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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| honkanen Newbie Canada Joined 5828 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes | Message 1 of 9 17 December 2008 at 6:01pm | IP Logged |
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It seems that most people say that your first foreign language should be a romance language such as French, Spanish or Italian, then you can move onto more difficult ones if you wish from there. I was doing self-study of Mandarin Chinese while living in Taiwan for a year and am quite interested in picking up Mandarin again but know it will be a very long haul. The other language I am interested in is Finnish. I have some relatives there but this is also considered a very difficult language.
What do you suggest? Should I actually spend a year and learn a language such as French before I seriously take on a more difficult one like Chinese or Finnish? On another note, do you think it's okay to be studying Esperanto while studying one of the above mentioned languages at the same time? Or just go all out Esperanto for a few months until I'm comfortable with it? I heard if you know Esperanto, the time is almost cut in half for learning other languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6453 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes  Studies: German | Message 2 of 9 17 December 2008 at 6:42pm | IP Logged |
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As long as you're aware that some languages take much longer to learn you're ok with studying what you like. The first foreign language is always hard. I wouldn't underestimate French and then by analogy get spooked by something considered harder for an English speaker.
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| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6909 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 3 of 9 17 December 2008 at 9:37pm | IP Logged |
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I think it's important to have a good motivation to learn a language - instead of learning French just because someone told you that you should learn a Romance language first. If you've already learned some Mandarin and you would like to get back to it - why not?
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| honkanen Newbie Canada Joined 5828 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes | Message 4 of 9 17 December 2008 at 11:10pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the replies. It would be nice to know a second language and French would probably be beneficial here in Canada but I am more attracted to Finnish and Mandarin right now.
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 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6900 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 9 18 December 2008 at 4:16am | IP Logged |
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I agree about the motivation. It's the single most important factor. You will always find a way through all the difficulties, and be able to sort out techniques and other considerations provided you need to bad enough.
Of course your second foreign language is easier to tackle after you have mastered the first one, and Esperanto would be valid for that too, but if the main objective is to learn language C I would be very skeptical about claims that learning B first will get you to C sooner. Cutting the time for learning C in half feels way overoptimistic at least for me, but it might be the case for some people, I don't know. And those claims, especially in the case of Esperanto, are often made by people with a vested interest and an agenda (nothing wrong with that in itself, but worth taking into account). Then, you have already dabbled in Mandarin a bit, so you are not starting completely from zero. Edited by Hencke on 18 December 2008 at 4:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Olympia Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5987 days ago 195 posts - 244 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Old English, French | Message 6 of 9 18 December 2008 at 10:48am | IP Logged |
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I definitely agree with what's already been said. The most important thing is the desire to learn a specific language.
Yes, if you're a native English speaker, a romance language would probably be the easiest to start, but you won't get anywhere if you don't truly love the language you're learning. Plenty of people start out with more difficult languages, and it takes longer, but I've seen some pretty good results from people who have really worked hard and refused to give up. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6665 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 7 of 9 18 December 2008 at 11:46am | IP Logged |
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If you are really drawn to a particular language--no matter which language it might be--or if you have a very practical reason for learning it, I think you should study that language.
Most of the languages that are easiest for native speakers of English are Romance languages, but I don't think the Germanic languages are all that much more difficult. If you're going to study a language that most English-speaking people would agree is comparatively difficult such as Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, etc., then it is especially important to have good materials to work with and some input from a native speaker or two. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| honkanen Newbie Canada Joined 5828 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes | Message 8 of 9 18 December 2008 at 3:20pm | IP Logged |
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I didn't expect responses this quickly. Thanks! My grandpa (deceased) is from Finland and I have family over there (who I have not met, except for 1 cousin). That's the reason for my wanting to learn Finnish. My dad speaks it pretty well too. I probably won't be able to visit Finland for at least another year. I think I will concentrate on Finnish, possibly with Esperanto. The local university is offering Finnish classes 2hrs/week for the first time ever. They say they will probably not offer them after they are complete. I'll see where I am with the Finnish language in a year's time from now. If I have totally lost interest, I may take up MAndarin again.
Thanks again guys! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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