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So you want to learn 10... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Lugubert Heptaglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6868 days ago 186 posts - 235 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, Danish, Norwegian, EnglishC2, German, Dutch, French Studies: Mandarin, Hindi | Message 49 of 346 17 February 2006 at 7:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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There will be at least as many answers as posters, because we all (including those who we migh try to advise) have different goals. Add the impossible task of defining a "language".
Anyway, for those who want to maximize financially rewarding communication abilities, you could go for GNP: English, Japanese, French, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese. Now, as hinted, there are some severe problems with those ten. What is Chinese? If you refer to Modern Standard Chinese, how many, in spite of official declarations that "Mandarin" is taught all over the PRC, are really able to communicate in that "topolect"? Does the list refer to Modern Standard Arabic? MSA is great for educated people, but will probably be of no use in rural Egypt or Syria or Morocco or... For the linguist interested in for example language universals, I'd recommend as many and diverse language "families" as possible. I haven't thought this aspect over very much, but let's give it a try, combining it where possible with the crass economic factor. 1. English 2. Spanish or Portuguese 3. Russian (and don't forget that there are ever so many superb bilingual dictionaries in Russian) 4. Basque 5. Kartvelian aka Georgian, to include a Caucasian language 6. One Arabic variety for loooots of reasons 7. For Sino-Tibetan, "Mandarin" Chinese 8. For Dravidian, Tamil (spoken by some 74 million) 9. Bahasa Indonesia 10. Pick an indigenous American or Australian, or an isolated language like Burushaski 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tweek Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 6866 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French | Message 50 of 346 17 February 2006 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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If the native language is English, then I would suggest these ones:
1. French - magnificent culture, sounds great, still the language of international affairs. 2. German - for business and great literature. 3. Spanish - very useful, gives access to half of South America. 4. Japanese - high-tech business, exotic culture, beautiful country. 5. Chinese - (of the Mandarin variety) because of great opportunities in business. 6. Russian - very useful in Eastern Europe and a half of Asia, also great literature. 7. Portuguese - preferably Brazilian, for the other half of S. America. 8. Arabic - allows to gain an insight into some of the important political matters of today. 9. Hindi - interesting language of a very interesting country. 10. Latin - well this is where it all started, anyway. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 51 of 346 18 February 2006 at 2:37am | IP Logged | ||
Not all of it. There are quite a few which started somewhere else :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tweek Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 6866 days ago 16 posts - 16 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French | Message 52 of 346 18 February 2006 at 4:33am | IP Logged | ||
But of course. Sorry, I didn't want to sound eurocentric. Anyway, quite a lot of beautiful languages (and also some less pretty) started here, so I think it's good to get acquainted with Latin. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| wetnose Groupie United States Joined 6979 days ago 90 posts - 98 votes Studies: Mandarin, English* Studies: Japanese | Message 53 of 346 18 February 2006 at 11:56am | IP Logged | ||
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Hm, my personal list of 10:
1. Japanese - already learning, interesting culture, I like the way it sounds 2. Mandarin - characters, as a heritage language I feel obligated to master it, houses many thinking traditions 3. Russian - so interesting: poetry, culture, tremendous body of mathematics and science literature 4. Italian - beautiful, learn basic latin, too 5. Farsi - learning Persian appeals to me, it's seemingly not too hard, and you get to learn the Arabic writing system 6. Taiwanese - counts as a dialect, a major sticking point for me; no matter how much I learn Mandarin, I still can't understand 40% or so of what my relatives say. 7. Korean - round out the East Asian continent, lots of go/weiqi/baduk material, difficult 8. German - business, an extremely popular 2nd language 9. Arabic - modern; very useful today, but I am a bit put off by all the colloquial variation 10. Spanish - tremendously useful As for how, I guess I would mostly go with a combination of methods discussed on this forum - mixes of Assimil, FSI, DLI, Linguaphone, and such, combined with visits to the areas and probably extensive reading aloud. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Catmince Newbie New Zealand Joined 6906 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 54 of 346 24 February 2006 at 8:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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If it was me personally i'd chose (if based on Travel)
English (UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and HEAPS others.) German (Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as other parts of Europe) French (France, ex. French Colonies, Quebec) Italian (Italy and Italian parts of Switzerland) Spanish (Spain, South America) Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) Swedish (Sweden, Denmark and Norway) Cantonese (Hong Kong Japanese (Japan :P) Mandarin 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kubelek Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland chomikuj.pl/Kuba_wal Joined 6853 days ago 415 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 55 of 346 06 March 2006 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wouldn't you get by more easily in Sweden, Denmark and Norway with Norwegian?
(I'm not criticizig, I'm just curious.) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7184 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 56 of 346 07 March 2006 at 3:37am | IP Logged | ||
I think you could choose either one actually. Pronounciation wise Swedish and Norwegian are pretty close. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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