Mandarin Chinese

Ni hao!

Mandarin Chinese has become one of the most popular foreign languages in recent years. China has become an economic powerhouse, and more and more companies do business in that country every year.

Here are some interesting facts about this language:

Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world (based on the number of native-language speakers) with 873 million native speakers, Spanish is second with 322 million native speakers and English is third with 309 million native speakers. (Ethnologue, 2005 estimates)

Mandarin is the the official spoken language of the People's Republic of China, the official language of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and one of the four official languages of Singapore.

Mandarin is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

The U.S. Department of Education gives FLAP grants (Foreign Language Assistance Program) to innovative K–12 foreign-language programs in critical languages. Mandarin is one of them.

The College Board decided for the first time this year to offer an AP test in Mandarin. Over 2,400 high schools expressed interest in the new AP program.

No major economy in the last century has grown at the pace now under way in China. In 2007, China overtook Germany to become the world's third-largest economy, behind the United States and Japan. (NY Times, July 20, 2007)

Based on recent growth rates, China's economy will surpass that of the U.S. in purchasing power between 2012 and 2015; by 2025, China is likely to be the world's largest economic power by almost any measure. (Holz, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

As you can see, a knowledge of Mandarin Chinese is indispensible for anyone who does international business, especially in China.

So, how can one in the San Diego area learn Chinese and advance their career? Easy...enroll in Language Door San Diego's Mandarin Chinese program!

For more information on our Chinese classes, please visit the following link:

http://www.languagedoor.com/san_diego_languages/chinese_without_char.html

French

Vive la langue française!

French is a universally popular language. Often cited as the "most beautiful" language or the "most romantic" language, French never seems to go out of style! It is also one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

How many French speakers are there?

People often wonder how many French speakers there are, but a definitive answer is not easy to find. In 1999, French was the 11th most common first language in the world, with 77 million first language speakers and another 51 million second language speakers, according to the Ethnologue Report. (1) French is the second most commonly-taught second language in the world (after English). Another source, La Francophonie dans le monde 2006-2007 (2), looks at it differently:

128 million Francophones: speak French (as a native or adopted language) fluently and use it on a regular basis.

72 million "partiel" Francophones: live in a francophone country but do not speak French regularly, due to limited knowledge.

100-110 million students of all ages: do not live in a francophone country, but have learned/are learning French in order to communicate with Francophones.

Do you want to better communicate with the enormous francophone world? Planning a trip to Paris and you want to impress the locals? Or do you long to better understand French films? Whatever your reasons, Language Door San Diego's French programs are your key to expanding your joie de vivre!

To learn more about French classes at Language Door's San Diego school, please visit the following link:

http://languagedoor.com/san_diego_languages/french.html

Spanish

One of the most popular language classes here at Language Door San Diego is Spanish. And why not? San Diego is located right above the United States/Mexico border and Spanish is widely spoken throughout the area.

Some fun facts about Spanish:

After Chinese and English Spanish is the most commonly used language world wide.

Spanish, like all Romance languages, derives from Latin, with Castilian (the Spanish of Spain) being considered to be the purest form of Spanish.

Spanish in Spain and Spanish in Latin America vary slightly as the languages have evolved since the colonization of the Americas. The most obvious influence is the use of indigenous words in Latin America and differing pronunciation.

Some characteristics or Spanish language

Spanish is pronounced phonetically! However, beware of the trilled r which is somewhat complex to reproduce. The letter b and v are indistinguishable. The letter h is silent.

Formal / informal addressDeference and politeness is expressed by the switch between 2nd person tú and 3rd person usted.

ser vs estar- 2 verbs denote the concept of to be. Ser is used for permanent states, estar is used to describe temporary things and to indicate locations.

Inflection, declination and grammatical gender are important features of Spanish grammar

Spanish uses 3 letters in addition to the English alphabet: 'ñ' and the letter combinations 'ch' and 'll', which are treated as single letters. 'W' originally wasn't part of the Spanish alphabet. It has been included to accommodate words of foreign origin.

Vowels in Spanish can carry an accent mark: á, é, í, ó and ú

For more information about Language Door San Diego's Spanish program, please check out our website at http://languagedoor.com/san_diego_languages/spanish.html

Summer July/August term around the corner!

It's Summer...time to learn a new language!

Our Summer 2009 (July/August) term begins on Monday, July 6. Language Door will be offering classes in Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Farsi and much, much more!

For more information about our sizzling summertime schedule, check out the schedule page on our site:

http://languagedoor.com/adults_schedules/schedule_adults_san_diego.html

Welcome to Language Door San Diego's new Blog!

Language Door San Diego is happy to announce the launch of our new blog. We will be using this unique space on the web to annouce updates about our school and our language programs, talk about the the history of foreign languages, the cultures where these languages are spoken, as well as hints and tips to help you learn your new language more effectively.

First, a little information about our language center:

Language Door San Diego is located at 7565 Mission Gorge Road in San Diego. We are a school that specializes in the instruction of many foreign languages including:

Arabic - Armenian - Cantonese - Chinese (Mandarin) - Czech - Danish - Dutch - Farsi - Finnish - French - German - Greek - Hebrew - Hindi - Hungarian - Indonesian - Italian - Japanese - Korean - Latin - Norwegian - Polish - Portuguese (Brazialian) - Romanian - Russian - SPanish - Swahili - Swedish - Tagalog - Thai - Turkish - Vietnamee

Language Door boasts an experiened staff of instructors with rich backgrounds in teaching.

We specialize is small-group classes to optimize the learning process. Customizable private instruction is also available for anyone who feels they learn better one-on-one. Additionally, we offer instruction to businesses and corporations, schools, the U.S. government and all branches of the U.S. military.

For additional information, we invite you to visit our website at www.languagedoor.com or give us a call at 619.564.6335. We look forward to opening your door to a new language!

Welcome to the San Diego Language Door School blog. We hope the information you find on this blog will answer questions about our Language School in San Diego http://languagedoor.com/san_diego_language_school.