Linguistics

[VSU]

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I'm looking for opinions from current SDN premeds on:

1) Favorite Language

2) Language with most merit

3) Most beautiful language to listen to

4) Most useful language, in regards to your occupation, or geographical area

Feel free to list how hard it was, for you to learn your language.


EDIT: By "merit", I mean, which language gives you access to a deeper well of knowledge? Whether that knowledge is gained through literature, or oral tradition.

 

[Chemdude]

I'm looking for opinions from current SDN premeds on:

1) Favorite Language

2) Language with most merit

3) Most beautiful language to listen to

4) Most useful language, in regards to your occupation, or geographical area

Feel free to list how hard it was, for you to learn your language.

1) Arabic

2) Arabic

3) Italian

4) English

 

[chman]

My favorite is English. Not just because I am a native speaker, but because it is so difficult, with so many little tricks to it.

I have taken a year of Spanish. It has not been incredibly hard, but it is difficult.

Most beautiful language would have to be French or Italian most likely.

Most useful, in the US and health care, Spanish. No question (if we are excluding English of course).

 

[VSU]

Thank you for your input, Chemdude.
What would you say gives Arabic merit?
Does it have any literature, that you can only gain true meaning from, by reading it in it's original language(Arabic), or is the merit gained by speaking to those who speak Arabic?

 

[VSU]

Thank you, chman.
Would you say that Spanish is useful in most places, within the United States,
or only the South, Southwest?

 

[chman]

Thank you, chman.
Would you say that Spanish is useful in most places, within the United States,
or only the South, Southwest?

I'd say almost everywhere. In places with a large Hispanic population such as the southwest it is pretty obvious. But places in the US without a "large" Hispanic population still usually have a significant amount, and in those places there is usually a shortage of Spanish speaking health care professionals.

 

[Electronegative]

-Favorite language: Japanese
-Most merit: English (I love British literature)
-Favorite to listen to: Japanese
-Most useful: Spanish, I think no matter which part of the country someone lives in spanish is one of the growing languages in the country.


EN

 

[Web MD]

Engrish

 

[DrYoda]

1. German. Mostly because I like the grammar.
2. Mandarin (if we're excluding English)
3. Not sure. But I'll break with the crowd in saying it's definitely not one of the romance languages.
4. Just English.

 

[Chemdude]

Thank you for your input, Chemdude.
What would you say gives Arabic merit?
Does it have any literature, that you can only gain true meaning from, by reading it in it's original language(Arabic), or is the merit gained by speaking to those who speak Arabic?

Well, I am Arab and I have taken a fair amount of Arabic linguistics courses, so I'm probably very biased, but....

Arabic is a very complex language. In terms of grammar, it is one of the most complex languages. It is also extremely structured.

There is also a lot of [classical] literature. Pretty much everything written in Arabic during the classical period is poetic (including scientific works).

If you are really interested in comparing languages, you should read this article: http://pdfcast.org/pdf/arabic-vs-spanish

 

[VSU]

Thank you, once again, Chemdude.

 

[lmarina1]

.

 

[VSU]

Thanks, lmarina1, I'll see if I can find it in the library.

 

[Elpenor]

The only language that matters is American.

 

[murfettie]

we also read pinker's book for my intro linguistics class.
it's linguistics is very interesting

1) Favorite Language
Arabic ... I just think it's so cool.
Impossible to learn

2) Language with most merit
Chinese

3) Most beautiful language to listen to
A bunch.

4) Most useful language, in regards to your occupation, or geographical area
Chinese.
I'm a native Chinese speaker. interpret in medical settings. translate documents for money.. so.. it makes me money, so i like it.
Also, it is really useful. I've had a # of cool jobs after college, and every one of them was because.
oh, you are a nice girl. oh you did well in college and went to a good college. oh. you speak Chinese... okay. work for us.

 

[VSU]

That's an interesting language to use(Chinese), for medicine.
I never really considered it much.
Thank you for the response, murfettie.

 

[schrizto]

1) Favorite Language
English 😀

2) Language with most merit
Latin, because it is the language that appears the most scholarly since it is no longer spoken casually and is used primarily in academic settings

3) Most beautiful language to listen to
Perhaps French, but it could be because I've seen many beautiful women speaking it

4) Most useful language, in regards to your occupation, or geographical area
Spanish

 

[schrizto]

-Favorite to listen to: Japanese

Ah, forgot about that one! Japanese is definitely very beautiful and fun to listen to.

 

[chman]

Ah, forgot about that one! Japanese is definitely very beautiful and fun to listen to.

Japanese is the one Asian language that I actually somewhat enjoy listening to (no offense to those that speak others). Perhaps because it is more soft spoken, I don't know.

 

[Electronegative]

Japanese is the one Asian language that I actually somewhat enjoy listening to (no offense to those that speak others). Perhaps because it is more soft spoken, I don't know.

I find that Japanese has balance between soft and hard tones which is nice.

EN

 

[morning]

I'm looking for opinions from current SDN premeds on:

1) Favorite Language

2) Language with most merit

3) Most beautiful language to listen to

4) Most useful language, in regards to your occupation, or geographical area

Feel free to list how hard it was, for you to learn your language.


EDIT: By "merit", I mean, which language gives you access to a deeper well of knowledge? Whether that knowledge is gained through literature, or oral tradition.

1) Spanish

2) Dunno what you mean by MERIT, but probably Finnish because you have to work really hard to be THAT crazy.

3) Spanish

4) English

I do like think Japanese and Icelandic are both really beautiful-sounding languages, but Spanish is so mellifluous that I can't help but love it 🙂

 

[teddy bear doc]

1) French -- What can I say, it was my first love before bio.

2) Arabic -- if more people understood this one, the world would be a very different and possibly more peaceful place. And I am referring not only to the literal aspects, but also the insights into the psyche that cannot be grasped in another language (ie in translation from Arabic to English).

3) Portugese -- each time I hear it it is so cool. Almost like Spanish and Russian mixed together.

4) English and/or Spanish -- sort of a toss up between these two since it could be said they are the 2 most frequently used languages in the US

 

[Chemdude]

1) French -- What can I say, it was my first love before bio.

2) Arabic -- if more people understood this one, the world would be a very different and possibly more peaceful place. And I am referring not only to the literal aspects, but also the insights into the psyche that cannot be grasped in another language (ie in translation from Arabic to English).

3) Portugese -- each time I hear it it is so cool. Almost like Spanish and Russian mixed together.

4) English and/or Spanish -- sort of a toss up between these two since it could be said they are the 2 most frequently used languages in the US

What's really weird is that most people think Arabic is a primitive/ugly language. It's sad to see that the Arabic language has been reduced to "derka derka" in the eyes of the American public.

 

[takk]

1. Spanish (am biased, studied abroad in Madrid last summer)

2. Spanish (see above)

3. Icelandic (listen to some Sigur Rós and you'll understand why)

4. English

 

[teddy bear doc]

What's really weird is that most people think Arabic is a primitive/ugly language. It's sad to see that the Arabic language has been reduced to "derka derka" in the eyes of the American public.

I totally agree. It is an extremely complex language with so many subtleties that can be really impossible to grasp some finer cultural points without a deep linguistic understanding.

 

[Azrie]

1) Russian
Because of the classic literature, because it's a rather difficult language to learn, and because there are so many ways of saying similar (but slightly different meaning) things in it. Oh, and the unparalleled ability to make nicknames.

It also happens to be my first language... 😀

2) English. (But give it a few decades-- it'll soon be Chinese.)

3) Japanese, definitely.

4) English and Spanish.

Learning English wasn't so bad.. because I was young when I started, and because I was surrounded by English-speakers, having moved to the US. (Trying to re-learn Russian, on the other hand, was very painful.)