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Which language should I pursue? | ||
Tags: Choosing a Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| zarathustra Groupie Canada Joined 5814 days ago 57 posts - 59 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 1 of 5 05 January 2009 at 2:02pm | IP Logged |
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I'm planning on majoring in linguistics, and would like to double major in a language. I would study abroad for a semester or year to improve my fluency in the language as well. Eventually I want to become a professor of linguistics and specialize in a language family. The issue is that I can't decide on what language to study. I've studied French and German, and I'm very interested in Russian. Other possibilities I'm considering are Greek, Mandarin, Italian, Indonesian, Icelandic,Swahili and Native American languages. But since I don't have an interest in Spanish or Arabic that eliminates Romance (which I think is over-studied anyway) and Semitic languages. I want a language and culture that intrigues me, but is also useful. Since I want to study abroad and travel in the countries where my language will be spoken, the country needs to have good living conditions. I feel like all my options are eliminated after this though. I was considering Russian the most, but I've heard bad things about living there which was quite discouraging. I guess the Germanic family is a possibility, but I just don't feel that passionate about learning German. I'm not sure what to do, can anyone give me some advice?
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| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6478 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 5 05 January 2009 at 3:13pm | IP Logged |
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How'bout Modern Greek? Greece is a modern country with a fascinating culture...
I would also recommend Mandarin - it's very widely spoken, becoming more and more useful even outside of China, has an intriguing culture that's thousands of years old... as for living in China, Taiwan's living standards are comparable to Canada's. PRC ones generally are not, but with an average Canadian income you can have a lot more luxury there than in Canada. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| maya_star17 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5923 days ago 269 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 5 05 January 2009 at 3:37pm | IP Logged |
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I would actually recommend Russian. You said yourself that it interested you ;) The slavic language family gets considerably less attention in anglophone academia than the Romance or Germanic ones.
Russia's a very large country (duh), and it's quite different depending on where you go and so on. IMO, Russia can be a very OK place to live if you avoid Moscow... I don't care if I'm offending any Moscovites here; I was born in Moscow and have visited it a million times, so I have the right (I think) to be saying this. Almost any other part of Russia will have calmer/more polite people, less pollution, less noise, less crowdedness (is that even a word?), lower prices on most things, etc. I'm also going to second that Mandarin can be a great choice (if it interests you); the Sinitic ("Chinese") languages get even less attention than Slavic languages in Western/English language academia. Icelandic is a Germanic language, so I wouldn't recommend it (since you said you weren't really interested in German)... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ruby.mein Newbie Spain Joined 5809 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes | Message 4 of 5 07 January 2009 at 12:33am | IP Logged |
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I really am pursuing my learning on Spanish language...
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6019 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 5 of 5 07 January 2009 at 6:36am | IP Logged |
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I think you should learn Guaraní. Or maybe Congolese Chimp Calls. Or how about Kazahk in Morse Code.
Seriously, don't ask other people for opinions. Get to your library, borrow books/CDs/DVDs and spend a bit of time playing with the basics of each language. Watch a few travel documentaries and read a few travel guides on potential places for your year abroad in each language. Read translations of classic local literature and watch some of the modern classic films. Check out MP3s of local bands and check what sort of music hits the top of the charts (a metal fan won't want to spend a year in a town where everyone's into electronic dance music, for example). Heck, even visit the dating websites and check out which countries have the best looking men/women (delete as applicable). Basically, just find about the countries and the culture and see which interests you most. I like Spanish and Italian because the people are warm and friendly, and I don't look out of place around the Mediterranean (short stature, dark eyes and dark hair). I like Gaelic because as a minority language there's a real community feel to the whole thing. I like Japanese because of the complex themes handled in a lot of anime, as a contrast to the style-over-substance and schmaltz coming out of Hollywood just now. Only you can decide! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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