Why does the Engineering advisor lady tell people not to take languages courses?
11-03-2008 at 10:37 PM
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#16
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Zetsubou Sensei
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyV
But they lost the war lol
Grab yourself a "Japanese phrases for Dummies" book. In conjunction with some podcasts it's SOOOO helpful, especially with pronunciations.
Of course taking the Japanese course will help as well (I for one haven't taken it....yet).
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Ya, a friend of mine in the Netherlands was taking japanese and was teaching himself for a couple months; he cracked under pressure though. Apparently there's way too much Kanji for him, and since he has a case of perfectionism, he was going bonkers over everything he couldn't remember. I still wanna learn though! Have any suggestions for podcasts? And I hear that you shouldn't start with pronuciation, but instead, focus on Kanji and then pronunciation because then you get into bad habbit (leaving Romanji for last).
Suggestions?
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11-03-2008 at 11:28 PM
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#17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RoyK
Lol, engineering here too; though I don't really care for the stereotypes; the only thing that annoys me is the fact that we've got so much schooling compared to other faculties. But the obvious trade off is the long ass term papers humanities and such have to write (thank god for few to no essays in engineering first year)... so in that essence, I'm not envious. In the end, I think we're all getting royally screwed in the butt one way or another.
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Humanities and Soc Sci have less class hours, but have to spend a hell of a lot more time outside of class either reading, researching, or writing. In a lot of cases we don't get notes on WebCT; so if we miss class we're screwed in that regard too.
I only have 12 hours of class a week (I'm taking four classes) but I probably spend close to 30 hours (over 7 days) on homework, reading and essay-ing in various degrees.
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11-03-2008 at 11:36 PM
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#18
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Screw Japanese, lol. Take German. Any language that requires three different writing systems each containing more than 30 characters fails in my books. Plus, Japanese isn't useful anywhere except within Japan - and Japan is literally microscopic compared to the rest of the world, already having enough engineers as well.
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11-03-2008 at 11:40 PM
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#19
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Zetsubou Sensei
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ownaginatios
Screw Japanese, lol. Take German. Any language that requires three different writing systems each containing more than 30 characters fails in my books. Plus, Japanese isn't useful anywhere except within Japan - and Japan is literally microscopic compared to the rest of the world, already having enough engineers as well.
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Japan holds a high position for technology just as Germany does (I have a cousin that works in robotics over in Germany as a matter of fact)... though China's probably big on the manufacturing side; The only reason I would enjoy Japanese is the fact that I have more uses then just business, so it would be killing two birds with one stone in that regard.
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11-04-2008 at 12:11 AM
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#20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RoyK
Japan holds a high position for technology just as Germany does (I have a cousin that works in robotics over in Germany as a matter of fact)... though China's probably big on the manufacturing side; The only reason I would enjoy Japanese is the fact that I have more uses then just business, so it would be killing two birds with one stone in that regard.
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Well, asian languages are complicated as hell (at least all the ones related to/within the family group encompassing Chinese and Japanese)... so all I can say is, good luck with that :p From what I've heard from friends who have tried to learn Japanese and/or Mandarin, it's incredibly difficult for someone who's mother tongue is a European language.
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11-05-2008 at 12:48 AM
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#21
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If they only offered a Chinese course.
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11-05-2008 at 12:50 AM
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#22
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Zetsubou Sensei
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtran89
If they only offered a Chinese course.
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I find this surprising! They even offer a Polish language course (my native tongue), but I would have assumed they'd have something as popular as this!
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11-05-2008 at 07:27 AM
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#23
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The problem is having someone to teach it. And someone with a couple of degrees.
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11-05-2008 at 07:03 PM
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#24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lorend
The problem is having someone to teach it. And someone with a couple of degrees.
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And somehow affectively teaching the reading system in the short amount of time given...
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11-05-2008 at 07:26 PM
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#25
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Yup.
I'm in an Ojibwe course right now. It's...really, really tough. It's hard to cram a lot of info into a term, especially when textbooks contradict each other, yay!
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We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed in universities, looking uncomfortably into the world we inherit. -- Port Huron Statement
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11-13-2008 at 05:05 PM
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#26
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RoyK
plan on expanding into a language into second year if it's possible; languages of choice being German or Japanese
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SAME ahh I hope I can get in next year to one of those, there are like 45 seats i have heard
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11-15-2008 at 05:10 PM
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#27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtran89
If they only offered a Chinese course.
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Chinese actually does not exist, in China Mandrain is the most popular language followed by Kanto.
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11-16-2008 at 12:17 PM
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#28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by haseeb
Chinese actually does not exist, in China Mandrain is the most popular language followed by Kanto.
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"Mandrain" isn't a language either. :p
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11-16-2008 at 02:12 PM
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#29
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ownaginatios
"Mandrain" isn't a language either. :p
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Sure i spelt it wrong but you know what i mean.
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