Ignacio Fuentes

Cultural Context: Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Hungarian culture is vibrant. They have many popular traditions such as tales, music, pottery, carvings and embroidery. They have religious customs and distinctive cuisine.

Reasons and history Hungarian and Ob-Ugric languages, spoken in western Siberia, are part of the Ugric branch of Finno-Ugric. Written using a modified Latin alphabet since 13th century, Hungarian grammar and pronunciation are challenging for English speakers, with fourteen vowels and unexpected consonant clusters.

Cultural practice

Hungarians often express themselves with emotion and passion. They will usually use stories, anecdotes and jokes to prove their points in the conversation.

Word:

Sunset=Napnyugta

Japanese is a very interesting and somewhat complex language. It has three types of writing: kanji, hiragana and katakana. The grammar is different from that of Western languages and focuses a lot on context and particles. Learning Japanese can be challenging, but it’s worth it to immerse yourself in its unique culture and communicate with people from all over the world.

Why Japanese isnt easy to learn?

Learning Japanese is not easy, especially because of its writing system, which combines pictograms called kanji imported from Chinese with two different forms of Japanese writing. However, the basic grammar is very simple, the pronunciation rules are surprisingly normal, and the Japanese alphabet is simple.

History of this lenguage:

Yet it is most widely believed that the Japan language belongs to the Ryukyuan family of languages, brought to Japan via the Korean peninsula in the 4th century BC.

The Japanese language has three types of characters: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic symbols, each representing one syllable while Kanji is ideogram, each stand for certain meaning.

It was not until the time of the Heian period (794-1185) that japanese invented their own syllabic writing systems called hiragana and katakana.

Cultural context: Japan is a high-context culture, meaning that people tend to be less direct and explicit in their communications. They often use physical cues and require communication partners to decode their intent. Consequently, communication in Japan is highly complex, and words may convey several meanings. Learn how the concepts of tatamae ("official position") and honne ("real truth") impact communications in Japan and the cultural preference for maintaining harmony. The Japanese prefer indirect and reserved styles of communications where body language conveys intent more than words—which, of course, impacts business interactions. Find out how.

Why is difficult to speak japanese?: It's a difficult lenguaje because it combines pictograms called kanji imported from Chinese with two different forms of Japanese writing and also it have three different alphabet: kanji, hiragana and katakana.

Antica Franulic

Tomas Araya

History:

It’s spoken by about 150 million people.

Russian is a Slavic language which means it comes from indo-european influence

It’s alphabet is cyrillic’s and it has a complex grammar rules, including six cases and various verb conjugations that makes this language hard to learn for us english or spanish speakers because or lenguaje roots from a very different language bench.

Cultural context:

Russians has been in war since the beginning of their language and that have influenced the language with complex words whom are full of politic and harsh meanings.

A simple word from Russian translated to English:

хлеб (khleb)

Japanese is a language with a lot of history, and although its origin has not been 100 percent confirmed, there are multiple records that the Japanese language has existed for more than 2,000 years.

One of the most recent hypotheses about the origin of Japanese suggests that the language has its roots in the islands of Japan, about 2,200 years ago. The language is believed to descend from the language used by rice farmers who came to Japan from the Korean Peninsula.

Cultural context

The Japanese lenguage is related with Japan rich cultural heritage and hisotry. The language of Japanese relfects values like polieness, respect and harmony. Traditional Japanese culture, such as tea ceremonies, martial arts, and the arts of calligraphy and flower arranging , have influenced the language's nuances and expressions. Japanese has borrowed words from other languages, particularly Chinese, due to centuries of cultural exchange.

Why it is difficult

Japanese is difficult because it has three different writing systems, and learning and memorizing them is quite challenging.

The grammatical structure is different from the rest of the world.

Pronunciation in Japanese can be very difficult due to its unique sounds that only exist in Japanese.

The formality with which you speak can convey different meanings.

You also need to understand Japanese culture because certain words change depending on cultural significance

word

お米が好きです

O Amerika ga sukidesu

Due to the great extension and variety of communities that make it up, in China there are eight linguistic groups within which there are also various dialects.

The Chinese language emerged over millennia of cultural and linguistic development in the Chinese region. Its origin dates back to the ancient civilizations that inhabited the Yellow River Valley and the Yangtze River Valley, where the first forms of writing and language emerged. As these civilizations evolved, regional writing systems and dialects developed that eventually unified into what we now know as Chinese.

Chinese civilization is historically considered a dominant East Asian culture . As China is one of the first ancient civilizations , Chinese culture exerts a profound influence on the philosophy , virtue , etiquette and traditions of Asia . Chinese characters , ceramics , architecture , music , dance, literature , martial arts , gastronomy , art , philosophy , business etiquette, religion , politics and history They have had a global influence, while their traditions and festivities are celebrated, instilled and practiced by people around the world.

The official Chinese language and therefore the most widespread language is a standardized form of Mandarin Chinese. Used by more than 800 million people, it is the language with the largest number of native speakers and total speakers in the world.

Mandarin is a set of dialects that began to take shape in the 6th century. The standardized version was created at the beginning of the 20th century to facilitate communication among the population. 

The Chinese language is considered a macrolanguage that encompasses numerous dialects. Its great ethnic diversity made up of 56 ethnic groups distinguishes this country as multilingual. In this case the geography impact in the language.

The difficulty that has the chinese:

* Writing System: Chinese characters are logograms, where each character represents a word or concept. Learning thousands of characters and understanding their stroke order and meanings can be daunting for learners.

Tonal Nature: Chinese is a tonal language, meaning that the pitch or tone in which a word is spoken can change its meaning. Mandarin Chinese, for example, has four main tones and a neutral tone. Mastering tones can be challenging for learners whose native languages are non-tonal.

Grammar Structure: Chinese grammar differs significantly from that of Indo-European languages. For example, Chinese lacks verb conjugations, plurals, and articles, which can be challenging for learners accustomed to these features in their native languages.

Cultural Differences: Chinese culture and language are deeply intertwined. Understanding cultural nuances and context is crucial for mastering the language effectively, which can pose an additional challenge for learners from different cultural backgrounds.

Pronunciation: Chinese phonetics can be difficult for non-native speakers, as some sounds may not exist in their native languages. Additionally, Chinese has a large number of homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings), making pronunciation accuracy crucial for effective communication.

Hola. nǐ hǎo. 你好

Constanza Bertoglio-Talap

Matias Contreras

Eduardo Vila

Valentina Julio

Fernanda Azócar

History

The history of the language its divided in 3 periods:

-old Korean

-medium Korean

-modern Korean

Old Korean: In this period, the Korean alphabet (Hangul) had not yet been invented, but they spoke with the Chinese characters that in Korean were called hanja.

Medium Korean: Hangul was invented, which is the alphabet of this language and is used until today (it is simpler than the alphabet used in ancient Korean)

Modern Korean: Modern Korean is characterized by the almost exclusive use of the Hangul alphabet, especially since the end of Second World War.

Cultural context of Korean language

Korean language is entirely linked to Korean’s people cultural background and history. Understanding the cultural and historical aspects of the Korean people contributes to a deeper comprehension of the language and its expressions. The Korean people posses a rich history that spans thousands of years, with a unique culture that is reflected in their language .

Why this language so difficult ?

Korean can be difficult for a native spanish or English speaker to learn, because it’s very different from other languages like German, French, etc, and the complexity of the Korean writing system and the order that the words must have it’s to different to our language.