Should I learn French or Nihongo??

[Kankarot]

Help me!!!:(

[paralusi]

french, definitely. :D

[victory]

Originally posted by Kankarot
Help me!!!:(

For what objective?

[mac_bolan00]

to join either ODA or legione l'estrange

[Kankarot]

No specific reason. I just want to do something useful this summer. I wanna learn Nihingo just for the fun of it. Plus I can watch anime without the benefit of subtitles. French....well I dunno. My proffesor said it's widely used language, next to english.

[altair]

Japanese is more useful in business

Japanese is more fun

If you get to learn reading Kanji, you will also recognize some Chinese and Hanja characters

French is faggoty:D

http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500/3584daehan_wayguk.jpg

[anonas]

french is very close to english, in fact some english words were derived from french words. i suggest you take french, it would stay in your memory much longer.

i took both languages, i remember french more than nihongo. after a course in nihongo, i still can't understand anime

[monsterboy]

french is easier to learn, but you can use jap more (at least here in the phils) for practical purposes. given the time frame of summer, try to go with french.


good luck.

[greenberet]

of course, if you are going to France thats is . . . a typical French guy in the streets of Paris will not talk to you in English even if he knows how to speak in English - its French pride they told me . . . you need some knowledge of the French language . . . but if ever, talk to them in some and broken French first before they start talking to you in English. . . by the way, which metro to take for Invalides ??? heheh

if you are going to Japan . . . again - of course, you need to learn Japanese . . . coz most Japanese can't understand English . . . most of them, especially those Japanese school girls will just giggle at you if you talk to them in English . . . :D


FREE TIBET !!!

[crescent]

i agree with the post above. although we had japanese for two years in highschool, i could barely understand anime.

yup, french is easier to learn since it resembles english but the pronunciation part is hard. tongue twister minsan.

[cho_ree]

kapag ikaw ay balak pumunta hapon, ikaw dapat aral nihonggo.
Marami rin mga kumpanya hapon deto gaya ng toyota, nidec copal, toshiba, sharp, nissan ramen , denso gengko, kokeng namen, panglo ******.

Kapag ikaw naman ay gusto mag-aral ng siyensiya, kailangan mo aral frenching, para mapagaralan mo mga gawa nina Fourier, Coulomb, Verhulst, Clairut,Lagrange at iba pa....

[LongBow]

why not learn both? ;-)

[mizfoxxxybonita]

i'll go with french...if u wanna learn nihongo, u will still have to learn how to write their so-called letters, while french, we almost have the same letters whatsoever

[SpellbindMedia]

Easy - learn both.

[altair]

vive le france vs Nihon banzai!!!

bon appetit vs Itadakimasu


oui vs hai

i'd take Jap over french anytime

Tagalog and Japanese syllables are almost the same, you won't have any problems with enunciation.

A lot of people know french, so, if you know it, it's not such a big deal. A lot of french also know english, so, if you know english, you will not have such a hard time communicating with the french. On the other hand, very few Japanese know how to speak English. The only way to communicate effectively with a Japanese is to speak Japanese.


Japan is the second or the third biggest economy -> think about the advantages of knowing the Japanese language. If you have the guts, it would even be better if you study Chinese-> so many western businesses are rushing into China -> but damn, you have to memorize all those characters.

At first glance, Katakana and Hiragana are intimidating, but those are alphabets, once you memorize all of the symbols, you're done.

I also made the mistake of picking a language elective on the basis of ease in transition (I picked German). Looking back, I should have studied Korean, Japanese, or Chinese.


http://www.xpphotoalbum.com/data/500/3584daehan_wayguk.jpg

[SpellbindMedia]

If I were given the opportunity, I'd study

Italian
German
Japanese
French (not just because of France, but there are other French-speaking countries like Canada)
and Sign Language :D
Probably an Islamic dialect to be able to speak to our Muslim brothers as well.

[freakin_calm]

well it depends.

japanese belongs to the austronesian group, so it is related to our language, somehow. commonly, its sentence structure is subject- object- verb. it has a fun orthography, namely, hiragana, katakana, and kanji. japanese is now known to be the business and tech language, as japan is rising. also, they are more generous as regards scholarships, unlike france that has expenses that will make you sell, even your bones. plus the fact that japanese language has an easier pronunciation.

as regards french, it is highly related to english, in fact, it is said that 70% of the english lexicon came from french, so it is easier to absorb the lessons, and relate to the language. it has a Subject- Verb- Object, or, Subject- Object- Vern syntax. the problem is, french has a lot of nasalizations, and would be hard for the first time. the challenge also isn't much there. well, i studied japanese for quite a time and i enjoyed it, but i guess, french, like spanish, is easy, personally.

I won't take biases, but, it would be better if you study japanese, if you are intending to take a scholarship there, but if you don't want hassle, learn french, but if you want an exotic language, learn kalkatunggu (Australian Aboriginal), or Itbayaten (Philippine Language).

Ja. Shiawase o natte kudasai!

[whoopsidaisies]

ako this coming sem, meron akong language elective and i chose FRENCH. hehe the language of love? :luvluv: actually, ako naman, i was choosing between French and Latin..and i figured studying an 'ancient' language might bore me eventually, so French nalang since I've always been interested with the language. That's my 'advice', if you can call it that. Pick the language you're more interested in, or the culture you want to learn more about. :)

[R3'91]

Well, it really depends on what you plan to do with the new language. French is a universal language, it being the national language of numerous nations (aside from being an official language of the UN).. however, it has been overtaken by English and is slowly being overtaken by German (in Europe, at least). Japanese, on the other hand, is very useful in business because Japan is a major trade partner of the Philippines. And the japs really feel flattered when you speak to them in their language (unlike the French who expect you to speak to them in French - the snobs!)

Japanese is easier to pronounce, unlike French which is rarely pronounced the way it is spelled.

So unless you plan to do a lot of travelling, I would recommend Japanese.

If you encounter a French-speaker and he starts to talk to you in French, just say "Désolé monsieur, mais je ne parle pas français. Parlez-vous anglais ou japonais?" :D

[rave]

Let's put it this way. Most French people know how to speak English well (despite the pride, they'd probably give in eventually), so there is relatively little problem communicating with them despite you not knowing how to speak French.

On the other hand, most Japanese don't know how to speak English at all, so there might be some difficulty if you don't know how to speak Nihongo.

Studying Japanese also has this added bonus of being able to read Chinese characters and being able to use a non-Roman type of character set.

Also, Japanese grammar is a lot simpler than English grammar, more so compared to French grammar. You'd be able to concentrate more on vocabulary rather than structure. Moreover, wouldn't it be cool to finally be able to understand those Japanese cartoons and video games?

For me, learning French has nothing more than novelty value. Learning Japanese is a lot more useful. Of course, I have this bias because I currently live in Japan. It's still your choice.

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By the way, If you take a Japanese language class expecting to be able to understand anime afterwards, don't get your hopes up unless it's a sufficiently advanced class. The most basic Nihongo lessons only cover a subset of the verb inflections, which are the more respectful forms -- those which are never really used in casual conversation. If you have only this background, you might not catch the slang and colloquial terms used in anime. Maybe if you reach the "て" ("te") forms in your lessons, then you'd start understanding.

[freakin_calm]

rave's right. after the 'te' forms, you're off. except for the sociolects.

[x_roads]

chinese na lang!! hehe la lang. (papansin noh?) hehe ;) :D

[luntianatpula]

me kakilala ba kayo nagtuturo ng advanced japanese? preferably yung nagtyu-tutor or naghohome service. balak ko sana magpatutor... or baka me gusto jan makipag group study, ok lang din ako :D

i had taken jap 11&12 (for the anime too), but it's still not enough. basa pa rin ako ng subtitles, tsk! its frustrating... :D

patulong naman!!! PLLLEEEEAAASSSEEE!!!

at magkano kaya damage magpatutor??

[rave]

JICA offers free lessons to everyone. Try looking for announcements at the 4th floor of the NEC building at UP Diliman.

The course is extremely basic, though. Well, at least I'm speaking for the one I attended. There may be more advanced ones.

[freakin_calm]

Originally posted by rave
Let's put it this way. Most French people know how to speak English well (despite the pride, they'd probably give in eventually), so there is relatively little problem communicating with them despite you not knowing how to speak French.

On the other hand, most Japanese don't know how to speak English at all, so there might be some difficulty if you don't know how to speak Nihongo.

yo, rave. i think this is more of an advantage than a disadvantage. although it is hard to learn japanese because it lacks cognate sets with english or other familiar languages, and many nihonjins are incompetent in the race of 'who's-better-in-english', baka yun ang makita mong pagkakataon para kumita. plus the fact that many nihonjins are crazy about the philippines that they have a very extensive program in philippine studies. aba! e kapag nakatapos ka at nalamang may japanese proficiency ka, big time, pare!

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rave: (edit) I just corrected the VB layout tags.

[pinkrose]

How serious are you ba? If you just want to take something fun this summer, you should take French. But if you're really serious about it and willing to really work hard at learning a new language for practical purposes, then you should learn Nihongo.

[rave]

Haha, now on the lighter side, I think it's cool to sign up for French summer classes if you're a guy, since it's typically a class predominated by girls. :D

[freakin_calm]

thanks rave. d n ko marunong ng vb layout e. tagal na rin. back to the topic, well, if you're up to the challenge of nasalization, learn french. but if you're interest is the so- called devil's language, go! mag- nihonggo ka.

[rave]

Originally posted by x_roads
chinese na lang!! hehe la lang. (papansin noh?) hehe ;) :D
If you're going into an in-depth study of Japanese, you will undoubtedly touch a bit of Chinese. Both languages share quite a lot of written characters.

[crash_is_a_hoax]

I recommend French. Its more widely used, not just in former French colonies, parts of Switzerland, Monaco and some parts of europe but also in some widely recognized global organizations.

Besides, who would never want to learn le francaise?