diego, CA has 2 daughters that do not like the Learn-Chinese materials for pre-school and early grades children. Seeing the bigger kids in Kuaile Hanyu “was a welcome reward for them and they love it.”This learn Chinese program uses a spiral approach that builds upon materials from previous lessons, and is reinforced with subsequent lessons. Games and activities for Learning Chinese also help the bigger children enjoy reviewing each lesson. Christie (not real name) said that Kuaile Hanyu gives her children “the computer time they crave.” Lindaâ??s girls “were delighted to see the pinyin chart and practiced their phonetic sounds” over and over. The complete Kuaile Hanyu Programs includes the software, textbooks, workbooks and flash cards. It was produced initially for middle schoolers in the UK to learn Chinese efficiently. By using these products even bigger kids will enjoy learning the Chinese language and have more fun watching the CDs in both English and Chinese. You can gift your kids this pack of CDs and help them to learn Chinese in an interesting way. They can enjoy doing the activities along with learning the Chinese through this CDs. Its fun to watch not only for bigger kids but even young kids can enjoying viewing it and exploring the different products and resources for Chinese learning.

Learning a new language doesn’t have to be hard or tedious. It can be fun, if you have the right tools. No doubt, you’ve visited a book store or searched online only to find a ton of language learning kits and books. It can make finding which one is the right one very hard. In most cases, you can learn a new language with an hour. Yes, that’s right.
Before you go out and spend your hard earned money on a language program, you first should understand what will be involved in learning the new language. First, take the language apart and understand how it is put together. This is one of the fastest ways to learn a new language.
You can deconstruct any language whether it is Spanish, German, Italian, Thai, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, English, Norwegian, Irish Gaelic, etc. Once you deconstruct the language of your choice, you’ll be in a better position to learn it quickly and easily, and be able to converse with no problems.
How is it possible to learn a language in one hour? That starts by taking them apart and then choosing wisely which ones you are going to be able to pick up easily and which ones are going to be difficult for you. Learning a new language is a lot like learning to play a new sport.
When you learn to play a new sport there are certain physical requirements you’ve got to have. For example, body building, you’ve got to have the ability to lift weights and build muscle. In basketball, height is a big plus. So for example, if you were shorter than average, never played basketball before, and you wanted to play basketball, you’d have to take into account that factor and the time it will take you to become proficient in that sport.
When it comes to learning a language the same principles apply. Think about the tools you already have now and how they will fit in with your new goal. If, for example, your native language is Japanese, then you may find yourself handicapped with more than 20 phonemes that are particular to your native language. Because of this, it may be that some language will be very difficult for you to learn. By picking a language that is similar in sound and in word construction (like Spanish for example), you could realize the difference between being able to converse freely in that new language in 2 to 3 months instead of 3 to 4 years!
You should ask yourself the following questions when beginning to deconstruct your new language;
1. Are there new sounds that will increase my time to fluency?
2. Are there any grammar structures that will take longer to learn?
3. How is this language similar to any languages that I already know?
4. What can help me learn this language faster?
5. What will interfere with my learning this language fast?
6. Will my learning this language erase any previous language that I’ve learned or cause fatal interference? (Ex. Some have thought that learning Portuguese after learning Spanish has caused them problems)
7. How difficult is it going to be to learn this language?
8. How long would it take me to become functionally fluent in this language?
It won’t take much to answer the questions above. You simply need just a few sentences translated from your native language into your target language to give you a clear idea of what will be involved.
Here are some to start:
The banana is yellow.
It is Sam’s banana.
I give Sam the banana.
We give him the banana.
We gave her the banana.
He gives it to Sam.
She gives it to him.
These sentences by themselves will expose much of your target language. From these, you’ll be able to decide just how easy or difficult learning your new language will be. They can help you to see if and how verbs are conjugated. This is based both on the person that is speaking and according to numbers and gender identification. You’ll also be able to see placement of direct objects (the banana), indirect objects (Sam), and respective pronouns (it, him).
You can even follow these sentences with some negations such as “She doesn’t give…”, “He didn’t give…”, “I didn’t give”, “I don’t give…”, and different tenses, so you can see if they are going to be expressed as separate words (such as “bu” in Chinese) or verb changes (such as “-nai” or “-masen” in Japanese), making Japanese a much harder language to learn.
Next, you want to look at the basic sentence structure. Is it anything like English where you have subject-verb-object? (Example; I eat the banana) Or is it subject-object-verb like Japanese (Example; I the banana eat), or is it something else altogether? If you’re a native English speaker, then subject-object-verb is going to be much harder for you than the other way around. If you’ve already picked up such a language, then it will not be as difficult for you. Your brain will have already been formatted for these kinds of languages.
Finally, go through the language alphabet and character system. See if your language has at least one phonetic writing system of less than 50 sounds, such as Russian, Japanese, and Spanish. Chinese would not be included here since Chinese tones create many variations of otherwise very simple sounds. Again, treat your new language as a sport. Learn the rules first, and then determine if it is worth your time and energy to learn the language. Once you’ve made the decision to either stick with it or quit it, you’ll be able to move forward knowing that you can learn any language in 1 hour.

Parents in America are increasingly supporting the choice for their children to learn Chinese. They are aware of the rise in China’s economic development, and understand that their child will have the best opportunity to conduct business when they are older, after they graduate, by being able to speak Mandarin and learn to write Chinese. In the study of Mandarin Chinese, students attain much more than just focus on words, grammar and character writing – they also gain more of a global attitude. It has been assessed that children in their elementary years who learn the Chinese language have expanded their intercultural views. There has also been a direct correlation in China’s growing role in global affairs and the availability of Chinese language studies offered in schools.While it’s important to note the growing number of Chinese companies hitting the headlines, it is China’s relevancy in various global affairs that allows for Westerners to understand the impact China is having on the world. Beijing not only successfully hosted the 2008 Olympics but has also saturated the press with their constant medal wins. Both these points are critical for the internal image of China as well as how the world views the nation. There used to be a time when learning another language was good for only certain careers. Today, parents realize that familiarity of other cultures, including learning a second language, is important regardless of the career due to the globalization of the economy. In a globalized workplace, there are multi-national employees that come together to bring an expanded vision of ideas for the marketplace. Parents are realizing that their children will be working in a team made up of ethnically diverse people and will need to expand their knowledge of world cultures in order to stand the competition.