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3rd lang: German, Spanish, or neither? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Var Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4016 days ago 14 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 25 of 34 23 May 2013 at 3:33am | IP Logged | ||
I again thank everyone for the helpful input and advice. :)
Indeed, this is starting to seem like the best path. I could easily study 2-3 hours a day during the summer, but during my time in university I won't be able to dedicate time to 2 languages for, at the very least, the first semester or so. I am also considering graduating in 3 years so this would be another added stress. The good news is, my love for French has been rekindled and I've already found a couple new language partners with whom to talk over skype. Also, though I do not know what the future may hold, at this point in time I am certain Spanish will be my next language to learn. Continuing with the "girlfriend" metaphor we were using earlier, it's really easy to get distracted by some aspects of a language and focus on them too much -- and when I think of Spanish, I think of the latino kids in my school, and to an extent, I think of the latino slums and gangs I've been exposed to via TV and life. Yet, thinking on it more I realize I'm not thinking of Barcelona, of Brazil, of Mexico, of Cuba -- all these nations that speak Spanish. Again, it's incredibly difficult to "pick" a language, and I'm 90% sure most of my school classmates chose French based on some stereotype about baguettes or love. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6406 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 26 of 34 23 May 2013 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Brazil speaks Portuguese.
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| Var Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4016 days ago 14 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 27 of 34 23 May 2013 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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My mistake -- my goal for Spanish includes learning Portuguese soon after so I've been
pairing Brazil with Spanish for the last bit. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6406 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 28 of 34 24 May 2013 at 11:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Better keep these as separate goals. You need to respect Portuguese as a related but different language.
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| freakyaye Senior Member Australia Joined 4647 days ago 107 posts - 152 votes | Message 29 of 34 24 May 2013 at 4:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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We all learn one step at a time Serpent Edited by freakyaye on 24 May 2013 at 4:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kronos Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5070 days ago 186 posts - 452 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 30 of 34 24 May 2013 at 10:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Var, I agree with some other posters that it is perhaps wiser to focus on your college study right now and not get entangled in uncertain time-consuming experiments for the time being. Maybe you want to go on perfecting your French - beside English, though at some distance, it can still be considered the second major international language, and you will never regret knowing and speaking it. Possibly it can also be of special use later in life in ways you cannot see yet.
But for a career in economics or maths you do not need to learn another language. International business is conducted in English all around the globe by now. You would only need another language if you planned to stay and work in a country where it is spoken for an extended period. - A friend of mine, also from Germany, who has a PhD in Maths and works as an actuary, i.e. one of those professions where Maths and Economics meet, is frequently sent by his company on business trips around the globe. He tells me that wherever he goes (i.e. outside Germany, Austria etc.) business and negotiations are exclusively conducted in English, including the Far East. I understand it is the same with the IT branches. If you were to work in the international political or humanitarian field, then French would be of major importance. It also can be of great use in the academic field, depending on the subject. But not necessarily in business and the technical field. But it can never hurt if on one's CV one can, in good conscience, list French as a language one is really fluent in. Much better than two or three languages in which one is not. Something about Korean which I want to emphasize: Korean is widely considered to be among the hardest languages in the world for a Westerner to really master. Here is an estimate of how long it would take for a native speaker of English to learn certain different languages. One should not be too fanatical about the hours given there, but what is more important is the ratio between the numbers. If you look at the table, you will see that mastering Korean is about equivalent to, for instance, mastering German AND Spanish AND Portuguese, PLUS even raising your French to a higher level. (Spanish or Portuguese would be even easier to learn than given there, since you know French already.) Therefore getting anywhere in Korean would be a massive undertaking with little practical use unless you wanted to move to South Korea. My recommendation would be to proceed with your French, and if you like, dabble a bit or do some studying in either Spanish or German, but not give it too much emphasis until you are firmly settled in your college study.
ENGLISH ...and your mother tongue. Since in your case they are both the same, consider yourself very lucky and pursue languages with pleasure just as a hobby. :) EDIT (05/25/13): However, if you are seriously considering moving abroad, choose the language of the country you like best or want to go to. Spanish has the double advantage that it is relatively easy to learn and that it is spoken in many countries, several continents even. As someone else wrote in this thread, you may also consider spending part of your study time itself abroad. Spending half a year, or a full year in a Spanish-speaking country, either studying in a local university (if this can be integrated in your overall curriculum), or doing an internship, or taking up any work that is related to your study subject -- all these would be possible options and no doubt make your study period a more varied and lively experience. And once you have a good command of Spanish, it should not be too difficult to also pick up Portuguese later and combine this with a trip to Brazil. I don't believe that languages are necessarily of much help in most careers, even less so in better-paid ones, but one can look for ways to intelligently integrate them in the course of one's education. Then the time is not 'wasted', even career-wise. Edited by Kronos on 25 May 2013 at 11:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Talib Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6470 days ago 171 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 31 of 34 25 May 2013 at 2:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Even though you think that university studies should take top priority, you might want to still consider spending a little time on the side with a third language. I don't think it will sidetrack you from your studies as long as you don't take it too seriously. You could have the attitude that if you have time to study it, great. If you don't have time to study it, no problem. Even if you don't make ideal progress this way, you should be able advance at least enough so that you have something to build on by the time that you can devote more energy to it.
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4818 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 32 of 34 25 May 2013 at 4:52am | IP Logged | ||
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Do what you love. Keep a hobby. And above all, study what you want to study. If your
parents manipulated you like they had manipulated me several years ago (and I hate myself for accepting it and being a coward), change majors. In a few years it might be too late and change will be impossible (too expensive both in money and time).And even if this is what you trully want, keep doing something aside in your free time, no matter whether it is a third language or a sport or anything. You won't have time for everything, and during the exam time for nearly nothing, but if you keep something you love, it will still be a life worth living. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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