solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7042 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin
| Message 81 of 346 17 April 2006 at 1:38am | IP Logged |
Bumped, to add my latest 10 lang. incarnate...
1.) mandarin
2.) japanese
3.) korean
4.) bahasa (indo/malay)
5.) russian
6.) turkish
7.) croatian
8.) romanian
9.) thai
10.) German
If i were to devote 20 years to this, i think it would be quite feasible
actually, considering my astonishing progress in mandarin in less
than a year.
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Alfonso Octoglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 6862 days ago 511 posts - 536 votes Speaks: Biblical Hebrew, Spanish*, French, English, Tzotzil, Italian, Portuguese, Ancient Greek Studies: Nahuatl, Tzeltal, German
| Message 82 of 346 24 April 2006 at 8:20pm | IP Logged |
1.- French
2.- Spanish
3.- Italian
4.- Japanese
5.- German
6.- Cantonese
7.- Mandarin
8.- Portuguese
9.- Arabic
10. Russian
You never mentionned that your friend could be interested in history, literature, art or religion. In such a case I would add:
6.- Latin
7.- Ancient Greek
8.- Sanscrit
9.- Hebrew
10. Old English
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CaoMei513 Senior Member United States Joined 6846 days ago 110 posts - 113 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Korean
| Message 83 of 346 06 May 2006 at 9:26pm | IP Logged |
My opinion is almost the same as everyone else's but:
Mandarin
Arabic
Spanish
French
Japanese
German
Swedish
Russian
Hebrew
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monax Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6843 days ago 39 posts - 40 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, German
| Message 84 of 346 06 May 2006 at 9:44pm | IP Logged |
This is an old topic but a fun one. Roughly in order of my current interest, I'd say for me personally:
German
Spanish
French
Norwegian
Russian
Mandarin
Japanese
Hebrew
Dutch
Italian
The 10 most useful languages (other than English) in my uneducated opinion:
Spanish
French
Mandarin
German
Russian
Japanese
Cantonese
Portugese
Italian
Arabic
Edited by monax on 06 May 2006 at 10:01pm
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Andy_Liu Triglot Senior Member Hong Kong leibby.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6787 days ago 255 posts - 257 votes Speaks: Mandarin, Cantonese*, EnglishC2 Studies: French
| Message 85 of 346 07 May 2006 at 5:48am | IP Logged |
Re Monax:
In fact, if you think Cantonese culture is very significant, then your choice is quite sensible. But I believe you won't need both Cantonese and Mandarin if the focus is merely on "Chinese culture". In the linguistic context, however, I would strongly suggest English speakers learn both to get a good understanding of the Chinese language(s) altogether. Learning either one first won't affect your study.
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monax Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6843 days ago 39 posts - 40 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, German
| Message 86 of 346 07 May 2006 at 3:53pm | IP Logged |
I included Cantonese even though Mandarin has many more speakers for a couple reasons. First, I noticed in the Cantonese language profile that Cantonese is often more common than Mandarin in international Chinese communities. Also, it has been my understanding that most of these Cantonese speakers don't speak much Mandarin. Finally, Hong Kong is a major worldwide economic center.
So it was based on some information, a good deal of speculation, and a greater focus on worldwide distribution, economics and general usefulness than culture. But I don't know the subject well, so it's quite possible that my justifications are flawed.
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Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7316 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin
| Message 87 of 346 08 May 2006 at 3:32am | IP Logged |
In order of current personal interest:
Mandarin
Spanish
Cantonese
Japanese
German
French
Latin
Portuguese
Korean
Russian
And if I were an immortal genius whose language learning career could continue indefinitely, I would add:
Italian
Vietnamese
Arabic
Old English
Hindi
Ancient Greek
Indonesian
Romanian
Thai
Catalan
Swedish
Norwegian
Dutch
Greek
Sanskrit
Tibetan
Persian
Hebrew
Esperanto
Polish
Mongolian
Apparently, Ardaschir knows all but 8 from the above list.
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patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map
| Message 88 of 346 08 May 2006 at 6:22am | IP Logged |
Malcolm wrote:
Apparently, Ardaschir knows all but 8 from the above list. |
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Which ones?
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