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’Must have languages’ for polyglots? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Walshy Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6884 days ago 335 posts - 365 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, German | Message 1 of 149 07 December 2005 at 10:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What languages do YOU believe a 'true' polyglot should know? Add reasons.
This is what I think are necessary (no particular order): 1. German - A difficult and very inconsistent language. 2. Spanish - Very popular. 3. French - Again, very popular, and from what I've seen, it is the language that people most 'show off' with. 4. English - Because its English :), and dominates the internet among many other things. 5. Russian - Non-roman alphabet, very different from Romance languages. 6. Mandarin - Very difficult pictographic writing system, highly tonal language. Feel free to add more than 6 languages if you want. Edited by Walshy on 08 December 2005 at 2:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7257 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 2 of 149 07 December 2005 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think all polyglots should know the following languages:
-English -French -Spanish -German -Russian, or any other "hard" European language. And at least one of: -Mandarin -Japanese -Arabic 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| morprussell Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7105 days ago 272 posts - 285 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 3 of 149 07 December 2005 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
German is a Germanic language. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7257 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 4 of 149 07 December 2005 at 10:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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But he spelled it without a capital R, so the two mistakes cancelled each other out.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7046 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 5 of 149 07 December 2005 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Don't forget, for the discussion of how many languages to be a polyglot, there's already a topic here.
I feel in order or importance: 1. English (I think the reasons are too obvious) 2. Spanish (Seems to me the most useful 2nd tongue in the US) 3. French (Rather unique orthography, a lot of "culture" in France too) 4. German (If you speak it well, it can come in handy, I see a lot of Germans when I go on holiday) 5. Russian (A little harder then German I guess, Cyrillic alphabet scares off the wimps!) 6. Mandarin (Don't you know it's "the language of the future" lol) 7. Arabic (Looks nice on your Resumé if you want to work with the government) 8. Japanese (Difficult, that's all I know) 9. Portuguese (Quite a cool language, easy if you know Spanish) 10.Italian (Opera...) 11.Dutch (Supposedly a lot of people don't like the sound, I think it's a cool language actually) It seems like my first five are really close to what others have chosen. My list is more based on speakers and the economic power of their respective country. If that didn't play a role then I would chose a different languages. Edited by Sir Nigel on 07 December 2005 at 11:03pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7019 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 6 of 149 08 December 2005 at 12:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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Generally speaking, I also think that polyglots should speak English, French, German, Spanish, and Russian.
And then on top of these I think that someone that wants to communicate with the world (or be recognised as a 'true' or dedicated polyglot) should have each major geographic region covered. -Middle East (plus Northern Africa): Arabic and/or Farsi -North Asia: Mandarin -European Middle East bridge: Turkish -Brazil and parts of Africa: Portuguese -East Africa: Swahili -Scandinavia: Swedish, or Norwegian, Danish, etc -Sub-continental Asia: Hindi and/or Urdu -South-east Asia: Indonesian or Malay And I think that just about covers all the regions - at least the ones I can think of at present. But if you wanted to factor economic, cultural, and historical importance, then you would have to factor in: - Greek (Ancient or Modern) - Japanese - Latin 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Walshy Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6884 days ago 335 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German | Message 7 of 149 08 December 2005 at 2:07am | IP Logged | |||||
Oops, forgot that. Edited by Walshy on 08 December 2005 at 2:10am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Raistlin Majere Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Spain uciprotour-cycling.c Joined 7094 days ago 455 posts - 424 votes 7 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Catalan*, FrenchA1, Italian, German Studies: Swedish | Message 8 of 149 08 December 2005 at 2:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think it depends on whether one wants to be a polyglot for practical reasons or just for the love of languages. In this second case, it wouldn't matter a lot.
Also, if one is a humanitarian helper in the middle of Africa, it would be far more useful for him to know the languages of that region rather than to know any "very useful language" such as English or Mandarin. 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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