Input on Learning New Language

[eodinert]

This gringo is on a 2,000 mile road trip in Mexico right now, and he says Spanish.

[chadbag]

It all depends on why you want the language.

I learned German in HS and college, did missionary service for almost 2 years in Germany, and worked for a computer company in Munich for another 18 months later on, and have been back a few times to visit. But my original reason to learn German was personal. I found it more interesting than French or Spanish (after 2 years of JHS French) and I was a military history buff as well, particularly with WW2.

(And while they all learn English there, their speaking ability covers a huge broad spectrum, and most of them are not that easy to understand; in contrast to Dutch and Scandinavians, whose English is usually very good and also easy to understand [I have my theories on why and it based on the German market for Hollywood movies and TV to be big enough that most are dubbed, while Holland and Scandinavia are markets too small to usually go that expense, so they are merely subtitled, so most Dutch and Scandinavians grow up hearing US and UK speakers while Germans grown up hearing Germans]).

Spanish and Chinese are probably the two main languages in terms of business. But I have no desire to learn either of them. So I won't.

I took Swedish for 2 semesters in college plus a bunch of self study of Swedish, and one semester of Norwegian. My roots on my mom's side go back to Norway, and Sweden before that. So it was personal.

My wife is from Japan. I'd like to learn some Japanese (more than the 100-200 words from my kids picture books) but have not really applied myself much to it because of time obligations. Again, personal reasons.

Why did I go through this whole explanation? Because you should learn the language that most interests you, no matter if it is popular or has business uses. Unless of course you do have specific business needs now.

While Spanish would be useful in the sense that a lot of folks in my area speak Spanish, I have no interest in speaking to most of them and the ones I do want to speak to also speak English. So I have no interest in Spanish. (Again, I relate this just as an example)

So, choose whatever language you find interesting or whatever language comes from an area you have interest in, for whatever reason.

If I had time and resources, I'd like to learn (not really in any order) Japanese, Swedish, Russian, Korean, Hebrew, and Italian. I may get a little more Swedish and some Japanese under my belt in the next 40 years before I die but if I had the time and resources that is what I would do. None of them would be really useful in a commercial or business sense, but would be fun for whatever reasons (except Japanese, which would be useful so I could speak in 1st person to my MIL and SILs and to people when we go to visit).

So, what floats your boat? What really interests you?


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[.46caliber]

Chadbag, thanks for the insight.

If I learn a language just because I want to I would say that would be German, but I don't currently foresee it being very utilitarian.

I guess part of me is seeking to kill two birds with one stone because of the time and effort involved.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[chadbag]

Chadbag, thanks for the insight.

If I learn a language just because I want to I would say that would be German, but I don't currently foresee it being very utilitarian.

If you go to Germany it would be utilitarian. Are you more likely to go to Germany on vacation or for whatever reason or Mexico/SA/Spain?

I guess part of me is seeking to kill two birds with one stone because of the time and effort involved.

Because of the time and effort involved, I think I'd rather do something I enjoy and want to do than something "utilitarian"

Good luck.


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[ICANHITHIMMAN]

duplicate post

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

Well from my stand point, unless you are flawless with your English bush up on that first, nouns, verbs, adjectives and gerund etc. Two weeks into Arabic training my head was about to explode, I turned to the NCO next to me and asked "whats a verb". He made me a list and I studied it over night all set but wow!

On what language to learn, I suggest Mandarin Chinese. When your frustrated and think this is nuts, just remember "even the dumbest china-man speaks Chinese". But I have a little Russian and Brazilian Portuguese under my hat as well, what ever the ladies need you know.....

[Smuckatelli]

If you are looking at this as a possible source of income later on...

I would skip Spanish, there are too many speakers as it is unless you can master the language with an ILR of above 3.

Any dialect of Chinese would be a good first choice.

Russian for the next 20 some odd years would cover a pretty wide area of the world.

French would open up a lot of areas.

Arabic for obvious reasons.

Also keep in mind, the culture plays a large part in this.

[Ned Christiansen]

Whatever you choose, go to speakalanguage.com. I've tried various CD courses and this one worked best by far. If you stick with it it'll do the deal but better maybe if it's supplemental to something else. Either way you need someone to speak with.

[Smuckatelli]

There is some technology out there that lets you speak to avatars:

http://www.alelo.com/siia/

[brickboy240]

If you live in the SW in America...anything else but Spanish is silly.

Italian and German will not help you in the job market in most cases and French USED to be sort of the international business language but that is now pretty much English.

The only languages that "matter" in learning are English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.

-brickboy240