Best foreign language to learn?

[SSP]

Japanese!

 

[GoSharks]

Originally posted by: ba2ng
depends on where you wanna do business in the future......

i do suggest though u just at least try to recall a little of those 5 years of French.... then try to learn Mandarin Chinese.... trust me u'll go places.....
Chinese people are going to dominate the future of the business world

agree. i kinda wish that i had stuck with learning mandarin when i was little. there are MANY MANY chinese speaking people in the world... and there will only be more *dont take that the wrong way...*

 

[Jfur]

Originally posted by: GOSHARKS

Originally posted by: ba2ng
depends on where you wanna do business in the future......

i do suggest though u just at least try to recall a little of those 5 years of French.... then try to learn Mandarin Chinese.... trust me u'll go places.....
Chinese people are going to dominate the future of the business world

agree. i kinda wish that i had stuck with learning mandarin when i was little. there are MANY MANY chinese speaking people in the world... and there will only be more *dont take that the wrong way...*

witihn 20 years, China will likely be hte world's largest economy

 

[bsd]

Originally posted by: Dooling37
Hello all --Curious for opinions about what the best foreign language would be to learn, from several perspectives: - level of difficulty (preferably not extremely difficult, e.g., Chinese (from what I hear)) - level of use / uniqueness (i.e., not as rare as, say, swahili, but would be nice to learn something that not everyone and their mother seemingly already knows (e.g., spanish)) - 'sound' of the language (i.e., italian = beautiful, german = ugly) - practicality / business use (i.e., german is probably a useful language, from a business perspective)I would like to start (slowly) learning a foreign language as a personal goal. I guess I feel 'ignorant' only being able to communicate in English (and not that eloquently, at that). Thoughts / opinions?Thanks alot.

Farsi is easy, you could be virtually conversationally fluent in 1year just as a hobby, try Wheeler M Thackson's Grammar

Chinese is also very easy, as the grammar doesnt really decline like it does in Eurasian Languages. But the script is another story...

Italian is very easy if you know french and English or Spanish, as it isnt too distant is some respects from all these

The only other language I got far with was Arabic, which you should swiftly forget about, the grammar is horendous and compeletely unrelated to Eurasian Grammar.

 

[ATLien247]

I'd say Spanish...

One could imagine the U.S. approaching something like Quebec in the future, only replacing French with Spanish.

Personally, I studied German... so I could order a beer in the native tongue when I finally get around to travelling there again.

 

[newbiepcuser]

If i had to choose.


1. Spanish
2. Mandrain
3. Japanese

 

[xSauronx]

im sorry, maybe its stupid of me, but i was sick of spanish when i was told there were four "the"s

just annoying, english isnt the grandest language, but four fvucking ways to say "the" is just too much for me

 

[amnesiac]

I've taken Spanish, Italian, and Japanese. I know snippets of German and Portuguese.



Ease of learning:
Spanish - Very easy to learn
Italian - Fairly easy to learn, esp. if you know Spanish or German
German - Moderately easy to learn

"Beauty":
French
Italian
Portuguese

Usefulness:
Spanish - Good if you live in the Southern / Western US
French - Good if you travel in Europe or Canada
Italian - Good if you travel in Europe or eat at nice Italian restaurants.
Japanese - Great for international business or traveling to Japan
Mandarin - Great for international business or traveling to Asia
German - Good for business or traveling to Europe

Very difficult Languages:
Mandarin - construction is not so bad, but pronunciation is a task, not to mention reading/writing
French - construction marginally harder than other romance languages, and pronunciation is very difficult at times
Japanese - pronunciation is very easy (all syllables, few rules) but reading/writing becomes very difficult



Personally, my favorite has been italian. It's very very fun to learn, and chicks dig it.
Although, I must say that since my g/f has been teaching me German, I'm liking that too. It's really not that "ugly" of a language once you get used to it.
She's also been teaching me ASL (sign language) and it's very interesting and can be VERY VERY useful. It's an "honorable" thing to be proficient in.

 

[newbiepcuser]

Mandarin - construction is not so bad, but pronunciation is a task, not to mention reading/writing

I'm taking it right now, the only ones that are doing well in the class are people who know Mandrian and want an easy A.

 

[amnesiac]

Originally posted by: xSauronx
im sorry, maybe its stupid of me, but i was sick of spanish when i was told there were four "the"s

just annoying, english isnt the grandest language, but four fvucking ways to say "the" is just too much for me

Once you take multiple language you realize how screwed up and archaic English itself is. No other language has such ridiculous phonetics and so many pronunciation / grammar rules and exceptions. It's a bastard child latin language that's changing constantly. When I meet foreigners who have good english skills, I make it a point to congratulate them on a job well done. I'm SO glad that it was my first language. I'd go nuts if I had to learn it from scratch at a later age.

 

[Triumph]

What are you talking about? German is a BEAUTIFUL language. So are the Slavic, Baltic, and Russian languages. Now those would be interesting to learn.

 

[Colt45]

I'd go for german or something slavic (russian, yugo, polish, et al)


probably because I like those countries and I have family there, though.


german would be pretty simple, because english is partially based on german, so there are similar words.

 

[Lars]

German is a more difficult language than English. Actually, most languages are more difficult than English.


edit: BTW, I do not think that German sounds ugly.

 

[bizmark]

Originally posted by: xSauronx
im sorry, maybe its stupid of me, but i was sick of spanish when i was told there were four "the"s

just annoying, english isnt the grandest language, but four fvucking ways to say "the" is just too much for me

AFAIK, English is pretty unique among Indo-European languages in only having one form of the definite article. French has at least 4, German has (theoretically) 12 (but actually only 6 since there's a lot of overlap), I think that Italian has at least 4 as well.... Scandinavian languages are probably more complicated than German.... and actually, I'm not sure whether Russian has a definite article at all. I have no idea for languages like Arabic, Japanese, Hindi, etc. I doubt that Far Eastern languages have anything that approximates the definite article.

I learned German, I like it a lot It's actually not nearly as 'ugly' sounding as it first seems. Go buy an album of Schumann songs, and tell me that German isn't a beautiful, flowing language

Mark Twain points out the good parts of the German language

Having pointed out, in detail, the several vices of this language, I now come to the brief and pleasant task of pointing out its virtues. The capitalizing of the nouns I have already mentioned. But far before this virtue stands another -- that of spelling a word according to the sound of it. After one short lesson in the alphabet, the student can tell how any German word is pronounced without having to ask; whereas in our language if a student should inquire of us, "What does B, O, W, spell?" we should be obliged to reply, "Nobody can tell what it spells when you set if off by itself; you can only tell by referring to the context and finding out what it signifies -- whether it is a thing to shoot arrows with, or a nod of one's head, or the forward end of a boat."

There are some German words which are singularly and powerfully effective. For instance, those which describe lowly, peaceful, and affectionate home life; those which deal with love, in any and all forms, from mere kindly feeling and honest good will toward the passing stranger, clear up to courtship; those which deal with outdoor Nature, in its softest and loveliest aspects -- with meadows and forests, and birds and flowers, the fragrance and sunshine of summer, and the moonlight of peaceful winter nights; in a word, those which deal with any and all forms of rest, repose, and peace; those also which deal with the creatures and marvels of fairyland; and lastly and chiefly, in those words which express pathos, is the language surpassingly rich and affective. There are German songs which can make a stranger to the language cry. That shows that the sound of the words is correct -- it interprets the meanings with truth and with exactness; and so the ear is informed, and through the ear, the heart.

 

[Dooling37]

I've been leaning towards German over the past couple of months, for a few reasons:
- it seems you can derive the meaning of many German words based on similar English words (or vice versa)
- one of the most powerful economies
- heritage
- I enjoyed visiting the country

I have heard from many people that it is considered one of the 'uglier' languages, but everyone has their own opinion, of course.

Although Mandarin may be one of the best choices in terms of business use b/c of the huge population, I think when considering learning a language like this, one would also have to take into account the vastly different culture. I think speaking German and interacting with German businessmen would be significantly easier than speaking Mandarin and interacting with Chinese businessmen, because of the more similar cultures.

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm probably going to do some more research into it, and likely the decision will come down to Spanish, German, or Italian.

 

[her209]

Go with the one that has the most hottest girls.

 

[swifty3]

Espanol!

 

[isekii]

Japanese ...

BAKA DES NE~!

 

[Chaotic42]

I'm partial to Russian, and the alphabet is easy to learn.

 

"I should have mentioned that I took 5 years of French in High school. I've forgotten pretty much everything (lack of use), and have no real desire to re-learn it, even though it would probably be easiest. Not a big fan of the French people (no offense, just my opinion)."

I'm not a fan of the French people either. But I know well how luvly that language is. If you don't like it, pass on the knowledge to me. I would be pleased to not only speak with a British accent, but speak French eloquently.

I would recommend French. Isn't French the second most influenced language in the world? Uhmmm . . . or is it Spanish? I'm not a fan of Spanish. I would much rather learn Italian.

 

[olouie]

Originally posted by: isekii
Japanese ...

BAKA DES NE~!

haha nice

 

[RGN]

anatta wa nihongo desu ka?

 

[Growltiger]

Swedish, so you can get all the Swedish babes!

 

[FoBoT]

i would like to learn german and/or dutch

 

[alphatarget1]

German is relatively easy for me. Picking up the die der das and other cases never really bothered me. The only hard thing is I can't really say words with that R sound in it. Der Rad, rauchen, etc. Grammar is rather simple in some ways but it can get complicated.

<---- took 2 years in high school and now 1st semester german in chico state... easy

Chinese is a language that if you don't write it you forget how to write it. I can read newspapers just fine but i can't write it anymore.