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So You Want to Learn 5... | ||
Tags: Number of Languages | Fluency | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Frost Newbie United States Joined 5801 days ago 27 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Norwegian, Faroese, Greek | Message 209 of 580 14 March 2009 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I only speak English now but at the young age of 16, I have plenty of time to pick and choose which languages to learn and how to apply them to my career/lifestyle.
Russian: Plan on spending a few hours, every day, for several months on this language during summer vacation. Lots of learning materials, a fascinating culture, and a huge accompanying ego for an American who learned Russian on his own. Icelandic: When I told my family I was going to learn Icelandic, their response was simply "What?" Besides being reminiscent of Old Norse, Icelandic would basically be my way into Scandinavian culture (and into their respective languages, if I were to choose another). Greek (all variations): For the sake of keeping my list short, I've included all varieties of Greek here. I would like to learn Biblical Greek (not the right term, I know) to, of course, read the Old Testament in the original language. However, modern Greek is perhaps more important if I ever wanted to actually speak it! Finnish: Arguably the most difficult Indo-European language, Finnish seems to have very little reward to back up the immense effort to learn it. But considering a lot of the music I listen to is in Finnish, I'd love to learn it some day! Italian: Simply, the language of my family. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7154 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 210 of 580 15 March 2009 at 7:47am | IP Logged | ||
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Nitpicky points: Finnish is not classified as an Indo-European language. It is classified as Uralic with Estonian, Lappish, Hungarian and other languages in northern Russia as related languages. Its difficulty is relative as speakers of other Uralic languages (especially Estonian or Karelian) consider it to be rather easy to learn.
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| VityaCo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7079 days ago 79 posts - 86 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian*, English Studies: Spanish, Japanese, French | Message 211 of 580 15 March 2009 at 10:43am | IP Logged | ||
So true, o true. Especially if we could use them too. Edited by VityaCo on 15 March 2009 at 10:44am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Olekander Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5881 days ago 122 posts - 136 votes Speaks: English*, French, Russian | Message 212 of 580 16 March 2009 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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French,
Russian, Thamil, Nordic (they all count as one, I can't see how one could only be fluent in Swedish, and not understand the other ones, if I had to pick one, Swedish). Icelandic is an exception. Estonian Ancient languages: Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Sanskrit, Greek, Eygptian. Edited by Olekander on 17 March 2009 at 3:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Whiskeyjack Newbie Canada Joined 5730 days ago 36 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish, Spanish, Russian | Message 213 of 580 17 March 2009 at 3:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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I know English
My goal, is Finnish - cause im half finnish Russian - cause ive been there already, and its a cool european language to know Polish - cause im half polish, and its related to russian Hindi - cause there are alot of hindi's in Canada Twi - Cause i have friends from Ghana Edited by Whiskeyjack on 17 March 2009 at 3:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6140 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 214 of 580 22 March 2009 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Oh you horrible, horrible person! Making me choose only five languages besides the ones I already speak (English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese)? Well, here's my attempt at it. But like others have said, some change with the mood.
Greek Russian Japanese Arabic Italian Another language to consider might be German... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cra-Z Tetraglot Newbie Canada vurtego.ca/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5789 days ago 14 posts - 15 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Portuguese, French Studies: Turkish, Kurdish | Message 215 of 580 23 March 2009 at 3:47am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I speak English, French and Portuguese. My 5 at this point would have to be:
Russian (Currently studying) - I don't really know why to be honest. I just see it as a challenge. I taught English in Russia for a while so that gave me a head start. I think my Russian study is mainly experimental because I certainly haven't fallen in love with the culture or the country. Hopefully that comes later. Mandarin - Wow, what a feat. One good reason for learning this one would be to silence all the people who say it's impossible. It would also be neat to be able to talk to 1 billion plus Mandarin speakers. Arabic - Again, just such a significant language. I'm also curious how it feels to think right to left. :-P Spanish - The last 2 are tough for me. I'm hesitant to say Spanish because I already understand it. But it's such a huge language that I might as well stick it on the list because I plan to speak it fluently at some point. I have no idea what the 5th would be. I'm not drawn to any in particular right now. Maybe Hindi, Japanese or German. It's tough to say German or Hindi because so many of those native speakers also speak English now. We'll see what happens. :-P 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| monkeykoder Newbie United States Joined 5723 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 216 of 580 23 March 2009 at 6:13am | IP Logged | ||
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My list as of this very second...
Japanese (I've been fascinated with it since I was very young but never applied myself to it) German (Who could say they DON'T want to learn German???) Russian (Hey it's not French (I just have no desire to learn French (probably because it is one of the two languages always taught in High School)) and it's one of the three languages to be fluent in for a Math geek) Korean (I figure if I'm going to learn Japanese I might as well jump into Korean someday) Mandarin (Well by this time I already know Japanese and Korean (say by 2025) seriously how could I NOT learn Mandarin...) I guess I have a thing against Spanish and French just because they're the two languages almost everyone has some experience with if they went through High School in America... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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