Puniyo Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 OmNom said: Puniyo said: sublimeskating said: i remember a classmate who is korean and studied japanese - she also said she learned quickly because the grammar structures are similar, so i think you're right about similarities helping in learning new language. Interestingly, one of my friends who is finishing her master's in Applied Linguistics (Language Acquisition) says that there are theories that argue that it is easier for one to learn a language that is completely different (either writing, pronunciation or grammar) from their native tongue because you'll get less to no interference from it. Err, I can't say I quite get this theory, speaking from personal experience. My native country's language uses the latin alphabet (abc), while every other country in the same continent uses different writing systems. Yes, every single one of them. I dare say that English comes very smoothly for a lot of people having the same nationality as mine, partly bc it's so easy to recognise words/try to pronounce them based on prior knowledge of certain letters/consonants in the alphabet. Meanwhile, my personal observation seems to tell me that people from Korea, Japan, China and some Southeast Asian countries have considerably more difficulty learning English in comparison to people from my native country. They particularly struggle at writing. So while I think that theory could be applied to some specific cases, it doesn't hold a lot of ground when I look at what I've experienced. What an interesting discussion we are having here! My two cents... From what I see from what students and also from my friends... yes, Southeast Asian people (at least from the countries you have mentioned) do have some difficulties when it comes to learning English. And it's not just because of writing, but also pronunciation. And while English is fine, some of my friends tried to learn Portuguese and it was quite a disaster to be honest. They could not grasp the concept of grammatical gender at all and tongue trill exercises were so complicated. So huge differences between L1 (native language) and L2 (second language) does not help at all. My case... I grew up with the Latin alphabet and I'm struggling with the Chinese writing system. Hiragana and Katakana are fine for me. I actually think Japanese pronunciation is quite similar to Portuguese one (how to explain... I can read romanji the same way I read Portuguese most of the cases). French was compulsory when I was in high school but I always thought the grammar was quite complex and I regret it did not stick to me. Finally, I tend to mix Portuguese with Spanish quite a lot, mainly because they can be quite similar. Long story short --> it depends on the person... (sorry... I tend to get quite immersed in these kind of discussions) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OmNom Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 Puniyo said: What an interesting discussion we are having here! My two cents... From what I see from what students and also from my friends... yes, Southeast Asian people (at least from the countries you have mentioned) do have some difficulties when it comes to learning English. And it's not just because of writing, but also pronunciation. And while English is fine, some of my friends tried to learn Portuguese and it was quite a disaster to be honest. They could not grasp the concept of grammatical gender at all and tongue trill exercises were so complicated. So huge differences between L1 (native language) and L2 (second language) does not help at all. My case... I grew up with the Latin alphabet and I'm struggling with the Chinese writing system. Hiragana and Katakana are fine for me. I actually think Japanese pronunciation is quite similar to Portuguese one (how to explain... I can read romanji the same way I read Portuguese most of the cases). French was compulsory when I was in high school but I always thought the grammar was quite complex and I regret it did not stick to me. Finally, I tend to mix Portuguese with Spanish quite a lot, mainly because they can be quite similar. Long story short --> it depends on the person... (sorry... I tend to get quite immersed in these kind of discussions) I definitely agree with that conclusion lol. But your post is still very interesting to read, so pls feel free to indulge in more of them in the future :s_wink Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hydroblade Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 :pbow: :pooh: Someone asked how many ladies are in the STEM field here and here i am :P I am a computer engineer who happens to have an almost unhealthy interest for languages :P (and other things. I almost made music my major at uni...) I've been studying a lot of languages recently (not counting japanese, danish is the one that begins to give me that satisfaction of hearing something and going "hey, i understood all of that!") Japanese... :space: Japanese is my first love <3 i've been studying on my own since i was nine but Yuzuru made me feel more love for the language and my progress was slow recently (i was dedicating myself to study kanji) and i wanted to progress faster so i could understand everything he says :pbow: so i signed up for japanese school earlier this year. I had a ridiculously fast progress when i first started studying, but i was a child so i think it doesn't count because as a child it's easier to learn a new language (i learned both hiragana and katakana in two days haha). My conversation level is very high, although i have some problems with grammar. If you had to describe my japanese it would be like the spanish of a second/third generation mexican in the usa :P they can get by, we understand them but they make some grammar mistakes because of the lack of formal study. I skipped two levels at japanese school because of that, but there are a lot of situations where, if you ask me "why is it said like that" i will tell you that i don't know, it just does haha. I feel like japanese is a language you have to speak with the heart, and that makes it very difficult for me to translate it, there are a lot of things i understand but i can't translate, they just click in japanese and i feel like trying to translate them... a lot of things get lost and i feel like it doesn't convey everything it's supposed to... Ayways :P my favorite part of japanese is kanji :D i LOVE writing and studying kanji :D :pbow: (puts the final brick in this textwall) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarist Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 It would appear that I'm half a clone of Hydro. Computer Science major, I graduate in 2 weeks, actually, and I'll start working as a software engineer in July. If money weren't a concern, I would've majored in music. I play classical guitar, and some piano. Lately I've been taking music theory in college, and now I'm interested in orchestration, and hopefully eventually I'll also start composing music. I occasionally arrange music for guitar, but they're not great arrangements. And of course, languages. The two final exams I have next week are Korean and Italian, and I took 3 semesters of Japanese. I'm fairly decent at Japanese and Italian, but absolute crap at Korean To be honest, though, lately I've been pouring most of my energy into music. Yesterday I spent 3 hours improving a single measure of a piece. There's 9 notes in that measure. 9! And I still think it sounds like crap hahaha. Classical music can be so intense... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moni Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 WOW, such variety of professions! It's nice to see that currently 10% of you have major in computer science. I'm a student of computer science as well, my major is computer security but I'm not working yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarist Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 WOW, such variety of professions!It's nice to see that currently 17% of you have major in computer science. I'm a student of computer science as well, my major is computer security but I'm not working yet. Oh, that's so cool! I'll actually be working for the cybersecurity division of my company, but I don't think I'll be doing any of that for a while, since my major doesn't have an area of focus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanvin Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 I'm currently trying to get my Masters in International Relations (technically it could've also been Comparative Politics but our department is...messy to say the least....) and will hopefully graduate this summer but real life issues keep happening. I regret even doing this. :thumbdown: I would've like to have done something in Finance or Economics if i could, but I feel like I'd be crap at it. Graduate school kinda destroyed all my self-confidence. :sadPooh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lambari Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 I'm a 4th year medical student. I entered college that same year that I found about Yuzuru so I find this interesting, these were hectic times. :smile: There's so many people interested in languages here or working in the field. Someone said that Japanese pronunciation seems similar to Portuguese and I think that somehow I agree I know nothing about japanese, I'm talking about a feeling k Even if French is a romance language like Portuguese, I think that french pronunciation seems much harder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omurice Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 It's really cool seeing how diverse Yuzu fans are! :s_yes I'm currently a senior in college majoring in Cell Biology and Neuroscience, going to be a first year medical student next year :] I come from a Chinese-speaking background and this year I decided to take two semesters of Japanese. The grammar is completely different between the two languages, but I think knowing how to read and write a bit of Chinese overall was quite helpful with learning kanji, especially because meanings are generally the same. Although at times when there are slight differences between the kanji and the Chinese character I would sometimes get points off for writing it the Chinese way XP I think learning kanji is definitely harder for me than learning Chinese characters because there are soooo many different readings for each one... plus I only learned simplified Chinese and kanji is based off of traditional Chinese characters. But this summer I plan on working towards improving my proficiency at both languages! ^0^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yalue Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 i'm a psychology major, but i also work as an artist in my free time :pbow: art is mostly a hobby, but since i take comissions semi-regularly (mostly anthropomorphic and animal art, though) i kinda consider it as a job as well x'D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puniyo Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 We have talents for every single area in this forum!! This thread is so interesting ^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sallycinnamon Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 I'm a lawyer but ever since I graduated I've been wondering about what I am doing with my life lol :space: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elaine Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 :acceptable: Any finance people? I am a financial analyst working towards CPA :butt: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mintchocolate Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 wow such a diversity!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarist Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 :acceptable: Any finance people? I am a financial analyst working towards CPA :butt: No, but I'm working for a finance company. I should probably learn the basics of econ, given that I'll be working for a large investment bank... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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