NationStates Jolt Archive

In these days of globalisation I ask all English speakers who speak it as their first language, Which Foreign Language would you most like to Learn?

Italian! Ah, those weird and wacky Italians.

As a Californian it's embarrassing that I don't know spanish, but I like french.

Either Welsh, Lithuanian, or Sanskrit. Nothing that has much actual value in real life, they're just languages connected to cultures and history that I'm interested in and feel a connexion with.

Japanese, since I'll probably go there someday the way things are going. Though right now I'm also getting into French.

Oh, and if I get the job I'm applying for this weekend, Dutch. 'Cause I'd be living in the middle of Amsterdam. Which would rock. (I'm not likely to get it, but I have to apply...)

Russian, and also more German.

i much prefer those angry-sounding languages to flowery-sounding ones like french...

edit: also dutch, cos i'd love to live in the netherlands
i suck at languages tho... boo

Forced into French as a graduation requirement (only forgien language my school offers) but I'd like to learn Japanese.

arabic. would have expected that to be an option.

Oh, and if I get the job I'm applying for this weekend, Dutch. 'Cause I'd be living in the middle of Amsterdam. Which would rock. (I'm not likely to get it, but I have to apply...)
oooooooohhhhh cool!
*crosses fingers for you*

I would like to learn Italian..... well I am already learning it ... two years into it. I already speak spanish.... I plan on learning German next too...and Portugese.....I <3 foreign languages....

Well....once I get better at French and Japanese....i'd probably go Russian, maybe Spanish.

I'm already speaking German (d'oh), English, Italian (quite fluent already) and am currently busy learning Japanese! :D

Gaelic. I already speak English, German and French. But as I live in Ireland now, I'd just like to learn Gaelic...

I tend to think about these things in terms of utilitarian purposes, so I picked Chinese, of course. I have a feeling it will become increasingly useful in upcoming decades.

I tend to think about these things in terms of utilitarian purposes, so I picked Chinese, of course. I have a feeling it will become increasingly useful in upcoming decades.

I'd say that too, but it's way too much effort.

Russian is pretty utilitarian too - East Europe is opening up, and most of the smaller countries have either that or English as a lingua franca.

Well I speak fluent German already (I grew up there) and enough French to get by. I would love to learn Italian, Japanese or Russian as well.

I'd say that too, but it's way too much effort.

Russian is pretty utilitarian too - East Europe is opening up, and most of the smaller countries have either that or English as a lingua franca.
Agreed. Kinda sucks that the two most useful languages (second languages) are insanely difficult to learn if English is your first tongue.

oooooooohhhhh cool!
*crosses fingers for you*
Thanks man. It's really a long shot, but eh.

If I get it I'll start a pool for how long it takes me to get fired for spending too much time in the coffee shops :D

I already speak a fair amount of Thai, so the next language on my list is Mongolian.

Thanks man. It's really a long shot, but eh.

If I get it I'll start a pool for how long it takes me to get fired for spending too much time in the coffee shops :D
lmao i give you 10 minutes :p ;)

turning up 3 hours late for work... "what, i was supposed to be here? oh dude thats heavy... oh wait i remember now - i forgot where i was, yeah thats it... say, you wanna toke on this?" :p

In these days of globalisation I ask all English speakers who speak it as their first language, Which Foreign Language would you most like to Learn?
Chinese. We gone need it. Heh!

Japanese definitely. I can translate Russian fairly well, but the speaking part of it is enough to get by.

I study Arabic (surprised it wasn't an option), and speak it quite well. I also study Modern Armenian, and have studied French, German, Spanish and Classical Latin and Greek in the past. As to the next language to learn, I'm interested in Russian, and also in Scottish Gaelic. Maybe Hebrew too.

My first language is not Englis, it is Polish.

lmao i give you 10 minutes :p ;)

turning up 3 hours late for work... "what, i was supposed to be here? oh dude thats heavy... oh wait i remember now - i forgot where i was, yeah thats it... say, you wanna toke on this?" :p
:p
That's probably about right-
"CToaN, you've been sitting there scrubing that footage back and forth for three hours. Are you going to cut it?"
"Look, the cats' jumping backwards..."
"Go back to California..."

:p
That's probably about right-
"CToaN, you've been sitting there scrubing that footage back and forth for three hours. Are you going to cut it?"
"Look, the cats' jumping backwards..."
"Go back to California..."

I actually did laugh out loud after reading that. :D

I would learn Spanish simply for the fact I can go to a bunch of different countries and speak it.

Well, since I used to live in Russia, I already know both Russian and English. I would love to be able to speak fluent Italian. It's also the best language to sing in.

Finnish is the one I most want to learn, because I want to move to Finland. *snort* But I also want to be fluent in French and Japanese, and know a little Czech, Russian and Hindi.

I'd like to learn German, and also Afrikaans, except I can't find a dictionary anywhere... which is where the internet steps in :)

I could go for Chinese, but the one I'm properly interested in is Russian, which hopefully I'll be doing at uni next year. :D *fingers crossed*

I lived in Japan for seven years, so my Japanese is fluent. Aside from the cool factor however, speaking Japanese has little use outside of Japan.

Therefore, I'd choose Spanish as the next language to learn.

chinese for when the chinese people take over the world

Dutch, since it's the cloest language in similarity to english. Also because of the dutch empire it's pretty widespread globally as well.

I'm already learning French, which is the language I most want to learn, but I guess I can't pick it.

So I'll go with Deutsch. I studied it for 4 years, but stopped half a year ago. I'd love to start up again.

:p Well, I am Born Danish, and i Got the Wierdo idea of learning Russian!

ARGH MOTHERLAND AND U.S.S.R!

Russian!
Its fun to swear in ;)

I said Spanish cos i already know french (and the fact it sounds wicked):D

I would like to learn russion

I want to learn the most difficult language of the them all the dreaded Northern accent

In these days of globalisation I ask all English speakers who speak it as their first language, Which Foreign Language would you most like to Learn?


Dutch, German & Spanish...:cool:
I already speak some Dutch that I learned from my family and whatever Spanish I learned in school...

I tried learning Japanese but gave up because of the writing system.

If anyone wants help with German then feel free to ask.

I speak spanish quite well, having taken it for 7 1/2 years now. I've been taking Arabic since last year, but it's SO HARD, especially since I'm not even from an Arabic-speaking family that could help me. So, yeah, I'd like to be able to understand Arabic...

Hey! to everyone who's disappointed that I didn't put Arabic in, I apologise, it would have been better to put that in than Portuguese but I was very tired. Sorry.

Hey! to everyone who's disappointed that I didn't put Arabic in, I apologise, it would have been better to put that in than Portuguese but I was very tired. Sorry.
YOU SHOULD BE!;)

I think that for business German, Arabic,Chinese and Japanese are the best. French is a bit flowery but it along with Italy at least have great Cultural Heritage! I'm alright in French and German although I'd love to learn Italian.

I want to learn that African grunt/click language the bushmen use.

Seriously.

Russian!
Its fun to swear in ;)
I'm butchering the spelling i know.
Bashelnakwi Cyka Svenya!!
Bisdah!!!
(i know a lot of russian swear words, just not the spelling)

I'd like to learn more Tagalog.

German, have an thing for German(s).

No offence but, how come so many people want to learn Russian?

I would love to learn Hebrew.

Je veux apprendre le Francais.

French, Italian, Russian, and Japanese.

Been studying french for a good two years, already got a GCSE in it, and am currently taking an AS course in it. I also took spanish for two years, but don't remember anything other than a few numbers. Suprisingly, i can say a few croatian swearwords. I wanna learn either russian or mandarin chinese, next. Though they don't offer them at my school damnit:(

Considering where I live I should learn more than just the bad words in Spanish, but at least I know how to say "mota". I really should freshen up my French, almost a waste of five years studying it when I barely remember it. I would like to learn more Polish than what I learned from my drunken friends where I used to live. BUT, I picked German which I am trying to learn right now.

BUT, I picked German which I am trying to learn right now.

I know 1 or 2 teachers

Considering where I live I should learn more than just the bad words in Spanish, but at least I know how to say "mota". I really should freshen up my French, almost a waste of five years studying it when I barely remember it. I would like to learn more Polish than what I learned from my drunken friends where I used to live. BUT, I picked German which I am trying to learn right now.
Swearing in Spanish:Tu madre! (http://http://www.insults.net/html/swear/spanish.html)
In Polish:zajebiste! (http://www.insults.net/html/swear/polish.html)
In German:Scheisse (http://www.insults.net/html/swear/german.html)
In Irish:Pog mo thoin! (http://www.insults.net/html/swear/irish.html)
And since someone mentioned it earlier, swearing in Tagalog:naninigas ang titi ko (http://www.insults.net/html/swear/tagalong.html)
insults.net is your friend.

russian : I wanna talk to Maria Sharapova

http://www.mariaworld.net/ausopen0589_small.jpg

I would love to be fluent in Latin and/or ancient Greek. I think it would be great to read many classic texts in their original language. Plus those two languages are so far superior to English it is not even funny.

Yes, I know. I'm a nerd. :D

Pigs Latin>Latin
Ou-yay now-kay t-iay utha-may ucker-fay

I have a natural drive to acquire knowledge with little practical usefullness, & this extends to languages. I would learn Latin & study the classical scientific literature of Europe. Or even better, Anglo-Saxon so I could appreciate Beowulf in the original. Best yet, the Elvish language from Tolkien's literature. Then I could CREATE the swearwords!

Je veux apprendre le Francais.
Tu est stupide. Francias est le pire langue dans le monde. Je sais un peu Francais dans l'ecole secondaire.

I would like to learn German. Accually, I Have set German as the default language for Firefox.

I know some swearwords in German, Korean, and Chinese.:)

No offence but, how come so many people want to learn Russian?
Well, I can tell you why I learned Russian. I was studying physics in college and there are alot of physics texts and journals that are in Russian. That, and the whole soviet union/cold war facination with the language and culture.

russian : I wanna talk to Maria Sharapova

http://www.mariaworld.net/ausopen0589_small.jpg

I can see it now:

Привет, Мариа! У тебя прекрасные сиски!

Bohemian. Then I could live in Prauge. Take up greek as a secondary lang. cuz I feel like it.

I can see it now:

Привет, Мариа! У тебя прекрасные сиски!
No it would be morel like...

Что Вы подразумеваете 'безопасность?'

No it would be morel like...

Что Вы подразумеваете 'безопасность?'

I'm sure "security" would become involved very quickly.;)

In these days of globalisation I ask all English speakers who speak it as their first language, Which Foreign Language would you most like to Learn?

I'd like to learn to speak Spanish, because...

#1: In my hometown, located in the State of Iowa, a lot of Mexicans are moving in, and I want to know what they're saying when they point at me, say something and laugh.

#2: It is spoken by a lot of people in the States these days as I understand, and so it might be possible to make decent money doing translating work and the like in the local courts or something.

~ Romandeos.

I know 1 or 2 teachers

Yes, but I want to learn more than Schwanz und Mushci lecken! ;)

Tu est stupide. Francias est le pire langue dans le monde. Je sais un peu Francais dans l'ecole secondaire.

I would like to learn German. Accually, I Have set German as the default language for Firefox.

I know some swearwords in German, Korean, and Chinese.:)


I mean come on, whats the point of learning the language if you don't know the swear words? :D lol I'd personally like to learn German, just mysteriously intrigued, Spanish would be useful as well.

russian : I wanna talk to Maria Sharapova

http://www.mariaworld.net/ausopen0589_small.jpg
She speaks English.

Yes, but I want to learn more than Schwanz und Mushci lecken! ;)

What? Even more dirty? ;)

What? Even more dirty? ;)

Possibly!

Other: Latin. It's a Catholic thing.

Spanish, the study of which I enjoyed but gave up for Japanese, would be my second choice.

OK so some people would like to learn some other languages. How many people are accually trying to learn another language? How?

I find French & German relatively easy, Spanish all sounds the same to me. In my time I've been forced to learn Greek. It's SOOOOO Hard!

More Opinions People!

Dutch, since it's the cloest language in similarity to english. Also because of the dutch empire it's pretty widespread globally as well.
Oh but Dutch isn't that close to English. At least not as close as anglo-saxon languages, or danish and norwegian for example. There's lots of English loan words in Dutch though, and your phrases are invading our everyday speech like mad.

As for pretty widespread, well, our Glorious Empire *cough* has seen better days. ;) And to have been the ancestor to Afrikaans is quite the honor. :rolleyes:

Come to think of it, what damn Empire? We've never even been an Empire.

I picked German because it's spoken widely where I live and we get lots of German tourists :D

Someone's already mentioned Welsh (my first choice for "not-entirely-useful-just-for-fun" learning[1]) and Latin was mentioned (though I'd like to speak it in the extinct form, not the modern way where they don't know if it's "Veni, Vedi Vici" or "Weni, Wedi, Wici")... This forces me to resort to a third choice (on the basis that I might as well be original, else I'm not contributing anything) and I think, on reflection[2] that would be Xhosa. Fourth choice would be Piarhã (which I understand has no actual words for colours, merely comparitive phrases, and similar deficiencies in the numerical department as well...), but as I'm rubbish at the languages I do know (beyond, or perhaps even including, my native English), these are just pipe-dreams anyway... ;)



[1] In reality, I'd like to be much better at French and German than I am, given how I am woefully sub-conversationally proficient in each. Dutch would have been my third mainstream European language choice had I the time/knack for learning such, and something from the far-East were I able to diversify my skills that far, but it was not so. [Edit: I forgot. Navaho always sounded intruiging to me when I was young, or one/more of the many other Native American tongues...]
[2] It took two minutes to think of it, after rejecting real and fictional constructed languages (like Esperanto and Klingon, respectively) as being perhaps a bit 'geeky'.

I already speak Spanish...but Portuguese is just so damn sexy...

Chinese - at least three dialects: Mandarin, because it would be useful to be able to speak to the largest population on the planet; Cantonese, because I love Hong Kong cinema; and Fukienese, because I'd never want to irritate a Fukienese triad through a misunderstanding or unintentional slight. Unfortunately, I seem to have no foreign language talent whatsoever. Spanish was my lowest high school grade, and I've lost most of my grad school French.

Cool, Japanese has the most votes yet! :D
*waves to fellow Japanese learners*

I would like to learn German. Accually, I Have set German as the default language for Firefox.

I know some swearwords in German, Korean, and Chinese.:)
If you need any help with German, feel free to PM me! :D

Don't People studying languages such as Hindi, Japanese, Arabic and Chinese find learning another alphabet is very difficult?

Hello People!

I speak English, and now Greek, fluently, and I am getting good at French. So next on my list is German, then maybe Swedish and finally Russian :p I will endeavour to learn Latin one day.

Being an anglophone in a bilingual country, I would learn french.

I had always had a problem with other languages, but since I've been trying to teach myself Latin, the other languages have been making a bit more sense. (Also the old fashioned way with the "Weni, Wedi, Wici", doesn't sound as noble like that now does it? :) )

Stopped for a while and forgot almost everything I knew, so that's the language I really want to learn (And I'm starting up again).

Of a living language, I'd have to say German.

Italian, mostly due to heritage and all that jazz.

I just think it'd be cool to know my family's original language.

I would prefer learning latin with a british accent...it has this imperious majesty to it.

(Also the old fashioned way with the "Weni, Wedi, Wici", doesn't sound as noble like that now does it? :) )Depends if you've been asked to "Welease Bwian!" recently... ;)

As a Californian it's embarrassing that I don't know spanish, but I like french.

Its not your duty to learn Spanish. Its their duty to learn English...or leave.