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Italian, German, or Spanish? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| corjine Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3966 days ago 55 posts - 74 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 1 of 19 11 December 2013 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi everyone! I bet you guys get this type of question a lot, but here it goes.
I don't know what language to pick for my TAC 2014, and I'm afraid due to college time constraints I'll be limited to 1 from now until May or so. I'm going to describe the languages and my attitudes about them, and then I'll leave you guys to help me out, here. :P Italian: Man, I love Italian. I've been studying it for ~2 months now, and I really do like the language. That being said, it's hard for me to really, substantially stay with Italian based on a couple of factors. One, I'm starting to hit the so called "wall" and it's starting to make me dislike the language. Two, it's not as economically viable as say, German or Spanish.....speaking of which... German: I like German. It's ok, and I find it fun/interesting to learn. I want to learn it for business/economic reasons more though. I live in the Detroit area, and German would be an invaluable asset towards getting a job. Spanish: I think Spanish might be the best of both worlds--both a Romance language and economically viable. However, I'm not really that....turned on to the language, per se. It's not as abhorrent as French is to me (sorry, Francophiles....), but I really just......am kind of eh on it, to be honest. Could we talk about this more? I really don't know what to do. Edited by corjine on 11 December 2013 at 7:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4955 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 2 of 19 11 December 2013 at 7:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I guess you are choosing a language for TAC 2014 ;-) but jokes aside:
You never know how viable will something be in the end. I have found so many uses (including economical) for my French having listened to the "it is a useless language, learn German instead" nonsense for more than ten years. Any language learnt to useful level can be an asset and most of the opportunities won't be visible until you are ready to discover them. Most of the economical opportunities reveal themselves through other channels than "the Economist's list of useful skills" and "everybody says". You have much higher chances to get to the useful level if you learn a language you are interested in, the more that all the options you are considering are large languages with lots of uses. Learning a language takes time and dedication. More than you are likely to be able to put in a language that doesn't turn you on (:-D) that much. You are hitting the wall, as you say, or rather entering the first plateau. Italian is no longer the new and shiny toy. And this will happen with any language you take on! Sooner or later, usually some time between the very early fast progress and between the first real and fun native input. Again, you have much better chances to get through it if you are trully interested in the language or culture or if you are really motivated by the career opportunities you will get for your efforts. Based on your description, I think you should either dump Italian and take German or you should do both. Sure, Spanish is "the obvious choice" in the US, just like German here, but there surely is the more competition, including lots of En-Es native bilinguals. And do you really want to spend several years forcing yourself into a language you dislike just to find out your skills are not as uncommon and highly valued as you expected? 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4180 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 3 of 19 11 December 2013 at 7:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Take 'em all and see what'll drop out first :D
Seriously, why should you bother about economical viability if you like the language? Once I'll be confident about my German, I plan to go with Swedish, which can't help me here much anyway. I tried to take a look at Spanish because people were saying that Spanish is easy, easier than English. That wasn't enough for me and I don't think about studying Spanish since then. Edited by Via Diva on 11 December 2013 at 7:47pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| corjine Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3966 days ago 55 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 4 of 19 11 December 2013 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ah, typos typos! Thanks for pointing it out!
You have a very good point about the value of Spanish for me. Even though I've always been fascinated by language and good at dabbling, this is the first time I've been trying to actually INVEST myself into a language....and if what you say about Spanish is true, I don't think it's an investment. And if Italian is also economically viable, that basically throws out Spanish for me. Plateau or not, love of Italian and economic opportunities will surely get me through it. As much as I'd LOVE to learn German and Italian at the same time, this upcoming January will be my first semester of college. I have no idea what to expect, but I honestly think trying to self-study 2 different languages on top of a 15 credit load and a job, as well as clubs, will be too much. I have no idea what to pick, though I have a feeling German will grow on me if I dedicate myself to it. I do love Italian though, and the possible economic opportunities are there, I'd think.... Thank you so much! EDIT: Via Diva, to me, the economic/possible job enhancements are very important to me, along with the culture and language love aspect. I'm investing what, hundreds of hours into a language just so I can learn it? Love may be blind, but the economic opportunities are not. I don't think Italian will be useless to me either--there are a lot of Italian auto manufacturers..... Edited by corjine on 11 December 2013 at 7:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5478 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 19 11 December 2013 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Hmm. OK, take this with a grain of salt, because I'm just some random person who likes to have opinions on the Internet. :-) But it seems like you already have a language that you love, you've been studying for two months, and you've hit a wall of some kind. So you're starting to think about switching to another language, one with more economic value but less personal interest. But what happens when you study German or Spanish, and you hit another wall two months in? This time, instead of trying to break through the wall using your love of Italian, you're going to try to break through using your sense of economic duty: "I should keep going, because I'll earn more money." But I've got bad news for you: Learning a language beyond simple retail/restaurant/reading takes a fair number of hours, and you may quickly decide that Spanish will never earn you enough money to be worth the time you're putting in. I doubt my French will earn me money any time soon, for example, certainly not enough to make up for the time I spent doing the Super Challenge! But I don't complain, because I love French. My gut feeling (which you should feel entirely free to ignore) is that you should describe this "wall" you've hit in Italian. What have you done? What are you trying to do now? What are you struggling with? Maybe if you could fix your frustration, you could keep having fun in Italian, and reach a nice intermediate level where you can read books, watch TV series, chat at Meetups, or do whatever amuses you. You don't necessarily need to really good at Italian, but why not hang in there until you reach a genuinely useful level in the language you love? Then if you're later seduced by German, you'll know that you can succeed, and you'll know how to overcome most of the barriers you'll encounter. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6543 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 6 of 19 11 December 2013 at 8:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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The good thing is that all three are available at lyricstraining.
Just kidding. I agree with emk. Go for what you love. Starting to learn Finnish at the age of 15 and before "finishing" German was one of the best decisions in my life. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| corjine Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3966 days ago 55 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 7 of 19 11 December 2013 at 8:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ok, so as for what I've been doing in Italian
-Duolingo daily. The lessons are becoming much more picky, and much more annoying to deal with. This is probably one of my main problems, since when I can't get through a lesson, I get frustrated, and then I just throw my phone (jk). It does get frustrating when I'm off by a small detail or don't understand a particle. This is probably my brain being a 2 year old, not being able to understand RIGHT. NOW. Things take time and effort, and my lack of patience is a huge barrier to my language learning. Pimsleur-Same as Duolingo, and I'm only on like Lesson 14 or 15..... Michel Thomas-Same problem. I recently picked up Il Piccolo Principe (The Little Prince), and even opening to the first page and trying to read is just somewhat disheartening. It's just not as easy as it was at the beginning! That's my problem, I realize as I type this out! I coasted through high school in AP classes doing little-no work, because it was too goddamned easy. Same with almost everything else in my life. Now that I think about it......this is the first time I've really been challenged to LEARN. No wonder I'm having difficulty..... How do I get past this? I have no self-discipline, whatsoever. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6543 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 8 of 19 11 December 2013 at 8:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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See the excellent post by iguanamon here. And this wikia category.
Don't spend too much time reading ABOUT language learning though. You can't put off learning until you create a perfect study plan - the only way to make it is to start with something, tweak it and experiment. There's no magic method, and you already know about most things that come closest. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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