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Gimabella

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hey ,im debating on whether or not to take up a language,

i already speak Spanish and English both very fluently, and will be moving to DR next year, hopefully i can venture out on my own business of which my target will be foreigners and tourists,
my question is besides the 2 basic languages what other languages should i make top priority to learn..such as Fench, Italian, german, Portuesse,,etc,etc.....

i already know
1-Englsih ( both oral and written)
2-Spanish ( both oral and written)
 

Voyager

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Mar 1, 2004
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German!

Gimabella said:
hey ,im debating on whether or not to take up a language,

i already speak Spanish and English both very fluently, and will be moving to DR next year, hopefully i can venture out on my own business of which my target will be foreigners and tourists,
my question is besides the 2 basic languages what other languages should i make top priority to learn..such as Fench, Italian, german, Portuesse,,etc,etc.....

i already know
1-Englsih ( both oral and written)
2-Spanish ( both oral and written)

My advise is for you to learn German!

If you look at the nationalities visiting DR, Germans are a pretty big percentage. Many of them speak English but you will make them feel very happy if you could speak German with them. And you don't need to be fluent.

Having done a lot of business in Germany has taught me that German people are used to foreigners not being able to speak their language. So a little knowledge of German will be greatly rewarded in contacts with German tourists.
 

Dolores1

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The language of the future is Chinese. I understand the UASD will be opening up instruction in Chinese this January.
 

Voyager

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Dolores said:
The language of the future is Chinese. I understand the UASD will be opening up instruction in Chinese this January.

What do you mean when you say "Chinese"??? There is no language called "Chinese". But there is Cantonese, Mandarin etc.
 

Gimabella

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Voyager said:
My advise is for you to learn German!

QUOTE]

is German the same as Aleman,,

i have no idea about German...

is it easy? can i use this in the tourist sector? , i would prefer learning a language that i can profit from in any sector relating to Foreighners visiting and living in DR ....

thanks Gimabella
 

Voyager

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German = Alem?n

Yes, German = Alem?n !

I am sure you will have a lot of use of the German language in the tourist sector, especially on the north coast of DR, where I believe most German speaking tourists go on their vacation. (Someone, please correct me if I am wrong!)

My opinion is that German is not easy to learn. At least not in the beginning.

However, it depends on how fluent you wish to become. As I said in my previous post, just a basic knowledge of German will take you a long way.

Let me compare with learning English. As a beginner, you quickly get a pretty good command of spoken English. If you want to become really good, then regrettably it gets more and more difficult. The learning curve gets steeper and steeper.

German on the other hand, is difficult in the beginning. Once you get the hang of it, learning more is not too difficult. The learning curve levels out.

The above is my personal opinion; other people may feel differently.
 

Dolores1

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Voyager said:
What do you mean when you say "Chinese"??? There is no language called "Chinese". But there is Cantonese, Mandarin etc.

Thank you for the correction. I heard they will be teaching Mandarin.

If learning a language spoken in China, which should one learn?
 

Voyager

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Dolores said:
Thank you for the correction. I heard they will be teaching Mandarin.

If learning a language spoken in China, which should one learn?

Geez, Dolores, these are deep waters for me! As I understand it, though, I believe Mandarin is the one to go for.

Mandarin is spoken in China, Taiwan and Singapore. Cantonese in Hong Kong and Macao.

A friend of mine moved from Singapore to Hong Kong and she had to go to night school to learn the dialect spoken in Hong Kong.

Check this link: http://www.chinalanguage.com/Language/chinese.html
 
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Hillbilly

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IF you are going to live here and work in the tourist industry

Then German and Italian would be grat additions. Italian will be easy and german has very "stable" phoenetics. That means that unlike English, the letters are always pronounced the same way. Not like English that has many different vowel sounds and the word "ghoti" can be pronounced as "fish""!!
GH from 'enough'; 'o' from women; and "ti" from any word ending in "-tion". = ghoti or fish.:D:D

German does have a more complicated grammatical structure, because it is a very old language, much older than English..But that can be worked on.. GO for both of them..Polyglots are very useful in the tourist industry.

Chinese can be Mandarin, the "official" language of China, or Cantonese which is widely spoken or Hakka which nobody not born to the boat people can understand...The problem with Chinese is basically that is uses "tones" to signify meaning, as well as the phonetic sounds. Thus, "mu" can go up, as in mu^; or down like 'moo' from a sick cow; or mOo, up and down as if you goosed the cow!. Or mu, with no intonation at all...just a flat vowel sound moooo..
And then there is the written idiographs that are really ideas rather than sounds. Gets complicated....

HB :D:D
 

Naufrago

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Suprised that nobody is suggesting French, I know quite a few Dominicans who after mastering their English are now taking French with the idea of advancing their careers. Don't see alot Chinese tourists here. Also I believe that there are quite a few French companies doing business here. Not to mention the growing Haitian Population.
 

MarkusL1

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Lern German

I think German is the right way to go. Not just are there many Germans travelling to the DR (and everywhere else in the world - Germans are the leader when it comes to travelling, most of them have 4-6 weeks paid vacation a year) but they are also VERY appreciative when somebody abroad speaks to them in their own language. Just don't do it when they try to practice their spanish on you. It might shy and confuse them.....
I know how Germans feel (as far as you can say that about one nationality), because I was born,raised and educated in Germany.


Good luck!

:) Markus
 

Voyager

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I can not help smiling at this thread, with Gimabella's very commendable ambition to learn languages and other posts with talk about German, Italian, French and even touching on some dialects of Chinese languages.

I have participated in several posts where I have been hanged, drawn and quartered by people aggressively telling me that DR is a Spanish speaking country, been advised to "do in Rome what Romans do", been ridiculed over wanting to read a newspaper in English etc etc.

On the other hand, it is of course a difference if you go to DR as a tourist for a couple of weeks or go there to live for the rest of your life. However, some of the people attacking me in the past seem not to have seen it that way.

Well, this is not to open a can of worms (Spanish speaking ones?). I just thought it was a bit funny to find a thread like this one. But I like it! Of course I like it!

Being Swedish, I never expect any visitor to Sweden to speak my native language. And indeed "everybody" in Sweden speak at least one foreign language.

So kudos to Gimabella! Go girl, go!


PS. Here is a Swedish joke for you!

Two farmers are leaning on a fence by a road, watching the potatoes grow.

A foreigner stops his car in front of them and asks for driving directions. He speaks English. The farmers shook their heads, not understanding the question. So the foreigner repeats the question in German. The farmers don't understand. The foreigner desperately tries French, Italian and some more languages. No success. So he gives up and drives on.

After a while, one of the farmers says to the other, that maybe it would be a good idea to learn a foreign language? His friend replies that this is a useless idea. Just look at the foreigner, He spoke a lot of languages, but what good did it do him?
 
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Gimabella

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hey people..

much thanks to those who have responded...

i think i'll start out with Italian since its very simalar to spanish, then wither go with French or German they both seem very difficult..

i know Spanish because i was brought up in a Spanish home and have no idea how or when i learned English..
i just beleive i was born with full access to both languages...jejje.

thanks, Gimabella
 

planner

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Sep 23, 2002
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Why?

My first question is whyy do you want to learn? You say you will move here to live and work. Well, what do you want do do? Do you want to work in tourism? Do you want to be a lawyer here? Will you work in sales of ??? If you narrow it down then it is easier to give advice.

I would say that if you want to work in tourism then either french or german would work. My sense is italian wouldn't be necessary as it is close to spanish and you can communicate with italians anyway most likely.

French tourists are flocking here currently both from europe and canada.

My 2 pesos worth.
 
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