Which other languages are prominent in Adelaide?

[Hazel M]

Hi all,

Wasn't sure where to post this but since it involves education I plumped for here!!
I'm thinking of learning a new language (whilst still here in UK for the next few months) but I would like it to be a language I'll have the opportunity perhaps to utilise once we've moved. SO... I was thinking Polish at first (when I was there a few years ago I met a few Polish people on the farm I worked at)... but then thought perhaps Chinese (Mandarin) or Japanese may be more prevalent over there?

Any thoughts would be appreciated, I'm not sure if there a greater number of people who live in SA from any one of these countries or another, if that makes sense Be interesting to find out what people think.

Thanks in advance,

Hazel

[andy and lindsey]

A lot of children learn Japanese in school, lots of Asians here but I guess there are lots of dialects with that. As a nurse I find I come across lots of older Greeks and Italians with limited English - that could be beneficial but you best get cracking!!!

[ian mc]

Pick any you will come across most of them here, the houses round about us have Polish,Chinese,a few brits, Canadian,Russian,American,one of Baltic states, And thats only close by houses 200m or so and a couple of Aussies

[Hazel M]

Thanks both, sounds like a pretty good mix then!!

[Tyke]

Japanese is a very popular language to learn here.
It is relevant to the area.

Our friend's daughter has just returned from two years teaching English in Japan ( good money too!)

[Prema]

Gosh I would be inclined to say Italian / mandarin there is a large community of both here.

[Diane]

I did a ten week course in conversational mandarin through the WEA - great fun, nice people, interesting language, and the advantage that because it was just conversational, I didn't have to worry about all the characters!

[WhatNow?]

Yes - I sometimes think it would be useful to speak Italian or Greek so at least I can understand what my neighbours are saying - I live in an area where these two communities are very prevalent (we have some very good restaurants here that serve 'proper' Greek and Italian food!). I was working recently with a young woman whose parents migrated from Greece 30 years ago. She speaks what she thought was fluent Greek as learned in the Greek community here, however when she recently went to Greece for the first time to visit family they laughed at her 'Greek' and said they couldn't understand her. So beware as the expats dialects may not be what you are being taught in formal language classes!

[Hazel M]

Well just to let you know I've decided on Japanese, which may (or may not) prove helpful when the children are learning it at school!!