Should i learn Arabic or Indonesian? (1 Viewer)

[Rachael325]

Please guys i am desperate for your opinions and advice. I have to decide by the end of the weekend if i want to study arabic or indonesian at uni. I've been thinking about it so much and i cant decide. I want to do both equally as much but which do you think would be more useful (particularly as i am hopefully headed towards working in foreign affairs). I already speak french if that makes any difference.

So please help me urgently - Arabic or Indonesian?

 

[bustinjustin]

Please guys i am desperate for your opinions and advice. I have to decide by the end of the weekend if i want to study arabic or indonesian at uni. I've been thinking about it so much and i cant decide. I want to do both equally as much but which do you think would be more useful (particularly as i am hopefully headed towards working in foreign affairs). I already speak french if that makes any difference.

So please help me urgently - Arabic or Indonesian?

I have no authority or experience to dictate what you should do. Both languages would be of great value especially in the eyes of the DFAT, moreso than most European languages and Asian languages. If it helps, I've heard that Indonesian is quiet an easy language to get into. Arabic is a lot more difficult to read/write/speak (especially speak), and you might want to consider that it uses a different lettering system altogether.

I reckon you should go for Indonesian - but remember what happened to Thai (R.I.P Thai, R.I.P...). Diminishing departments and budget cuts are the harsh reality of uni today...

oh, no disrepect to the middle east but South East Asia is mad!

 

[KeypadSDM]

So please help me urgently - Arabic or Indonesian?

Which terrorist cell do you want to join?

 

[salsydney]

i say arabic... huge number of people speak it in the world, more than indonesian, and thus would come in a lot more uses... lots of languages are also based on Arabic, for example, urdu.. it does look tough, what with a new alphabet to learn and whatnot... but how satisfying! i saw a guy on the train doing his arabic homework the other day, was well impressed

 

[mr EaZy]

arabic is one of the 6 recognised languages at the UN- and it is used as a medium of choice by north and east africa:

eg : in nigeria theres a few hundred languages so people will choose either english or arabic- in W.Africa people will choose either french or arabic although in some areas its just french...

it is also spoken in central asia, some parts of china haver merged it with chinese and it is pretty common if ur coming to SW Sydney

Indonesia is the language of our largest close neighbour and our army and diplomatic staff cant get enough of teaching them to new recruits (if they elect to do so)

Indonesian is not as widespread as Arabic but it is concentrated in indonesia and a few neighbouring countries.

i can read arabic and speak it- just cant converse-
i can also speak malay covo wise but cant read it too well... (singaporean)

some DFAT people came to my school with a singaporean delegation once- the delegates spoke arabic/ malay/english

the dfat lady i spoke to spoke english/malay i think some arabic - not sure... but shes learnin french....

 

[Libra89]

arabic is good, a very beautiful language, but when i was trying to learn it casually, i was struggling and my background is middle eastern lol
but it is a beautiful language and very satisfying to master. it is important because the language is so widespread but then again Indonesian is the language of one of our closest neighbours, so doing that would offer up a few job opportunities. If ur heading for the UN, i would do arabic, if ur heading for something a little more local, so to speak, i'd go for Bahasa Indonesian.
Good luck anyhoo!

 

[SpHan]

Wow someone with the same dilemma as me! I also can do a bit of french (but not fluent) and i want to do arabic but mum pointed out that indonesian would be more valuable as its our closest neighbour.
If you still cannot decide i rekon u should ask yourself where you would most like to spend you time in...Dubai or Bali lol? I'd go for the 7 star resort hotel town any day but that's just me lol!