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Arabic and Chinese

mike172

mike172

GO NAVY
I am currently about to finish my first semester of Arabic, I was wondering if one rather than the other (Arabic or Chinese) is more beneficial. The reason why I ask is my school does not have many options for middle east centric classes but it has more for China/Asia so I could still switch over. I was just wondering because I know China is an up and coming potential competitor but the Middle East is already an area we are engaged in. Just looking for some incite. Thanks.
 
Perhaps arabic is more healthful for the body than chinese....at least that's my "incite".
 
mike172 said:
I am currently about to finish my first semester of Arabic, I was wondering if one rather than the other (Arabic or Chinese) is more beneficial. The reason why I ask is my school does not have many options for middle east centric classes but it has more for China/Asia so I could still switch over. I was just wondering because I know China is an up and coming potential competitor but the Middle East is already an area we are engaged in. Just looking for some incite. Thanks.
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Like HH-60 already asked, what are you looking to use it for? I fyou think you might go into business one day you might want to think about Chinese. they will be a long term business partner/competitor far into the future. With the exception of oil and natural gas, the Mideast doesn't really offer much for business except Dubai and the lingua franca of business there is English anyways. But if you are looking at it from a purely military aspect then either one would be good.

One thing to keep in mind is that Arabic is much easier to learn than Chinese. The people that I know who have a working knowledge of Chinese have studied for years, often intensively. Some of the people who have the same level of competence in Arabic have studied it for much less time.
 
Flash said:
Like HH-60 already asked, what are you looking to use it for? I fyou think you might go into business one day you might want to think about Chinese. they will be a long term business partner/competitor far into the future. With the exception of oil and natural gas, the Mideast doesn't really offer much for business except Dubai and the lingua franca of business there is English anyways. But if you are looking at it from a purely military aspect then either one would be good.

One thing to keep in mind is that Arabic is much easier to learn than Chinese. The people that I know who have a working knowledge of Chinese have studied for years, often intensively. Some of the people who have the same level of competence in Arabic have studied it for much less time.
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Well duh, that's because there are only, like, 3 words in Arabic: Durka-Durka, Muhammad, Jihad...:D
 
Languages

In general--
Pick one or the other. One does not just "pick up" Arabic or Chinese. Arabic, though, is generally easier for an English-speaker to learn.

Benefits in the military--
If you learn either language to a level of proficiency, you can take a listening/reading comprehension test once you're in the military and get extra monthly pay. Both of these languages pay very well (at least $500 a month I think, but don't quote me on that) for the highest levels of proficiency, and they are both in the top tier of language pay. And it's a tough test. I only got the second-best scores on languages in which I considered myself very fluent. Other than that, you probably won't be called upon to use your language skills through your first aviation tour. After that, it depends on your choices and the needs of the Navy.

Civilian--
Again, mostly it will depend on your choices and the current business environment. Back in the early 1900s, one of the most in-demand languages in the diplomatic and business world was Turkish. One little skirmish in Europe changed all that. Also, think about this...What you learn might determine where you live. And what if you select Prowlers and have a bunch of little girls? :)Would you want to raise them in Arabic-speaking countries?
 
I've been learning Chinese on my own for around a year now... its not easy... and I picked up spanish as a foreign language in HS like it was nothing. I'm going to try to take some local courses at a juco before I graduate.
 
i'm a chinese major and think its been really rewarding. I think its something about the ability to strike up a conversation with 1 in 6 people on the face of the earth.
 
Chinese might be useful if you were involved with the business world in the East. Other than that, I expect you'll probably forget a lot of it after the course from lack of practice. And like someone already said, it's not an easy language for westerners to learn. I took it for over two years, and got quite good at it. But haven't used it since college and my Chinese is just getting worse.
 
The last I heard is that the military (or at least the Marine Corps) had enough Arabic translators and wasn't paying a language bonus or doing anything else special for Arabic speakers.

My thoughts: Arabic is todays current interest, China will probably be tomorrow's, and it's better to be ahead of the curve than on it.

Or you could be like a guy I know who swears that Russian is incredibly relevant and will be the next big thing to know...(everywhere I have been outside of Russia proper where people spoke it, speaking English was a good way to strike up a conversation and [maybe] get a free drink, speaking Russian was a good way to get into a barfight).
 
fusu said:
i'm a chinese major and think its been really rewarding. I think its something about the ability to strike up a conversation with 1 in 6 people on the face of the earth.
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Well, here in California, if you know English you can strike up a conversation with one in ten people you meet...
 
fusu said:
i'm a chinese major and think its been really rewarding. I think its something about the ability to strike up a conversation with 1 in 6 people on the face of the earth.
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Well.......I presume you are learning standard Mandarin which means you could only speak with about 1 in 12 people in the world, since only about 53% of Chinese "can communicate in Putonghua [Mandarin]."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/international/asia/10chinese.html

Not only that, the overwhelming majority are in just one country. English on the other hand, is spoken all over the world. That is what happens when the two powerful most countries in the world for the past 200 years both speak it.
 
Take first semester Chinese and then see what you like (if that's EITHER). Unless you rock at languages, you're going to need a ton of motivation to make use of either.

It's college. Do what you like.
 
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