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Tags: Time to learn | Choosing a Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Nieng Zhonghan Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Antarctica Joined 3472 days ago 108 posts - 315 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin | Message 1 of 12 16 November 2014 at 10:49am | IP Logged | ||
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I am interested in picking up one language for 2 to 3 months experiment. I may
continue or not depending on some personal life goals (not related to languages) being achieved during this period. It also depends if I will enjoy learning it or not which depends more in the variety of materials available for beginners. This time I would like to consider the following items: 1 - I am an ambitious backpack traveler; I would like to visit the countries of where the next language is spoken; 2- I will prioritize a non-Indo-European language; 3- I am not interested in picking up a tonal language such as Thai, Lao or Vietnamese, even though I like the Thai and Vietnamese culture and people; 4- I won’t pick up an Afro-Asiatic language this time; 5- The quality and quantity of the materials available it is obviously very important; 6- I am not interested in an artificial language; It would be interesting if the language is spoken in more than a country or if the language is mutually intelligible with at least another one such as Malay and Indonesian. As for number 2, it is not a rule. I may pick up any language as long as it is not a Romance language. Concerning number 3, I will definitely not learn a new tonal language before I got a solid B2 level in Chinese; unless I need to move to for business purposes where a tonal language is spoken as an official language (or one of the most important languages). 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4508 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 12 16 November 2014 at 11:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I suggest Malagasy. Not IE, in Africa, loads of backpacking to do there, belongs to the
same language group as Indonesian/Malay/Tagalog, and lots of things to do in the wilderness of Madagascar. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| day1 Groupie Latvia Joined 3693 days ago 93 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English | Message 3 of 12 16 November 2014 at 1:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Russian, it's still understood and spoken in a huge area.
fits all your requirements except non indo european 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4810 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 4 of 12 16 November 2014 at 3:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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How about Arabic?
OR out of the "smaller" ones: Turkish, Hebrew, Hungarian or Finnish? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3626 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 5 of 12 16 November 2014 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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What about a South American language? I'm thinking of Quechua or Aymara that span different countries. I bet Machu Picchu would be a sweet back-packing (or hiking) trip.
Or for the ultimate back-packing: Nepali. :P 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Nieng Zhonghan Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Antarctica Joined 3472 days ago 108 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin | Message 6 of 12 17 November 2014 at 12:42am | IP Logged | ||
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I really liked everybody’s suggestions.
Tarvos, Madagascar has been in my list for years. Indeed it must be a very interesting place to visit. Air tickets to Madagascar (and African countries in general) unfortunately have been out of my budget. When I find a reasonable price, it is a period of time when I cannot go on vacation. If I go to Madagascar, I suppose I have to transfer in South Africa, I suppose, therefore, I think I would not spend my whole time in Madagascar only. I was about to visit Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, but due to the Ebola outbreak, I have changed my plans. By the way, Netherlands is one of the most awesome countries I have visited in Europe. Day1, Yes, indeed Russian is one language that might fit my requirement. According to many data, Russian is spoken in many countries: Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Moldova, Estonia, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan etc. I have been to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and I have realized that many people I have met have learned Russian at school and they said they could read stuff at B2 level without struggling that much. Some of them have achieved higher level since they have been educated as a bilingual child (Russian parents). I’d like to visit most of the countries mentioned above, though I have the preference for Southeast Asian countries when it comes to traveling. I am interested in Russian culture, history and literature, but I am also really fond of winter season. I have enjoyed -20 C to -25 C in St. Petersburg, for example. Russians wanted to kill me when I said I really enjoyed that temperature. Better than being under 30C to 35C…Any temperature above 24C it is already hot to me… Cavesa, I am not interested in Arabic or Hebrew this time. However, I have been thinking of the other languages you have mentioned: Turkish, Hungarian and Finnish. The last two seem to be very challenging. I have heard of the similarity between Turkish and Azeri. Another good point is that I have Turkish acquaintances who could help me improve my Turkish with any skill (speaking, writing, reading) providing me explanation in English. Xenops, Quechuan and Aymara both suit my taste. Traveling through Macchu Pichu (Cuzco and other places) would be definitely great. My father has always recommended me visiting there, but also he has encouraged me visiting many other countries in the world. When it comes to some of the languages you guys have recommended me, it also depends on the materials available for each of them. Some are more difficult to find than others. Some simply doesn’t fulfill my tastes. There are other languages I have been thinking about: Malay Pros I have been to Malaysia and eventually I would be back there and to Singapore as well. I am also interested in visiting Indonesia one day; Malay has official status in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei which are countries of my interest; Khmer Pros It is not a tonal language. It belongs to Austroasiatic family; I would like to visit Cambodia one day. Mongolian Pros I would like to visit Mongolia one day and explore its countryside since I am interested in Mongolian culture. Norwegian, Danish or Swedish Pros I have heard about the mutually intelligibility of all them at certain extent. It would be interesting taking one of them since I am interested in Scandinavian culture. Cons They are Indo-European languages. German Pros Germany is one of the countries I liked at most in Europe. Besides Germany, Austria is in the list of countries I will explore in the future; Cons It is an Indo-European language. Edited by Nieng Zhonghan on 17 November 2014 at 12:44am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fireballtrouble Triglot Senior Member Turkey Joined 4325 days ago 129 posts - 203 votes Speaks: Turkish*, French, English Studies: German | Message 7 of 12 17 November 2014 at 12:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would recommend Turkish not because of the fact that
I'm Turk but it corresponds to many clauses in your list. -it is not tonal -it is not indoeuropean -country where it's spoken is a great tourist destination -it has nothing to do with Afro-asian languages - material variety isn't such abondant like top learned languages but there are quite nice materials to learn Turkish -it's not an artificial language. Edited by fireballtrouble on 17 November 2014 at 12:14pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6957 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 8 of 12 17 November 2014 at 4:44pm | IP Logged | ||
How about Azeri? I'm planning to start a Turkic challenge in about a month where I'd/we'd study a Turkic language for about 3 months before moving onto the next one. I've 10 languages in mind with 6 languages meant to be studied for up to 3 months. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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