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Help me choose a new language! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| JMS Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4238 days ago 8 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian, French | Message 1 of 15 14 October 2012 at 4:27am | IP Logged |
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Hi everyone! I'm new here but basically I graduated from my BA (Hons) Spanish and German this year and am now teaching English in South Korea. I plan to travel to a few more countries and teach for another year in each of those countries. I haven't decided which ones yet.
After that, I want to return to the UK and do a Masters in Speech and Language Therapy or Interpreting and Translation while specialising in medicine. I want to combine my languages with science and study something different.. I'd like to self teach another language that would be useful if I decided to go down the interpreting route but I'm not sure which one. Obviously, I'm going to try and learn as much Korean as possible whilst I'm here but I want to self teach another language maybe but I'm really stuck as I don't have any deep attraction (yet) to any more in particular. I was thinking French or Italian as they will be easier to learn than say Chinese, which would bring good economic prospects but will take me forever to learn. I've narrowed it down to: Italian - This language would be easy as it's closely related to Spanish and I love Italian food. Also, I have a few friends on facebook and skype I could practice with. I did Italian to AS level so I would be a 'false beginner' but I am worried about mixing it up with Spanish. French - I think this language sounds beautiful and the fact it's spoken widely in the EU means it would help me get work interpreting in an EU organization (if I am ever that lucky). Also, it seems a little bit more difficult than Spanish and different to both the languages I speak now, which I like but I feel like lots of people already speak French and there isn't much demand for it. Portuguese - Again, similar to Spanish so that would help me and Brazil has a rapidly developing economy so more demand for Portuguese. The culture doesn't interest me so much however. Romanian - Similar enough to Spanish to help me learn it but still something different at the same time. The thing is, if I leave the EU to live somewhere else, will there be a demand for Romanian and is the current demand for it in the EU just a short lived trend? Russian - I think Russian sounds and looks beautiful. I don't know much about the culture though unfortunately or how big the demand is. Korean - I am obviously going to try and learn it while I am here but I would only study it seriously if I were to continue learning it after Korea and I'm not sure I will. Korea is only spoken in two countries after all and I'm not majorly interested in the culture. Also, I think it is an ugly language but I am here and probably should exploit the opportunity. Chinese - I feel like this would offer me more job prospects but again, I'm not interested in Chinese culture and I think the language sounds ugly. Also, vocab is my weak point which is the reason why Chinese is so difficult as there are so many characters. Grammar is my strong point but at least I have some experience with languages if I should decide to study Chinese. I just don't want to waste several years on a language and give up because it's so difficult! Ideas? :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5378 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 2 of 15 14 October 2012 at 5:39am | IP Logged |
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Let me just say that how beautiful or ugly you find a language can change dramatically once you get knee-deep in it. German, Russian and Chinese were all languages that I wouldn't have characterized as "beautiful" when I started learning them, but now they are among the most beautiful in the world to me. It's more than just the deeper beauty you find in the grammar and vocabulary and idioms that you don't pick up on before you start learning it, and it's more than just becoming endeared by the culture. The languages actually sound better somehow. And the Chinese characters that made me want to give up on the language in college are now an addicting memory game — I can't get enough of them! Even they become more beautiful once you understand the patterns and the logic behind the characters.
Yes, Chinese is difficult, but that's part of the fun for me. It's more of a challenge, and Chinese speakers know that, so they're always impressed when you make the effort. And it's a language you can use all over the world. Chinese speakers are never hard to find! As for French, relatively speaking, I think it is actually one of the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn, even more so for you since you speak Spanish! There is an incredible amount of vocabulary overlap between French and English, owing to the centuries-long Norman occupation of England. Don't be turned off by the pronunciation and writing system, it's easier than it would seem at first glance. Edited by Levi on 14 October 2012 at 5:50am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6304 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 3 of 15 14 October 2012 at 7:34am | IP Logged |
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I wouldn't try to follow the economic needs. It can make your life a toil. Many people of middle age and older will tell you stories of sticking to a high-paid job, or how they chose what they just did well, but didn't enjoy. So chose what you like.
Now, you might not know what you'll like, so I'd try getting some more gasp of the cultures, and then decide. But either way, life is long, and it's not a waste of time to try one language and switch later. Edited by Siberiano on 14 October 2012 at 7:45am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Eternica Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4883 days ago 24 posts - 74 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English*, French Studies: Hungarian, Spanish | Message 4 of 15 14 October 2012 at 7:43am | IP Logged |
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The most important thing when it comes to learning a language is interest. Interest. I
would repeat this again a million times if anybody would listen. Sure, you might think of job prospects. However, you won't be hired for a job based on your language skills unless you get to a solid level (at the very least upper B1 on the European scale), but usually a stronger sense of professional fluency is needed. If you do not have interest in a language, you will not get there as your lack of interest would overwhelm you. Period. Thus, learning a language purely for job prospects is not a good idea. In addition, if you are already relatively fluent in both Spanish and German, then your language profile is already quite strong, so you shouldn't worry about job prospects. If you really wanted to pursue this avenue, then Chinese and Portuguese would probably be the emerging players. I can't really speak about the demand of French in the EU, but when it comes to people googling the term "how to learn X", French is still number #1 (besides English, of course). Yes, French is still more popular globally than even Spanish. I think French is overrated, but it's still quite a cute language to learn. All in all, however, I would choose Russian from what you have written. You'd diversify your linguistic profile and have access to a culture that is relatively different from Western Europe/world. You say grammar is your strong point and you have knowledge of German so Russian declensions should not cause any fear in you. =) Also, if you say vocabulary is your weak point, then Chinese would actually be easier than other languages (based solely on this metric). This is because nearly all Chinese words are only 1-2 syllables long and each syllable is a separate word. For example, the word for helicopter is literally "straight + rise + machine", refrigerator is literally "ice + cabinet", frog is "field + chicken", computer is "electric + brain", etc. The grammar is also exceptionally easy relative to the typical IE languages. You also don't necessarily have to learn characters in the beginning. Good luck on your decision. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4941 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 5 of 15 14 October 2012 at 8:21am | IP Logged |
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A couple of things, and this is just my opinion, so take it as such...
If you are looking at a language solely for job prospects and have no real interest in the language or culture, you won't get far. There has to be some other impetus other than economics. Also, although you consider grammar to be your strong suit, it alone won't help you all that much. It's just one piece of the puzzle. I won't recommend any language, but if I were trying to figure out which language to choose, I would base my decision first and foremost on my interest in the language itself. Interest in the culture also plays an important role, perhaps even more than the language itself, depending on where you choose to live. The search function kind of sucks here on HTLAL, but your question is a common one. Poke around a bit and you'll see that interest in both the language and culture is the common theme from the successful language learners here. You'll make your decision easier by eliminating the languages that don't fit those two criteria. R. == 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4255 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 6 of 15 15 October 2012 at 12:11am | IP Logged |
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Besides the European languages, there are many with unfamiliar alphabets or writing
systems. The trick to learning is to start learning phrases by the closest phonetics. Once you get into the language, you pick up the writing gradually along the way. I know someone who came from the Mid-East, fluent in Arabic and learned Japanese by making a table of the sound equivalents. The English invented the Giles Wade system for learning Chinese using English phonetics. Besides writing, Chinese grammar and vocabulary is straightforward. Every language is easy in some aspects and difficult in others. Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, etc.) you learn all sorts of subject-verb agreements and nouns that are M or F. To a Chinese he'd find it strange we have different names for months (after Roman gods) of the year and days of the week. They just fill in the # such as 1-moon for January, 9-moon for September. The # in front of an object would indicate you have 1 or more than 1 (no singular or plural forms). On the other hand, the Chinese language uses half-dozen "classifiers". The other day I counted over 60 of these: 一筆錢 (1 sum of money), 一條河 (1 strand of river), 一枝筆 (1 stick of pen). Like in French you have an article before the subject: le stylo, la voiture, etc. except that a classifier describes the shape of the object. I spent more than 3 months studying Mandarin by learning from Pinyin phonetics alone. I learned to recognize characters by looking up online dictionaries with the meanings. A lot of Chinese living in the West learn their mother-tongue from their parents. They don't go to a Chinese school so they speak fluently but often can't write more than their Chinese names. If you consider learning languages based on economic benefits alone you'll lose interest because the 2 that are worth learning are Chinese & Spanish by world population. I think of it as having a ear / window to the other side. I can listen to news directly without being filtered through Western sources: BBC, CNN, TV5, etc. Edited by shk00design on 16 October 2012 at 3:25am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4679 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 7 of 15 15 October 2012 at 6:04pm | IP Logged |
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I'd say skip Korean and Chinese - if you don't like the language and culture you're probably going to learn very little. Too bad you're in Korea and seem to have little interest in the language and the country. Your best bets seem to be French and Russian. Edited by druckfehler on 15 October 2012 at 6:18pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Zimena Tetraglot Groupie Norway Joined 4403 days ago 75 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish Studies: Czech, Mandarin | Message 8 of 15 15 October 2012 at 6:20pm | IP Logged |
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I agree with the other posters that interest should be the main factor when you choose a new language to learn. Judging from your post, that leaves Chinese out of the question - you think it's ugly and you're not interested in the country or culture.
Also, you seem to think a lot about whether knowing this or that language would be beneficial for your work. That alone is not a motivation to learn. At least as I see it, the interest in languages can sometimes bring work opportunities, but don't pick languages to learn purely based on that possibility. Work can be many things, but language learning is first and foremost an INTEREST! Have fun with it - if you try to learn what doesn't interest you that much, it'll be nothing more than another thing you "have to" learn, which means it'll be harder to stay motivated about it. Also, remember that the "demand" for a certain language can change very suddenly. From my own everyday life, I can say that when I visited Romania some years ago, I had never heard a native Romanian speaker talk in a natural setting. I had heard the language in music and perhaps I had heard some bits of a news report, but never a normal conversation. In fact, the chance to hear the language in more "detail" was one of the things that excited me most when I had the chance to visit the country. Nowadays, it's not unusual to hear Romanian-speakers talk between themselves in town and I don't consider the language an "unusual" thing to hear around me anymore. I also know/know about at least a couple of people who are learning the language... something that would have been a much bigger surprise a few years ago. While I won't say that there is a sudden "demand" for Romanian around here, there are certainly more speakers around now, and therefore also more learners - just to illustrate the point that the "need" for certain languages can change quickly and depend on a lot of factors. Other than that - good luck in choosing your next language, and remember: have fun! 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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