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What language should I learn? | ||
Tags: Choosing a Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4344 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes  Studies: German | Message 9 of 17 03 May 2013 at 3:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
Many years ago I decided to learn Arabic because the script looked cool, and I wanted to learn a major non-Indo-European language. I realized after a while that cool script and some romantic and very vague notions about the culture weren't enough to maintain my study. So in my experience if you are going to study Mandarin or Japanese you'd better to so more reasons than the fact that the characters look cool (which they do). Keep in mind that by a rough estimate it takes FOUR times more work to learn either language than German. So imagine all the work you have ever done to learn German and than multiply it by four, and that will give you a vague idea of how much effort is involved. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6040 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 10 of 17 03 May 2013 at 5:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
HA HA! YESSSSS! Seriously though, If you are considering tackling Mandarin or Japanese, heed the words of Barry Farber: Chinese is actually more of a life involvement than a language you choose to study. When you’re in your easy chair studying, Chinese has more power to make you forget it’s dinner time than any other language. It has more power to draw you out of bed earlier than necessary to sneak in a few more moments of study. There’s simply more there. You really have to make these languages part of your life. (not that that is a good or bad thing, its just how it is) 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| reddd Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4074 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes | Message 11 of 17 05 May 2013 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for all the good advice guys.
Cavesa - There are a lot of Polish people around here but my experience with them is that they like to keep themselves to themselves. :/ Paco - A big thing why I would be drawn to one of those languages is because of the writing system. I find it very intriguing. I realise that this alone wont give me the determination I need to continue but it might start something of, like a snowball effect. The last bit about Japanese culture being a bit exotic, I've watched a lot of vids and travel guides etc about the two countries and I find China interests me more, especially historically. Chung - thanks for the links I had a read through all of them and they were very helpful and interesting. I actually had to look up Northern Saami as I'd never heard of it before :p Serpent - Thanks for the amazon link I read a lot of it, it was extremely interesting. As to why I went of German I really don't know I just can't bring myself to do anything with it. @eggcluck - thanks its very helpful to have your point of view. I have come to the conclusion that I would really like to have a stab at one of these two languages but maybe I should start with an easier language? would really like to gain a qualification from a language since I have time at the moment to really study and it would make my CV look a lot better. So should I pick an easier language to have a go at first? Like French or German and work towards an exam or something or put all my time and effort in to Chinese/Japanese? The thing about me is that I'm an 'all or nothing' sort of person, which really does work against me a lot of the time, but when I find the language I really want to learn and enjoy it'll actually help me :P Edited by reddd on 05 May 2013 at 4:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6714 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 12 of 17 05 May 2013 at 6:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Go for what you find truly interesting. If you don't feel like learning French/German (and you don't need them professionally -I mean real need, not just the desire to make your CV look better), it doesn't make sense to learn it just because it's supposed to be easier. Your first fluent foreign language will take time and effort, no matter which one you pick.
3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 13 of 17 05 May 2013 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Then start the snowball thing. Find a similar book for Mandarin - this one might be useful? I have no idea. Have fun learning ABOUT the characters. These are fun facts to know even if you decide you're not motivated enough to continue, and if you choose an easier language after the experiment, it will be like a breeze:)
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4820 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 14 of 17 05 May 2013 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I guess some of the poles would feel flattered if you wanted to practice their language
with them and much more likely to let you in. But there is still the condition that you would need to want to learn Polish first. That is conditio sine qua non for any language. Any language learnt to high level will look good on the CV(usually means B2+, for some lower positions B1+). And you may find more opportunities thanks to a bit less usual language. And even if you wouldn't use the language for job at all, it would still tell a lot of positive things about you (dedication, work on yourself, ability to take what you began with to an end etc.) So, I think we have made a nice circle and are now standing near the point where we started. Learn a bit more about the languages, the suggested books about Japanese and Chinese writing sound really promising, learn more about the cultures and make a decision based on all that. Perhaps ask uncle Google and aunt Wiki about movies, music bands, authors etc. related to the languages. You might find something that will just catch your attention and you'll know. The question "What made you leave German?" was a really good one. Naming your weak point (or allergy :-) ) can help you a lot with the decision. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 15 of 17 05 May 2013 at 9:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You may also want to just find out more about various languages. Volte (a forum member) has mentioned The Loom of Language; in this thread we've heard of Barry Farber (whose book this forum was named after). It seems like you have quite limited familiarity with some major languages, not to mention the relatively small ones.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Romanzo Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4115 days ago 15 posts - 23 votes Speaks: Italian, English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, French | Message 16 of 17 05 May 2013 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Do you have family or friends in other countries? Do you love music from a certain
country? These questions matter because you need to really love the culture of the language in order to keep the motivation to learn it. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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