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Choose 5 languages for travel | ||
Tags: Travel | Choosing a Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| HenryMW Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4984 days ago 125 posts - 179 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 17 of 52 13 January 2011 at 4:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting question since I usually don't pick my languages based on where I want to travel.
English- The English speaking world is huge, and it is spoken in many places where it is not an official language. Italian- It's impossible to travel and not want to spend too much time in Italy. German- French- Hebrew- I guess traveling the world for me doesn't get me too far from Europe. If I were to travel as much of the world as possible without regard to where I personally would want to travel then English- Same reason as above. French- It seems to have some bounce in Africa. Spanish- Along with English and Spanish you get most of the Western Hemisphere and can wing the rest. Mandarin- China is a big country. The writing system alone would be worth it for that part of the world. For the fifth language I would say Hindi perhaps. I don't know much about the languages in India, but it seems like this would be one to learn if I wanted to travel in India and not learn multiple languages. Edited by HenryMW on 13 January 2011 at 7:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6759 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 18 of 52 13 January 2011 at 4:37am | IP Logged | ||
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I'd like to see as much of the world as possible, so I'd milk my 5 languages in order to enjoy the most diverse range of people and places I can.
English (for the several countries - as diverse as India, Belize, and Ireland - that speak it natively, and for access to all the second-language speakers around the world) French (more for Africa and other second-language speakers than for France itself) Spanish (for Latin America) Arabic (covers a vast and diverse section of the globe) Mandarin (this one won out over Russian because it's useful not only in its traditional sphere of influence, but seems to have a strong presence in many countries around the world. For example, a touristy place in the U.S. would probably have brochures available in Chinese and staff equipped to assist Chinese speakers, but this is probably not the case for Russian. Also, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if 4/5 of my 'world languages' were Indo-European!) Edited by Lucky Charms on 13 January 2011 at 4:39am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5734 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 19 of 52 13 January 2011 at 8:41am | IP Logged | ||
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When I thought about this topic, I thought of languages and countries that might be interesting to me. I chose languages I haven't already learned. My 5 travel languages, listed in no special order, are:
Swahili - Widely spoken in East African nations like Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Farsi - Would give me more insight into Iran and is also helpful if I ever wanted to visit Tajikistan. Shanghaiese - Only really spoken in Shanghai, but would be interesting nonetheless. Shanghaiese supposedly has less tones than Mandarin or Cantonese. Slovenian - I think Slovenia is a beautiful country , so I don't care if the language isn't spoken anywhere else. Romanian - Spoken in two fascinating countries, Romania and Moldova. Romanian seems to have cases that are somewhat similar to those used in Slavonic languages but actually isn't too far removed from Spanish. Edited by mick33 on 13 January 2011 at 8:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| gerry Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5060 days ago 22 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: Spanish, Latin, German | Message 20 of 52 13 January 2011 at 10:20am | IP Logged | ||
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English
Spanish Mandarin German French 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7031 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 21 of 52 13 January 2011 at 11:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Traveling to other countries. English, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, and Russian Meeting fellow travelers. English, German, Spanish, French, and Japanese (Dutch and Swedish if two more allowed.) Hosting in other countries. Esperanto, English, Tagalog, and Spanish. (Only four in my experience) 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 22 of 52 13 January 2011 at 11:49am | IP Logged | ||
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Meeting fellow travelers... I haven't thought of that, but it should obviously be taken
into the equation. By hosting I assume you mean couch surfing? Do Philippine people couch surf/host a lot? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7031 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 23 of 52 13 January 2011 at 1:18pm | IP Logged | ||
I do not think anymore than anybody else. I was just lucky enough to find some that was willing to help out during traveling. It is like having a local bring you in, but in my case it is one of a particular cultural community, that is fairly widespread. However, it is highly unlikely to happen on a frequent basis. (If at all really.) Hence the description lucky enough. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marikki Tetraglot Senior Member Finland Joined 5305 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Spanish, Swedish Studies: German | Message 24 of 52 13 January 2011 at 1:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I asked the language fairy to choose my new languages and she did, using a random number generator and the ranking numbers on Wikipedia’s “List of languages by number of native speakers”.
I’m very excited about my new languages and the prospects for traveling they have given me. Well, maybe I’m not so excited about Swedish, but was anyway lucky to get it because I’ll still be able to communicate with my family and relatives. These are my new languages: Santali Spoken by about six million people in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan. Most of its speakers live in India, in the states of Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Tripura, and West Bengal. Ometo Ethiopia (2.8 million speakers) Soninke National language in Mali, Mauritania, Senegal. Significant communities in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia. (1.10 million speakers) Ukrainian (47 million speakers) Swedish (10 million speakers) Edited by Marikki on 13 January 2011 at 1:45pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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