|
 |
Fun Languages | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| TDC Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6717 days ago 261 posts - 291 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin, French Studies: Esperanto, Ukrainian, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Persian | Message 41 of 109 20 July 2006 at 4:33pm | IP Logged | ||
|
For fun:
Ukrainian Japanese Arabic Cantonese Shanghainese Norwegian Swedish Latin Cherokee Finnish 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6690 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 42 of 109 23 July 2006 at 11:20am | IP Logged | ||
|
I am very pleased to see so many of you have Finnish on the list. I can only recommend you to go for it. It is truly a fantastic language !
I won't be able to include Finnish in my own list though, since I already know it, but here are a few off the top of my head: Icelandic The way the vikings spoke, and to get closer to the scandinavian roots. Esperanto The challenge here would be to see how quickly you can learn a language that was designed exactly for that purpose. Chinese (Mandarin) I am studying it now, mainly motivated by fun though I very much suspect that sooner or later it will end up being useful too, in one way or another. Japanese I dabbled in it many years ago and the idea to take it up again has always been there in the background. Arabic Very exotic and the chic factor it quite high. Perhaps also to understand that part of the world better. Hungarian Related to Finnish. Edited by Hencke on 23 July 2006 at 8:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| AML Senior Member United States Joined 6621 days ago 323 posts - 426 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish | Message 43 of 109 25 July 2006 at 11:22pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Just for fun.
Estonian Bengali Thai Croatian Igbo Zulu Yiddish Lingua Franca Nova (LFN) Folkspraak Lithuanian 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6498 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 44 of 109 26 July 2006 at 4:35am | IP Logged | ||
|
I'd say more for curiosity than fun, but that's almost the same thing.
1. Arabic 2. Irish 3. Chaozhou (a southern Chinese dialect) 4. Basque 5. Xhosa 6. Hawaiian 7. Latin 8. Old French 9. Middle French 10. some American Indian language 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lugubert Heptaglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6663 days ago 186 posts - 235 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Danish, Norwegian, EnglishC2, German, Dutch, French Studies: Mandarin, Hindi | Message 45 of 109 26 July 2006 at 7:10am | IP Logged | ||
Recycling is fun.
But I'd delete 3, 10 and 12 to replace them by Tibetan, Santali, and Pali. Sanskrit grammar is no fun at all, but its literature is. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Safis Newbie Canada Joined 6472 days ago 10 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, French, Ukrainian | Message 46 of 109 15 August 2006 at 10:36pm | IP Logged | ||
|
There are so many languages I want to learn. It's a bit frustrating trying to stick to one language until I'm fairly proficient at it. I'm focusing on Japanese right now, but I can't see reaching such a level for at least a couple of years from now. But if I could study any language just for fun right now, these would be some of my top choices:
1) Ukrainian - I'm of half Ukrainian background and the language has entirely dropped out of my family. I'd love to learn the language of my heritage and pass it to the next generation. 2) Korean - My study of Japanese led me to an interest in Korean. Particularly, having watched quite a few Korean dramas and movies, I've found that I love the sound of the language. Also, its grammar bears much similarity to Japanese, at least at the early stages, so it would be easier to learn than starting from scratch. I can already read Hangeul. 3) Mandarin - At the university I attended for my first two years, almost half of the students spoke some form of Chinese, mostly Mandarin. I came to somewhat like the sound of the language. I also love kanji/hanzi, having some experience using them in Japanese already. 4) Latin - As the language of the Catholic church, I want to be able to read Latin. But not only that; I want to speak it! I've met a couple of people who can quite comfortably converse in Latin. I think it's a great language and it's a real shame that most people only learn it to read and to translate. 5) German - I spent a month in Germany a few years ago on a summer exchange program. I didn't have enough time to learn the language to any useful degree, especially as my host mother was an English teacher, speaking to me in English most of the time. I'd love to be able to learn the language and then go back there someday. After studying Esperanto and an introduction to (modern) Greek, I understand cases much better, which was probably the biggest obstacle to my learning at the time. 6) Indonesian - I keep hearing stories about how simple Indonesian is, which led me to take a cursory glance at its structure. I am quite amazed at how words are constructed using so many affixes, repeating nouns to pluralize them, and so forth. In the interest of, well, interest, I wouldn't mind dipping into Indonesian. 7) Italian - There's no real reason here like most of the languages I've listed. I just find it somewhat interesting and its sound appeals to me (except for those darn drawn-out stressed vowels!) Now if only I could roll my Rs... 8) Frisian - It's the language most closely related to English that's not considered a dialect. It would be interesting to learn Frisian and see just how similar they are. 9) Greek - I like the alphabet. At least that's why I first took a real look at it. I've done a half dozen audio lessons, bought a dictionary and a simple grammar/teach-yourself book, but haven't really devoted myself to it, partially because of Japanese and partially because I have no real occasion to use it. 10)Russian - It would be nice to learn Russian just because so many people speak it. If I ever do study Russian, it will be after Ukrianian, so I will have a distinct advantage then. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| swimmergrl Newbie United States Joined 6472 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 47 of 109 16 August 2006 at 2:14am | IP Logged | ||
|
Fun topic!
I'm working towards Veterinary school, and would love to work for the WHO, so languages will be important, but right now for fun I want to learn: 1) Arabic - Both written, and colloquial Egyptian (if resourses allow) The cultures where Arabic is spoken are really interesting to me! 2) Turkish - I was going to spend 2 months in Turkey on a volunteer trip but my university cancelled the trip with the violence in the area. I still want to go! 3) Italian - It is such a beautiful language, and very close to Spanish, which I am studying now. 4) Esperanto - It sounds like a fun project 5) Persian/Farsi - Same reason as Arabic 6) Latin - both written and spoken, would help alot in scientific field and with all the romance languages 7) Hindu/Urdu - Same as Arabic and Farsi 8) Possibly one of the Eastern Asian languages, but the difficult alphabets and grammar really intimidate me right now. Maybe after I learn a few more languages! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6499 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 48 of 109 16 August 2006 at 4:35am | IP Logged | ||
|
When you speak about 'fun' everybody thinks in terms of strange and exotic languages representing every corner of the Globe.
Me, I'm so prosaic - I just think it would be fun to know every Indoeuropean language in existence, past and present. If I could find a year or two in my calendar I would definitely go for the Slavic languages, and if the spelling was less absurd it would also be fun to add the Celtic languages. And Albanese, but probably not Hittitte and Tocharian because they are utterly stone dead and not even chic. The only non-Indoeuropean language I have ever had serious plans to learn was Finnish, because Finland has so close ties to the other Nordic countries. Edited by Iversen on 16 August 2006 at 4:38am 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. |
