Which Languages Are Easiest?

[Mr. Farang]

Oh and btw Mr. Farang, 44 consonants and 32 vowels 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Laughing out loud -- thanks. I saw my typo after it was too late to edit, based on how the forum software is configured.

One other point, learning the Thai "ABCs' is really a lot of fun !!

Take Care.

[Mr. Farang]

Actually Mr Farang, I learned my Thai just from picking it up but then I have no need of "high Thai" or business Thai and would look a fool for speaking it where I live.

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Actually, one never "looks like a fool" for speaking what some call "high Thai". When I am in Laos or NE Thailand people really like well spoken Thai. No one thinks a Farang is a fool anywhere in Thailand speaking polite, well spoken, "University Thai" The main difference, naturally, is the lanaguage is more formal and formality has its place everywhere in Thailand.

I once dated a "country girl" who's family lived way out in the jungle and rice fields (with buffalo and chickens) and went to see her parents. They had a nice dinner for me where many of their neighbors came, all wantings to see "this farang" and everyone spoke a local version of Thai. When I spoke only (as you call it) "high Thai" all the elderly women smiled very big and I was treated very respectful with very deep "wais" (palm together respectfulness).

Just recentlly in the North, with a well to do family, whom everyone pays the same respect (deep bows to the father and mother of the family with the family only providing a small bow or smile) after speaking Thai to them, using religious and culture metaphors and having a very nice table talk with all the family, mom, dad, daughter, her friend, and workers, all the family gave me a very deep "wai" and I could feel the great admiration and respect for my language skills. They encouraged their daughter, who is from a family that certainly does not need one penny of my money, or the gossip of having a farang close to the family, to keep in touch with me.

In closing, I appreciate the nice posts, but disagree very much that speaking what you call "high Thai" makes any Farang look like a fool. That statement is simply incorrect - no Farang in Thailand who speaks Thai well looks like a fool if he or she speaks respectfully, politely and with humor - AND with a big smile.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Farang

[OxfordWill]

Ice Maiden, I've tried to get in touch with my friend but I think she might be in Japan. As soon as I hear back from her I'll let you know.

[MilkPlus]

Learn Chinese, if you learn Chinese the employment opportunities in many many fields will be open to you, you will in a sense be able to pick and choose.

Is it hard? Maybe, probably, but so is Brain Surgery. What’s the big deal with something being hard?

If you were in prison and the guards said if you can carry on a conversation in Chinese for one hour we will set you free I bet you would learn Chinese?

Considering the vocational freedom/opportunities learning Chinese will give you I would think it a no brainer.

[RAZZELL]

Mr Farang...Great post...

Out of interest where did you study Thai? And for how long?

[meadish_sweetball]

Mandarin is the way to go for sheer numbers and up and coming importance. Japanese is still important, and learning how to speak wont present a lot of problems as has been suggested - reading and writing is a different matter though - people usually get katakana and hiragana down fairly quickly, but Kanji is Chinese signs, and there are thousands...

If you already, as you imply, have the basics in French you might want to do some repetition courses in order to get it back to scratch - that way your previous time will not go to waste. If you let it rest for too long it will be gone.

Spanish is useful and relatively easy to learn, but not so much in this part of the world.

German, well, in Europe it is an important language. Here in Asia I wouldn't worry about it. The up and coming generation of Germans speaks passable English anyway. To learn Dutch or any Scandinavian language I would only recommend if you are seriously interested in any of those areas - otherwise we all speak English.

[NordicMan]

Told Mandarin was easy, not sure though 

Thankyou, Ice Maiden 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Depends on what lanaguages you speak already and how familiar you are with language structures and grammar. if you have a very strong knowledge of grammar, not just "instinctly know what is right and wrong", that will help a lot in picking up European lanaguages.

Mandarin has a really easy grammar. pronounciation may be difficult for you. Do you find it very difficult to get the tones right in Thai?

I assume you don't need to learn written languages as a flight attendant, so you don't need to worry so much about the chinese characters. Keep in mind that if you can't read the language, only speak it (korean chinese japanese etc.), you will only be exposed to it while you are speaking/listening. It is easy to forget, as you can't read magazines etc. to refresh your memory.

Malay/Indonesian is not a tonal language, AND the grammar is very easy. Maybe something worth considering. not sure how helpful it will be for you, but around 300 million people speak it, including many in southern thailand.

-nm

[thedude]

regarding mandarin, if you have the time and resources, beijing university offers a very immersive course on mandarin for foreigners. you basically lock yourself away on campus for 3 to 6 months learning, living and speaking the language together with other students from around the world, and you walk away being pretty conversant. you dont have to learn reading and writing until you are more confortable with the spoken language.

[TRIPxCORE]

All foreign languages are difficult to learn in some way. To be applicable for use as a flight attendant, you need only to know how to speak and converse in the language but not how to read or write it. Getting a job with a foreign airline will be very difficult, especially within SE Asia. As you well know, Thai companies do not like to hire farang to do anything unless they cannot find a Thai national to do the job. I have flown on Thai Airways and Air Asia many times and have never seen a farang flight attendant on any flights.

If you are to get a job with an Asian-based airline, they only way I see it possible is perhaps with one of the major airlines such as Japan Airlines or Cathay Pacific but even that is a longshot. There will always be an issue of your citizenship. The best chance for you to work as a flight attendant would be with British Airways, British Midland, Ryan Air or any other UK-Based airline. Learning a foreign language is always a good idea and can only be beneficial but being a UK citizen just makes it hard to work for any airlines not based there.

I don't mean to put a damper on this for you but those are the facts. Everyone on here that has been replying to you, how many farang flight attendants have you seen working for Asian or Arabic airlines? I have seen none.

[thedude]

I don't mean to put a damper on this for you but those are the facts.  Everyone on here that has been replying to you, how many farang flight attendants have you seen working for Asian or Arabic airlines?  I have seen none.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you obviously haven't flown on Cathay Pacific or Emirates or Qatar Air. These are all world class carriers who actively seek to build up a multinational air crew and make it policy that there is always someone aboard who can handle the languages of the countries flown to.

these airlines normally hire asian women who can speak english or other european languages. millions of asians speak english and other european languages, however, i have seen many farangs serving onboard these airlines. i think they'd rather have diversity than to be dogmatic about which nationalities they would hire.

being a farang with asian language skills simply flips the advantage around, apart from the large asian/arab airlines, she may even join large european carriers with extensive asian routes, like British Airways or Air France, Luftansa etc.

Edited December 12, 2005 by thedude

[think_too_mut]

I don't mean to put a damper on this for you but those are the facts.  Everyone on here that has been replying to you, how many farang flight attendants have you seen working for Asian or Arabic airlines?  I have seen none.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you obviously haven't flown on Cathay Pacific or Emirates or Qatar Air. These are all world class carriers who actively seek to build up a multinational air crew and make it policy that there is always someone aboard who can handle the languages of the countries flown to.

these airlines normally hire asian women who can speak english or other european languages. millions of asians speak english and other european languages, however, i have seen many farangs serving onboard these airlines. i think they'd rather have diversity than to be dogmatic about which nationalities they would hire.

being a farang with asian language skills simply flips the advantage around, apart from the large asian/arab airlines, she may even join large european carriers with extensive asian routes, like British Airways or Air France, Luftansa etc.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What an advice for an astute girl. To work a crappy job of a flight attendant.

My aspirations for my child are much higher, hope that kind of money earning job never occurs to her.

[TRIPxCORE]

I don't mean to put a damper on this for you but those are the facts.  Everyone on here that has been replying to you, how many farang flight attendants have you seen working for Asian or Arabic airlines?  I have seen none.

you obviously haven't flown on Cathay Pacific or Emirates or Qatar Air. These are all world class carriers who actively seek to build up a multinational air crew and make it policy that there is always someone aboard who can handle the languages of the countries flown to.

these airlines normally hire asian women who can speak english or other european languages. millions of asians speak english and other european languages, however, i have seen many farangs serving onboard these airlines. i think they'd rather have diversity than to be dogmatic about which nationalities they would hire.

being a farang with asian language skills simply flips the advantage around, apart from the large asian/arab airlines, she may even join large european carriers with extensive asian routes, like British Airways or Air France, Luftansa etc.

Hence, there was a reason I formed my statement into a question for the rest of you. I , myself, have not seen any farang working as flight attendants on board any Asian or Arabic airlines. If you have, I wanted to know. So you say you have seen farang working for them, then thats great news for Icey because thay means she has a chance then. Thats good news for her. I hope she gets what she wants.

[Ice Maiden]

An old thread here

[Glauka]

SPANISHHHH!!!

nice, easy and beautiful...useful in many countries!!

[astral]

I would say English is the easiest.

I had a good working knowledge before I was 5 years old.

Seriously Mandarin is the language of the future, but I understand you need

a musical ear as it is tonal. Like Thai, but much more difficult.

Easy languages, Bahasa Malaysia and Indonesia.

Use latin script and do not employ tones or lots of grammar.

[thedude]

I would say English is the easiest.

I had a good working knowledge before I was 5 years old. 

Seriously Mandarin is the language of the future, but I understand you need

a musical ear as it is tonal.  Like Thai, but much more difficult.

Easy languages, Bahasa Malaysia and Indonesia.

Use latin script and do not employ tones or lots of grammar.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

there are only 4 tones in mandarin. how many are there in thai?

[Boon Mee]

I would say English is the easiest.

I had a good working knowledge before I was 5 years old. 

Seriously Mandarin is the language of the future, but I understand you need

a musical ear as it is tonal.  Like Thai, but much more difficult.

Easy languages, Bahasa Malaysia and Indonesia.

Use latin script and do not employ tones or lots of grammar.

there are only 4 tones in mandarin. how many are there in thai?

Five.

Rising, falling, high, low and mid.

[~G~]

Apart from "Easiest languages", is the statement "the more languages you know, the easier it is to learn a new one" correct? Not refering here to cases such as learning Lao based on knowledge of Thai, but more to general abilities of acquiring a language - do those improve with the number of languages one learns?

[anna234cn]

Told Mandarin was easy, not sure though 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, it is. hehe. maybe just for me. But I'd like to say many expats I've seen in China speak Madarin very well within one year.

[phibunmike]

Hello again 

Right I wondered if anyone could advise me on the languages that are quite easy to pickup. As I'm quite young I think I'll pick a language up quite easily but I just wanted some advice on the more simple ones. Because I would like to be a Flight Attendant it would benefit me more if I'm fluent in a number of languages - will give me more of a chance to be selected. I'm trying to get as many things on my CV as possible that will make me stand out from the crowd and I believe this is one area.

Told Mandarin was easy, not sure though 

Thankyou, Ice Maiden 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How about Malay/Indonesian? - Very easy language to learn (words are written the way they are pronounced, very little grammar, no tones), and spoken by more than 200 million people in the region.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good recommendation. And I would concentrate on Indo, rather than Malay, as the pronunciation is much clearer - Malays ten to chp the wds up.