which language is the best one in the word?

Gollevainen said:

I'm glad to see that we can talk about this issue without no holding back...

Finland is quite homogenious culture and we have very small non-finnish minorityes so these multicultural issues may sometimes seem bit strange to me. Also this issue of "outer-chinese" as we would call them have interested me and i've tryed to find out how the identity is build on those who haven't born and raise their whole childhood in their native country.

Mostly i've been wondering the strong nationalist feelings of those outer-chinese and what Obcession and KYLi just said before have enlighten the issue very much. It prooved my toughts to be right. So thanks...

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RedMercury said:

One of the big differences between languages is the use of word ordering and inflection. Some langauges (like Russian?) use inflections (prefixes or suffixes) to indicate what job a word plays in a sentence, and the ordering is not important. On the other extreme, Chinese has no inflections in general and uses more words or word ordering to imply meaning. So people who learned langauges on one extreme will have extreme difficulty with languages on the other extreme. This is perhaps why some langauges are easier to learn as a 2nd language given your first langauge. I think English is somewhat in the middle. It uses ordering, but also has inflections to denote things like verb tense, adjectives/adverbs, and plurality, but not to the extent of, say, German or Russian.

So really, the function assigning difficulty to a langauge should have its form as
language x language -> difficulty
instead of
langauge -> difficulty
Because it's really a function of both the language your trying to learn and your native langauge.
I.e. Difficulty(English,Spanish)->Easy
Difficulty(English,Russian)->Hard
Difficulty(Chinese,Japanese)->Easy
Difficulty(*,Sanskrit)->Hard

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you see Golly when most chinese move to America they hoped for a land of freedom and plenty without all the trouble they got back in china. but after facing prejudice and the the same trouble they faced in china e.g immerigation issues and and competition for jobs they begin to think back to their home land more. They see first hand "Democracy " is not what they were told it was adn the answer to their problem. The chinese idenity is vastly differently from western ones only after you moved to a forgein land and fell the difference do you begin to think which nation do I belong to ?

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darth sidious said:

obivously you have not take chinese in china ( or maybe eles where for that matter)
3-4 years of basic education will alllow you to read fluently and write so I dont see how its hard compare with english.

Today english is the international language because of the importence of America and privously Britian. to catch up with the international stander english is mandatory in china not because its easily to learn. thing like computer IT etc require the english langauge in order for china to suced in these field ebglish is a must not option

pinying is only for forgeiners to learn not chinese them self. as china rise to promince chinese will become more pouplar just as English rose to importence in the age of imperalism.AS china become more importently econoemicaly and politicaly chinese will become more importent. visit china some time and you will get the idea
already in Nation near china chinese is becoming a importent language maybe it wont spread to the west but definately in asia chinese will become the most importent langauge

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MIGleader said:

I find that a little offensive. I can speak and read/write Mandarin fairly well. not to mention the fact I was born in China and i go back every summer. how can you judge what people are over the internet?

Pinyin simplifies the chiense learnign process a great deal. Untill mao introduced itin the 50's, most chinese could not read or write. English is extremely simple until you get into the gerrands, verbals, participels and otehr ugly stuff. most children can read.write english OK befor even starting school. Studies have proven Chinese can be as mush as 80% more difficult to learn English.

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MIGleader said:

I find that a little offensive. I can speak and read/write Mandarin fairly well. not to mention the fact I was born in China and i go back every summer. how can you judge what people are over the internet?

Pinyin simplifies the chiense learnign process a great deal. Untill mao introduced itin the 50's, most chinese could not read or write. English is extremely simple until you get into the gerrands, verbals, participels and otehr ugly stuff. most children can read.write english OK befor even starting school. Studies have proven Chinese can be as mush as 80% more difficult to learn English.

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darth sidious said:

maybe you fin dit difficult but the rest of us agree 4-3 year of basic eduction will teach you good chinese

please provide a source for your 80% figure

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MIGleader said:

http://www.sinodefenceforum.com/showthread.php?t=428&highlight=brainpower

Chinese is dependent on environment, if you learn in China ,its easy. outside, its not. most schools in america list chinese as their hardest language.

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