|
 |
So you want to learn 10... | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Mr. Speaker Diglot Newbie United States Joined 7111 days ago 28 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 346 07 June 2005 at 8:36pm | IP Logged | ||
|
If you were to befriend a young ambitious person who claimed he/she wanted to become a decaglot, but couldn't decided on which ten languages to learn, which ten would you recommend?
I would say: Arabic Mandarin German French Russian Portuguese Hindi Spanish Korean Japanese This is with the assumption that his/her mother tongue is English. Naturally it all depends on where the person lives, what they're interested in, what they want to use it for ect... The real question is which ten languages do you think are, in general, the most important when combining social, political, economic, and militaristic factors. I'd love to know what you all think. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Raistlin Majere Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Spain uciprotour-cycling.c Joined 7153 days ago 455 posts - 424 votes  7 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Catalan*, FrenchA1, Italian, German Studies: Swedish | Message 2 of 346 08 June 2005 at 1:15am | IP Logged | ||
|
English (as a mother tongue)
Spanish Mandarin Russian Arabic Portuguese French German Japanese Hindi 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7147 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 3 of 346 08 June 2005 at 1:33am | IP Logged | ||
|
I would advise:
English (mother tongue) French Spanish German Russian Chinese (Mandarin) I would tell him or her to choose between Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, Portuguese, Indonesian and Hindi or Tamil for the other four. I find the exercise strange as I have never sat down to work out which languages I will learn. I just fell into most of the languages or circumstances dictated which languages I have studied. Rather than choosing general usefulness as a criterion, I would advise the person to choose the languages that suit them at the time and it would also depend on opportunity. I took some Hebrew classes when a good friend who had enrolled in a course found he was unable to continue (he had only just begun) so kindly offered his classes to me. Edited by fanatic on 08 June 2005 at 1:34am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Raistlin Majere Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Spain uciprotour-cycling.c Joined 7153 days ago 455 posts - 424 votes 7 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Catalan*, FrenchA1, Italian, German Studies: Swedish | Message 4 of 346 08 June 2005 at 1:47am | IP Logged | ||
Fanatic, which of the languages you know did you learn by "falling into them"? Sometimes I set myself a goal to learn a determined language, but then some particular event gives me a great motivation for learning another language, which otherwise I would'nt probably have learnt. Is this more or less what you intend to say? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7147 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 5 of 346 08 June 2005 at 3:12am | IP Logged | ||
|
I learnt French because it was compulsary at high school.
I learnt German because I picked up a cheap course in a second hand record store. I learnt Russian because I saw a very cheap course in a shop window. I learnt Dutch because radio Nederland gave a free book and record to its listeners. I learnt Swedish because Radio Sweden offered a cheap course. I learnt Polish because a friend asked me to visit his family in Poland so I bought a course. I learnt Afrikaans because it was so close to Dutch and a South African gave me a free textbook. I learnt Yiddish because I discovered that, because I understood German, I could understand Yiddish. I learnt Malay because I had to conduct mathematics training programs in Singapore and Malay is one of the official languages of Singapore. I also spent a weekend teaching teachers in Kuala Lumpur so I bought some textbooks. I found Indonesian is very close to Malay so I picked up some second hand courses to learn Indonesian. Also, one of my books has just been translated into Indonesian and I would like to read it. The translation might be better than the original. I learnt Italian because I found a cheap course which I highly recommend and we sailed to Europe on an Italian ship. I learnt Spanish because I bought a second hand Assimil textbook and got the cassettes cheap. I learnt Hebrew because I was sent a Hebrew course by mistake and decided to learn it anyway. Then I attended the course when my friend was unable to complete his lessons. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7106 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 346 12 June 2005 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I learnt English, French, German (and Ancient Greek and Latin) at Grammar school. When still at school I started to learn Spanish because my Latin teacher often discussed how Roman languages are related to eachother and how these relationships after some investigation also can be seen in Germanic and other European languages. Then I started to learn Turkish, because of its different structure. I got a lot of opportunities to practice both languages because of the immigrants in the Netherlands and I started to work as a social worker for them and also for Moroccans, Portuguese, Italians and Yugoslavs.I never lost my interest for foreign language and picked up some knowledge of a lot of languages, either because I met people from a certain country, or just because there was a tv course or because I found a cheap book in the bookshop. Edited by Martien on 12 June 2005 at 2:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Nephilim Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 7146 days ago 363 posts - 368 votes Speaks: English*, Polish | Message 7 of 346 13 June 2005 at 2:28am | IP Logged | ||
|
I would recommend:
Russian for the folk music and great literature. German for the shopping, the night life and the cakes. French because it's got a lot of bounce when travelling in Europe Latin because it is the gateway to the romance group. Sanskrit for the intellectual challenge. English for the literature and pop culture. Italian because it sounds so cool regardless of what you say. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vincenthychow Tetraglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 7105 days ago 136 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English, GermanB1, Japanese Studies: French | Message 8 of 346 13 June 2005 at 2:46pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I am not really good at languages. I am native in Chinese. I have learnt English since I was a kid because my city was colonized by the UK. I have learnt Japanese because I love TV Games. I have learnt a little bit French before, yet, I forgot almost all of them. I am now just beginning to learn German, for my future studying. If I can continue to learn, I wish to learn Latin, Russian, Korean, Sankrit, Hebrew and Greek. Just see if I have the time.
2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
