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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6562 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 185 of 346 15 August 2008 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Other than the languages I already know:
- German: Although it has a reputation for sounding harsh, I think it sounds real cool. Practically I also found it was more useful in most of Europe than French. - Russian: You can see Russia coming back, and the language sounds great. - Mandarin: Writing system is very very challenging. Culture is overwhelmingly rich and different. - Swahili: Sub-Saharan African languages are often ignored, and the Bantu language group is extremely rich and extremely overlooked. Many African nations have emerging economies, and although most can speak a colonial language it would be nice to be able to understand people the way they natively express themselves. - Farsi: I don't think anyone "needs" Hindi/Urdu given how almost everyone there seems to have better English skills than the average American. So Farsi because it's Indo-Iranian, it sounds very pleasant, it has an incredible literary heritage, and maybe I'll have an edge in word acquisition. - Ancient Egyptian: Cool, challenging but not frustrating, extremely interesting and rewarding (I can already understand a few phrases in random papyri I find on the net and I've only been doing this for a few months). - Spanish: Demographic, sounds good, demographic, maybe will be easy given I already know a lot of French, demographic. - Hebrew: I find it easy and reading the old testament in Hebrew is very very different. - Japanese: In a way more different and challenging than even Mandarin, but Japan is one place where English hasn't yet killed all need for learning a foreign language (isn't it?) I think I can do German, Spanish, Hebrew, Ancient Egyptian (making good progress already), and Farsi. The others depend on when I make a tonne of money and retire to a tropical island. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Deauville Diglot Newbie France Joined 6114 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Dutch, Italian | Message 186 of 346 16 August 2008 at 11:52am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi,
My top-ten would be : 1. French 2. English 3. Dutch 4. German 5. Czech 6. Spanish 7. Croatian 8. Indonesian 9. Esperanto 10. Russian 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jimbo baby! Senior Member United States Joined 5970 days ago 202 posts - 208 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* | Message 187 of 346 16 August 2008 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would say to focus on Asian languages because they have the most speakers and Western businesses are looking to expand in those regions.
Chinese Arabic Hindi/Urdu Malay/Indonesian Japanese Korean And then some Western languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Danakin Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 6413 days ago 14 posts - 19 votes Speaks: German*, English, Japanese Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 188 of 346 20 August 2008 at 10:06am | IP Logged | ||
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Languages I know at least the basics:
1. German - Mothertongue 2. English - Compulsory in school. Very fluent, am in Canada right now and have no language-problems whatsoever. Have some problems with some English accents though, I hardly understand people from Manchester for example. :/ 3. Japanese - Basic fluency. It's my major at university, learning for 3 years now and regretting I did not put more effort in it. Will work hard from now on! (Learning Russian so effectively at the moment really motivates me putting more effort into it.) 4. Mandarin Chinese - Took 1 semester at university "for fun". Could not continue studying because my Japanese Studies took up too much time this semester, could not visit all the lessons at university. But I will definitely continue on my own! Well... I like eastern Asian cultures. :) 5. French - Compulsory in school. Unfortunately forgot most of it. Have to "reactivate" my knowledge someday, as I could "survive" a 2 weeks holiday in southern france without using English once. 6. Russian - I like different writing systems. Latin Alphabet, Cyrillic, Japanese Kana, Chinese Hanzi, Korean Han'geul... I want to understand all of these! I also wanted to learn at least 1 slavic language. Also my Girlfriends second "mothertongue" (she is half-german and half-russian, in inverted commas because she herself is not fluent unfortunately and speaks russian with an accent). I just started learning 3 weeks ago and she is pissed that I really put effort into it and already understand most of the stuff she writes me. She is afraid that I soon will be better then her, even though I think I never will, since I have to learn the grammar the "hard way" while it just comes to her. First language I'm trying to learn with Assimil and I really like it (even though it is only "Russisch ohne Mühe HEUTE" course). My second wave starts next monday btw. :) This is where it's getting serious! (I'll get a new Professor at University in octobre who is Russian, so maybe he will have a good impression of me when I try speaking Russian with him. :) ) 7. Spanish - Know only the basics. Also took only 1 semester at university. Did not put any effort into it, unfortunately, so I failed the final exam. :) But my Spanish is ok for that, because of my French and my basic Spanish skills I can understand some written texts. Maybe I'll pick it up again when my Russian and Japanese get better. :P Oh, I'm only 23, will be 24 in January. Because I know English, German, some French and very basic Spanish I can understand quite a bit Esperanto even though I never tried learning it. :) Languages I definitely want to learn in the future: Either Swedish or Norwegian: I like scandinavia. :) Korean: Han'geul just look awesome. Not so interested in the spoken language, though. So this makes 9 if i exclude Esperanto. Hmm a 10th... Maybe Polish, my Grandfathers parents were from a part of Prussia that is Poland today. Hmm, I don't know yet. Maybe some other language with an "alien" font, as Arabian, Punjabi or so. Maybe the Ryûkyû-Language on Okinawa even though it's dying. Maybe Turkish because of the many Turkish immigrants in Germany. I don't know yet, but I will have to improve my other language skills anyways first. Edited by Danakin on 20 August 2008 at 10:10am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7008 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 189 of 346 20 August 2008 at 11:29am | IP Logged | ||
Don't worry, even native English speakers find that beyond them sometimes! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shadowyin Bilingual Diglot Newbie United Kingdom shining-dreams.webs. Joined 5934 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Studies: French, Korean, Cantonese*, English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 190 of 346 20 August 2008 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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English
Mandarin Would sign language be one. I think it's really important since, it's the only way mute's and deafs could express themselves. Japanese French Spainish Korean Cantonese Latin Can't think of a last language...Erm..Arabic? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6432 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 191 of 346 20 August 2008 at 1:43pm | IP Logged | ||
a) Sign language is mutually incomprehensible between regions; specifying 'sign language' without a region means almost nothing. b) Aside from the fact that deaf-mutes can be perfectly proficient at written communication, some can also lip-read and talk. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chas Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5931 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Indonesian | Message 192 of 346 23 August 2008 at 2:33am | IP Logged | ||
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If the goal is merely to successfully learn 10 languages, then my reasoning would simply be ease of learning. Difficult languages are clearly out, because the goal is simply to succeed. Therefore, i'd recommend in this order (for a native English speaker):
1. English 2. Dutch 3. Afrikaans 4. Flemish 5. Italian 6. Spanish 7. Portuguese (or Danish) 8. French (or Swedish) 9. Indonesian 10. Malay Potentially slide Portuguese and French out of there, and replace them with Swedish and Danish. Despite Portuguese coming at a discount after Spanish, French is relatively painful, and it might pay off in the long run for speed to learn Danish instead, and get Swedish at a great discount. Perhaps controversially i'm leaving out German. Again, the goal is to succeed, and while German comes at a discount after the training in English and Dutch, there are language with far fewer grammatical idiosyncrasies that can probably be learned faster overall. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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