In what careers will Japanese get you far, assuming no other specific skills?
In what careers will Japanese get you far, assuming no other specific skills?
english could be alot clearer in terms of its pronunciation-spelling rules.
several other languages have been recently revamped, and the spellings are frequently reviewed. (ie. dutch last year released a new "green book" of revamped grammar and spelling, german in 2003 underwent spelling changes..)
I know the spelling pronunciation rules really mess with alot of people, especially german speakers. german has very clear spelling pronunciation rules. while english reminds me of a bastardization of germanic, celtic, and french.....
One advantage to learning a language is that you may be able to also understand similar languages in that particular language group (ie- english, german, dutch, danish, swedish.... french, italian, spanish...)
Yes many of those languages have 'cognates' which are similar sounding words, so if you know one Romance language for example, it is relatively easy to pick up others.
On the other hand, it would be unwise for someone to learn Spanish and Italian at the same time, because the brain would have difficulty, in many instances, differentiating between the two languages, as they have quite a few similarities, especially with regard to cognates.
Even Korean, which I am now learning, has a surprising number of vocab. words derived from English, which they pronounce in the Korean way - words like 'computer' and others.
My main task in Korea, as a teacher trainer, training Korean EFL teachers, is to try to teach them more communicative ways to teach English in the Korean Public schools.
Note: We are always looking for teacher trainers at the Foreign Language Institute in Gyeonggi Do Province. If interested, please send your resume/c.v. to me:
The area is good for running, and elite runners will have the option of joining one of the corporate teams in Seoul, like 'Samsung' the club of Lee Bong Ju (Boston Marathon winner, and 2:07 marathon man).
anEconomist wrote:
anyway, all i can really say is that i work for an international organization that has a research department
i've always enjoyed your posts and like knowing there is a math phd (student if i recall) to keep people in line on here on numbers stuff
Hey actually I'm an econ phd student beginning this year...like you I did go to math grad school, but I left after my masters. I like math, but econ just gives more opportunities, plus better pay. And while we don't always agree on stuff, I enjoy your posts as well.
cool, definitely the pay is better which isn't the only driving force but certainly is nice :-)anyway - i can understand you (most people) disagreeing with meespecially given my stance on many things including drugs - in the end i am probably waaayyy too far leftbut i just try to be honest
kartelite wrote:
Hey actually I'm an econ phd student beginning this year...like you I did go to math grad school, but I left after my masters. I like math, but econ just gives more opportunities, plus better pay. And while we don't always agree on stuff, I enjoy your posts as well.
Kuso shinezo, Paizuri Tatsujin!
Tameguchi kitten ja ney o!!
Anybody become fluent in another language with out going to another to help learn it?
Ananin amina cam dikerim, golgesinde seni sikerim trans! Götüne elini sok!
HyperWOOO wrote:
Anybody become fluent in another language with out going to another to help learn it?
Yes -- I majored in one at college. It did the trick without going anywhere.
Lot of finance related, sales. Quite a few engineering jobs about. Granted, most educated Japanese speak passable English so communications are not too bad. But, I have found that it makes a point of difference, certainly helped me in my past three jobs, finance, motorsports, sales. Just my 2 cents worth.
ghost wrote:
Fascinating stuff about the Defence Language Institute.
How long did it take you to reach relative fluency in spoken and/or written Arabic? And what was a typical day at the DLI? Was it total immersion?
How do they teach Arabic there?
I went there during the Cold War. Arabic was taught, but the biggest language there at the time was Russian.
We had 7 hours of classes per day with about 2-3 hours worth of homework per night. The classes were all Russian Language classes, only each one had a different emphasis (speaking, reading, listining, taking dictation, writing...). The instructors were all Soviet Ex Patriots. One of my teachers had lived through the siege of Lenningrad as a boy. One designed tanks.
The instruction was mostly in english early on, but as our ability to use the complex grammar increased, so did the ammount of instruction given in Russian. The last couple of months in the course were almost entirely in Russian.
After the language school (47 weeks for russian, 29 for romance languages, 66 for chinese) you are supposed to be about as fluent as a 12 year old (educated) native speaker would be (if you score a 3 on the Defense Language Proficiency Test. The test is on a scale of one to 5. The test taken by students completing the basic course only allows a high score of 3.)
After basic course, most students either go to a signals intercept school for about 3 months of listening to segments of transmission from the enemy military and learning the jargon specific to that country's military, or they go to interrogator school and learn the techniques of gently or not so gently coaxing information out of people.
A small percentage are asked back for more advanced courses. There is an intermediate course and an advanced course for most of the languages taught at DLI. I don't know that much about them. The people that go through those courses end up working as higher level interpreters.
I did have the chance, while serving in the Utah National Guard, to work as an interpreter during a 10 day visit of emisaries from Belarus. During that time, my Russian skills improved dramatically because I had to speak it every day, almost all day. I didn't get to handle any of the high level briefings, because my language skills weren't good enough and they Belorussians brought a professional interpreter for that (a major in their army).
does anyone else have experience with rosetta stone? worth it?
I heard its really boring, but affective for some?
gayvelle wrote:
Ki beszel magyarul? Akarok tanulni mert budapestre megyek elni.
budapesten laktam, de nem jol beszelek magyarul.
gayvelle wrote:
Ki beszel magyarul? Akarok tanulni mert budapestre megyek elni.
budapesten laktam, de nem jol beszelek magyarul. sajnos :(
Anyone speak Swahili?
꼬스트씨, 카텔리트예요. 어떻개 한국말 배워요? 저는 "Integrated Korean"을 공부하는데 빨리 배워요. 한국어가 항가리어보다 좀 쉬운 말 이고 제가 잘 하고 십어요. 안녕.
Wow I guess the name field didn't like those characters...sorry bout that.
Ghost,
I too went to DLI for languages back in 1985. We had total immersion classes for 7-8 hours five days a week, but then the USMC spoke strictly USMC-English regardless of what language one studied. What type of work do you do that allows you to travel as much to learn the languages. I love Korea by the way. Enjoy your time there.