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What language to choose? Good material? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Lucie Tellier Diglot Newbie France Joined 3471 days ago 21 posts - 27 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 1 of 20 27 May 2015 at 1:17am | IP Logged | ||
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I am new here and I am looking for a new language to learn. I am an advanced English learner and I would like to learn German, Italian, or Japanese.
After spending so much time studying English I don't know if I have the courage to really throw myself into another language learning experience. However, since I've hit a plateau in English and since as a child I dreamt of being a polyglot, I would like to give other languages a chance. Years ago, I studied Italian on my own for a couple of months and I think I reached a solid A2 level at the time. The experience was very enjoyable but I knew nothing about language learning at the time and I just memorized half a phrasebook by heart. I had also found a very nice penpal with whom I also voice chatted. I've fallen out of touch with all of my old penpals so I would have to look for a new one. Since I don't want this message to get too long here are my reasons for learning the aforementioned languages. I am pretty sure that I will only have time for a couple of languages, especially since I really want to improve my English also. Italian: I think it is a beautiful language and since I'm European it can be somewhat useful, but when I will look for work I don't think that my employer will ask me to have a knowledge of Italian. Where I live, this language isn't sought after. Moreover, this language isn't spoken by that many people anyway. I don't have access to that much material in Italian but I think that if I scour the Internet, I could find some interesting things. Moreover, finding Italian penpals is rather easy I think. German: ever since I was little, people have tried teaching me German because it's my heritage. Since I want to go work abroad, German would probably be very useful, but only if I knew it very well. Actually, Italian could also be somewhat useful, but mostly because it's kind of a rare language in the area. I don't particularly like the language and I find Italian more beautiful, but I suspect that if I were proficient in German, I could get a nice job and a good paycheck at the end of each month. Japanese: I have been watching anime on and off ever since I was a kid, but it's never been a real passion of mine. Right now, I enjoy watching Naruto from time to time. I think that Japanese is quite pretty, and also that it's easier than Chinese, but to be honest I have no real reason to learn it apart from the fact that I'm intrigued by languages that use scribbles instead of letters. Spanish: well, this one's a toughie. I feel like it would be a useful language to learn because it would give me access to so much new material, but at the same time I think that there's a lot of overlap between the material that's available in English and the material that's available in Spanish. I don't particularly like the sound of the spoken language but I really enjoy songs that are in Spanish for some reason. It's a really sunny language in my opinion, a bit like Italian. However, I'm not sure that it would be useful to me on a day to day basis. So, it's really hard for me to make up my mind. I used to think that I could just get by with English but it seems like adding another language to my toolbox would increase my chances of getting a good job. On the one hand, I don't really want to study only German, because studying German is depressing to me. I've attempted to do it last summer and it didn't go well to say the least. I was so bored that after adding 250 words and memorizing them I just gave up. Hindsight is 20/20 and I'm pretty sure that I made a big mistake by learning vocabulary instead of communicating or learning a set of phrases that I could to reuse with penpals later. Still, I need to find a way to make German fun to learn, and that sounds pretty much impossible. Italian is my first love, and last month I got the unforeseen opportunity to speak it with a couple of native speakers. Even though I was only able to say things such as hello and how are you, I really enjoyed it. I think that really learning the language for a little while could make me happy. I'm not sure that studying Japanese is reasonable per se but understanding a couple of lines of one of my favorite animes a few months back was an exhilarating achievement. I was almost done learning the kana when I quit Japanese because I had better things to do and it was becoming overwhelming. I think I mainly lacked confidence. As for English, well, I really need to get at least two hours of listening done a day. I also want to find some good novels to read, maybe something for teens or for older kids. New line would you suggest any type of material for the aforementioned languages? Is there any type of schedule I should follow and what languages should I pick? I'm pretty sure that if I pick all three I will quickly burn out, especially since I will have to study English at a very high level next year if I'm accepted into a special program in my country. Edited by Lucie Tellier on 27 May 2015 at 2:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4522 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes  Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 2 of 20 27 May 2015 at 1:53am | IP Logged | ||
Then just do this. We are best at the things we like. As for what to do, search for iguanamon's post on the "multitrack approach". This should be a good starting point (ok, I made it a clickable link, no need to search). By the way, google for L'Italiano secondo il "metodo natura". Several hundred pages of reading material with increasing difficulty. Edited by daegga on 27 May 2015 at 2:19am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 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 3 of 20 27 May 2015 at 4:24am | IP Logged | ||
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You can use http://lyricstraining.com for Italian and Spanish. Even if you don't study them seriously or choose only one :)))
If you go for Italian, radio Arlecchino will be useful later on. For Spanish there are TONS of fun resources. Honestly so many that this got me to learn it haha. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 4 of 20 27 May 2015 at 5:17am | IP Logged | ||
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Go for the one you feel passionate about.
There are going to be lots of ups and downs, & the only way you'll make it though the downs is if there's something about the language you love. Once you've learned how you learn (and no one can teach you this, it's all trial and error) it won't be as hard to tackle the language you ought to know (German) versus the one you want to know. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chaotic_thought Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 3543 days ago 129 posts - 274 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, French | Message 5 of 20 27 May 2015 at 8:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Based on what you wrote about each language, it sounds like you should be studying German 90% and Japanese 10%. Allocate these amounts to your "language studying budget" and you will be fine. The reason for allocating 10% to Japanese is that you find it interesting. Whenever you find that German gets too "depressing", make yourself a simple goal and then when you reach it, switch to Japanese for a little bit.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 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 20 27 May 2015 at 12:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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Although I disagree that German is the best choice, try Deutsch? Warum nicht! if you want to make it fun.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5237 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 7 of 20 27 May 2015 at 12:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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From what I read in your post, you obviously prefer Italian. You've said it is beautiful twice in your post. All the other languages you listed are for "practical" reasons. I can tell you now that learning a language for practical reasons is a real chore. I know, I've done it and it isn't pleasant. So unless your employer is paying you to learn it, learn the one you like.
Finding a job because you speak a language isn't really going to happen unless you are a translator. Most employers who want people who speak another language just hire someone who is a native. So you might find employment because you speak French, not because you speak German or Spanish. As to resources for Italian there are a lot of resources. If you decide you want to learn Italian we can give you links to a lot of resources for native materials, books, films, etc. Besides you can always travel to Italy! You are already on the mainland and a railcard to Italy isn't much. From France you can just drive there, I drove there from England, so you have it easy. :) Another advantage of learning Italian is you get Spanish for 1/2 price. The grammar and a lot of the words are the same or similar to Italian. As kanewai pointed out, when you get frustrated or bored with your language learning it is easy to avoid the language you dislike, but if you like the language your motivation to learn it will push you through the bad times. Go for Italian! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 20 27 May 2015 at 12:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are many kinds of material for each of the languages, I would suggest you pick
first and than go for resources hunt. There are many threads about learning each of the languages: My impression from your language choice comments: Italian- A really easy choice for a French speaker. And while there is lower demand, there is as well much lower supply on the job market. You know English, you don't need to care that much whether or not your other foreign languages are popular. From what I've read from you, it looks like this is the language you like the most and it is awesome. A beautiful country for travelling, nice people, lots of music, books and so on. It wouldn't be a bad choice at all. And learning would be MUCH faster than with some of the others. Spanish: A great language, easy after French. BUt you don't sound that excited about it. In case of Spanish, there may be as well lower demand on the market, compared to German and Enlish, but there is much larger supply. It is one of the most popular languages of the young generation across Europe it seems. If I were you, I'd definitely choose Italian over Spanish. But you are, in my opinion, wrong about the cultural overlap. It sounds like you find Spanish culture to be just translation and immitation of the Anglophone one and that is a huge mistake. Spanish can open so many new insights and help you discover so many different things to enjoy for a lifetime. German: Yeah, the language of reason. I am learning it but I had been resisting the social pressure for fifteen years or so. I am not learning it because "it would be useful" and I think neither should you. Because it is quite a weak reason to keep you going as long as you need in order to get good at it. And don't forget that German is very likely to take you more time and efforts than either Italian or Spanish. Sure, there is a lot to discover, tons of reasons to like German and learn it but I don't think you are at that point. Perhaps later you'll be, perhaps not. Japanese: you don't sound too convinced. Not enough to tackle this difficult option. These hard languages are for people who can devote lots of time for many years to it and do not hurry to get another language on their professional cv. Very few get high level in just two or three years, which is something entirely possible in Italian or German. So a sum up: From what I've read from you, I think you should go for Italian. Any language learnt to high level is an asset to your cv. And perhaps later, when you get more experience in learning, especially in other way than being forced at school, you might find much more interest in German and start it better prepared, as kanewai said. For English: Go for any practice you find interesting. Your writing makes me thin you are far beyond the point of having to read children and teenage stuff (unless you like it. in such a case, it is perfectly ok, even though you might need to try other genres as well). Watch some tv series (if you want challenging stuff, try the British ones like Sherlock), for novels there is a huge ocean of options. I can recommend for example bookdepository.com, which has a wide selection and no delivery fees. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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