Which should I take? Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, or French 🤔?

Question

I know some Chinese, because it was required for me to take it for two years. I need to pick a language to learn in college. Should I advance my Chinese or learn Japanese? What do ya think? 😊

I am also interested in advancing my French, but I need to only pick one. It has been awhile since I spoke French, tho. 🤪

Which should I take? Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, or French 🤔?

Updates

+1 y

I want to pick a language that while benefit me in the future. A useful language.
Besides English…lol

Updates

+1 y

Will*

jennifer_bloom · Accepted Answer

I'm Chinese and I think the French language would have the easier vocabulary and grammar but as a Chinese person I have difficulty making French word sounds sometimes. But China has over 2 billion people so the number of words you might have to learn might be harder to manage. I do think they systemize a standard language the whole country must observe. The problem with the Chinese language is that slight variations in sound totally change the meaning of words.

Ma could mean horse, mother, heavy criticism, numb, or query summoning, depending on how you pronounce the word.

Tsai could mean guess or vegetable or luck or stock bond or oppression or foot hold or subdue or pull apart depending on how you pronounce the word.

Gia could mean fake or guess or plastic or furniture or family or status or marriage or household or Canada or a city or province depending on how you pronounce the word.

Jooying · Accepted Answer

Mandarin Chinese. You already have a start, it would be easier for you to get better grades. Plus, people in China now have the policy where encourage their own people not to learn other languages, which means if you go to other countries, English could work but not in China in the future.

mstbooblover · Accepted Answer

The choice of one among those three depends on what you can later do with them. Do you plan to have contacts or business in Japan for instance? If not, considering you already know some Chinese, my advice would be to study French, which is an important language in Africa, Europe and some countries oversea.

The ultimate choice depends of course of what you have in mind to maybe realize with one of those languages. Best wishes :0)

tiamatx · Accepted Answer

Take Chinese or Japanese.

Depends on your expectations - do you need proficiency in Chinese or would you rather want to be able to order dinner both in Chinese and Japanese.

Surely don't take French, it is a useless language (and I say it as a bilingual native of French).

RavVid · Answer

Well how comfortable are you with learning those languages and how good are you with languages? If you are like me and struggle then you might want one you can learn most easily. If however you are good at languages and intend to be say a translator then I guess you would want to find out where the most call is.

Possibly there are a lot of chinese people with reasonable English to compete with.

Makeushiver · Answer

Well, Mandarin is the most useful at this point in history. French is good for cocktail conversarion and dropping the occasional soixante neuf. I used French, German and Spanish whi;e traveling and a bit of French still. Japanese woould have been appropriate for the '80s & '90s but it turns out their economy is as vuknerable as ours

ArtemisSilver · Answer

Depends where you live and what your use will be. I'd probably go with Japanese if you'd like to travel there often on business. Being Canadian french would be handy for government work.

I wouldn't bother with learning Chinese because they are becoming more insular and xenophobic by the day and they make unreliable business partners because of their crooked legal system.

Aiko_E_Lara · Answer

While Japanese would sound cooler, I think Chinese Mandarin would be the most useful one if you sell stuff and source your stocks from China. But it always depends on what you plan to do in your life. Maybe if some Japanese game devs/ anime producers would hire me, Japanese would also be useful for me.

NathanDavis · Answer

Chinese would be the best option... you already started with it, which is great, as you're sure sure you can advance with it... and, it is definitely going to be the one that is more useful career-wise opportunities

exitseven · Answer

The way things are going I would want to learn Chinese since Biden is selling the country to them.

Sour-rose · Answer

I'm learning french and it's going well... slowly. Sooo how about mandarin? Japanese for me is actually... well shi, learning a language gets easier with time. So mandarin. :D

es20490446e · Answer

What kind of people do you want to engage with?

AviatorTom · Answer

1 in every 7 people on the planet speak Chinese (Mandarin), so that's a good language to learn.

LiamSawyer · Answer

Pick which ever one that will help you the most and can use in day-to-day day life or for business.

nawtee_me · Answer

Whet might you travel to on your honeymoon? China? Japan? France?

bigpauly · Answer

If it’s for a class my recommendation is whatever would be easiest. I always just feel the language courses in college never really help you become a proficient speaker in that language is my only reason

The_Shadow_Dweller · Answer

I would choose Chinese. I like China people. I want to interact with them, therefore.

Xoirwinkan · Answer

China is closing itself to the rest of the world, and it is a 'thug state' anyways, so I'd suggest Japanese or French, whichever you find most enjoyable.

AimeeKyle · Answer

I would pick the language that of a place you would consider living one day or one that would be advantageous for the type of work you do.

clampfan101 · Answer

I personally would love to learn Japanese. I love anime and manga, and want to at least visit Japan.

Jennz6 · Answer

Stay with the language you were studying and learn it really well before you start learning another language.

KostasKouvalis · Answer

French. The other two are irritating and useless.

MysticDevice · Answer

French or Japanese. Both are mezmerizing to hear spoken fluently.

humanearth · Answer

What no Morse Code or Pennsylvania Dutch

Jerre · Answer

I would stay with Chinese

dustybiker · Answer

Whichever benefits you more.

tfan1 · Answer

Learn them all.

BJP21 · Answer

Mandarin is in the top hardest languages to learn.

TallAnon · Answer

Depends! What do you see yourself use more?

SpaceGalaxy · Answer

French, language of romance

Which should I take? Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, or French 🤔?

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