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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6236 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 1 of 26 27 October 2007 at 5:46pm | IP Logged |
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Hi, I'm a newbie. I am trying to decide which language to tackle first. Please read my reasons for each language below, and make any comments that you think might be helpful for me. Thanks!
1) Bulgarian My wife is from Bulgaria. She speaks English fluently, so there is no "need" for me to learn Bulgarian. However, most of her family speaks ZERO English. I would like to be able to communicate with her parents and grandparents. Also, I would like our children to be able to call or write to their grandparents. Other than that, Bulgarian is not very interesting for me. It's a very little-known country or language for Americans, and it doesn't allow for much practice. My wife has ZERO interest in helping me learn, so she will not be any help in learning or practicing. Therefore, the only practice will be with her family in Bulgaria. Also, there are very little materials that can help. 2) Russian I started learning Russian because I thought it was similar to Bulgarian. Since there are so many good books, CD's, computer programs, etc for learning Russian, I knew that it would be easier. And it is certainly easier to find a Russian speaker to practice with in America. During my very limited studies, I have found that Russian is not very similar to Bulgarian after all. But it's much more interesting and to me, it sounds nicer. Russian is, for me, a very Chic language. It's an interesting language that is very different from English. I get a lot of "oohs" and "aahs" when I tell people I'm studying Russian. And this attention is motivating. I have already mastered the alphabet, and a few basic words, but I am still VERY beginnner. 3) Spanish Much more important and useful for an American to learn. Not to mention easier. I studied Spanish for two years in college, but i don't know much at all. I can understand a little bit, mainly because it's so much more similar to English. I'm not terribly interested in Spanish, but I know it will be easier. There are unlimited opportunities to practice and use Spanish on an everyday basis, so it might be more motivating to continue. In short: I like Russian. I should learn Bulgarian. Spanish is more useful. Any comments? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6901 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 2 of 26 27 October 2007 at 5:56pm | IP Logged |
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I would go for Bulgarian and try to persuade the wife that you really care about her language. It would be specially useful if you both are going to raise your kids bilingually. If your wife doesn't have any interests in teaching you Bulgarian, it's pretty possible she won't teach it to your children as well. That would be a pity.
If you really like Russian, it's also a good choice. But I wouldn't care so much about people's reaction. Hey, you're learning for yourself, not just to hear all around being so amazed with the fact you're studying Russian. It's nice, of course, but in my opinion as a motivation factor it's just unsufficient. I wouldn't learn Spanish right now as I don't see you're really interested in. You can always learn it, just get some basic knowledge of Bulgarian or Russian first. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6236 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 3 of 26 27 October 2007 at 6:05pm | IP Logged |
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I really like Russian. I agree that I shouldn't base my decision on other people's reaction. But it is nice. :) There are plenty of materials and opportunities to practice.
Bulgarian would be nice, and I would LOVE my children to be bilingual. But like I said, my wife has no interest in helping. She has no family in the U.S., so the only time she speaks Bulgarian is on the phone with her parents. Our children don't know any Bulgarian at all. I have tried for 7 years to get my wife to teach me. But she only gets bored and frustrated when I ask her help. I'd be all alone in that endeavor. And like I said, Spanish is not terribly interesting to me. But it would be the easiesat to learn and the most useful. I could find somebody to practice with anywhere I go! But not much help if I'm not having fun, I guess. Thanks for your comments. I'll take them into consideration. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ilanbg Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6408 days ago 166 posts - 189 votes Speaks: French, English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (classical), Persian | Message 4 of 26 27 October 2007 at 7:03pm | IP Logged |
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If you learn some Bulgarian on your own, you may find your wife is less resistant to helping you learn. She may not
want to help you learn grammar or vocabulary, but once you have a base of the language she may be willing to converse with you, and you won't find better opportunity for practice than in your own home. And even if your children are given few opportunities to use the language, learning it will help them in countless ways—I am incredibly grateful that I was raised bilingually; I can think of dozens of reasons in which it's given me a step up. Discuss with your wife to see if she would be willing to speak it, both to you, once you learned it, and to your children. Since you don't have much interest in it, I wouldn't recommend learning Spanish unless you deal with Spanish- speaking, non-English speaking people, as that's the only other benefit I can see to learning it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6236 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 5 of 26 27 October 2007 at 7:31pm | IP Logged |
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If I chose Bulgarian, the problem then lies with finding some good materials to help. I'm not very good with textbook-only methods. Or even books with accompanying CD's. I've looked at Teach Yourself and Intensive Bulgarian, but I get bored quickly. The benefit with Russian is that there are good things like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur that has given me a great start.
This is a good question for those who have learned a more obscure language like Bulgarian. How can you learn a language like this with so little materials available? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6648 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 6 of 26 27 October 2007 at 8:07pm | IP Logged |
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For we learners of somewhat obscure languages, you have to take what you can. It's frustrating not to have an up-to-date grammar or good audiobooks easily available, but it only means you have to be creative with how you study. And hey, if you really hit it off with the family in their own language, maybe they can send you some children's books in Bulgarian that you can start with.
In lieu of that for right now, if you haven't already checked it out, there are some links to Bulgarian resources at Omniglot's site (at the bottom). http://www.omniglot.com/writing/bulgarian.htm Best of luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| silentlearner Diglot Newbie Romania Joined 6236 days ago 21 posts - 21 votes Speaks: Romanian*, English Studies: German | Message 7 of 26 27 October 2007 at 10:21pm | IP Logged |
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Norwegian ,as Norway is the most livable country in the whole world.The 2006 human development report proves it.
The Romanian word is Norvegia,sometimes I mix words. My honest opinion would be that you'd do better in Russian than in Bulgarian ,for the simple fact that your heart is set out for the first. Edited by silentlearner on 28 October 2007 at 12:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jody Senior Member United States Joined 6236 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian | Message 8 of 26 27 October 2007 at 11:29pm | IP Logged |
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Okay. Why are we talking about Norwegian?
1 person has voted this message useful |
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