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Most bang for the buck | ||
Tags: Hit List | Learning Strategy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7032 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 9 of 18 16 December 2005 at 2:25pm | IP Logged | ||
Its probably because I am in North America and encounter Spanish far more often than the other languages you mention. The transparency of Spanish seems to lend itself to learning the others if they are needed. Also I believe worldwide the number of Spanish speakers is much greater than the others. I personally would choose Italian if I wanted to learn a Romance language. It just sounds cool! Sumabeast's question was about getting the most bang for your buck, not personal feelings though :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7088 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 10 of 18 16 December 2005 at 10:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is based on what I said on the "Must Have Languages" thread about geogrpahical selection of languages, and assumes you already speak English.
-Middle East (plus Northern Africa): Arabic -North Asia: Mandarin -European Middle East bridge: Turkish -Central and South American: Spanish -East Africa: Swahili -Scandinavia: Swedish, or Norwegian, Danish, etc -Sub-continental Asia: Hindi and/or Urdu -South-east Asia: Indonesian or Malay -Western Europe: French (because it also doubles into Western Africa) -Eastern Europe: Russian 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7026 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 18 17 December 2005 at 4:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Does anyone know what would be the best choice for Sub-Saharan western Africa? Is there a lingua franca which is used like swahili is in the east?
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| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7088 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 12 of 18 17 December 2005 at 4:58am | IP Logged | ||
I've read a few sources to suggest that Lingala is a (semi) lingua franca. Although other sources suggest that most people of the region speak an English Creole Lingala: Wikipedia 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7026 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 18 17 December 2005 at 7:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Both Lingala and Swahili are Bantu languages. According to this article, it is the largest language family in Africa so it is perhaps not surprising that two of its languages are the most common.
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| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6960 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 14 of 18 19 December 2005 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've heard both Chinese and Japanese being referred to as the semi-lingua franca of East Asia. It makes me wonder, which do you think is more widely learned by speakers in Korea, Southeast Asia, and the other country (China/Japan)?
Also, I don't think any Native American languages will give much bang for the buck - they all speak English, and I believe they usually learn their respective languages as a second language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7088 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 15 of 18 19 December 2005 at 9:05pm | IP Logged | ||
Here in Seoul there seems to be nearly as many Japanese language schools as there are English schools, but I haven't seen many Chinese schools. I think perhaps Koreans would lean toward Japanese because of the structure of the language - they don't have to alter their way of thinking too much; unlike going to a totally different thought process with Chinese. As a side note, there are as many Japanese people learning Korean at the language school I've taken classes at as there are English speakers. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6676 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 16 of 18 22 December 2006 at 9:31am | IP Logged | ||
Depends on where you go, but French and English are by far the best choices, unless you are interested in a particular country or region. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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