What Language Would You Learn?
I address this to the NS board because we seem to have a broad range of nationalities represented.
I am a bit of a language enthusiast. I look at translating and researching foreign languages the same way pther people enjoy jigsaw puzzles or other hobbies.
Typically, I try to pick a language and research it until I would be comfortable speaking it in a foreign country. I started with Latin, brushed Russian, and just finished up with Spanish. I am now looking for a new language to research.
I have been looking into: Arabic, Aramaic, Farsi, Gaelic, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Icelandic, and kicked a few others around. Some of my Criteria:
1. The language should be different than one I already know.
2. It should be relativly useful in modern conversation or have living native speakers
3. It shouldn't rely on nonstandard enunciations (whistling,clicking, etc)
Based on these critera, Aramaic and Gaelic have been kocked down (though i still think it would be fun to learn). I am leaning heavily towards non-European type languages but that is just a leaning not an actual decision. My friend is an English teacher in Japan, and my interest in Japanese is certainly not limited by my preference for non-dubbed animes.
What language would you like to learn, or think would be a fun one to pick up?
I am a bit of a language enthusiast. I look at translating and researching foreign languages the same way pther people enjoy jigsaw puzzles or other hobbies.
Typically, I try to pick a language and research it until I would be comfortable speaking it in a foreign country. I started with Latin, brushed Russian, and just finished up with Spanish. I am now looking for a new language to research.
I have been looking into: Arabic, Aramaic, Farsi, Gaelic, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Icelandic, and kicked a few others around. Some of my Criteria:
1. The language should be different than one I already know.
2. It should be relativly useful in modern conversation or have living native speakers
3. It shouldn't rely on nonstandard enunciations (whistling,clicking, etc)
Based on these critera, Aramaic and Gaelic have been kocked down (though i still think it would be fun to learn). I am leaning heavily towards non-European type languages but that is just a leaning not an actual decision. My friend is an English teacher in Japan, and my interest in Japanese is certainly not limited by my preference for non-dubbed animes.
What language would you like to learn, or think would be a fun one to pick up?
Comments
I'm also doing spanish.
I would like to learn japanese, so I could play import console games <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->, and because it's a challenge, i'd like to say i'd done it.
Not for the videogames, (I'm not saying I wouldnt play them though <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
but because I've always wanted to live in Japan.
That is one of the reasons I was thinking of a middle eastern language. The only problem is that I can't leave my job to go work with the US military/intelligence. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> cyclical redundancy errors would abound.
I'm so pwn at German.
I'd learn Japanese, i've always wanted to learn it.
however, if i were you, i'd learn japanese.
1. anime
2. anime
3. dating sims
4. dating sims.
5. h-games
5. h-games
!!!!!!!!!!
i'm learning japanese myself. if you really want a challenge, try taking on mandarin. i speak the language and i still suck at it :|.
Russian - not tried learning yet but I would
1. It is pretty easy to pick up the basics, especially if you are good at English. Hell, i got a qualification in German when i was 13 and i have not looked back since. It is pretty similar to English in overall sentence structure. If you figured out Russian, you should be able to pick up German pretty quickly.
2. German is a language spoken in many parts of Europe, so it is worthwhile learning the basics if you intend to spend time in Central Europe.
There are plenty more reasons why another language would be beneficial but i'm sure you already know them as you have already studied 3 other languages.
Read 1.
Sorry for the double post, but it's really not that much..
*edit - typo
1. It is pretty easy to pick up the basics, especially if you are good at English. Hell, i got a qualification in German when i was 13 and i have not looked back since. It is pretty similar to English in overall sentence structure. If you figured out Russian, you should be able to pick up German pretty quickly.
2. German is a language spoken in many parts of Europe, so it is worthwhile learning the basics if you intend to spend time in Central Europe.
There are plenty more reasons why another language would be beneficial but i'm sure you already know them as you have already studied 3 other languages. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I have been avoiding German for two reasons:
I am looking to get away from the standard European languages (French Spanish Italian German)
German is a language that just clicked with me. Over the years of browsing the internet and other interactions I have probably reached German HS level 2. It is because of this that I am saving German for later. I might need the extra brain space for nonstandard languages.
I really want to learn German, just not yet.
(I also want to understand those sneaky Amish guys down the road)
There's a ton of cool korean games and stuff out there especially if you're an MMO nut =3
Korean seems a little easier to pick up than jp too. Main problem with jp is the gigantic kanji alphabet plus you have to learn hiragana AND katakana ontop of that (not too hard really but still extra work).
On the bright side the japanese have done similar to the english and dumped the rather silly concept of genders for innanimate objects... infact they took it one step further and dumped a lot of the gender-specific titles for people too o.O
things like san, chan and others can happily be used for girls or guys.
When learning jp you'll need to be concious of the 'standing' of various words too though. There's many a way of saying certain things depending on who you're talking to whether it's your equal, subordinate, superior, family/friends/lover, etc.
Still it's a rather interesting language to learn and seems a little exotic compared to the standard european nonsense so I'd heartily recommend good ole Nihon-go <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Roflmao <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
My main language is Swedish.
And how much is "a bit"? <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Allora, cosa lingue impagnerai, eh?
Chi puo capermi?
I'd go with Japanese. From what I can tell, the sentence structure is completely the reverse of European languages, and then there's the presence of a non-phoenetic character set. I hear Thai is fairly difficult, too.
<span style='font-size:6pt;line-height:100%'>...and the fact that I was about to try to submit this post by hitting Escape and typing :wq is indicative of the fact that I should <i>really</i> go to bed now...</span>
japanese?
ANIME ANIME ANIME COMIC COMIC COMIC GAMES GAMES GAMES SUGGGGGOOOOOOOO
The limit of my Norwegian is currently that Oste = cheese, Kake = cake, and Ostekake = cheesecake.
I'm learning Russian. ^_^
~ DarkATi
Yeah done French <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> Got french relatives.
Swedish is cool, then you can speak to almost all nordic countries. Any nordic language, I'm learning swedish atm for an example.
i vant to live in sveeden