What language do you want to learn?

[oppee]

I'm thinking about learning a new language but im not really sure which one.
Leaning towards Mandarin because China are likely to become the next 'superpower' and it will come in handy considering I'm doing a business degree, and Im in Australia and we do a shitload of trade with China.

But on the other hand I reckon it would be super cool to be able to speak spanish or portugese or french or something like that.. so i don't really know.

What would everyone else learn if they were going to or who can speak multiple languages

[aka]

I need to learn better Italian ASAP, lol, I will begin lessons in the new year, for now I'm about to start using a podcast I subscribed to a while ago but never gave full attention to.

At work everyone speaks English to me most of the time so I have only picked up the minimum for basic conversations/ shopping etc. Alot of my friends here have studied in the UK or USA so speak perfect English and for those who don't yet, they love the chance to practice when they speak to me!

I need to sort it out, had I known back at school that I would be living here I certainly would have taken Italian classes rather than French and German that I did, :rolleyes:

[Patriark]

If it's a strategic decision, then definitely Mandarin or Japanese, but I think Spanish is a pretty good decision as well. One important factor to consider though, is that there are a lot more europeans who know English, compared to Asians.

So if it's in relation to $$ and business relations, Mandarin is what it's all about. But I think you'll have a hard time learning it ;)

I've spent some time trying to learn basic Italian, which isn't to hard if you have learned some other continental language first. But it's fairly useless in the big picture I think

[RichardEStuart]

I usually have a crack at the language in the country I'm visiting and generally murder it. but I'd rather give it a go than just stand there speaking loudly and slowly in English...makes you look like a twat in my book. I'd like to learn Spanish and Catalan, French and Norwegian (as it's my grandfathers language) and I've got a bit of a thing for Russian.

[coinoperatedboy]

The only language I'm fluent in other than english is Propositional Logic...

[coinoperatedboy]

dale_fromage Wrote:

Richmanu Wrote:and I've got a bit of a thing for Russian.

This do owt for you?

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t88/d...vanova.jpg

She has an old woman's face, is that the bird that Keith Richards shagged?

[oppee]

She is a babe.

Also i forgot to mention that Mandarin will be no help with the ladies. Where as girls would crave it if you spoke to them in french or spanish or somthing

[aka]

Patriark Wrote:I've spent some time trying to learn basic Italian, which isn't to hard if you have learned some other continental language first. But it's fairly useless in the big picture I think

I work in car design so Italian is a useful language to have (even required for a lot of the jobs) as a lot of the big design houses are based here (Pinninfarina, Bertone, Giugiaro etc aswell as Fiat/Alfa/Lancia) plus of course Ferrari, Maserati, Lambo etc.

[slutty fringe]

Italian so I can understand all the swearwords my ex from Milano used to spout in my general direction

[aka]

slutty fringe Wrote:Italian so I can understand all the swearwords my ex from Milano used to spout in my general direction

I quite like the Italian swear words and the emphasis they use when saying them, of course these were the first few words we learned the first time I came to Italy, ha!

[oppee]

We did Italian in primary school, I was under the impression it was one of (if not the) easiest language for english speakers to learn.. because each word is pronounced as it is written.

Saying that i was always pretty terrible at it and cant remeber a thing. But I think italian would be pretty useless if you don't plan on going to Italy.


Wikipedia reckons that the top ten most spoken languages are;
Mandarin - China, Malaysia, Taiwan
Hindustani - India
Spanish - Mexico, Central and South America, Spain
English
Arabic
Portugese - Brazil, Portugal, Southern Africa
Bengali - Bangladesh, Eastern India
Russian
Japanese
German

[decadence]

I can speak pretty much fluent spanish but i've got really lazy with it over the last couple of years and now can have really indepth conversations in a variety of tenses but will randomly forget the word for 'spoon' or something like that :(

i'm contemplating a plan to move there for a little bit in a couple of years to immerse myself in the culture again so it all comes flooding back.

languages are such a useful employability tool its unreal.

[electrawz]

I can pretty much fluently speak Spanish, thanks to an obsession with a Spanish sitcom. I've never used it when chatting up a bird actually, but it did come in handy when I was in Spain funnily enough...

I'd love to learn Mandarin or Japanese just because it would be an achievement in itself, without actually using it for other purposes....

[oppee]

decadence Wrote:I can speak pretty much fluent spanish but i've got really lazy with it over the last couple of years and now can have really indepth conversations in a variety of tenses but will randomly forget the word for 'spoon' or something like that :(

i'm contemplating a plan to move there for a little bit in a couple of years to immerse myself in the culture again so it all comes flooding back.

languages are such a useful employability tool its unreal.

Yeah the job factor is a serious motivation and thats why i'm thinking mandarin.

How do you find spanish? Im thinkning I'll go with that or mandarin, and how did you like spain when you went there, and also how has knowing spanish helped you?

[decadence]

oppee Wrote:

decadence Wrote:I can speak pretty much fluent spanish but i've got really lazy with it over the last couple of years and now can have really indepth conversations in a variety of tenses but will randomly forget the word for 'spoon' or something like that :(

i'm contemplating a plan to move there for a little bit in a couple of years to immerse myself in the culture again so it all comes flooding back.

languages are such a useful employability tool its unreal.

Yeah the job factor is a serious motivation and thats why i'm thinking mandarin.

How do you find spanish? Im thinkning I'll go with that or mandarin, and how did you like spain when you went there, and also how has knowing spanish helped you?

i find spanish pretty easy, had a really good teacher at school, and i'd previously learnt latin and french, though once i started learning spanish i just became almost unable to speak french, they tend to say one becomes your dominant language i think.

i love spain, i've only been to quite obvious places such as barcelona, madrid, malaga, gran canaria etc but i think its my favourite country, i really like the way of life, barcelona is the only place i'd consider moving out of the UK i think (except maybe NYC).

it's helped a lot in job interviews, as most companies have areas where other languages need to be spoken, plus ive met spanish speaking people in so many different countries, it is unbelievable the contacts ive made through learning it. Also my parents own an apartment in gran canaria, so i managed to help with a lot of the legal stuff with regards to aquiring that, and as it will be mine one day, so its nice to think that i should be able to deal with all of the trials and tribulations that come with that, without having to learn the language when i'm older.

I'm a firm believer that people will treat you better and are generally more helpful if you try to make some effort to speak their language and i've noticed it throughout my own experience.

[oppee]

thanks mate, thats really helpful

[CHARLIErules]

I am going to try to learn spanish and I want to learn portuguese as well.

[TempestDisco]

French and German.

Dutch can go touch itself, they all speak english better than we do anyway ;)

[deviant]

well i already know Portuguese, English, C#, PHP, Transact-SQL, HTML, CSS..... :)

i would really like to learn French. and some C++ perhaps

[edit]

Need to brush up on my latin, german and spanish and after trying to learn from book over the summer, I might take a class in french next year. I can read and write alright just need help on speech and vocab.

If learning a language from scratch I'd go for japanese or russian, and could dabble in italian as I learnt the bare minimum for when i was holidaying there a couple of years ago and enjoyed it and the way of life over there.

I definately wouldn't choose a language just for job prospects though, I'm definately more interested in the culture of the country than any emerging industries there and the best way to immerse oneself in another culture is to learn the language.

[Secret Disco Squirrel]

cunnilingus.
So I can talk to Miss Berlin

[NoFoundations]

- Spanish (human rights work)
- German (philosophy)
- Arabic (money)

[edit]

coinoperatedboy Wrote:The only language I'm fluent in other than english is Propositional Logic...

Do you do maths or philosophy?

[Andrew]

edit Wrote:

coinoperatedboy Wrote:The only language I'm fluent in other than english is Propositional Logic...

Do you do maths or philosophy?

or computer scicence...

[RichardEStuart]

dale_fromage Wrote:

Richmanu Wrote:and I've got a bit of a thing for Russian.

This do owt for you?

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t88/d...vanova.jpg

oui, si, ja. da, yeah!