Would you rather be fluent in Spanish or Chinese?

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Poll of the Day » Would you rather be fluent in Spanish or Chinese?
These are the top 2 most spoken languages in the US after English
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You
Ya hablo espaol!
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Id get more use out of Chinese, to be honest.
Spanish - I'd probably get more use out of that than Chinese
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I don't live in the US and both are useless languages in my province. My fluency in French makes it easy for me to learn or decode other Latin languages. I'm unlikely to impress anyone by speaking Spanish. Mandarin is more useful on a global scale and will be even more so once China becomes the world's largest economy, which will happen much sooner than anticipated thanks to Trump. The choice is easy to make.
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Chinese, hopefully that'll get me far with the aunties at yum cha
So I was standing still at a stationary store...
Probably Spanish, since it's just more common than Chinese in my location, and apparently simpler to learn.
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KJ_StErOiDs posted...
Probably Spanish, since it's just more common than Chinese in my location, and apparently simpler to learn.

Surely being simpler to learn is a reason not to pick it? The question is asking which youd rather be fluent in, not which youd rather spend the time on becoming fluent in. This implies you learn it instantly.
Where I live, Mandarin is fairly widely spoken. Spanish is not unheard of but pretty rare. So it's an easy choice really.
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Spanish.
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Spanish. it's of much more use to me and my area. I wish I could have read Don Quixote in Spanish.
Now if you threw in Japanese, that'd be tough. I have a lot of media I'd be able to watch in Japanese
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captpackrat posted...
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Thats all well and good, but depending on whereabouts in the world you spend your time, you may find either language largely useless.
I learned Spanish at school a bit so I guess I have more chance been fluent in that. Not that it matters. Si.
One who knows nothing can understand nothing.
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Spanish i suppose. There are a couple of Spanish only speaking people i see at work, so could help there. Dont think id get any use at all out of Chinese.
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Spanish...more scope.
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Chinese without a doubt. I've picked up a lot of spanish just putting in a little bit of effort having hispanic friends and eating/shopping at authentic stores/restaurants. Whereas I work with people from Taiwan and struggle to learn pretty much the basics. I think I could learn enough Spanish to communicate easily with some effort whereas being fluent in mandarin would be a real skill that not many Americans have
Spanish. If I wanted to learn an Asian language Japanese gets my 1st pick. Beautiful language and culture.
teddy241 posted...
Spanish. If I wanted to learn an Asian language Japanese gets my 1st pick. Beautiful language and culture.
If you don't speak a westerner learning an Asian language at an advanced age is nearly impossible. But if you were fluent in Chinese, other Asian languages have enough similarities that you could learn them more easily
OhhhJa posted...
If you don't speak a westerner learning an Asian language at an advanced age is nearly impossible. But if you were fluent in Chinese, other Asian languages have enough similarities that you could learn them more easily

My Vietnamese is getting better. Its a long, slow and hard process, but its far from impossible.
Glob posted...
My Vietnamese is getting better. Its a long, slow and hard process, but its far from impossible.
Too difficult for most people though for sure. Learning spanish as an English speaker is infinitely easier
Fluent Spanish would be more useful to me. Funnily enough, both my parents spoke fluently, but never taught us.
OhhhJa posted...
Too difficult for most people though for sure. Learning spanish as an English speaker is infinitely easier

Learning Spanish is definitely easier, but I wouldnt say that learning an Asian language is too difficult for most westerners to be able to do it. Just too difficult for them to want to.
Could easily get a job if fluent in Mandarin but I'd rather be fluent in Spanish to know what people are saying around me (California.)
Spanish, and I'm working on that, or "estoy trabajando en eso".
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Glob posted...


Learning Spanish is definitely easier, but I wouldnt say that learning an Asian language is too difficult for most westerners to be able to do it. Just too difficult for them to want to.


I think it's the writing system that people find difficult and not the speaking.
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Revelation34 posted...
I think it's the writing system that people find difficult and not the speaking.

Some Asian languages, like Vietnamese, use the same characters but are still considered to be hard for westerners to learn because of their tonal nature.
I can read Spanish very well, and understand and speak ot decently, but not.fluent. I'd still select it.
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Chinese would definitely be more useful
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Both for me.
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Chinese of course. Spanish is pretty simple to learn if youre in the US. Plenty of native speakers to learn from or community college classes to take. Chinese is not the same language family or character system.
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dj1200 posted...
Chinese of course. Spanish is pretty simple to learn if youre in the US. Plenty of native speakers to learn from or community college classes to take. Chinese is not the same language family or character system.
Yep. You could literally spend like 15 minutes a day on duolingo as an English speaker and probably learn well enough to communicate effectively in most situations within a month. Chinese... yeah... way more difficult and way more advantageous to be fluent in as an american
Easily Spanish, I have no desire to visit China and I know a bunch of people that speak Spanish (even some that only speak Spanish). Plus there are way more places you can go where Spanish would be useful. Chinese is so niche and useless, unless you already know Spanish or really wanna go to China I don't see why would you pick Chinese.
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Muscles posted...
Easily Spanish, I have no desire to visit China and I know a bunch of people that speak Spanish (even some that only speak Spanish). Plus there are way more places you can go where Spanish would be useful. Chinese is so niche and useless, unless you already know Spanish or really wanna go to China I don't see why would you pick Chinese.

China is a lot nearer to me than any Spanish speaking countries, and when visiting Spain, Spanish is really not required if you speak English.
Muscles posted...
Chinese is so niche and useless
Lol wow
OhhhJa posted...

Lol wow


You only need to know Chinese if you plan on doing business in China.
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Revelation34 posted...
You only need to know Chinese if you plan on doing business in China.
Not true. Lots of Chinese people in America my dude. But you clearly don't realize what kind of job opportunities could become available to you being both fluent in mandarin and English. But also, on that note, what benefit is it to know Spanish outside of talking to some guy at the grocery store or if you wanna make friends with a non english speaker. But, as mentioned earlier, waaaay easier to learn enough Spanish as an English speaker to communicate effectively anyway
zhangliao1 posted...
Chinese would definitely be more useful
Usefulness is relative.

Chinese has more speakers, but like 98% of them are confined to just China (well, Taiwan, too). So, if you have no plan to ever visit/interact with China, then the value of knowing the language is moot.

Spanish has the 2nd-highest amount of speakers, but spread out over way more countries, and many parts of the US. Meaning in a vacuum, especially for a US citizen, you're likely going to get more utility out of knowing Spanish.

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CyborgSage00x0 posted...
Usefulness is relative.

Chinese has more speakers, but like 98% of them are confined to just China (well, Taiwan, too). So, if you have no plan to ever visit/interact with China, then the value of knowing the language is moot.

Spanish has the 2nd-highest amount of speakers, but spread out over way more countries, and many parts of the US. Meaning in a vacuum, especially for a US citizen, you're likely going to get more utility out of knowing Spanish.

I've known more people in the US who speak Vietnamese than Chinese.
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captpackrat posted...
I've known more people in the US who speak Vietnamese than Chinese.
It's definitely in pockets depending on where you're at but chinese is far more widely spoken in the US than vietnamese. I believe korean is 2nd for Asian languages
Either is going to be super useful, but Chinese is gonna be especially useful coming up.
VioletZer0 posted...
Either is going to be super useful, but Chinese is gonna be especially useful coming up.


Yeah China is going to take over the world.
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I'm already fluent in understanding Spanish (my mom is Spanish), and I can speak it on a very basic level. So I'd gain a lot more by magically learning Chinese.
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Poll of the Day » Would you rather be fluent in Spanish or Chinese?