I feel silly asking this, but I'm not versed in languages or even in cultures. I've always been curious as to whether or not most Asians -- Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc. -- can understand each other on some levels. Being that I'm Canadian living in Northern Ontario, I am fluent in both French and English. I noticed many, many similarities in all Latin-based languages -- French, Spanish, Italian, and even English. Is this so with Asian languages? And also, being that Russia is a part of Asia, is the Russian language at all similar to the other "Asian" languages? And slightly unrelated -- are their cultures at all similar? I apologize for being so obviously naive, but I've always been interested in knowing. THANK YOU!!! =)
2007-08-13 17:05:28 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Other - Cultures & Groups
No, its very different. Example chinese and tamil are totally different. with best regard.
2007-08-13 17:08:31 · answer #1 · answered by yahooanswers 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Phillipine language of Tagalog actually has a lot of Spanish in it. Some of the words are the same with the same meaning, and some are the same word with different meanings. The only thing Asians have in common is that we hate the Canadian Postal System, I have the hardest time getting stuff sent over there. Everyone seems to write their address in a different format. Just kidding!! I sell on ebay and I have a hell of a time verifying addresses there. No, the only thing we have in common is rice. That is not being rude, that is the truth!! LOL
2007-08-13 17:15:34 · answer #2 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm part Chinese, and sadly, I do attend a special Chinese School. I've also studied a little Japenese, and I've concluded that Chinese is similar to Japanese in the fact that they both are figures of nature or objects and have originated from an image. But now that they have been changed over the past hundreds of years, the characters do not symbolize there object or nature as much any more.
The answer: yes
2007-08-13 17:10:41 · answer #3 · answered by Shadow 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are some similarities between them, but they didn't all come from one language like French, Spanish, Italian, and English. This comes from the countries past warfare and conquering of each other. But there are so many different dialects in each language so it depends on which you compare.
In their cultures, many have Chinese aspects in them since China is one of the oldest civilizations.
2007-08-13 17:13:49 · answer #4 · answered by idislikefishballs 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes they are interconnected , filipinos, koreans, chinese language, especially filipino and chinese language, we both borrowed our words form the indian sanskrit, words like tsinelas , and chinese and filipinos traded with the spaniards thus words do get mixed up and we still have some spanish words in our language like singko-cinco in spanish which means 5 pesos just the same.
2007-08-13 17:09:54 · answer #5 · answered by haringmarumo 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think Asian languages are not gender-based and they don't have an extensive verb conjugation like some European languages.
2007-08-16 13:49:16 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. A Chinese person can't understand a Japanese person. Only if he could speak Japanese also.
2007-08-13 17:08:43 · answer #7 · answered by null 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thanks for this question. I too am pretty uneducated about Asian languages and cultures.
One thing I'm certain, is that all are difficult to learn as a native English speaker.
:-\
2007-08-13 17:08:34 · answer #8 · answered by Buying is Voting 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not at all, the languages are very different, they don't even sound the same.
2007-08-13 17:10:17 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i dont think the russian language is related
2007-08-13 17:08:44 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋