What Asian languages don't have tones?

Question

I really would love to go to an Asian country for a couple of years and teach English. I want to go to a country that does not have tones. I strongly desire to learn the language of the country I would live in, but I have a very hard time learning tonal languages.

I studied Chinese intensely in China for six months. It was always very hard for me to pronounce the third tone. I would think I would say it, but I would be told by my tutor, teacher and Chinese friends that I was not pronouncing it correctly. I would like to learn a language that does not have as many tones as Mandarin.

Answer 1

There are several Asian languages that don't have tones, some being Korean, Japanese (although it does have tonality to some extent), Khmer, Mongolian, and Malay. However, there are drawbacks to this, because languages such as Korean and Japanese have a system of honorifics, which is adding on participles to words when speaking to a higher person (as in age or social status) or stranger. I don't know to what extent this goes in Japanese, which is considered a hard language because for almost every word that it has in native Japanese, it has another in Sino-Japanese, including numbers, but I think that it is similar to Korean (which borrowed heavily from China and lost most of its native language), where there are three main types (7 in total) of honorifics, the lowest being used towards younger people and people lower in social status, the middle used towards people only slightly older (about 5-10 years) and the highest used towards strangers, much older, and socially higher people. As a result, Korean is the third hardest language to master, although it has one of the most scientific writing systems in the world, making it much easier to read it (it has an alphabet), and contributing to both North and South Korea's 98-100% literacy. If Korean's honorifics prevent you from learning it, I guess that would eliminate your choices for learning Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese (which has both tones and honorifics), and all of the other tonal languages, unless you don't mind honorifics. This would only leave you to teach Mongolian, Malay, and possibly a few other languages, which are spoken in poor countries. So, there is no real easy way out, and if you look on the other side, many people think that English is such a hard language (and the pun is intended). If you do decide to teach in Asia, though, I wish you good luck.

Answer 2

From what you have described, I suggest you narrow down your choices to Japanese or Korean. Learning a whole new language is a very difficult task and it is quite difficult to pull through all the way if you don't have the motivation. Can't really tell you about the differences between Japanese and Korean since i don't learn Korean. But for Japanese, I really love it. Pronunciation is pretty easy and straightforward, phonetics of various characters don't change a lot compared to English. There is a lot of grammar rules to remember but it once you learn them, it is easy to use them(most of the time at least). Also there are different kinds of formalites, casual, polite and keigo(super polite), which means more grammar rules and things to remember but that makes it all the more interesting. :D I generally like all their culture too, like the gestures and some customs such as saying 'itadakimasu' before eating etc. In conclusion, just learn whichever language you think you have the most interest in. Doing something that you don't quite like is a drag and you will not probably go far in it unless you are super disciplined.

Answer 3

Korean
Japanese
and probably some more

But seriously, don't be afraid of tone languages. Most of the world's languages are tone languages.

And, if you're really serious about being an English teacher, why not enroll in a university-based teaching course? The university that I work at, for example, offers a certificate called a TESOL certificate that qualifies you to get English-teaching jobs all over the world. You can certainly get jobs without any special qualifications, but some of those schools aren't the kind you would want to work at...

E-mail me if you want more info.

Answer 4

Non Tonal Language

Answer 5

Well, if you want to go to an Asian country that has no tones AND is easy for English-speakers to learn, then you should go to Indonesia or Malaysia, and learn Malay or Indonesian. Malay, Indonesian, and Tagalog all use the same alphabet used in English, so they are also easier in that way.

Asian languages without tones:
Indonesian
Malay
Korean
Japanese
Tagalog
Mongolian
Khmer

Answer 6

I don't think Japanese does. But Mandarin only has four tones and a neutral...you should try it...I have been studying it for years and I still have problems with the tones...but I can speak and be understood and listen and understand.

Answer 7

Japanese.

All it has is stress inflection just like English does. In other words, nothing notable. Just a few words that differ in stress, like English "record" (the round black thing that plays music) vs. "record" (the verb.)

Answer 8

Japanese isn't too dependent on tones (compared to, say, Chinese at least). There are usually ways to say it, but we have the exact same for English words. Depending on the context of the word you are saying, many people say it slightly differently.

Answer 9

punjabi from punjab, india.. (being sarcastic)

Answer 10

Youve gotta be kidding1 No tones, omg