NationStates Jolt Archive

I have posted something of this very nature previously, but i've found legitimate grounds to revisit this quinessential detail in my life.

Which langauge to take on as my third. I have narrowed it down mates, and now I all I require is poll results from you well-educated and equally well mannered, gents. Any thoughts are appreciated too.

(I am currently taking German.... And I find it pathetic. I seem to have a nack for the complex grammar, and the cognate rate is borderlne riddiculous. Pronunciation is close to native, just to add that.)

Keep in mind, I am in desperate need of a challenge.

Russian and Latin use the same alphabet and cases (Latin may have one more case?) so either of those would be fairly challenging. At least, Russian kicked my ass.

Why limit yourself to sound-based languages and esotheric alphabets ?
Consider a sign language.

Russian and Latin use the same alphabet and cases (Latin may have one more case?) so either of those would be fairly challenging. At least, Russian kicked my ass.

They do? :p

You're right about the cases, at least. Latin and Russian have six. Russian has one fewer than Polish (that's how I remember it).

Edit: Wikipedia says Latin has seven, which is one more than I remember from school. We never learned the locative.

Russian and Latin use the same alphabet and cases (Latin may have one more case?) so either of those would be fairly challenging. At least, Russian kicked my ass.

Erm, for whatever the reason, you're disregarding the existence of the cryllic alphabet.... which Russian uses...

If it's a challenge, then I hear the Asian languages can be pretty hard, especially Chinese.

EDIT: Oh, you got Korean & Japanese up there already...

If it's a challenge, then I hear the Asian languages can be pretty hard, especially Chinese.

Specifically Cantonese - let's all remember that Chinese is generally a blanket word for a specific dialect, Mandarin, which isn't so hard but Cantonese is, I think, reckoned to be the hardest language in the world to learn.

EDIT to the EDIT: Not so sure about Japanese but it seems fairly easy to pronounce, Korean is almost European in it's ease of pronunciation but Cantonese, our mouths are simply shaped differently through speaking Indo-European languages compared to Cantonese.

with asian languages you may be a half way decent speaker in a couple years, learning to write fluently... heck even passably may take a decade.

Russian's certainly a challenge, but Japanese is preposterous.

Two syllabaries and a logographic system, plus the grammar and preposterously picky word order.

If you're feeling cocky, go for Japanese or Korean.

I have posted something of this very nature previously, but i've found legitimate grounds to revisit this quinessential detail in my life.

Which langauge to take on as my third. I have narrowed it down mates, and now I all I require is poll results from you well-educated and equally well mannered, gents. Any thoughts are appreciated too.

(I am currently taking German.... And I find it pathetic. I seem to have a nack for the complex grammar, and the cognate rate is borderlne riddiculous. Pronunciation is close to native, just to add that.)

Keep in mind, I am in desperate need of a challenge.

Mandarin Chinese would be useful.

I have posted something of this very nature previously, but i've found legitimate grounds to revisit this quinessential detail in my life.

Which langauge to take on as my third. I have narrowed it down mates, and now I all I require is poll results from you well-educated and equally well mannered, gents. Any thoughts are appreciated too.

(I am currently taking German.... And I find it pathetic. I seem to have a nack for the complex grammar, and the cognate rate is borderlne riddiculous. Pronunciation is close to native, just to add that.)

Keep in mind, I am in desperate need of a challenge.

If you want a challenge study math.

its clear the only rational thing to do is learn Klingon

bagh jIH Dung je quvHa' jIH!

I'd say Japanese. The have some rather complex words, and then you have to deal with writing. If I remember right, there are around ten thousand symbols, and to be considered fluent, you have to know and be able to write half of them. That, and many of the symbols can be read differently, for instance, there are some cases where the symbol for moon, can be read as light.

Latin, because if you decide to learn another Europeon language it'd be a good start. Also because latin is awesome!:p

Well, I'm taking French, so go with that. :p

Latin. From that, you can stem off and easily learn Spanish, French, and Italian. That's like, four languages in one.

I took four years of Latin and it really doesn't help you with anything other than knowing word origins so you can impress your friends with pointless trivia and help your girlfriend, who is a nursing major, understand some terms a tiny bit better.

Now Russian, on the other hand, is something I'm looking to take myself whenever I get the time. My Great Aunt speaks it fluently, and even taught it for the CIA back in the hey-day of the Cold War, but alas, she lives in Annapolis, which is somewhat of a hike. I vote Russian.

learning languages is too hard. I suggest we bring back colonialism and force all of our subjects to learn English.

Russian's certainly a challenge, but Japanese is preposterous.

Two syllabaries and a logographic system, plus the grammar and preposterously picky word order.

If you're feeling cocky, go for Japanese or Korean.


Japanese has a picky word order? since when? I was taught that the word order was not all that important if you kept the particals with there words.

British >_>

Seriously, though, if you don't know french then take it -- it's a fun language.

learning languages is too hard. I suggest we bring back colonialism and force all of our subjects to learn English.

Well, English is the language of international business...

Learn Chinese. It will come in handy when theyre our overlords.

Latin. It will make this scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAdHEwiAy8)all the funnier.

Take Latin.

It's a very interesting language and there's so much general knowledge to be gained from it. Sure, go for another language if you think you're going to use it, but there's no better learning experience than Latin.

JMO.

Russian. Or maybe Latin.

Latin was my first foreign language and I really love it (and I can half-read Spanish because I know it, so it does come in handy) but I voted Russian because I love the way it sounds. You'll probably start out stumbling over what feel like 18-consanant no-vowel words, but it sounds really cool once you get the hang of it.

It's up to you. Why not go for all of them if you're feeling so confident?

I voted for Latin, but only because I didn't see Klingon. You should try Esperanto, also.

Japanese. While pronunciation is simple, mastering the Kanji is the work of a lifetime.