|
 |
What is on your radar? | ||
Tags: Choosing a Language | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6377 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 57 of 67 12 November 2013 at 2:36am | IP Logged | ||
Ah, I wonder what it is like to be Iversen instead of being a mere mortal slogging through a language or two... 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6701 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 58 of 67 12 November 2013 at 10:20am | IP Logged | ||
|
Step no. 1: decide with yourself that it is possible.
Step no. 2: begin somewhere (instead of just wondering) Step no. 3: goto step 2 11 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 59 of 67 12 November 2013 at 12:43pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Step no. 4: if all else fails, try selective cloning of your favourite polyglot(s)
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 60 of 67 12 November 2013 at 4:56pm | IP Logged | ||
|
These are the languages that I would very much like to add to the ones I already know or are currently studying, if ever I got the time:
Armenian: I became interested in this language when I had a four-day job trip to Armenia a few years ago. It appears to be quite "alien" although a Indo-European language, and its unique alphabet holds a fascination in itself, like a code waiting to be cracked. Croatian/Serbian: Doing Russian has given me a taste for Slavic languages, and having been several times to the Balkans this is the Slavic language that I would like to embark upon first when I have a decent level in Russian. Arabic: I learnt the alphabet and did a few lessons from an old Linguaphone course many years ago, but I have forgotten almost everything. Arabic culture interests me. Hebrew: As with Arabic, I learnt the alphabet and some basic sentences at one point, but very little sticks, although I can still recognise some letters. Romanian: I did study some Romanian at university, but then dropped it, so while I still can understand some, it is at a very low level. Romanian interests me since it is a Romance language but with many particularities that are unique to it. Finnish: I consider the Finnish to be culturally close to its Nordic neighbours, but the language is definitely not close. I like how Finnish sounds, and its grammatical intricacies would be an interesting challenge to take up. Japanese: This is the only East Asian language I would seriously consider learning, as Japan is the Asian country that has the strongest appeal to me with regard to its history and culture. Hindi: My three-week trip to Rajasthan about ten years ago was one of the most fascinating and interesting experiences in my life. I'd love to return being able to speak with people there in their native tongue. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| languagenerd09 Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom youtube.com/user/Lan Joined 5098 days ago 174 posts - 267 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Thai | Message 61 of 67 13 November 2013 at 2:11am | IP Logged | ||
|
Given what's just happened in the Philippines and the fact i'm a trained teacher, I would like to be able to speak to a child in Tagalog and comfort them in
the professional teacher manner - listening to them and being helpful. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| leroc Senior Member United States Joined 4309 days ago 114 posts - 167 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 62 of 67 13 November 2013 at 2:29am | IP Logged | ||
I don't know if Tagalog would help you much. Tagalog is only useful in certain areas of the Philippines. The epicenter of the destruction was on the island of Visayas, where the main language used is one of the Visayan languages, like Waray-Waray or Cebuano. Still, UNICEF, and the Red Cross need donations. Even a little help can go a long way (sorry if this is off topic, I just want to encourage people to help with this tragedy.) Edited by leroc on 13 November 2013 at 2:31am 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Tenebrarum Groupie United States Joined 5404 days ago 84 posts - 115 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi | Message 63 of 67 13 November 2013 at 11:49am | IP Logged | ||
|
Turkish: For travel and because I'm interested in the culture and language.
Hungarian: Travel. Cantonese: Because it's awesome and I'd love to be able to understand Wong Kar-Wai movies (and many others) without subs. Tamil or Malayalam: So I can go to southernmost India and not have to stick to English. Portuguese: I'd like to go to Brazil someday. Spanish: Plenty of speakers and travel opportunities. This list is a bit more realistic as it doesn't include all of my curiosities and languages I'd possibly dabble with. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5922 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 64 of 67 13 November 2013 at 12:09pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I thought of a few responses to Solfrid Cristina's original question about what languages are on my radar.
My first response was "Ummm.... All of them, of course!" Well, if I answer seriously I would need to mention I am considering changing my major from psychology to philosophy (don't ask why, it will take too long to explain) and therefore the languages I may learn in the future might look something like the following list Group I: Most Practical languages. I use the word practical based on availability of resources for learning using English as a base. French and German - I'm only lumping these lanuages together because my sudden interest in philosophy has made me want to read books by Kant, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Descartes etc. and I don't trust the English translations. I really like how French sounds, I already know some Spanish and Italian and I believe my main concern at start would be pronunciation. I like to think I can read French, but I really understand very little of what I try to read. I have learned a bit of Afrikaans and Swedish and dabbled with Dutch but virtually ignored German. Isn't that weird? I have tried to read German too, but I usually have stop after a few paragraphs bacause I have very limited vocabulary knowledge and no experience with German spelling so I'm sure I miss many cognates that would otherwise be quite obvious. Mandarin - I don't know any words in this language but I love how it sounds and it's fun to practice pronouncing tonal languages. I'm left-handed so I don't know if I'd ever be able to draw Chinese characters properly but maybe I'd like to try this sometime. Portuguese - I recognize a few words from Spanish, it sounds like a combination of French and Spanish when spoken and I love the Romance languages. Russian - I used to be freaked out about learning to read Cyrillic, but it doesn't look that hard. I know nothing about Russian vocabulary, spelling rules or grammar. I've mostly chosen to learn languages that are somewhat on the margins of language learning (I'll be honest, most people only learn Afrikaans or Finnish because they are living with a native speaker or have immigrated to South Africa or Finland respectively) and this means that once I get past the absolute beginner stage of learning I have to spend a lot of time searching for resources I can use and I sometimes have to accept whatever I can find. This will not be a problem with these languages and it would be a nice change to be able to choose from a wide variety of resources. Group II: Less practical languages. Using the basically the same criteria as for the first group. Irish - This one really should be on my hit list, I don't know why I haven't added it yet. My family background is partly Celtic and the few times I've heard this language spoken I feel drawn to it. Georgian - This is, or was, a cult language on this forum a few years ago. I already have a few books and other resources for learning it. Maybe this one will be next instead of Portuguese. Czech and/or Slovak - If I'm too lazy to seriously learn to read Cyrillic, these will be the next Slavonic languages I learn. Yes, I really am planning to eventually learn both languages. Danish and Norwegian - I try reading Danish and Norwegian every once in a while. I notice a few places where I think they differ from Swedish but the most noticable differences for me are pronunciation of Danish the use of the supine form in Swedish. I'm unsure if I will ever learn both, but I can't choose between them either. Sanskrit, Tamil, Marathi and other languages of India - Why not, there's loads of literature in these languages. Edited by mick33 on 15 November 2013 at 10:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
