NationStates Jolt Archive

Since there seems to be a lot on languages in general today... What languages do you feel would be most useful for YOU to learn?
Personally, I'd like to learn some of the lengua francas of the world. My list is (naturally I could add a lot more)
Languages I have started/am/began but stopped learning or have some degree of ability in
Arabic
Chinese
English
Hindi
Japanese
Russian
Spanish
Swahili

Also, as a strong believer in multiculturalism, I would find it useful to learn languages important in my region, in my case English and Spanish, as well as languages that are part of my cultural heritage, in my case:
Hebrew
Yiddish (At this point pretty much dead in America in my mind)

Of course, I've left out a lot, and will not actually learn even most of those on my list, unless I plan to go overbroad. Still it would be interesting to compare with the rest of you.:)

Most useful in general? Chinese. For me? Proper German.

I think Chinese would be useful. And you'd probably be able to use it enough to keep it, no matter what country you lived in, just by wandering down to China Town. I wish I could speak better French, but I'm in Alberta for crissakes...you hear more German or Chinese here than French.

I'd love to learn Arabic. Plenty of people who speak that...and a lot can be done in terms of understanding when you speak the same language.

Other than that, I'd love to learn every language in the world...I simply don't have the time, the capacity, nor the need:(

Machine language for when robots take over the world.

Arabic is..difficult, and I have had previous experience with semetic languages(hebrew). It can be difficult for a westerner to differentiate between some of the sounds. However, you do find it is an elegantly constructed language.

Three: Spanish, because of the rising hispanic population in the US, Chinese, as it is the most spoken language on Earth, and French just because the language kicks!

As far as languages that would be useful for interacting with people in my local area:
Spanish
Tagalog
Serbo-Croatian

Languages that would be good to learn for deciphering information off of websites:
Japanese
Arabic

Chinese, Hindi and Arabic are the obvious choices, although Hindi is less of an issue since there are so many dialects that most Indians in international relations use English as a backup. German and Russian would also be helpful--they've both been players on the world stage for the last half-millenium and there's no reason to believe that will change anytime soon.

English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic.

Odd side effect of learning Arabic: I know am a pronounciation nazi when it comes to the words Iraq and Iran.

No,NO,NO it's a ya before a consanant, it's prononced ee-rak!

Odd side effect of learning Arabic: I know am a pronounciation nazi when it comes to the words Iraq and Iran.
Seems to me native speakers pronounce Irak and Iran the same way Spanish speakers do?

french. it is the most important one, because thats the one i know ;)

Sinehue

well it's not eye-rack and eye-ran.

A quote from a friend of mine, mimicking Bush
" I wrecked eye-rack but I ran from eye-ran"


I think Chinese would be useful. And you'd probably be able to use it enough to keep it, no matter what country you lived in, just by wandering down to China Town

Chinatown is only in the US and probably in a few cities in certain western European countries. There is a very less Chinese presence in countries other than US and the far east/south east Asia.

For ex Asian in US generally means Chinese but in the UK it means Indian/Paki.

They should count programming languages as actual languages.:D

They should count programming languages as actual languages.:D
c:/ Dos
c:/Dos/Run
RUN,DOS,RUN!

They should count programming languages as actual languages.:D

Statement statement = new Statement();
statement.setFacetious();
statement.setConditional();
statement.setSubject("that");
statement.setVerb("pwns");

/nerdmuch?

Sinehue

well it's not eye-rack and eye-ran.

A quote from a friend of mine, mimicking Bush
" I wrecked eye-rack but I ran from eye-ran"
Spanish speakers (and to my ear, native speakers of Arabic) pronounce it ee-rak and ee-ran...is that right?
Edit: and of course the r is not the rolled English r, but the non-aspirated, clipped r, kind of a cross with a d.



Chinatown is only in the US and probably in a few cities in certain western European countries. There is a very less Chinese presence in countries other than US and the far east/south east Asia. Add to your list (of places with a Chinatown) most of South America, and some Central American countries (I can't speak for them all, so I say some:)). That's a big chunk anyhow, for practice I mean.

For ex Asian in US generally means Chinese but in the UK it means Indian/Paki.Yeah, it always sounds strange to me, an Indian or Pakistani classified as Asian....but it makes sense.

Really depends on your geographic location.

For me, as a Southern Californian, it's very smart and indeed useful to learn both English and Spanish (Hispanic immigrants also need to learn English...being new to the U.S. and all...I mean...I doubt you'll stay in the community for your entire life...).

But it is practically useless to learn French here. Last time I met a person who spoke fluent French? My last Spanish substitute teacher. That was a very awkward day of learning. We learned neither French nor Spanish.

So I know English and am in my second year of Spanish in High School. After I graduate high school with 4 years of spanish, I want to take either German or French in college.

I hope to get a job on the international scale. Therefore I would need universal languages. In the North American area, it's mainly English, Spanish, and French (in the Canadian region). For Europe, it's a number of languages, but mainly English, Spanish, French, German. I mean, those do seem to be the main languages used there.

For spoken languages, I'd have to affirm that English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic would be my choices.

For cultural languages, I'd say that Hebrew, Homeric and Classical Greek, Latin, classical Arabic and French would be the most useful.

The translations of the great works of history, philsophy, religious tracts, great novels and such are different from the original intent of the author in some way or another. Thats my opinion as a student of the classics- the idea that reading something in translation cheapens the original intent of the translator.

Like most here have already mentioned, Chinese Mandarin, Spanish, English, Arabic, and of course Internetspeak.

Three: Spanish, because of the rising hispanic population in the US, Chinese, as it is the most spoken language on Earth, and French just because the language kicks!

French and Japanese, the diametric opposites.... Cursing someone out in French sounds like poetry, and reading Japanese poems sounds like cussing someone out...

I'd learn Japanese. I've done some basic studies in it and it's an interesiting language

Spanish speakers (and to my ear, native speakers of Arabic) pronounce it ee-rak and ee-ran...is that right?
Edit: and of course the r is not the rolled English r, but the non-aspirated, clipped r, kind of a cross with a d.
Ie an R as spoken in pretty much every language other than English? :D

I call it "EE-Rohn"...it's not really a full "a" sound as such. I guess you could get away with "EE-Ruhk" as well.

The most useful languages to me are Asian languages. I am somewhat conversational (though rusty) in Japanese.

I would want to learn every language, used and dead ones.


If I had to choose 10....

Spanish
German
Italian (yes, I know that it is pretty much the same as Spanish)
Russian
Polish (I am polish and I would like to know what my papa is saying when he muttering under his breath at people)
Chinese
Japanese
Latin
Hebrew
Arabic

I live up in Alaska, Alaska needs to be teaching at least (AT LEAST GOOD GOD) one extra language to all (read: ALL) of its young ones in school. Either English and Japanese. Or English and Russian. End of subject.

I live up in Alaska, Alaska needs to be teaching at least (AT LEAST GOOD GOD) one extra language to all (read: ALL) of its young ones in school. Either English and Japanese. Or English and Russian. End of subject.
I know somebody form Alaska, he speaks fluent Japanese. He can't write it, but good for him. He was from around Anchorage though, and I probably spelt that wrong....

Most useful languages:
Chinese: if your going to China, or happen to live in a metropolis with a China town, however, if Chinese incomes ever increase and they start traveling, it will be even more useful (undecided if I'll ever learn it)
Spanish: Nearly the entire W. Hemisphere speaks it, and if your good, you can understand Portugese too (Yes, I'm from USA)
English: not the biggest language by native speakers, but it is the largest by people who have studied English, but I already speak it, so yay! (So, what language is this in? Done.)
Swedish: This is strickly due to my current location and interests, etc. Can understand and converse with Norweigans and Danes, once I get the hang of it, can also use Sweden as a springboard for furthur language study in German and Spain. (gaining compentency now)
German: Read somewhere this is up there in the largest second languages, and there's a good lot of Germano-Philes (like Franco-phile) in the world from what I've seen, I don't know if you can understand and converse with the Swiss and Austrians from this, I like German rock (undecided)
Arabic: Thanks to the Islamic fundies, the Western world needs more Arabic interpreters, yay! (undecided)

And on the Iraq and Iran thing, "i" is "e" in Swedish. No dipthong. So it would be read as "ee-rokk" (short "o" longer "e") and "ee-rann" (the same, but short "a"/"ä" thing) but acutally more like "ee-rän." (with "ä" being a hybrid of "a" and "e" starting out as an "a" and then ending in an "e"-like sound, also "ahh" depending on whenever they feel like it, here its the "ahh")

Language is so difficult to explain...its better to just listen, talk, and learn.

Nobody listed Esperanto, in E. Europe I hear that they have to study that. Whether they acutually learn it or not is another thing. That might catch on, once English is absorbed and transformed into a hulking mass of cultural tainting that it will be if the following decades continue as they are now. Thus being more like the Scandinavian languages.

Im learning standard Chinese at the moment. I'm finding it very difficult though.

C++, Africaans, Spanish, Chinese (manderin or whatever it's called).

Barvinian, without a doubt! :p

Barvinian, without a doubt! :p

Oh yer... because that's real....

For some reason, I really have difficulty with new languages. I had 3 years of French at school, and 5 years of German, but couldn't by any means participate in even basic conversation in either.

If I could overnight know one new language though, it would probably be Chinese, or maybe Spanish. Though I did wish I could get good at German.

Well, pretty much everyone on the forum already speaks the most spoken language, to some degree... since we pretty much all post in English.

Chinese is the most spoken mother-tongue, however, and is well on it's way to being the second-most-importnant world language... if it isn't already.

Looking at the rapid modernisation with China, it is likely to be THE language to know, within the next decade.

So - I'd like to learn Chinese, Japanese would be nice, and maybe Hindi.

For messa, it would be

English,
Spanish (but I know these two already)
German,
Polish, (not exactly the most useful, but I'd like to learn it, for heritage reasons)
Arabic,
Urdu(which is almost exactly like Hindi, but I think Urdu is more elegant than Hindi, especially in the writing system),
Mandarin Chinese,
French,
and last but not least...
Japanese! (I'd really like to be able to understand my Anime without the subtitles...)

chinese

Oh yer... because that's real....
E-L-V-I-S-H

I don't know about "useful", but from a conservationist/romantic point of view I really believe it's better to try to learn an endangered language than one thats already widely spoken. For example I live in the UK and I'm trying to learn Cornish (endangered Celtic language). If you live in North America you might want to look into learning a local Amerind language. That way you know they'll be native speakers nearby to help you and talk to (which is the point of learning a language after all), but also that you'll be making a contribution to slow the decline of a native language. Maybe not useful, but definately more satisfying ;)

English---World wide language of business and science
Chinese---The new frontier
Spanish---Second Multi National language
Arabic---Third Multi National language

I don't know about "useful", but from a conservationist/romantic point of view I really believe it's better to try to learn an endangered language than one thats already widely spoken. For example I live in the UK and I'm trying to learn Cornish (endangered Celtic language).

Um, you are aware, aren't you, that Cornish isn't precisely an "endangered" language, but is actually an extinct language that has been reconstructed and revived? I'm not trying to start a debate on the Cornish language, but just clarifying its status a bit...

Anyway, back to the main topic. English and Spanish are the most useful to someone in the US. Other useful "world languages" are Russian and Mandarin.

Just for my own personal benefit, I'd like to learn Gaelic (my ancestors spoke it) and Icelandic (how cool would it be to reel off "Icelandic" in your list of languages?)

My wife speaks extremely fluent French (near-native proficiency, and with what I'm told is a recognizable Alsatian accent, courtesy of two years in Strasbourg), reasonably good German, passable Spanish, and is working on Italian. She's quite the linguist. She also speaks two different dialects of English (standard and her native Appalachian Mountain dialect). She also has her own idiosyncratic language that is the result of knowing too many languages; when she's tired, all of the languages she knows tend to collide and fuse together, with unpredictable but frequently hilarious results. :p

How come nobody mentions hungarian??
If you can learn it, it testifies that you are way smarter then the average! Although hungarians are small in number, they can be found all over the world.
You'll never guess what nationality I have! :)

I think English is pretty much the only language you really need to know nowadays. When the Chinese catch on they'll take the entire Asian continent with them.

One language I'd love to be fluent in is Nadsat. You know, from clockwork Orange? I have never viddied a more horrorshow language. :D

Lojban would be cool to learn too, just to confuse people.
Check it out:
http://www.lojban.org/texts/translations/drbible/drbible.html

As you can see I like conlangs. I know it's very stupid learning them, since you'd never speak it. But I still love them!

I need to learn Old Norse. That way, maybe I'll understand what my ancestors are screaming at me when I dream. They sound really angry about something.

How come nobody mentions hungarian??
If you can learn it, it testifies that you are way smarter then the average! Although hungarians are small in number, they can be found all over the world.
Just like Finnish. ;)

Chinese obviously, because of the growing economic importance of China. Spanish for the same reason. Also, I can see how Spanish might be useful in the US, becuase of the growing Hispanic population there and the government's unwillingness to make them learn English. Perhaps Portugese as well when you look at Brazil's potential. I can't really see the point in Arabic because there are so many different dialects and that region is of no economic importance anyway. But overall, most countries are trying for English as a second language if they want to succeed economically. So I think for native English speakers it's not really necessary to learn another language.

The languages I Know Fluently:
English

Languages I am currently Learning:
Ancient Hebrew
Koine or Common Greek
Classical Latin

Languages I want to learn:
Arabic
German

I'm surprised French hasn't been mentioned here more. I think it's the only language other than English which is an official or semi-official language on all five continents.

Um, you are aware, aren't you, that Cornish isn't precisely an "endangered" language, but is actually an extinct language that has been reconstructed and revived? I'm not trying to start a debate on the Cornish language, but just clarifying its status a bit...


:rolleyes: It depends on your viewpoint. The last "native" speaker died in the 19th century, but even before that there where plenty of Cornish who had started learning the language in the revivalist movement. While it may now only have second language status, it was never "extinct" in the sense that say, Hebrew was before it was revived.

Polish, cuz um...yeah...Polish.

I'm surprised French hasn't been mentioned here more. I think it's the only language other than English which is an official or semi-official language on all five continents.

That surprises me too, for exactly the same reason. I took French in high school instead of Spanish because I thought it would stand me in better stead. Then I wound up not traveling as much as I expected to, and am thinking now that I'd better bone up on a bit of the ol' Español as I may soon be in the minority.

I can't decide whether Mandarin or Japanese would be the more advantageous language to have in the coming years.

Arabic would come in handy from time to time.

I can't really see the point in Arabic because there are so many different dialects and that region is of no economic importance anyway.
Hmmm...It is the language of almost the entire Middle East except Turkey, Iran and Israel. Most of these countries are places the west NEEDS to have a better, more open dialouge with. As for economic reasons...OIL!:rolleyes:

I'd say English, German, and French since those are the languages of the world's major corporations and economies. Although China is economically significant, so much business is done in English (similar to India) that the native language isn't as important. Learning Japanese would also be beneficial.

:rolleyes: It depends on your viewpoint. The last "native" speaker died in the 19th century, but even before that there where plenty of Cornish who had started learning the language in the revivalist movement. While it may now only have second language status, it was never "extinct" in the sense that say, Hebrew was before it was revived.
Ummmm....Hebrew has never gone extinct, It has been the language of the Jews for thousands of years.

Well, I already know English, so that is a major hurdle cleared. As I live in the US, I better learn Spanish quick. And I'd be set for life if I knew Chinese. Those languages, along with maybe Arabic and maybe Portugese, are languages half the world speaks. The other half knows someone who speaks them.

The languages I know (in order that I learned them)....


English
French
German


The most important language is English, though. Because Chinese comes close, but most of the people who speak it live in Asia. The rest of the world (6 more continents) speak mainly English, so yeah...


My favorite language is German, btw.

Here are the languages I know/want to learn:

English
Spanish (I hear that learning Spanish means that you can understand some Portugese and some Italian)
German

I don't know if I'd learn all these or not, but I would take Spanish over German. I am also in the process of learning Spanish, but am not that far yet.

I can tell you from mostly second but some firsthand experience that using spanish/italian to help learn the other is a mixed blessing. Sometimes it makes it easier, other times it makes you a little confused.

How come nobody mentions hungarian??
If you can learn it, it testifies that you are way smarter then the average! Although hungarians are small in number, they can be found all over the world.
You'll never guess what nationality I have! :)


Hungarian is the most difficult languages of all!
Do you know how confusing all those conjugations for strangers are? All the word forms, pronouns,..
I barely manage to count up to ten, know how to say "cheers" and this is all I need :D

And yet, your language is worth learning it - it's (imho) not only the most difficult language, but also the one with the best sound.

(And Hungarians have the sexiest men all over the world :fluffle: ;) )

I spent five years studying Spanish as it is, I believe, the second most widely-spoken language in the world. However, someone makes the point that in business other languages are more common - here in Europe, French, German and (somewhat obviously, I suppose) English are probably the most common in that regard.

Chinese & Japanese are very useful. But I'd much prefer to learn French

languages im fluent in
English
Italian
German
Igpay Atinlay
BASIC

languages i would like to learn
Japanese
Greek
Norwegian

i would put French down but for that all you have to do is get pissed put on a camp voice and most french people will understand it

c:/ Dos
c:/Dos/Run
RUN,DOS,RUN!

Its not surprising Dos won't run with this code, it should be

C:\Dos\run (won't actually run, so don't try, just wrong slash!)

Backslash is sooo important cause windows is gay. :headbang:

Spainish, Chinese and English are the most important languages to learn, because the majority of the world can speak either one of these.

Graham Harvey

I would love to learn French, German, Russian, and Arabic. I know some Spanish and Italian and would like to know more of them as well. But seeing as how I really am not that great with learning new languages, it's all just a pipe dream.

My keyboard doesn't have backslash I think...

My keyboard doesn't have backslash I think...
Should do, on the left hand side, near the shift key...

nope, just / ...
odd.

Is it a laptop kbd? Sometimes the back slash key has to be reached by pressing function and the forward slash key, certainly on Dell machines.

nope, hp keyboard..never mind, don't want to drag this ot...

totally learn esperonto.
its the would be universal language

Most useful for where I live (Berlin) would actually be Turkish.

I started Spanish classes but was lazy, so Spanish is still on top of my "most useful and I really have to learn it" list.

My high school French has all but disappeared and I'd love to revive it.

Languages I would like to learn just for the fun of it are Italian and Gaelic.

I'm not so keen on Chinese or Japanese - I studied Burmese for 4 years and, while I still think it's the most beautiful written language of all, I came to realize that it was just too foreign and unfamiliar to "feel" your way into it (as I had done so successfully with English & French in school), the only way to learn it was purely through grammar. For me, that was incredibly frustrating, and when I went abroad for a year and came back I had forgotten everything I'd learned. :( Today, I can still say "Thank You" and maybe buy some fruit on a market. Although the latter would involve a lot of pointing at things and hoping for the best.

nope, just / ...
odd.

If you have the same layout as me... your backslash would be below "Backspace", and above "Enter"....

wait..trying..trying...\\\\\\
YEAH!:) :rolleyes:

I'm surprised French hasn't been mentioned here more. I think it's the only language other than English which is an official or semi-official language on all five continents.

Seven Continents
Africa English, French
Australia English
Antartica Steam
Asia Chinese Japanese
Europe English French German Spanish
North America English French Spanish
South America Spanish Portuguese

Having said that, the five I would want to know including English
Arabic Lots in Australia, esp. Melbourne near me and Middle East
French Lots of Places
Japanese Don't like anime but Australia is close to them
Spanish Most of the Americas

Probably one of the following
Portuguese
Chinese
German

I take Latin in school and speak English naturally, then next year I'm planing on picking up Spanish or Itallian.

Oh yeah, but I think either Spanish or Chinese would be the best languges outside of English to learn, because 1 outta every 5 people in the world is chinese, and America's Spanich population is growing...

I think you should, instead of focusing your energies on another language, master your native one.