SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The Washington Post has an article asking the question "Which languages will dominate the future?" The answer depends on your interests: making money in growth markets; speaking with as many people as possible; speaking only one language while traveling; or learning about culture. As you might imagine, the article concludes
There is no one single language of the future. Instead, language learners will increasingly have to ask themselves about their goals and own motivations before making a decision.
[...] In a recent U.K.-focused report, the British Council, a think tank, identified more than 20 growth markets and their main languages. The report features languages spoken in the so-called BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China — that are usually perceived as the world's biggest emerging economies, as well as more niche growth markets that are included in lists produced by investment bank Goldman Sachs and services firm Ernst & Young.
"Spanish and Arabic score particularly highly on this indicator," the British Council report concluded for the U.K. However, when taking into account demographic trends until 2050 as laid out by the United Nations, the result is very different.
Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and Indonesian will dominate much of the business world by 2050, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian. If you want to get the most money out of your language course, studying one of the languages listed above is probably a safe bet.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by goodie on Friday September 25 2015, @01:04AM
Perhaps, but I'm not particularly interested in moving to China or having my kids live there considering the levels of pollution, corruption etc. There's a reason (actually a bunch of them) why many Chinese try to leave China these days. It's like a teenager growing too fast in that awkward phase where you don't really know how tall they will be, what their face will look like ;). Joke aside, my school now offers Chinese for Business courses, it's pretty popular among execs and people in the MBA program.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Friday September 25 2015, @04:18AM
I liked China, but the parts of China that are worth living in tend to have very little money. The rural parts are actually really nice with friendly people everywhere. The cities though, are rather miserable. There's plenty of things to do, but the Chinese try to take advantage of foreigners, the corruption and the pollution are ridiculous.
But, the rural areas are great if you can speak some Chinese, things are relaxed and there's amazing food to be had.
Unfortunately, most foreigners never get to see that side of China and it's rapidly disappearing as development spreads and the people move to the cities in search of a better quality of life.
(Score: 2) by goodie on Sunday September 27 2015, @02:14AM
In 1982, my grandma took a trip there. She learnt Mandarin, and went on a 3 week organized trip. This was 1982, not something as easy as it is today. And she was in her early sixties. I'm always impressed by her achievements regarding this. Anyway more to the point. She showed me a few months ago her pictures from that trip after she found her albums and I swear I wish I would turn back time to see it then. It looked like the exotic, hospitable country that I imagined back when I was growing up and got interested in Asian cultures. It looked like old martial arts movies where people sit at a large round table, eat and drink tea, play games etc. But now they're running so quick to destroy all that that what took thousands of years to build and cultivate will be gone within a century or so at this pace... I find it very sad.
I have a coworker who's mother in law came to visit Canada once and she would spend 20 min washing vegetables before every meal and using boiled water to do it. The guy had to tell her, every time, that vegetables and water were a lot cleaner here. And yet I'm not sure I love our veggies that much here ;).
(Score: 2) by goodie on Sunday September 27 2015, @02:16AM
Oh and the lanscapes on those pictures... She took a cruise along the Yangtze river and the pictures were breathtaking. Now you're lucky if you can see the sky in Shanghai apparently...
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 25 2015, @12:54PM
China is as delightful as you describe. We can all truly look forward to a world with China at its center. Conveniently enough, it's already called "zhongguo," or "Kingdom at the Center" ('Middle Kingdom' is the literal translation, but the proper connotation doesn't carry over into English). To help enterprising MBAs with their business careers, here are some key phrases to use in China:
"Bu yao!" -- "I don't want it," typically yelled at street vendors trying to get you to buy jade pendants.
"Tai gui" -- "Too expensive," best said with a derisive laugh.
"Ni fangpi!" -- lit. "You're farting!", in essence "Bullshit!"
"Ni zougou zibenjia he yinggai mashangde kaishi ziping" -- "You are a running dog capitalist and should immediately begin a self-criticism (a Cultural Revolution-era practice)".
And the most important of all:
"Shi, laoban!" -- "Yes, boss!"
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Friday September 25 2015, @03:09PM
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 25 2015, @07:29PM
Yes, well, tone marks are useless to those who don't know them, and obvious to those that do. In either case, not worth the extra bother. The one longer phrase I cited was for comic effect, and you either know it, or you don't. The others you must instantly know if you speak Mandarin and know the English meaning. Context tells. "Tai gui" cannot reasonably mean "too demon!" in a business context. "Bu yao" cannot mean "don't shake" when speaking to street vendors. I know the difference, and your reply suggests you might, too, so implying that I don't is a not so clever attempt to say that I am not aware that tonal differences make a significant difference in a tonal language. "Mama ma ma ma?" can mean, "Does mother scold the horse?" or something quite different depending on the tones, but it's so idiomatic that phrase that should you pretend you don't know what's indicated without the tonal marks it establishes that you're being coy.
Shi bu shi, tongzhi?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Saturday September 26 2015, @03:13AM
The tones are only obvious if you already know the words.
I used to study Mandarin years ago, forgot most of it since I never got a chance to use it, but I still know how to read pinyin.