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Anonymous
Which language should I learn?
>> Anonymous
English.
>> Anonymous
English.
>> Anonymous
English.
>> Anonymous
English.
>> Anonymous
orly?
>> Anonymous
English.
>> Anonymous
chinese

in 5 years, there will be more english speakers in china than in the rest of the world.
>> Anonymous
Latin. it will really help if you want to go on to learn a Romance Language.
>> Anonymous
>>64499
So if all the important, educated Chinese people are learning English, why would we need to learn Chinese?
>> Anonymous
What exactly do you guys mean by learning "Chinese"? Do you mean Mandarin?
>> Anonymous
>>64499
Seriously how many native English speakers do you know who can speak Chinese? Can you even name one famous person who can? It's obviously a shit hard language to learn for Westerners.

OP I shouldn't give advice since I'm not bilingual but I think you have to learn the language of a country or culture you are truly interested in and want to visit. Or hell, just learn French.
>> Anonymous
I hear Dutch is easy. confirm/deny?
>> Anonymous
>>64512

I'm pretty sure it is, I've been learning Swedish for quiet some time now and it's such an easy language.
>> Anonymous
>>64512
somewhat like german, but it sounds even worse
>> Anonymous
>>64509

australian prime minister Kevin Rudd
>> Anonymous
Basque.
>> Anonymous
>>64535
CAROLINE?!
>> Anonymous
>>64524
Well that's interesting I didn't know that.
>> Anonymous
Learn Swahili
>> Anonymous
>>64477
you can't choose a language to learn, it chooses you.

having said that if in your heart of hearts you desire to learn, then just pick an incredibly stupid fucking reason to learn any language, like wanting to fuck a french girl -> french, and try learn it. if you don't like it pick some other stupid reason to try another language. like wanting to invade france -> german. and so on. eventually you will find something that you will stick with and can start insulting people in german behind their backs. ja.
>> Anonymous
Correct answer: as many as you can.

If you've never studied a foreign language before start with something easy (read: NOT CHINESE), like a romance language or germanic language.
>> Anonymous
Spanish, French, German, Russian, Arabic.
>> Anonymous
>>64575
Remove German, add Chinese.

You're all set.
>> Anonymous
>>64574
Actually, grammatically Chinese is the easiest language in the world.
Just the hanzi will kick your ass if you don't knuckle down on it.
>> Anonymous
Luxembourgish or Farsi
>> Anonymous
>>64576
Uh depends what you are learning a language for. German is amazing as far as cultural and intellectual things go.
>> Anonymous
I speak Hebrew, Turkish and English, and have passable German, Japanese and Latin.

I'll go for ancient greek from here, and maybe learn some romance languages starting with Spanish or french. But what I really miss from all this is Russian.
>> Anonymous
Just learn as many as you have the opportunity to learn or want to learn. English, Spanish, and French will get you very far if you're a traveler.
>> Anonymous
>>64595
Impressive.
>> Anonymous
i've been having a good time with russian.

it's a little bit strange.

and sometimes the word endings don't make sense..

but with enough memorization i'll be able to play a terrorist in a james bond movie! :D

kak vu bushevietie?
>> Anonymous
Like someone else already said, learn as many as you can. Learning another language is such a magical experience, as corny as that sounds.

European languages are great, west and east. In terms of usefulness: French, German and Spanish.
If you want to learn a language for the hell of it, you open the door for so many other choices. Finnish is beautiful but difficult as fuck for a beginner... puhutkö sä suomea? Italian is very close to Latin if you dont want to learn an extinct language. Dutch is a fun one. Icelandic is kickarse. Russian is also very pretty, and useful to some extent. Faroese is interesting, and so is Gaelic. The list goes on.

Outside of Europe youve got all the awesome Asian languages. Mandarin would be the most useful, then youve got Japanese, Korean, Thai, Mongolian... lots of fun stuff.

Learn as many as you can, OP. Youll be a much more well-rounded person.
>> Anonymous
It all depends on your goals and what you want out of it.

I personally speak Spanish, English and French fluently. And to a certain extent basic Japanese. However, due to similarities in Romance Languages, I don't have a hard time understanding Italian and Portuguese. I do want to learn Mandarin, but I'll have to put that on hold since that would take me like 5 years approximately, and in that time I could probably learn Italian, Portuguese and perhaps German.

Think about it OP, You're a native English speaker, so focus on languages that are similar to yours, If you learn a Romance language, lets say French, you will have an easier time learning Spanish, Portuguese, Italian. Learning another language opens up doors for many more, so you might want to take that into account.
>> Anonymous
i used to have private tutoring in chinese , for me it is fuckin easy , theres no grammar , but the only hard thing is to remember the signs
>> Anonymous
I'm fairly fluent in Spanish and have been studying Chinese for over a year now, and it's been pretty easy, assuming you're willing to bust your ass on it. Once you have your native language down, as well as another one, any subsequent languages will be pretty easy.

tl:dr LRN2MANDARIN, It's awesome.
>> Anonymous
in terms of usefulness?

french
mandarin
arabic

start with that
>> Anonymous
>>64730
Arabic useful? Sure, if you want to live amongst barbarians.
>> Anonymous
Im travelling into India in 2 years, should i learn the Hindi language before going?

Is it how hard to learn?
>> Anonymous
>>64733
fuck id rather speak arabic which noone in america fuckin knows and get a cushy job translating for an oil company than learn spanish so i can talk to mexicans or order a burrito
>> Anonymous
>>64747

A lot of Sand-niggers in the US speak English just to let you know.
Enjoy your unemployment.
>> Anonymous
>>64753
dont be naive, the Bush administration wouldn't have "sand niggers" doing any translating. You gotta be all American. There's a demand for non-Arab Arabic translators today.
>> Anonymous
>>64759

I wouldn't want to turn /trv/ into a political debate, but the Bush administration will be over in a few months, and then... Hello to Mr. Hussein! or should I say... Salam alleykum Hussein!?
Oh well, maybe I'm just a little biased, I've never been atracted to Arabic, it just sounds horrendous IMO, but that's just my own perspective, I think I'll be going for German now, it sounds so kick-ass, specially if you get pissed off and you insult someone, shit's SO cash!
>> Anonymous
what's easiest/hardest? Dutch, German, Russian?
>> Anonymous
Learn Greek and there you go speaking a civilised language.
>> Anonymous
>>64759
Half Egyptian in Amerikkka, feels good man.
>> Anonymous
>>64790
Did you spend any time in Egypt?
>> Anonymous
>>64771
Easiest: Dutch
Medium: Russian because of the letters.
Hard: German because of grammar and pronunciation.
>> Anonymous
So, ethinically, i'm one hundred percent dutch, so i kinda want to learn. but the only language i've ever learned is latin, and i sucked at that. am i screwed learning dutch?
>> Anonymous
>>64902
You're not Dutch. You're American.
>> Anonymous
>>64905

Fine. What word would I use instead of ethnic?
>> Anonymous
>>64800
>Medium: Russian because of the letters.

hurr how does I rank languages that I can't speak myself

Cyrillic is easy as fuck to learn, you could honestly start sounding out Russian words the same day you start learning the alphabet. The hard part about Russian is the grammar (makes German seem like a cakewalk) and the chaotic way in which sentences are constructed.

Go here to learn about various languages and how difficult they are/what their uses are from some guy who learned a bunch: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/index.html
>> Anonymous
>>64800
You got it almost shit-awful backwards in every respect. Learning German, as a native English speaker is simple as hell.

German and Dutch are basically just older forms of English. Russian is completely different.
>> Anonymous
>>64905
"American" is not an ethnicity, genius.
>> canttouchthis !AB5fTSvpY6
>>64512
ive just started learning dutch.it is quite similar to german,but the sound is nowhere near as harsh
>> Anonymous
>>64477

Welsh, Navajo, Finnish, Gaelic, and Hungarian

Then speak in a Creole. /thread
>> Anonymous
Who?
>> Anonymous
Here's my plan. Not OP, btw.

Reason: To be an effective engineer with some marketing capabilities and good communication skills.

Native: Finnish
Advanced: English
Good: German, Swedish
Basic: Spanish, Russian

To be learned one day: French, Arabic, some asian language.

With these I could speak with most people (capable of doing business) in the world, right?
>> Anonymous
>>65044
Add Italian after you learned French. If you're not a retarded you will get used to Italian in less than 6 months.
>> Anonymous
>>64800
STUPID way to rank languages. I would rank German easier than Dutch and the fact that Russian uses Cyrillic makes no difference at all past the first 10 lessons.

Russian is fantastically expressive compared to other European languages. Mandarin is extremely useful but also much harder than practically anything else (except perhaps Korean).

Indonesian is extremely easy, one of the easiest languages. Not exactly helpful in most cases, but if you don't care about that you'll pick it up quickly enough. I know an indonesian girl (ausfag here) and she's pretty interesting and oddly relaxed and at-peace generally, compared with other asians I know.
>> Anonymous
Bengali
>> Anonymous
>>64656
Since English is a Germanic language the easiest languages for an English speaker are Germanic. The Romance languages would be second easiest because of the strong French influence on Middle English and therefore Modern English.

The most useful languages to learn for an American will be Spanish, Mandarin, maybe Arabic, and maybe Hindi but still for most Americans they are pretty useless to learn. Besides usefulness is a bad reason to learn a second language unless your job depends on it. Even if your job depends on it then it better be worth the trouble otherwise just get a new job.
>> Anonymous
So people are saying Russian gets easier or what? I'm confused. How difficult is the language compared to others?
>> Anonymous
>>65452
No, it starts out easy with learning Cyrillic, but once you start learning grammar it's pretty confusing. It's harder than French, Italian, Spanish, German etc.. just because of how drastically different it is. It's not impossible though, it would just take a lot longer before you could speak fluently.
>> Anonymous
>>65455
good or bad idea to learn it solo?
>> Anonymous
>>65457
Well I've been learning it solo myself for the past year (native English speaker here), and while it's difficult and frustrating at times, it's pretty fun and rewarding too and will probably be worth it in the end. I haven't given up yet so that should say something. The most important part if you don't have a teacher is that you use tons of audio and learn proper pronunciation. Grammar can all be memorized, but if you sound like a retard, well, you'll sound like a retard =/

I actually just downloaded a Russian language course that was used in Princeton from 1998-2004. 1.5 gigs, 150 some odd lessons starting with the alphabet, audio files for everything.. It's pretty amazing, and I highly recommend it if you're planning on going solo. (Just google "russian princeton course" and click on the "freelanguagewhatever" blog link.)
>> Anonymous
Michel Thomas Method, one of the best out there.
>> Anonymous
>>65466
Anything that claims it can teach you to speak a language in "days" should raise some serious alarms. Maybe you'll be able to throw out a few random sentences that you'll forget in a month, but there's no way 8 hours of audio alone can make you fluent in ANY language, let alone something like Russian or Japanese.

Honestly, if you're not willing to dedicate at least a years worth of studying, you're just wasting your time and money.

It's like trying to lose weight. You can spend thousands of dollars on pills and other bullshit that doesn't work, or you get can off your fat lazy ass and jog a mile every day and eat healthy. One works, the other just gets your hopes up and makes other people rich.
>> Anonymous
>>65469
No I don't agree with you being fluent in 8 days, but it will give you the ground rules and you can get about in the country with that course. I'd recommend that you go live in the country to master the language.
>> Anonymous
>>65472
Those don't give you the ground rules at all. If you don't learn grammar, which you can't possibly learn by audio alone, then all you're going to end up with is a bunch of set phrases and common words, but you won't understand how they're constructed. Sure it might work for a business trip/vacation to help you get around, but that's not how you learn a language.

And how are you going to learn foreign alphabets? You won't even be able to read signs and menus and such.
>> Anonymous
>>65492
Did your parents stand above your crib with flash cards teaching you the syntax of your native language?
>> Anonymous
>>65493
No, but how many hours worth of language do you think a baby is exposed to in its first few years of life before it can speak and understand most things? More than 8 I think.

And even then, getting an actual grasp on the language so you're not illiterate and can speak/write intelligently takes years of schooling.
>> Anonymous
>>65496
I could read at 18 months old and taught myself how to count. I suppose it depends on your parents and educational environment at home.
>> Anonymous
>>65492
I'm not sure which courses you've listened to, but in the Michel Thomas ones, he spends ages going through the grammar. Again, it's not as good as living in the country, but then what is? It will give you enough *BASIC* knowledge to get around. There are also more than 8 hours to get through, that's just the "foundation" course. There's an advanced one and a vocab builder. With that 24 hours or so of learning, you will have a BASIC (see there's that word again) grasp of the language and be able to continue at a more advanced level. The next step is being totally immersed in the language by living in the country. (Which could also be the first step if you want to just jump right in there)
>> Anonymous
>>64516

from my personal experience...german sounds the most barbaricc language there is....da...heil...shyzer!!

the most sleek language would probly be italian
>> Anonymous
>>65515
German sounds great, very beautiful and powerful. Listen to some German opera and lieder before you say it sounds barbaric.
>> Anonymous
>>65515
Romance languages are effeminate and faggoty at best.
>> Anonymous
>>65525
wat
Die.
Also, no u.
>> Anonymous
>>65503
Nah, the next step is SITCOMS IN SAID LANGUAGE
>> Anonymous
The only romance language that is remotely acceptable is Classical Latin.

Anything else is just faggotspeak.
>> Anonymous
Is Korean really hard? I've been trying to decide between German and Korean... I really like the sound of both languages and both are relevant to my interests, but German seems like it's going to be way easier.
>> Anonymous
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>>65561
Countries where Latin is spoke by the general populace: 0
Countries where Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese are spoke: fucking lots
>> Anonymous
>>65568
Maybe he wants to read Virgil instead of communicating with some spic/frog/wop.
>> Anonymous
>>65570
Or Tacitus, or Caesar, or.... you get the drift.
>> Anonymous
>>65568

NB: spokeN
>> Anonymous
>>65588
Yeah, I actually caught that as it was being posted. ;_;
>> Anonymous
I start a degree in Classics at Cambridge on Sunday. Hellz yeah.
>> Anonymous
>>64595
turk here...im just wondering why/what/where you learned hebrew...as almost...0 turks fuck around with it or jews
>> Anonymous
Mandarin Chinese.
>> Anonymous
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>>65596
>Degree in Classics
>> Govinda
I too vote for Dutch. Since it is a Germanic language you will not have trouble learning it if you're a native English speaker. It is WAY more hilarious sounding than German
>> Anonymous
Well i've been learning japanese for a year it is one the easist languages of the world i think but kanji is overrated... i could only learn 250 kanji so far but as long as i haven't revised what i had learned for a while so i forgot most of them so imo japanese easy to learn also easy to forgot languages are cruel always betrays pew pew trying to learn spanish meanwhile
>> Anonymous
Spanish is spoken in the most countries, Japan has the largest economy outside of America. China has the fastest growing economy. Germany is doing pretty well I hear.

Pick one of those four. Everything else is pretty useless
>> Anonymous
>>66789
Na, Germany will go down the shitter because of the results of the last election in Bavaria.
>> Anonymous
french sounds nice so does spanish
dutch and german are almost the same, scandinavic languages are somehow similar too
still german is one of the most powerful languages...there are so many different ways to express yourself...compared to english its fucking complex
french is hard to pronounce at least for me :>

go ahead for german and read some goethe and schiller that will give you an impact dood
>> Anonymous
>dutch and german are almost the same, scandinavic languages are somehow similar too
That's because they are all apart of the Germanic language family which also includes English.
>> Anonymous
>>66803
owrly?;) i know :>
still english is much more simple compared to German