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Advice on next language please? | ||
Tags: Goals | Choosing a Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Peter Smith Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6220 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes | Message 1 of 12 24 November 2007 at 1:33pm | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone,
If possible could someone please help me choose what language to add next. A little about me: I am a native English speaker but have been learning Dutch for the last 6 months. I have been studying intensly and have averaged about 2 hours per day of "active" study with a lot of passive study i.e. reading old lessons, shadowing etc. I am quite happy with my study methods and pleased with my results. I am at the point now with my Dutch where I can read an article on Wikipedia and understand 5 out of 6 words. The courses I have used are Rosetta Stone, Assimil and Wikipedia. I have a few set goals for myself and plan to add the following languages in addition to my Dutch: German, French and Russian. I am at the point now where I would like to actively pursue one of the above. My trouble is I do not know which one to tackle first. German on the face of it seems like the logical choice but I am concerned that it will interfere with my Dutch or my Dutch with the German (I chose Dutch as my first foreign language for family reasons). I am equally interested in all 3 and so can not go with my heart, however once one is chosen I will see it through over the next few years. I have already planned my studies for each of the languages i.e. what courses and time frames etc, it is simply a matter of choosing one and then starting. I plan to commence my studies January 2nd after I have read a couple of Novels in Dutch. I want to learn these languages for reading literature and travel. Thank you everyone in advance for your help and feedback. Peter. Edited by Peter Smith on 24 November 2007 at 1:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6480 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 2 of 12 24 November 2007 at 2:05pm | IP Logged |
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I'd go for French, unless you could be interested in Esperanto ;-)
Even as a native speaker of German I find it hard to keep apart what is Dutch and what I just wish to be Dutch. The languages are so similar it's really confusing. Russian is really hard in terms of grammar (conjugations, declensions), even harder than German. French however is a nice language, sounds beautiful, the grammar is not too complex and it will set you up very nicely for literature and travels - for example in most of Africa and the Middle East, French is the lingua franca rather than English, and there are also a couple of island paradises speaking French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ElfoEscuro Diglot Senior Member United States cyworld.com/brahmapu Joined 6299 days ago 408 posts - 423 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English* Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 12 24 November 2007 at 5:22pm | IP Logged |
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I also recommend French for similar reasons. Russian, however, would be a great choice nonetheless.
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| jankagan Tetraglot Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6292 days ago 31 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Afrikaans, French Studies: Modern Hebrew, Spanish | Message 4 of 12 24 November 2007 at 6:07pm | IP Logged |
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With French you also have the added benefit of increasing your English vocabulary-many of English's more complex words are French-derived.
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| epingchris Triglot Senior Member Taiwan shih-chuan.blog.ntu. Joined 7038 days ago 273 posts - 284 votes 5 sounds Studies: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese, German, Turkish | Message 5 of 12 24 November 2007 at 8:27pm | IP Logged |
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My opinion would be of no major differences from that of previous posts, with the exception that personally, I would probably not start a new language after 6 months of study. The period I set for myself is usually a year, but it's okay f you're confident with Dutch (it might be the case since you can read and get most of what you're reading), or you can handle doing two intensively at one time (it's not possible for me because I'm a high school student).
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| Peter Smith Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6220 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes | Message 6 of 12 25 November 2007 at 11:56am | IP Logged |
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Thank you all very much for the advice.
I have decided to start studying French as of January 2008. By the time this date comes about, I would have been studying Dutch for the best part of a solid 9 months and am more than happy with my progress. I have thoroughly internalised my Dutch Assimil course and am "listening reading" Harry Potter. My Dutch is at a level where I can "enjoy" the language and simply read or listen with no real difficulty. I am off for a 2 week homestay / 1 on 1 intensive language training in Holland in March. For anyone that is interested, Dutch is a relatively straight forward language for a native English speaker and from it you can get the gist of a lot of German written texts. I have done a lot of study and have never really gone anywhere in the last 9 months without my Dutch book in my hand and constantly read, rehearse or listen / shadow old lessons. I shall study French intensly until January 2009 and then I will start to add German. By that time my Dutch should be solid enough so that German will not interfere with it - that was my biggest worry with starting German at this point in time. For those that are interested. Here is my proposed study schedule for French commencing in January: 1) Michel Thomas Foundation course - 2 weeks. 2) Michel Thomas Advanced course - 2 weeks. 3) Michel Thomas Vocab course - 1 week. 4a) Assimil French - 1 to 2 lesson(s) per day - 3 months. 4b) Pimsleur 1 lesson per day at the same time as Assimil - 3 months. 5) Assimil Advanced French - 3 months. 6a) FSI French - 2 months. 6b) 1 x FIA video per day - 2 months. A total of 14 months study. I have all these materials available to me secondhand and have read a lot of reviews of each product etc and think this is the best way forward. i.e. Michel Thomas to learn the grammar, Assimil for vocab, pronounciation and listening comprehension i.e. a large amount of input. Pimsleur for speaking automation etc. FSI French is only given 2 months (I have looked through it) because I do not intend to follow the course exactly but more just to hammer out the drills for speaking autonomy - again by that time vocab should not be the problem, I just want to make use of the Substitution Drills etc. Thanks again and I will keep everyone informed of my progress in the language log section. Peter. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| anime Triglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6370 days ago 161 posts - 207 votes Speaks: Spanish, Swedish*, English Studies: German, Portuguese, French, Russian | Message 7 of 12 25 November 2007 at 10:58pm | IP Logged |
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French is a very good choice. Russian unfortunately is way to hard if you don't know any slavic languages before =/ I think that everyone that learns French should also learn Spanish and Portuguese, since they are so similar and also very big and important languages. Together with English they give you access to a large part of the world. Europe, The Americas, Oceania and Africa is sufficient for me, since most Asian languages (except Indonesian and maybe a few more) are very different, with the tones and the complex grammar, and take many years for a the average european to master. Arabic is also very hard, even when learning the difficult Standard Arabic, also writing is incredibly hard, you will find that a lot of this knowledge will be useless since you have to learn the particular Arabic dialect used in everyday speech in Egypt, Algeria, Marocco, Libanon, Libya, Iraq, Sudan etc. I've read about people trying to start conversation in Standard Arabic in for example Algeria and then find the algerian will switch to French or English, Standard Arabic feeling strict and formal to them. However, if you have a special interest in e.g. Japan, China, Thailand or Egypt, work there, have a girlfriend from there or whatever, it's a different situation and you will probably be greatly motivated in learning and mastering the language, no matter the difficulties and the time-consuming process.
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| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6480 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 8 of 12 26 November 2007 at 3:15am | IP Logged |
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Actually Indonesian is one of the easiest natural languages, but then it won't help you much in the rest of Asia.
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