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Help me choose a new language! | ||
Tags: Choosing a Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| 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 9 of 15 15 October 2012 at 6:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Even if work interests are a factor for you, I don't see why that would dissuade you from learning smaller languages. Sure, there are a lot more job opportunities for Portuguese than, say, Latvian, but there's a lot more competition for those jobs too. If Latvian is your thing and you go on to learn it well, you then have a rare skill to offer which will be very highly valued by those people seeking it. Edited by Levi on 15 October 2012 at 6:41pm 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 10 of 15 15 October 2012 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | ||
This is true, but there needs to be more than just economic interest for a person to learn the language well, which is what most people are saying here in the thread. R. == 3 persons have 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 11 of 15 15 October 2012 at 6:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree wholeheartedly. I'm pointing out that the economic viability of a language isn't nearly as relevant an issue as it may seem, due to the inverse relationship between the number of job opportunities out there and the value your abilities provide to an employer seeking someone who speaks your target language.
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| JMS Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4238 days ago 8 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Russian, French | Message 12 of 15 26 October 2012 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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I completely understand what you're saying Levi...you can learn a widely spoken language and there will obviously be demand for you but if you learn an unusual language, you will still be sought after because there aren't many speakers of that language!
Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread..I know there's a lot of threads like this but it's so interesting for me to see everyone's feedback. I've decided to try and learn as much Korean as possible while I'm here in Korean and also try and self teach French and Italian. I'll probably end up dropping one but my reasoning is it would be a shame not to try and learn Korean while I'm in Korea and after learning Spanish and German, I shouldn't find Italian and French too hard... :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jt00 Newbie United States Joined 4326 days ago 28 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian, French | Message 13 of 15 29 October 2012 at 2:23am | IP Logged | ||
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I know everyone else has said you shouldn't choose a language for its economic benefits, so I won't say anything more about it.
Personally, I have picked up Russian fairly well, but I cannot learn the keyboard layout sufficiently until I know more of the language. If you can master your language's keyboard layout, the internet will give you a whole new world of opportunities to use it. As a (somewhat biased toward my experience) recommendation, I would say Latin, not only because it will make other Romance languages easier to learn, but also because it helps you understand words you don't know at first, plus you can read Cicero and Caesar, as well as many other writers. Latin was also used by many medieval writers, and you will be able to understand most writing in French, Spanish, Portuguese, or other languages derived from it. The language has a lot of resources for learners, and it sounds beautiful once you learn it to a level of even basic fluency. However, if you are set on the languages you are narrowed down to, I would say Russian. Good luck in whatever you choose! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ljones29 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4608 days ago 35 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Arabic (Written), Greek | Message 14 of 15 29 October 2012 at 3:34am | IP Logged | ||
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I vote for Italian, French, or Russian. In that order.
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| erinserb Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7007 days ago 135 posts - 144 votes Speaks: English* | Message 15 of 15 30 October 2012 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Although it wasn't mentioned, how about Japanese - I think everyone scrambles for Chinese as "THE" Asian language, but there will always be that influence from Japan. Not only that, they have a beautiful culture.
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