Input on Learning New Language

[Moltke]

Spanish if you are targeting businesses in the United States.

Chinese if you're interested in international trade.

Arabic if you want a cleared job with the government.

I chose French years ago and all I learned was how to surrender. Apparently it's "Bonjour".

[Smuckatelli]

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

I have to differ with you on that, French is in high demand.

Spanish isn't on the critical language lists because there are a lot of born and heritage speakers in the States. If his intent is to have casual conversations at the local grocery store....Spanish would be a fit.

If he wants to do something to improve his financial situation later on he should stick with what I recommended above.

[Smuckatelli]

If you can't attend a brick & mortar course, this is the best way to go:

http://mvlonline.org/

[rackham1]

+1 on French, depending on future goals. I believe it's still the second most taught language worldwide after English. I learned it while at Kandahar and found it helped with French, Canadians, and Africans (TCNs). An American friend who learned in Paris and then lived in Africa for years said you can successfully navigate almost all of Africa between English and French. Also found that nearly everywhere traveled in India and South America could find French speaking people often enough to be useful.

But I suppose that only helps with international travel. Not much French to be found CONUS unless you're far north.

[.46caliber]

French holds 0 interest for me. Also, I learned that the platform I'm looking at, Duolingo, uses Spain Spanish, not Mexico Spanish.

I think German is the way I'm going to go. Plus I have a long term fantasy of doing sales in the US for Blaser. Thanks for the input all, it's been most helpful.

Any one used the duolingo platform?


Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[halo2304]

I grew up learning French in school since my area has a huge Franco-American heritage. Also, I went to a Catholic elementary school. (No, I wasn't a choir boy.) I can read some and speak a little but the only real use I got from it was on a business trip to Quebec. I was the only one of three that could speak any French.

I work in the auto industry and for a short while I tried to learn a little bit of Japanese. Not much has managed to stick. Now, should I feel the need to increase my job security, I would need to learn Spanish and Chinese...screw that!

The other languages I have dabbled in are German since most of my guns are Heckler & Koch, and most recently, Russian...yes, Russian. Reading Cyrillic and pronouncing the words is a bit of a challenge but knowing what it is you're reading/saying is the tricky part.

It's tough to learn a language when no one around you speaks it. Anyone try the Rosetta Stone programs? (Sorry to hijack/sidetrack the thread.)