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’Must have languages’ for polyglots? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6941 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 25 of 149 11 December 2005 at 2:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think some people's responses have been a little too over-representative of Romance languages. I understand that Europe historically has had a huge influence around the globe, but to say that Italian, Spanish, French, AND Portuguese are all must-have languages just seems silly to me. Of those languages, I would concede Spanish and French. Then probably a Germanic language (most likely German or English), an Eastern European language, Arabic or Farsi, Hindi, ancient or modern Greek, and two East Asian languages (two because they would hardly be related to each other at all, unlike most languages that share geographical regions). That's already nine languages in addition to your mother-tongue, which qualifies you as a polyglot by anyone's standards! And, better yet, they aren't all languages that have a degree of mutual intelligibility before you even start learning them.
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| Qbe Tetraglot Senior Member United States joewright.org/var Joined 7127 days ago 289 posts - 335 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Japanese, German, Mandarin, Aramaic | Message 26 of 149 12 December 2005 at 10:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting question but, as some of the responses have hinted, the answer is really meaningless without a surrounding context: what is a "true polyglot", and how are the languages to be used? What is the purpose for knowing multiple languages? That purpose will determine the list.
Don't get me wrong: I love lists as much as anyone, maybe even more. But a list of important languages needs context: important to whom? important for what purpose? A "true polyglot" who's a European diplomat may have a far different list from an American who imports from Asia. Well, without further ado, I'll give a few lists. I received language training in my church's clergy traning schools; for a Christian theologian you might have a list like this: 1. ancient Hebrew: for Old Testament 2. Aramaic: for a few parts of the Old Testament and ancient Jewish writings 3. ancient Greek (Attic is good): for New Testament and early church writings 4. Latin: for reading early and medieval theologians 5. German: for reading later theologians My church tradition (Lutheran) finds German important, but others might focus on different languages--Dutch, French, etc. For those focusing on textual criticism, the list might also include other ancient languages: Syriac and Coptic can come in handy for New Testament, while Old Testament study might find a knowledge of languages like Ugaritic, Phonecian or Akkadian to be helpful. On the other hand, a student of comparative world religions might have a different list: in addition to Hebrew, Greek and Latin, languages such as Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and others. On the third hand, if you want to impress people with your language abilities you must walk a fine line: the language names should be familiar to many people but the languages themselves should be esoteric enough that you won't find (many) others who can claim the same knowledge. Maybe Finnish, Sanskrit, Turkish, Russian, Chinese--it depends on where you live, I suppose, but those would be "impressive" languages in my area. You could generate similar lists for other purposes: ability to speak with the greatest number of people in the world, ability to read the greatest percentage of spam, ability to speak with the greatest number of people in a particular neighborhood, for example Simply generating a generic list without a context or purpose seems far less interesting to me. Now that I've said all that, thanks for posting the question! It's been interesting to read the lists. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6935 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 27 of 149 14 December 2005 at 2:12pm | IP Logged | ||
Given that many people in this forum are from countries which belong to what may be called the "Western Civilization", this is not at all surprising, especially given the fact that a significant number of those countries are presently engaged in a bold and exciting sociopolitical project of building and strengthening a common European identity. So, what would a "good European" want for foreign languages? Surely, the grand trio of English, French, and German is a must. Just going by the number of speakers within the EU, one would also be interested in Italian, Spanish, and Polish. Thinking a bit more broadly, Russian may be of interest as the largest European, although not the EU, language in terms of the number of speakers (in Europe itself) and a substantial cultural heritage. An if one believes Turkey will indeed become a part of the EU some day, here is another one to learn. So, between English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Turkish, one can end up never touching another language. Edited by frenkeld on 14 December 2005 at 2:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Guanche Hexaglot Senior Member Spain danielmarin.blogspot Joined 7038 days ago 168 posts - 178 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanC1, RussianB1, French, Japanese Studies: Greek, Mandarin, Arabic (Written) | Message 28 of 149 14 December 2005 at 3:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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My list would include "practical" languages, that is, languages widely spoken around the world AND with a large number of speakers, but at the same time it would also include languages as different form each other as possible.
OK, my list is: 1- English: the international language par excellence. 2- Spanish: my mother tongue, but it is after English the most widely spoken Indoeuropean language in the world, so I think it's worth the effort. 3- Chinese: the language with the largest number of native speakers and the official language of a future superpower. 4- Arabic: a completely different grammar and script. In addition, it's very popular and has a great cultural influence over many nations. 5- Japanese: the fifth place could be for Hindi/Urdu, but it's also an Indoeuropean language, so I think Japanese could be a good option, since it's radically different from the others. 6- Swahili: another different language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6935 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 29 of 149 14 December 2005 at 6:22pm | IP Logged | ||
If when talking about Spanish being "widely spoken" you refer to the number of strictly native speakers and/or wide geographic distribution, this may be so, but if you mean simply the number of people speaking it (native + reasonably fluent secondary speakers), Hindi/Urdu will likely come out ahead - and it is Indoeuropean to boot. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7013 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 30 of 149 15 December 2005 at 1:43am | IP Logged | ||
Oh no, I'm not going to go there! HA! :) My list was a feeble attempt to point out the context issue, as Qbe addressed nicely. I think your "must have" list should be just that, the languages you must have in order to conduct your affairs. My hat is off to anyone who has mastered any language that is not his/her native tongue, let alone any ONE of the languages on my "non-wuss" list! By the way, yes, lets add the African click languages and any native American language to that list! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Guanche Hexaglot Senior Member Spain danielmarin.blogspot Joined 7038 days ago 168 posts - 178 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanC1, RussianB1, French, Japanese Studies: Greek, Mandarin, Arabic (Written) | Message 31 of 149 15 December 2005 at 10:13am | IP Logged | ||
You're right. An alternative list could have Hindi/Urdu in the second place and no Spanish at all, but I'm sure you can forgive me for being a little Spanish-biased. ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cro Magnon Newbie United States Joined 7127 days ago 26 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 32 of 149 15 December 2005 at 10:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Here's my list:
1. English - of course 2. Spanish - 2nd most common language in the Western Hemisphere 3. French - another Romance language, but still worth learning 4. German - 2nd most common Germanic language 5. Russian - most common Slavic language 6. Arabic - the official language of one of the most important religions. 7. Chinese - the language with the most speakers 8. Swahili - major African language 9. Navajo - not really important, but interesting. And if you can learn it, you've earned respect even without knowing the other 8 languages I mentioned. :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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