|
 |
Help My Friend Choose A Language | ||
Tags: Choosing a Language | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6150 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 1 of 12 22 February 2008 at 8:36am | IP Logged |
|
Hello,
My name is Philip and I am 13-years-old. Next year my classmates and I are going to high school and have to choose a language to take. My school offers Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Latin. Currently, it is not actually me who has the problem, but my friend, Esther. She is going to the same high school as me and is currently in a state of panic regarding which language she should take. She rolled dice...did everything she could to choose. The languages she is considering are Spanish, French, German, and Japanese. I think that she is in a position to take only one language (but giving a pair of languages wouldn't be a bad idea either). She will be 14-years-old. Her primary linguistic goal is to learn Russian, and wants to learn a language that could help her with that. What she wrote about each of the languages she is considering is the following: "Spanish is the most useful because so many people speak it. French is really romantic, all my friends take it, and it is spoken in France and Canada both of which I want to visit. Japanese you do have to learn a new alphabet but it sounds so cool German the teacher is really nice and my brother takes it." If you could give the positives and negatives and some interesting information about each language, that would be wonderful. She really needs help, and there is only so much that my opinion can help her alone. Thank you very much! Edited by ellasevia on 25 July 2010 at 4:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6776 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 12 22 February 2008 at 8:54am | IP Logged |
|
Hello, Philip.
Those four languages are all awesome, but as she's only 14 years old, it doesn't matter a whole lot. She should consider taking either whichever language she'll get to use first in real life, or whichever has the best teacher. I always like recommending Japanese, but it would be particularly useful if she could aim for a high school exchange trip in Japan. Edited by Captain Haddock on 22 February 2008 at 8:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lloydkirk Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6421 days ago 429 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 12 22 February 2008 at 8:56am | IP Logged |
|
Of all those languages, German would be the best step towards Russian when one takes grammar into account.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Phil_K Diglot Newbie Mexico Joined 6137 days ago 11 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese, Esperanto | Message 4 of 12 22 February 2008 at 10:36am | IP Logged |
|
I think most people agree that the more languages you speak, the easier it becomes to learn another, even if it's not related, Personally, I think anyone with English and Spanish will cover a large part of the world...and her country is the 5th biggest speaker of Spanish in the world!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6911 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 5 of 12 22 February 2008 at 12:33pm | IP Logged |
|
I would take German because the knowledge of its grammar can be helpful later (cases etc. - it should be easier to understand them in Russian). The teacher is also very important - if he's not only nice but also teaches well, that would be the perfect choice in my opinion.
Spanish and French aren't bad but wouldn't be that helpful in Russian learning. I wouldn't take Japanese if it was my first foreign language. It's just difficult and can be discouraging if she is not particularly fascinated by Japan. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| rob Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6173 days ago 287 posts - 288 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 6 of 12 22 February 2008 at 1:00pm | IP Logged |
|
I agree with lloydkirk and Julie, if your friend is mainly interested in learning Russian, German would be a good introduction to various grammatical structures which may be more difficult to grasp on your own.
Your friend doesn't sound exceptionally interested in Japanese (when comparing the comments she gave about the other languages), so I would definitely cross that one off the list. The main motivation for French seems to be that she will be able to stay with her friends (perfectly understandable if you're changing schools), so it just depends if that is more important to her. As for Spanish, it is true that there are a lot more speakers of this than the other languages, but the question is, do you live in a community with a Spanish speaking population, or is she interested in Latin America? That being said, it's always useful to know some Spanish in the US. But anyway, my vote goes for German. Edited by rob on 22 February 2008 at 1:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6558 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 7 of 12 22 February 2008 at 2:45pm | IP Logged |
|
Since this is high school, can she ask to take Russian as a "study hall" type option? Some American high schools are very flexible for motivated students. I was able to take advanced physics on my own, for example.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cothromóid Triglot Groupie Ireland Joined 6154 days ago 77 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English*, French, Irish Studies: Spanish, Italian | Message 8 of 12 22 February 2008 at 3:23pm | IP Logged |
|
I think she should take French. It's a little harder than Spanish (speaking from experience here) and is meant to be
easier than German. It gives you a great grounding in grammar in general. Once you know French Spanish comes easily, and after you've some language-learning experience under your belt you can attempt to tackle a harder language like Russian. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
