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Choose 5 languages for travel | ||
Tags: Travel | Choosing a Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| polyglHot Pentaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 4876 days ago 173 posts - 229 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 52 12 January 2011 at 3:16pm | IP Logged |
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Imagine that you know 0 languages, you don't even have a mother tongue yet. You will
travel the entire world for a few years to a lifetime. You go to bed tonight, and when you wake up the language fairy will have given you 5 languages to use on your journey (And they money fairy will have supplied you with sufficient funds.) Let me start: English - According to my Atlas this would cover Australia, India, Pakistan, South Eastern Africa, Nigeria, some of the Caribbean, the U.S and Canada. Perhaps Thailand too. Arabic - Would hopefully cover the rest of Africa and of course Middle Eastern countries. (So sorry Iran) Could be used in Java and Sumatra but I chose Indonesian - Covers over 20.000 islands! Russian - Russia, Central Asia, Belarus and the Ukraine. Spanish - The entire continent of America. I'd like to see more creative options, excluding English, including smaller, more obscure languages. No more than 5 languages though! Edited by polyglHot on 12 January 2011 at 4:17pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| mr_chinnery Senior Member England Joined 5567 days ago 202 posts - 297 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 52 12 January 2011 at 4:03pm | IP Logged |
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You gave six languages...
I would actually have the same as you, except for mandarin, which I would swap for Japanese, and Russian, which I would swap for Hindi. More interesting cultures IMO. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| polyglHot Pentaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 4876 days ago 173 posts - 229 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 52 12 January 2011 at 4:16pm | IP Logged |
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Ups, 6 is too many. I don't want Mandarin.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4910 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 4 of 52 12 January 2011 at 4:47pm | IP Logged |
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English
French Italian Russian Mandarin No Africa/Middle East for me. Edited by Darklight1216 on 12 January 2011 at 4:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5150 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 5 of 52 12 January 2011 at 5:05pm | IP Logged |
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Personally, I would go for English, Mandarin, Japanese, Russian and Turkish.
First, I personally think that English is probably the most widely spread language spoken today. It is spoken in all five continents, and at most customs offices around the world AND in most tourist places, English is usually spoken. However, in order to appreciate local cultures better, one should be able to speak and understand local languages, and I have chosen: 1. Mandarin: it is spoken in China, Taiwan, Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia, and I would love to explore silkroad during my one-year sabbatical vacation! I have always been fascinated with the silkroad and its history! 2. Japanese: I would love to explore Japan and Korea, and my dream is to take the cruise boat that departs from Shanghai in China to Osaka in Japan! 3. Russian: I wanna take the Transsyberia train to explore Russia! 4. Turkish or Italian: I really can't decide between Turkish and Italian. Italian because I really think that the entire Italy is a big museum - full of history, great cuisine, beautiful landscape etc. By knowing Italian, one can certainly appreciate the country and its history/culture better...however, Turkey offers great culture and history too - the ottoman empire, the vibrant city life of Istanbul, and the language 'proximity' to other turkic languages in central Asia. Oh...we should have a 6th language...;) Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 12 January 2011 at 5:13pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Préposition Diglot Senior Member France aspectualpairs.wordp Joined 4924 days ago 186 posts - 283 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 6 of 52 12 January 2011 at 5:28pm | IP Logged |
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French, English, Spanish, Russian and Arabic if I wanted to cover as much as possible with as few languages as possible. In reality, 5 languages is not enough to cover what I want to see of the world.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 5915 days ago 707 posts - 1219 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 7 of 52 12 January 2011 at 6:32pm | IP Logged |
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With Russia and Canada spreading across the top of the world,
and South America a good portion in the South, my first three are: > English > Russian > Spanish (I'd manage somehow in Brazil) Mandarin might be the obvious fourth, but I'm going to indulge myself and choose a couple that I've got soft spots for: > Armenian (I'd make Armenia my home from which to do all that travelling) > Tamil (Underated, and not all Tamils speak English) If I woke up knowing those, I'd be delighted. Edited by Mooby on 12 January 2011 at 8:21pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| CheeseInsider Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4932 days ago 193 posts - 238 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* Studies: French, German | Message 8 of 52 12 January 2011 at 7:23pm | IP Logged |
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English... Obviously, though I really would rather have another language, this is no doubt the most useful.
Mandarin, because it'll be useful in Shanghai and Taiwan :) Those two places I want to spend a lot of time in. Especially Taiwan of course. And English + Mandarin should get me by in Hong Kong if I ever go there. Russian of course! Not only one of the languages I adore, but also a language belonging to the largest (by mass) country in the world! German! I've heard that Russian and German are used as the lingua francae of the slavic countries in the European Union. And even then, I would also have English as a back up. Now here's the hard part: 1. Continental Portuguese (sorry Brazil), I would hopefully be able to get around in most of South America with English and Portuguese. 2. Modern Standard Arabic, most Arabic speakers learn MSA right? Even though I might look silly speaking in MSA to a Syrian or an Egyptian, it would still work... I hope. 3. French, I think it would be useful in some parts of Africa, and of course in Switzerland, France, Quebec, and former French colonies. 4. Danish... I know I know, Norwegians, Swedes and Danes can speak English. But don't Icelanders learn Danish in school? And what about in Greenland? And plus, many people in Finland learn Swedish right? So I could just try to tone down the accent of my Danish. Hm okay, of those 4 I think I pick MSA. So my languages are English, Mandarin, Russian, German and Modern Standard Arabic. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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