The difficulty for learning Nordic languages in Taiwan
In Taiwan, there are no schools which provide Nordic languages program like "Swedish,Danish,Norwegian,Icelandic and Finnish". But on contrast, our neighbors like China and Japan, their schools provide Nordic language program. I think this phenomenon is too ridiculous. Please condemn our government (Education Bureau) for not establishing any Nordic languages program in schools!
I need your help to send the letters to our education bureau of Taiwan for strongly asking establishment of Nordic Languages program in Taiwan schools.
Thanx
Please forward this letter to Nordic Council. I hope they will handle it soon!
Well, that's life, they can't offer everything. As an American I am quite annoyed I can't learn Mingrelian at my local university, but that's life, move on. Or if you're so fixated on it that you don't move on at that point, then you will surely overcome these difficulties by moving there or something.
Mingrelian?? What language is this?
"Taiwanese Fri May 01, 2009 3:16 am GMT
In Taiwan, there are no schools which provide Nordic languages program like "Swedish,Danish,Norwegian,Icelandic and Finnish". But on contrast, our neighbors like China and Japan, their schools provide Nordic language program. I think this phenomenon is too ridiculous. Please condemn our government (Education Bureau) for not establishing any Nordic languages program in schools!
I need your help to send the letters to our education bureau of Taiwan for strongly asking establishment of Nordic Languages program in Taiwan schools.
Thanx "
Taiwan sooner will be unified with China, and Taiwanese ppl have chance to study Nordic languages at Beijing Foreign Language University. I suggest that you don't rely on the establishment of Nordic languages in Taiwan but rely on unification with China and your dream will come true.
How much demand is there for learning, say, Faroese in China? How many Faroese classes are there currently at the Foreign Language University in Bejing.
I'm also your neighbor, in HK (though I'm NOT in HK now), and yet I also don't find anything other than Swedish in my city. What do you think? In Hong Kong, Minnan classes are also... I don't even think there are any. If you want to change this situation, you can encourage your Taiwanese friends to teach it in Hong Kong. I guess people will like it.
Since you know English well already, you may be able to learn basic Norwegian with some effort on your own. You could try the inexpensive "Teach Yourself" series, then get a dictionary, and possibly some comic books (check on the internet first).
You could ask Alexander Arguelles on Youtube what he thinks of your request as well. Google his name.
Norwegian Why NOrwegian? Swedish sounds more melodious... and the languages are very very similar
Smart,
I know more Norwegian than I do Swedish, that's why I suggested it. If you like Swedish, you can make a case for it here or on another thread.
Imo, Norwegian is the language in the middle between Swedish and Danish and the thread starter is looking for Nordic languages.
I don't really care one way or another if someone learns Swedish or Norwegian or if they learn FINDS (all of them). Finnish doesn't belong with the group, but for people who want to test-drive the sounds, they can look at all of them on the Berlitz "Scandinavian" tape which comes with a script as well as a phrase book for all of them. Look for it used.
that's an interesting neologism! It does sound Scandinavians, some of them, have convenient ways of learning the FINDS. They have one already, and they can easily learn the others through education and other opportunities, like at university.
Maybe they don't think about teaching them because the demand is really little and there are not special economic relationships or historic reasons that would justify the teaching.
The same thing could be said about some Asian languages in Europe, for example Korean is very little taught here and their courses are always struggling to be kept on.
In my country (Italy) even Japanese is taught at a very poor level.
If you really want to learn them you should either start on your own or move to a Scandinavian country, they have very good scholarship programs for foreign students.
>>Maybe they don't think about teaching them because the demand is really little and there are not special economic relationships or historic reasons that would justify the teaching.
When in Hong Kong, German was rare. When I'm now in Germany, Chinese is rare. The same for the number of speakers. It's so easy to see why FSI does emphasize on prolonged stay in a foreign country for its own staff.
WE TAIWAN HAVE LOTS OF ENGLISH GARBAGE COURSES AND I THINK ITS A WASTE TO KEEP LOTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM AT OUR TAIWAN UNIVERSITIES.SO WHY NOT DELETING ENGLISH AND THEN MAKING TO CHANGE TO SWEDISH?BESIDES,WE KNOW TO READ TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS,BUT WE WANNA MORE-SWEDISH LANGUAGE DEGREE FROM OUR TAIWAN UNIVERSITIES,NOT JUST READ OR LEARN BY YOURSELF.THERE'S AN INTERESTING NEWS:ENGLISH LANGUAGE GRADUATES ARE UNEMPLOYEED IN TAIWAN BUT SWEDISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS EASILY GET A JOB IN TAIWAN.DOESN'T IT SHOW WE HAVE GREAT DEMAND FOR SWEDISH LANGUAGE IN TAIWAN?