Should I take Chinese or French? (1 Viewer)

[Larche]

I've studied both Chinese (at USYD) and French, and if you had to choose one to learn at university, I'd definitely go with Chinese. As has been said it's probably more useful for Australians than French is, and also, the added difficulty of the language means that you would benefit more from having actual teachers and instructors to help you.

Don't count out French though, any language is a great language to learn if you have the motivation. If you want to learn any of the European languages, I would recommend Duolingo (www.duolingo.com). It's a great language learning tool that I use everyday, and you won't have to pay thousands of dollars to do learn it like at university.

Thanks for such a helpful and insightful post I'll definitely consider your advice.

More than I can say for some other people though >.> *cough* square *cough*

 

[Squar3root]

Thanks for such a helpful and insightful post I'll definitely consider your advice.

More than I can say for some other people though >.> *cough* square *cough*

nws

glad I could help

 

[waterlml]

if everyone these days is learning chinese, i would say French then ~~~~~ just to be different and knowing a language others don't lol

 

[brent012]

if everyone these days is learning chinese, i would say French then ~~~~~ just to be different and knowing a language others don't lol

French would still be a poor choice if the deciding factor was being different.

 

[SuchSmallHands]

It really depends where you see yourself living after getting your degree and what you want to do. I took 3 unit French for the HSC because I'll most likely be moving back to Europe after I get my undergrad and I like the idea of working in international relations (French is one of the working languages of most UN bodies and the ICC/ICJ). If you're more interested in working in the Australian business sector for example though, Mandarin is likely to be far more useful to you. It all depends on want you want from learning a language. Also, don't expect be fluent or even highly proficient after a semester (not that you implied that was what you were thinking), it takes a long time to really learn a language. I've been learning French for years and lived there a couple of months and I still wouldn't call myself a fluent speaker.

 

[nerdasdasd]

Chinese would open far more doors as the Chinese are having an increasing influence in the world with the bigger economy and all.

 

[4025808]

Lol. Have fun doing languages at uni. It will destroy your WAM unless if you're willing to put the extra effort and learn more than what is simply given to you.

That said, that is definitely true with Chinese - you don't know a character, you won't be able to read it, thus won't be able to understand, hence screwed in a way. Not sure about French but I'd assume it should be similar to English however.

 

[nerdasdasd]

Chinese would be useful in Asia

French would have some sort of use in European nations

 

[Chronost]

if everyone these days is learning chinese, i would say French then ~~~~~ just to be different and knowing a language others don't lol

There's heaps and heaps of humanities girls in the HSC doing french.

Also to smallhands goodluck working for the UN in Europe when there's plenty of much better uni's there getting recruited plus heaps of Europeans are already fluent in 3+ languages (4-5 even) and some of their CVs are literally top notch, you have a slightly better chance getting recruited here instead.

 

[SuchSmallHands]

There's heaps and heaps of humanities girls in the HSC doing french.

Also to smallhands goodluck working for the UN in Europe when there's plenty of much better uni's there getting recruited plus heaps of Europeans are already fluent in 3+ languages (4-5 even) and some of their CVs are literally top notch, you have a slightly better chance getting recruited here instead.

They take like 2 Australians a year lol. Besides I'm not interested in working for the UN, just international relations. It still helps if you can read one of the major languages that international court documents are written in if you want to work in public international law.

 

[Sinyeta]

You should learn Chinese because China buys our coal and iron ore

 

[Chronost]

They take like 2 Australians a year lol. Besides I'm not interested in working for the UN, just international relations. It still helps if you can read one of the major languages that international court documents are written in if you want to work in public international law.

Yeah heaps competitive . alright that's more realistic then.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

[Larche]

Lol. Have fun doing languages at uni. It will destroy your WAM unless if you're willing to put the extra effort and learn more than what is simply given to you.

That said, that is definitely true with Chinese - you don't know a character, you won't be able to read it, thus won't be able to understand, hence screwed in a way. Not sure about French but I'd assume it should be similar to English however.

Why would it destroy my WAM? D: Are languages that hard?

 

[waterlml]

ok a more serious response. As you said Chinese is a much difficult language to learn, if you decide to learn chinese basically you need to learn everything again (eg consonants and vowels ) and the structure is completely different from English, the biggest difference b/w eng and chi is that english is like 'one word with several meanings' and chinese is like 'different words with one meaning'
not sure about french, but i think it would be very useful in Europe (?) knowing an European language is always a good thing. And to be honest as there are many chinese people working and living in aus i don't think knowing chinese will gain you lots of opportunities compared to few years ago, yes it will bring you more opportunities but since there are already many people out there knowing both chinese and english it will only be more competitive, although today the chinese market is becoming bigger and bigger, my point is that there are already enough people out there who speak fluently eng and chinese, and learning chinese takes time. So why don't choose a language that is less competitive and easier to learn? while everyone is going into the chinese market you can open up your european market ~~~~~~~~

 

[astroman]

do chinese, more chinese in the world to talk to compared to french.

 

[Futureunswmedstudent]

I did both languages and personally i found chinese more interesting and more useful

 

[Chronost]

Why would it destroy my WAM? D: Are languages that hard?

They go quite fast at university. The problem is you have fluent international students or some natives who enroll in the beginner/intermediate courses and smash it, typically uni's give a certain amount of HD, and when people smash tests subject coordinators tend to make it harder next time so that it isn't too easy as before. It's come to a point where languages courses require quite a bit of dedication to get a good mark,more-so then the average course. (especially as a total beginner)

 

[Chronost]

ok a more serious response. As you said Chinese is a much difficult language to learn, if you decide to learn chinese basically you need to learn everything again (eg consonants and vowels ) and the structure is completely different from English, the biggest difference b/w eng and chi is that english is like 'one word with several meanings' and chinese is like 'different words with one meaning'
not sure about french, but i think it would be very useful in Europe (?) knowing an European language is always a good thing. And to be honest as there are many chinese people working and living in aus i don't think knowing chinese will gain you lots of opportunities compared to few years ago, yes it will bring you more opportunities but since there are already many people out there knowing both chinese and english it will only be more competitive, although today the chinese market is becoming bigger and bigger, my point is that there are already enough people out there who speak fluently eng and chinese, and learning chinese takes time. So why don't choose a language that is less competitive and easier to learn? while everyone is going into the chinese market you can open up your european market ~~~~~~~~

Because if you're white and you know Chinese it's still a plus in business. Also because Chinese market is still good and plenty of opportunties, whilst European market is on a slowdown for many years to come (plus you dont need french to trade in Europe like you need Chinese to trade with the Chinese)

 

[asi9]

chicks dig french