Besides Chinese and Japanese, which Asian language is?

Motivator   Sat Oct 17, 2009 2:11 pm GMT
Besides Chinese and Japanese, which Asian language is popular and easy to learn? (I mean by "easy" to get learning materials, online lectures, many available programs and courses!)
Little Tadpole   Sat Oct 17, 2009 2:49 pm GMT
Ha! Com'on, this is common knowledge: Bahasa Malaysia/Indonesia, you learn one, get the other one for free. You'll be able to use it with 250 million people, many more than South Korea's 50 million. As far as easiness, it's recognized as one of the easiest languages in the world, if not the easiest. (Not that I speak it.)
Little Tadpole   Sat Oct 17, 2009 2:52 pm GMT
Plus, once you learn it, you can use it to talk to Barack Obama.
Caspian   Sat Oct 17, 2009 5:32 pm GMT
Can anybody confirm that Barrack Obama speaks the language, or is it a rumour?
US user   Sat Oct 17, 2009 5:52 pm GMT
I think that this man is very, very, very clever.

In my opinion, he speaks Spanish, Indonesian and some Swahili. Besides, if he wants he can study French or German in only two years. But he is the American President and he can't say that he speaks several languages in a country where some 75% of the people are almost stupid.
Caspian   Sat Oct 17, 2009 5:53 pm GMT
Why can't he?

I sympathise with you, I'd say the same percentage applies to England.
European   Sat Oct 17, 2009 6:39 pm GMT
<<Why can't he?>>

If he shows he is very clever, American people won't identify with him. They identify more with a stupid President, like Bush.

For example, when there was a clever candidate like Al Gore and another one almost retarded, like Bush, American people identified themselves with the most stupid.

In Europe, , Al Gore would have had the 85% of the votes. We prefer clever candidates. That's an important difference.

So, Obama is afraid of showing too much intelligence.
Caspian   Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:07 pm GMT
I see what you mean. Mind you, we have Gordon Brown as prime-minister - he'd give George Bush a run for his money regarding stupidity!
guest   Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:58 pm GMT
When Americans go aboard, they assume that everyone speaks English, but they are somewhat negative towards Americans who have learned foreign languages, probably because learning languages is seen as elitist or un-American.
I survived Poughquag   Sat Oct 17, 2009 8:11 pm GMT
<<Besides Chinese and Japanese, which Asian language is popular and easy to learn? >>

Is Chinese easy to learn? We just had another thread saying it's pointless for Westerneers (Americans in particular) to even try to learn Chinese, since it takes a whole lifetime dedicated exclusively to study of Chinese just to become reasonably fluent.

As for other Asian languages, how about Hindi, Telugu, Gujerati, Tamil, etc?. Would these be any easier than Chinese (or Japanese)?
K. T.   Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:08 pm GMT
It's unclear how many languages Barack Obama speaks and at what level he speaks them.
Little Tadpole   Sun Oct 18, 2009 1:02 am GMT
Obama speaks two short sentences in Indonesian:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVV954KD8tk

Obama speaking in Spanish for campaign commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZhu8SaodPw

Does he really speak these two languages? Not really. He can communicate somewhat, but he has forgotten most of the Indonesian he has learnt (he was 10 years old when he left Indonesia,) and probably only knows elementary Spanish. He has admitted publicly that he does not speak a foreign language. Still, he seems to know some basic sentences.
Little Tadpole   Sun Oct 18, 2009 3:43 am GMT
Indonesia is basically an Islamic country which contains a large number of Muslims. In fact, the languages such as Indonesian/Malay, Hindi/Urdu/, Bengali, Tamil, Sinhalese, are all utterly useless.
Little Tadpole   Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:48 am GMT
I did not post the message right above.

Faking other people's id is not polite. Unfortunately, Chinese (especially those Chinese from Malaysia/Indonesia) netters do that a lot. Not the first time I have seen them. And this will not be the last time, either.

Learn to love the country where you are from. Islam, Judaism, Christianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, they are all good religions, and they all teach people to be good.

Since we are talking about Obama, did you know that his mother gave to him and his sister the Bible, Tao Te Ching, Hindu Upanishads and the Buddhist sutras for them to read? From Maya Soetoro-Ng's words (who's husband is Chinese): "... wanted us to recognize that everyone has something beautiful to contribute."

You can read books from other faiths even if you belong to another faith. That's open-mindedness. If Obama's mother can do it, you can do it.
38   Mon Oct 19, 2009 4:48 am GMT
<<Faking other people's id is not polite. Unfortunately, Chinese (especially those Chinese from Malaysia/Indonesia) netters do that a lot.>>

从这两句话,可以看出你是一个心胸狭窄,钻牛角尖的家伙,难怪时常看到你为了一丁点儿的小事到处与人争辩的面红耳赤,不肯罢休!

一个肤浅的人才会如此指定某一些群体来贴上标签,这与令人痛恨的种族主义者的丑陋行为没有两样!

幸好我不像你,我不会因为你这样,就认定台湾人都是肤浅,心胸狭窄,钻牛角尖的!