Would Arabic be pretty difficult for a Chinese who speaks fluent English?

Question

I'm a native Chinese (Mandarin) speaker, and I've studied English for many years, and I've learned some Japanese too, originally, I wanted to learn French, German, or Italian, since they're all important languages in the world (in my mind, Italian is even more attractive than Spanish), and I've never changed my interests in these languages, until I just got to see and hear some Arabic broadcast and I was accidentally attracted by its mysterious and gorgeous features. Apart from English (necessary), and either of French, Italian, German (pending question), I have a tentative plan of trying to learn Arabic on my own (perhaps not in training class). So, I would like to know, whether it's really a feasible plan or not, and does my choice reach for what's beyond my grasp. Would it be better for me to hold that conservative plan (choose 2 between Fr, It, Ge, instead of 1 between them and then Arabic).

Thank you very much, indeed.

Answer 1

Arabic, English, and Chinese all belong to different language groups, and so there is not a whole lot of cognate help or grammatic similarity in going from on to another. But if you have the desire to learn, you will certainly be able to do it.

Since you know English, you will find learning German or any of the romance languages much easier than learning English in the first place.

Answer 2

Depends on what you want to do with your language skills. If you simply want to get to know people from certain areas and communicate with them, then pick the languages that interest you the most.

On the other hand, if you think about becoming very attractive on the job market, then choose French (or Spanish, which you didn't actually list) and Arabic. Italian and German are not that important, whereas Arabic is a big asset and in my experience French is the most important of the European languages you listed. However, Spanish and Italian would be pretty easy to learn together.  

Answer 3

I'm learning Arabic (I'm native English speaker). I think you should be fine. There are some different sounds in Arabic that aren't in English such as the Qaf, Ayn, and so on but you could do it!

Here, check out these books which are designed for elementary school students learning Arabic. This is how I'm learning and I love it.

This link is for the 1st grade book but you can navigate and find the other 5 grades as well.

http://www.astrolabe.com/product/2557/Iq...

Nichole

Answer 4

i watched a chinese lady giving arabic lessons on tv i liked her foreign accent her arabic was understandable so i guess you can do it too good luck