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5 languages to learn | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| BlaBla Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 3938 days ago 45 posts - 72 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Nepali, Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin | Message 17 of 35 26 August 2013 at 12:43am | IP Logged |
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Those five s.he most needs-loves-wants to learn or is just plain curious about. I don't
believe in shoulds or musts. In my case: English Spanish Nepali Dutch Cantonese (waiting list) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nonneb Pentaglot Groupie SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4560 days ago 80 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Ancient Greek, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, Hungarian, French | Message 18 of 35 26 August 2013 at 1:35am | IP Logged |
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Well, the five languages should be the languages that a person finds useful and is interested in. BUT if I were to have a very motivated friend who wanted to learn five languages and had no particular preferences, I would recommend:
Mandarin Spanish Arabic Russian Indonesian For geographical/speaker/media output/language family coverage. I'd be tempted to switch in Portuguese, but I don't know what I'd take out. Edited by nonneb on 26 August 2013 at 1:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4818 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 19 of 35 26 August 2013 at 4:02am | IP Logged |
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If we take all the practical reasons out of the game, than really just the ones you like. And in such a case, it is as well useless to generalize the answers anyhow.
My list would be something like: Spanish, Welsh, Swedish, Ancient Egyptian, Finnish or something like that. Or something like that. The funny thing is that we are already half there. You don't need to learn any other language than English that much and you don't even need to learn any foreign language at all and still live a happy life, look at the older average joes quite anywhere. I personally consider people of my generation who stay monoglot to be ignorant narrow minded morons but that is just a matter of perspective. They can still live a satisfactory life. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Emily96 Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4237 days ago 270 posts - 342 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Finnish, Latin | Message 20 of 35 26 August 2013 at 4:58am | IP Logged |
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I'm afraid i can't narrow it down to just 5. This is my dream list so far:
1.English (native) 2. French (already pretty comfortable with it) 3. Spanish (getting there) 4. Italian (about the same as Spanish, but i can see myself dropping it later and only reviving it for a trip or something. it was still great to learn because it was easy, which boosted my self-studying confidence, and helped me notice relationships between the romance languages) 5. Portuguese (only dabbled in so far, but in the same category as Italian - would be easy to pick up for a trip or just to learn more, but not necessary) 6. Finnish (just started, but i have big dreams for this one!) 7. Russian (that'll be later) 8. Greek (also later) 9. Latin (as soon as i have finnish somewhere comfortable, i'll be embarking on a 15 minutes a day, a la Teango) 10. At the moment, i'm thinking norwegian or swedish, but we'll see! I guess that could be just 5, if i don't count English: Spanish, french, finnish, russian, latin. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5285 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 21 of 35 26 August 2013 at 5:24am | IP Logged |
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1 French
2 Spanish 3 Dutch (cultural connection: my father was born in NL) 4 German 5 Portuguese If we're counting my native language (English) then I would cut out one of the the last 3 on the list... or English. Why? I have a dislike of English in SOME contexts. It pisses me off how omnipresent it is. The British (gov't) got it started, the U.S. (gov't) is continuing with that. From Hollywood & pop music, to the so called need to use English in intl business and economic competitivity (what a load of BS- any other language can be utilised as a medium to do science, business etc in just as English can. If the words aren't there, they can be developped). English more than any other language is a symbol of globalisation (aka Americanisation -zation if you prefer). Like it or not if we keep on the current trajectory ALL other languages will feel the pressure of English more and more. They love to create hyped up stories how the French love to protect their language with zest and furvour that ressembles unecessary fear and an attitude of strictness. Yet English is pushed more and more and more. Radio, TV, Music, Business, Science, even literature... how can minority music groups, writers, actors reach a global audience? through English. The amount of $ spent of the spread of English every year absolutely dominates the (in comparison) small amount spent on French. Mind you i'm not stupid enough not to realise that if it wasn't English it prob would be French or Spanish (obviously pushed in Africa and Sth America at great cost) or another language dominating. It's nice to imagine a more linguistically balanced world tho. However throughout recent history I guess there's always been more dominant languages over-powering less dominant language or dialects... just venting my frustrations. I'm sure many would agree, and perhaps many wouldn't. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4062 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 22 of 35 26 August 2013 at 7:22am | IP Logged |
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I compiled a few lists for a few dogmas related to subject;
Five most useful languages to learn in terms of influence; French Spanish Arabic Mandarin Russian Five languages that will broaden one's linguistical horizons; Pick any five languages that are of different language families, spoken in different continents and one language that is an isolate. Five most useful for living and working in central Europe; German (most people's best second language in Europe after English) French Italian Spanish Polish (Russian) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6512 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 23 of 35 26 August 2013 at 11:49am | IP Logged |
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If someone had no particular reason to learn any language apart from English, but he would simply like to learn 5 other languages, then he wouldn't be motivated enough to actually learn them, and the decent advice would be to tell that person to drop the idea.
7 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4818 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 24 of 35 26 August 2013 at 4:55pm | IP Logged |
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I don't agree it is necessarily so, Iversen.
The "I really like it" reason is sometimes very strong. Or what awesome reasons do the Klingon learners have? :-D They don't need it, they can speak with just a few other learners and enthusiasts, they can have awesome time at cons without it, there is no native literature and just bits of audio in Star Trek. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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