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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| MBrecht92 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4007 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: French, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German | Message 1 of 15 20 January 2014 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello everyone,
I've been studying Spanish for about 2 years now and have attained what could be termed an upper-intermediate or lower-advanced level. This semester I have 3 Spanish classes, so I'd imagine that Cervantes' native tongue will remain my primary foreign language at least for the next few months. I don't mind this, since learning Spanish has a number of advantages; among them the privilege of reading untranslated Spanish-language literature, the prospect of visiting Spain and/or Latin America, and the knowledge that one is learning one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world. Still, I can't shake the desire to take up a new language. Here are those which I'm most strongly considering: Portuguese: A language which I find beautiful and fascinating on a phonological level. I also love MPB (Brazilian pop music from the 70s) and like some Bossa Nova as well. When I attempt to study the language using purely textual material (that is, without listening to music or watching videos), I often find myself losing interest, likely due to its lexical and grammatical proximity to Spanish. Italian: A language which to my ears sounds pleasant if not especially interesting. While the Italian literary tradition may not be quite as rich its French or Spanish counterparts, I would gladly read Umberto Eco and Dante in versione originale. Also, Italian cinema is famously prolific and influential. Finally, I rather enjoy Italian pop music from the 60s and 70s. German: A language which I briefly studied a few years ago. I recall liking some elements of the language (the word order, the sound of the language, the easily understandable speaking style of most natives) and finding others (the cases, the genders and above all the irregularity of plural noun forms) rather intimidating. On the other hand, I love German cinema, as well as some German-language music and would enjoy getting more acquainted with German-language literature. Finally, I have a few acquaintances who've traveled to Germany, and while both of them enjoyed themselves, one of them told me that most Germans have a low opinion of their native language. Also, I've heard that Denglish has become especially prevalent. Farsi: A language which I find beautiful but am reluctant to learn almost entirely because of the writing system. Romanian: A language which interests me primarily because it combines a typically Neo-Latin lexicon (albeit with quite a bit of Hungarian and Slavic influence) with an unusually conservative grammar. However, I fear that learning this language might yield very few benefits given its small number of speakers and minimal international presence. I'd like to note that for me languages are not just a hobby. Currently, I intend to make use of my linguistic knowledge by working as an interpreter in the future. Given this, which of these do you think I ought to chose? Or should I just not bother? Edited by MBrecht92 on 20 January 2014 at 10:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4386 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 2 of 15 20 January 2014 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
Funny I was thinking Spanish would be the next language I tried to learn once I get my German under control. I can't speak for the other languages, but I can say that having learnt German for the last 20 months that while the grammar system is somewhat complex compared to English, it's certainly not a strong impediment to enjoying either literature or film. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4721 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 3 of 15 20 January 2014 at 10:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have no idea what language would be most useful for an interpreter in the states... My guess is that lesser studied languages might be more profitable. Or maybe Portuguese if you intend to focus on South America?
Personally, I couldn't study a language which doesn't make me want to study hard just because I like it so much and/or because I wouldn't want to miss the media available in the language. Whether that means literature, movies, music or whatever. If I were you, I'd go for what you think will fascinate you the most and will keep you studying even when you hit a rough spot. Every language has intimidating aspects, so I don't see German genders or Farsi script as something that should eliminate them from your list of choices - except if you're convinced that they would take all joy out of language learning. Regarding Farsi, the writing system is totally doable. Yes, it looks incredibly intimidating, but I managed to get a fairly good grasp on it in about 2 weeks study time. Looking at the whole process of learning a language, it's really only a minor stumbling block. If you happen to decide on Farsi, you're very welcome to join our team of Persian learners: TAC Persian Team thread. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| MBrecht92 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4007 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: French, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German | Message 4 of 15 20 January 2014 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
Just one question; assuming that you still live in Berlin, do you most of the people you encounter encourage you to make use of your German? Edit: By the way, you have quite an interesting blog, my friend. Edited by MBrecht92 on 20 January 2014 at 10:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| MBrecht92 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4007 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: French, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German | Message 5 of 15 20 January 2014 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
I am indeed looking to learn a language which I enjoy learning, there are just very many that interest me on some level and considerations such as usefulness and the amount of time and effort I'd have to dedicate to each one might help me make up my mind.
Thank you for the invitation! Also, how did you go about learning the Farsi/Arabic writing system in so little time? Edited by MBrecht92 on 20 January 2014 at 11:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5762 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 6 of 15 20 January 2014 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you're interested in working as an interpreter, those are all interesting choices. Are you considering moving to a country where one of these languages is spoken? If so, which culture appeals to you the most? Where do you think you might be able to feel at home? (And get a job? Not sure about the job market for Romanian interpreters...) Do you want a 'small' language or one that's more widely used?
If you think a language would bore you, you might want to stay away - the intermediate plateau might make you quit. Don't let a new writing system put you off - some of us think it's lots of fun! And it's not too hard to learn a new phonetic script, you get used to it and it has its own charm. Maybe try a couple of them alongside each other for a little while and see if one speaks to you more than the others.
Interesting, I like some Italian music from the 70s too :-) Liz 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6450 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 7 of 15 21 January 2014 at 12:07am | IP Logged | |||||
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Most of Russia likes Italian music from the 70's :-) That's one of the reasons why Italian is studied more commonly than Spanish here.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4721 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 8 of 15 21 January 2014 at 12:10am | IP Logged | |||||
Well, there are a limited number of letters, so it can be learned in a fairly short amount of time. Not to perfection of course, that comes only with time and practice - it took me some time to comfortably read Persian (in print), my handwriting still sucks and I'm near-illiterate when it comes to handwritten Persian. But it's quite possible to gain a functional knowledge of the alphabet during the course of 2-3 weeks. As I see it, there are four difficulties you would have to contend with: 1. The letters look very similar. There are about 18 unique shapes for a total of 32 letters. That means that about 14 letters are to be distinguished by the number and position of dots. At the beginning this is confusing, but it also in a way speeds up the learning process, as the shapes themselves are fairly easy to memorise. 2. You have to get used to "capital letters" (different letter shapes) being used at the end of words, not at the beginning. The good thing is that you use these alternative letter shapes at the end of every word, so there's no confusion about that. 3. Persian is always written in "cursive", meaning that most letters are connected. But some are not and that's how you distinguish them from similar shapes. It takes some time to understand how and what gets connected in writing and what doesn't and you have to get used to identifying letters in a connected mass of dots and curls. (They will turn into letters soon enough for you, it's a matter of getting used to a different format of letters.) 4. The writing system is an abjad and not all vowels are indicated. This means that reading unknown words often means some measure of guesswork about their pronunciation. However, it's not as bad as it might sound; at least three out of six vowels are always indicated. Working with audio materials can alleviate this problem. My method: I started tackling the writing system with the free easypersian lessons, which are pretty good. He teaches the alphabet in 9 lessons where he explains the letters and has you find the shapes in a Persian text for practice. He also made gifs showing how to write the single letters and how to connect them. I still had some questions about how to connect or not connect a couple of letters after I finished easypersian's alphabet lessons, but they were easily answered by another resource. I used the Persian Language Course by Faramarz Behzad and Soraya Divshali in its original German, but any decent course will probably achieve the same results. The free textbook Persian of Iran Today by the university of Texas looks like it does a good job at teaching the writing system, for example. After that I started doing lessons and learning vocabulary, working with Persian script and audio. I never relied on vowel markings; getting used to them won't do any good - you have to get used to the shapes of the words you study as you'd see them in real life. The occasional reading exercise (take any text and try to find words you know and identify all letters of unknown words) does the rest of the trick. I find that there's something very satisfying about learning a different writing system. It's like the language has more individuality and a more interesting character. But that's probably just personal preference. Edited by druckfehler on 21 January 2014 at 12:22am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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