Learning a second language
January 7, 2010 8:32 PM Subscribe
What is a good second language to learn -- assuming you have a choice?
I'm very interested in learning a second language. Why? To keep my brain active, to increase my talents, to broaden my reading selections since I read tons of fiction/nonfiction, to have a skill for travel, etc, and also to have something to teach later since I homeschool. I would like to compare notes and ask what second languages you would recommend learning and why.
I live in the Texas/Oklahoma area. My location obviously dictates that I consider Spanish, but frankly I've never had any interest in Spanish. So far my top picks are French and Russian. Tentatively I am leaning toward French since it's more accessible and I'm more likely to have success with it, but since Quebec French is vastly more accessible (XM radio, the rich film culture in Quebec, closeness of Quebec, etc) I'm not sure if I have my work cut out for me here. I also considered Russian since I know Cyrillic and enjoy some of the Russian literature. Maybe there's other good languages I should consider. But as much as I'd like to learn something like Dutch or Swedish, the less common the language is, the harder it is to keep fluent. So... I have been waffling on this for many months and am hoping what is said here will help me make a decision.
I suppose that "how" has a bearing on this. Unfortunately I don't have the time to do this via traditional classes, but I have access to all the Rosetta/Michel Thomas material to start with and would spend time with foreign books, foreign movies, and foreign websites (blogs, forums, etc) and might even try Skype chats much later. I'm not sure if that's a practical route but if your experience suggests I might be wasting my time, I'll certainly listen. I think my approach is probably too pedestrian to tackle anything like Chinese or Japanese, so perhaps I am right in sticking with Romance languages.
Well, thanks for listening to me ramble on about this. Any thoughts, opinions, stories, perspectives, would be much appreciated.
I'm very interested in learning a second language. Why? To keep my brain active, to increase my talents, to broaden my reading selections since I read tons of fiction/nonfiction, to have a skill for travel, etc, and also to have something to teach later since I homeschool. I would like to compare notes and ask what second languages you would recommend learning and why.
I live in the Texas/Oklahoma area. My location obviously dictates that I consider Spanish, but frankly I've never had any interest in Spanish. So far my top picks are French and Russian. Tentatively I am leaning toward French since it's more accessible and I'm more likely to have success with it, but since Quebec French is vastly more accessible (XM radio, the rich film culture in Quebec, closeness of Quebec, etc) I'm not sure if I have my work cut out for me here. I also considered Russian since I know Cyrillic and enjoy some of the Russian literature. Maybe there's other good languages I should consider. But as much as I'd like to learn something like Dutch or Swedish, the less common the language is, the harder it is to keep fluent. So... I have been waffling on this for many months and am hoping what is said here will help me make a decision.
I suppose that "how" has a bearing on this. Unfortunately I don't have the time to do this via traditional classes, but I have access to all the Rosetta/Michel Thomas material to start with and would spend time with foreign books, foreign movies, and foreign websites (blogs, forums, etc) and might even try Skype chats much later. I'm not sure if that's a practical route but if your experience suggests I might be wasting my time, I'll certainly listen. I think my approach is probably too pedestrian to tackle anything like Chinese or Japanese, so perhaps I am right in sticking with Romance languages.
Well, thanks for listening to me ramble on about this. Any thoughts, opinions, stories, perspectives, would be much appreciated.
Response by poster: Thanks -- I won't rule Spanish out. I'm not sure if I can learn it if I can't motivate myself to be interested in it, but I do see that accessibility and usability are huge pluses.
posted by crapmatic at 8:42 PM on January 7, 2010
posted by crapmatic at 8:42 PM on January 7, 2010
If you want to be able to read literature, then I think you should choose French. You have a realistic chance of achieving your goal, if you work at it. It's also useful when travelling abroad. I have no experience with Russian; it's said to be rather difficult. I do have experience with Chinese and Japanese, and I think it's more or less impossible to learn either of those languages this way. Even if you spent 5 years in China or Japan, it would be challenging to achieve the level of fluency required to read literature.
posted by smorange at 8:43 PM on January 7, 2010
posted by smorange at 8:43 PM on January 7, 2010
The good thing about Spanish, and I know you probably don't want to hear this, is that you get to practice it all the time in Texas. That would make learning not just an intellectual exercise, but a practical one too... It would be something you could practice every day and that would help motivate you.
That being said, if you really can't imagine getting motivated to learn it, I'd still suggest steering clear of Russian. It is one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn because of all the declensions, and since you'll never (or rarely) be able to practice it, I suppose, it would be tough to really master it.
posted by mateuslee at 8:44 PM on January 7, 2010
That being said, if you really can't imagine getting motivated to learn it, I'd still suggest steering clear of Russian. It is one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn because of all the declensions, and since you'll never (or rarely) be able to practice it, I suppose, it would be tough to really master it.
posted by mateuslee at 8:44 PM on January 7, 2010
As for Dutch being "less common" (I think you mean less spoken), that may be true -- but considering the genetic affiliation between Dutch and English, Dutch is not such a difficult language to learn for us native English speakers. True you won't practice it every day (hence my earlier suggestion that you learn Spanish), but it would not be as challenging as Russian or Japanese.
posted by mateuslee at 8:47 PM on January 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by mateuslee at 8:47 PM on January 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
If you are set against Spanish (why?) then I'd pick French. French is the language I most wish I had some level of fluency in (at least enough to know how to pronounce phrases I know the meaning of) and Russian comes up much less in an American life - plus it's an entirely different alphabet and therefore infinitely more difficult to learn.
posted by moxiedoll at 8:47 PM on January 7, 2010
posted by moxiedoll at 8:47 PM on January 7, 2010
Don't overlook Italian. It's not too shabby for travel, it's even easier than French in my opinion, and if you do decide to learn Spanish later on, you'll find that there is a good deal of convenient overlap.
posted by tss at 8:49 PM on January 7, 2010
posted by tss at 8:49 PM on January 7, 2010
I don't think Quebec French is different from French French in any important way, but I'll leave that question to more knowledgeable people. You'd be better off with French French anyway, considering both the availability of learning materials and the large number of French speakers in Europe and Africa who are not from either France or Quebec. (Also, Quebec is really not that close to Texas, in the sense that I doubt you'll encounter many Québécois over there.)
If your main interest is reading rather than travel, don't pick your language geographically: think about what kind of thing you want to read, and learn the language that would be best for that. What language did your favorite authors write in? Reading books you like (and watching movies, etc.) will make you enjoy learning the language, and enjoying it will make it easier.
Also, having a friend who's a native or fluent speaker of a language you like would make learning that language a lot easier.
posted by k. at 8:55 PM on January 7, 2010
If your main interest is reading rather than travel, don't pick your language geographically: think about what kind of thing you want to read, and learn the language that would be best for that. What language did your favorite authors write in? Reading books you like (and watching movies, etc.) will make you enjoy learning the language, and enjoying it will make it easier.
Also, having a friend who's a native or fluent speaker of a language you like would make learning that language a lot easier.
posted by k. at 8:55 PM on January 7, 2010
[Russian] is one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn because of all the declensions
I have 6 credits of Russian (with low grades) and I second this! I do love the language, though.
Spanish was much easier than French, for me. I bagged French after 8 weeks of it in 7th and 8th grade. In my experience, Spanish is easy.
I'd like to learn Dutch, also, since my ancestors spoke it. Its similarity (in some ways) to English makes it attractive and approachable despite its difficulty. When I see a Dutch sentence, it might look like gobbledygook, but once I learn the meaning, I can look at it and think "yes, of course that's what it means!"
Example: Ik hirenner Tante Ruth. = I can remember Aunt Ruth.
But, anyway. If you really don't want to learn Spanish, don't. It's too much work to learn a language to spend time on one of no interest to you.
posted by jgirl at 8:58 PM on January 7, 2010
I have 6 credits of Russian (with low grades) and I second this! I do love the language, though.
Spanish was much easier than French, for me. I bagged French after 8 weeks of it in 7th and 8th grade. In my experience, Spanish is easy.
I'd like to learn Dutch, also, since my ancestors spoke it. Its similarity (in some ways) to English makes it attractive and approachable despite its difficulty. When I see a Dutch sentence, it might look like gobbledygook, but once I learn the meaning, I can look at it and think "yes, of course that's what it means!"
Example: Ik hirenner Tante Ruth. = I can remember Aunt Ruth.
But, anyway. If you really don't want to learn Spanish, don't. It's too much work to learn a language to spend time on one of no interest to you.
posted by jgirl at 8:58 PM on January 7, 2010
I don't think Quebec French is different from French French in any important way
Uh, not true, but I like the other points in this comment.
Like k. was saying, despite the relative proximity, you'll find significantly more resources for French-French learners than Quebecois learners. Another pro for French is that it will have pay-off in terms of understanding Spanish, especially written Spanish, without having to actually study it.
posted by whatzit at 9:01 PM on January 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
Uh, not true, but I like the other points in this comment.
Like k. was saying, despite the relative proximity, you'll find significantly more resources for French-French learners than Quebecois learners. Another pro for French is that it will have pay-off in terms of understanding Spanish, especially written Spanish, without having to actually study it.
posted by whatzit at 9:01 PM on January 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
I'm curious to know why you say Spanish does not interest you. I personally love Spanish-language literature. Plus, there is the benefit of being able to use it all over Latin America, which is a much cheaper travel option than Europe. And you can be That Guy in the restaurant.
You know, the Guy that pronounces guajillo rather throatily as guajillo instead of saying "gooa-jillo."
I haven't tried to learn either Russian or French, but I would probably be scared off most by French pronunciation rules. (Of course, millions of people seem to have overcome this hurdle.)
Unfortunately, it seems that most of the language-learning related links I was planning to offer have broken since I bookmarked them. There was this one site that provided all the Foreign Service Institute language courses for free. (Apparently they were in the public domain because they were made with public funds, or some such. Regardless, don't pay the $100+ for them that shady internet merchants charge.)
I would vote Spanish for practical purposes, French for travel purposes if you cannot muster any enthusiasm for the language of Don Quixote*. (Russian scares me. I failed to tip this waiter named Grigori once and, though I have never returned to that particular diner, I can feel his stare still.)
* I do not actually mean the language of Don Quixote. It would sound a bit weird if you went around speaking archaic Spanish.
posted by iktomi at 9:04 PM on January 7, 2010
You know, the Guy that pronounces guajillo rather throatily as guajillo instead of saying "gooa-jillo."
I haven't tried to learn either Russian or French, but I would probably be scared off most by French pronunciation rules. (Of course, millions of people seem to have overcome this hurdle.)
Unfortunately, it seems that most of the language-learning related links I was planning to offer have broken since I bookmarked them. There was this one site that provided all the Foreign Service Institute language courses for free. (Apparently they were in the public domain because they were made with public funds, or some such. Regardless, don't pay the $100+ for them that shady internet merchants charge.)
I would vote Spanish for practical purposes, French for travel purposes if you cannot muster any enthusiasm for the language of Don Quixote*. (Russian scares me. I failed to tip this waiter named Grigori once and, though I have never returned to that particular diner, I can feel his stare still.)
* I do not actually mean the language of Don Quixote. It would sound a bit weird if you went around speaking archaic Spanish.
posted by iktomi at 9:04 PM on January 7, 2010
Mandarin will be an increasingly useful language to know, at least in the global sense.
posted by 6550 at 9:04 PM on January 7, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by 6550 at 9:04 PM on January 7, 2010 [4 favorites]
FWIW/FYI, here is a post I wrote that includes links for learning Dutch.
posted by jgirl at 9:10 PM on January 7, 2010
posted by jgirl at 9:10 PM on January 7, 2010
Also, BTW, the alphabet is relatively easy and fun to learn when studying Russian. It's like being back in first grade. I remember my professor said that some people who have atrocious penmanship in English developed beautiful penmanship in Russian.
posted by jgirl at 9:16 PM on January 7, 2010
posted by jgirl at 9:16 PM on January 7, 2010
I don't think Quebec French is different from French French
Uh, not true
My uninformed impression was that French French speakers looked down upon the Quebec French accent, but that the vocabulary differences were relatively small. Not to derail, but I'm curious about what the differences actually are.
posted by k. at 9:18 PM on January 7, 2010
Uh, not true
My uninformed impression was that French French speakers looked down upon the Quebec French accent, but that the vocabulary differences were relatively small. Not to derail, but I'm curious about what the differences actually are.
posted by k. at 9:18 PM on January 7, 2010
I don't like Spanish either. I do agree that it would probably be the easiest to learn (Spanish aisles in bookstores, anyone?), but just because there is an influx of Spanish in the country doesn't mean you should learn it (try telling that to the parents of the poor kids at my high school who were pushed to learn Spanish because "it would help them" somehow). It doesn't make living in this country any more useful, and I'd like to think that one consideration of learning a language is to eventually visit the country. French opens up, to me, some pretty good options.
I've always liked French, the French, and France, but I've never liked Spanish (and I have no desire to ever visit a Spanish-speaking country), so learning Spanish would be torturous to me.
But why don't you try out the basics of different languages to see which you are especially partial towards?
As for practicality, French would be useful to teach, useful in reading, fairly easy to learn and most libraries, I should hope, have a fair wealth of resources.
French all the way.
posted by lhude sing cuccu at 9:30 PM on January 7, 2010
I've always liked French, the French, and France, but I've never liked Spanish (and I have no desire to ever visit a Spanish-speaking country), so learning Spanish would be torturous to me.
But why don't you try out the basics of different languages to see which you are especially partial towards?
As for practicality, French would be useful to teach, useful in reading, fairly easy to learn and most libraries, I should hope, have a fair wealth of resources.
French all the way.
posted by lhude sing cuccu at 9:30 PM on January 7, 2010
you get to practice it all the time
I'm not syaing learn Spanish, but don't don't don't underestimate the importance of this. Having multiple people to practice with, at all levels, about all topics, really is the most important thing in learning a language enjoyable and (relatively) quickly.
Now, you can talk to people online to do exactly this, but it's not as easy, as spontaneous, as varietal.
If you spend all your time in books, your comprehension will be bonza, but everything else will be up the shit.
If you're going to do a romance language, stick with French or Spanish. French has a smaller vocabulary; Spanish is spoken everywhere. Italian is really neither of those. Also - the best thing about romance languages is if you've got two, the other four (or so) will come quite easily.
posted by smoke at 9:34 PM on January 7, 2010
I'm not syaing learn Spanish, but don't don't don't underestimate the importance of this. Having multiple people to practice with, at all levels, about all topics, really is the most important thing in learning a language enjoyable and (relatively) quickly.
Now, you can talk to people online to do exactly this, but it's not as easy, as spontaneous, as varietal.
If you spend all your time in books, your comprehension will be bonza, but everything else will be up the shit.
If you're going to do a romance language, stick with French or Spanish. French has a smaller vocabulary; Spanish is spoken everywhere. Italian is really neither of those. Also - the best thing about romance languages is if you've got two, the other four (or so) will come quite easily.
posted by smoke at 9:34 PM on January 7, 2010
I'd recommend going with French - it's a much easier language to learn and it has a lot more in common with English than Russian does.
I would recommend against using specifically Quebecois sources to help you learn, though. Unless you're planning on moving to Quebec, there's no reason to pick up their accent.
To k. - the linguistic differences between the French of Quebec and France are pretty much nothing. The slang words are difference, of course, but the big issue is the accent. A strong Quebec accent can be hard for non-Quebec French speakers to understand, while France-accented French would be more universally understood.
posted by vanitas at 9:37 PM on January 7, 2010
I would recommend against using specifically Quebecois sources to help you learn, though. Unless you're planning on moving to Quebec, there's no reason to pick up their accent.
To k. - the linguistic differences between the French of Quebec and France are pretty much nothing. The slang words are difference, of course, but the big issue is the accent. A strong Quebec accent can be hard for non-Quebec French speakers to understand, while France-accented French would be more universally understood.
posted by vanitas at 9:37 PM on January 7, 2010
I've been finding Japanese to be quite fascinating. I'm not studying it seriously, but I've gotten to the point where I can understand relatively simple sentences without diving for my dictionary. And sometimes I even pick up on puns.
I would say you should consider something which isn't part of the Indo-European family, just to stretch a bit more.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:40 PM on January 7, 2010
I would say you should consider something which isn't part of the Indo-European family, just to stretch a bit more.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:40 PM on January 7, 2010
The accent of Quebecois French is different (more twangy) from that of France and there is a subset of vocabulary that doesn't transcend. I would say it's roughly equivalent to the difference between British and American English. I learned French in France and then recently spent three months in Montreal. There were a few communication missteps but nothing significant and I learned to imitate the accent in a few weeks.
So my vote is obviously for French but I agree with everyone who says you shouldn't discount Spanish. Grammar, pronunciation, and spelling are way easier. I studied Spanish for four years before starting on French, and I consider it (Spanish) a really good "base structure" for learning other Romance languages. Plus, living in Texas it's possible you already have a lot of Spanish in your vocabulary that will give you some context when you are learning. Probably not many people could say the same about Russian.
posted by jschu at 9:42 PM on January 7, 2010
So my vote is obviously for French but I agree with everyone who says you shouldn't discount Spanish. Grammar, pronunciation, and spelling are way easier. I studied Spanish for four years before starting on French, and I consider it (Spanish) a really good "base structure" for learning other Romance languages. Plus, living in Texas it's possible you already have a lot of Spanish in your vocabulary that will give you some context when you are learning. Probably not many people could say the same about Russian.
posted by jschu at 9:42 PM on January 7, 2010
Thanks for chiming in, vanitas and jschu, although I think it would be difficult for crapmatic to learn much from specifically Québecois sources in that part of the States. There are a lot of audiovisual sources out there that could augment formal study of European French, but I doubt that any of them would swamp the development of a standard accent or vocabulary.
(And can I just point out that Canadian French accents vary a lot? There's this crunchy, twangy variation, complete with lots of vocabulary variants and slang, and newsreader French, which I think most Europeans would find pretty comprehensible.)
crapmatic, whatever language you learn, try seeking out variants where you can. For example, if you stick with French, there's Louisiana French, various types of Canadian French, various types of European French, as well as various types of African French. Try some of these local radio stations to develop your ear for the core sounds of your chosen language as well as its variants. You might find this thread useful.
posted by maudlin at 9:55 PM on January 7, 2010
(And can I just point out that Canadian French accents vary a lot? There's this crunchy, twangy variation, complete with lots of vocabulary variants and slang, and newsreader French, which I think most Europeans would find pretty comprehensible.)
crapmatic, whatever language you learn, try seeking out variants where you can. For example, if you stick with French, there's Louisiana French, various types of Canadian French, various types of European French, as well as various types of African French. Try some of these local radio stations to develop your ear for the core sounds of your chosen language as well as its variants. You might find this thread useful.
posted by maudlin at 9:55 PM on January 7, 2010
All things being equal, I myself would like to learn Chinese, mostly because I already speak, read, write Japanese, and Chinese is the keystone language in east Asia. I've already attempted to start learning Korean, and it's fascinating to track how the pronunciation of certain Chinese characters changes (and is still somewhat similar) between the three languages.
However, if I didn't already speak a second language, I'm not sure I would choose Chinese; you'd have to live there.
Therefore, French seems like a good choice.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:04 PM on January 7, 2010
However, if I didn't already speak a second language, I'm not sure I would choose Chinese; you'd have to live there.
Therefore, French seems like a good choice.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:04 PM on January 7, 2010
Depending on where you chose to live, I would chose Japanese or even Korean in Hawaii (where I am now), or I would suck it up and learn some conversation Spanish if living in Texas. However, I did at one point have Russian landlords, but in Hawaii groups from other countries tend to stick together and may not welcome the "Russian as a second language".
posted by rickim at 10:29 PM on January 7, 2010
posted by rickim at 10:29 PM on January 7, 2010
As someone who's studied Spanish and Russian (and dabbled in French via podcasts, etc.): coming in to say that if you're at all a visual or reading/writing-preference learner, Russian may actually be easier than French. Once you have Cyrillic down, learning words on your own is easy because Russian is almost perfectly phonetic: with very few exceptions, you pronounce each letter, and the pronunciation of letters doesn't change from word to word (or from one position to another within a word).
Yes, there are cases. Some people hate them, but I actually think they make things fun. Way better than depending on word order to get your meaning across.
Still, unless you're planning on doing some serious traveling soon, Spanish will be eminently more useful.
posted by rebekah at 10:47 PM on January 7, 2010
Yes, there are cases. Some people hate them, but I actually think they make things fun. Way better than depending on word order to get your meaning across.
Still, unless you're planning on doing some serious traveling soon, Spanish will be eminently more useful.
posted by rebekah at 10:47 PM on January 7, 2010
As a native English speaker Chinese will be very difficult. Seriously... between the tonal nature of the language and the writing system, you'll have a rough time. That's not to say it's impossible, but it's difficult - when I was in Beijing studying Mandarin I met a guy who went there with zero command of the language, and at the end of the three-month course he'd only worked his way up to extremely basic short conversational sentences (because he had to spend a lot of time on the basics, I think). It's a beautiful language, but not for the faint of heart.
Italian on the other hand is something I found easy - in fact I picked up quite a bit of it just from my classmates in said Mandarin course, and when I actually tried studying it it wasn't terribly difficult. It's relatively close to English (like all Romance languages) and has the advantage over French in that it's pronounced exactly as it's written. However, it's not as widely spoken as French or Spanish, so if you're looking for availability of material and number of native speakers in the world and so on it might not be such a good idea. I've found a decent amount of Italian internet radio stations though.
posted by Xany at 10:47 PM on January 7, 2010
Italian on the other hand is something I found easy - in fact I picked up quite a bit of it just from my classmates in said Mandarin course, and when I actually tried studying it it wasn't terribly difficult. It's relatively close to English (like all Romance languages) and has the advantage over French in that it's pronounced exactly as it's written. However, it's not as widely spoken as French or Spanish, so if you're looking for availability of material and number of native speakers in the world and so on it might not be such a good idea. I've found a decent amount of Italian internet radio stations though.
posted by Xany at 10:47 PM on January 7, 2010
Don't overlook Italian. It's not too shabby for travel, it's even easier than French in my opinion, and if you do decide to learn Spanish later on, you'll find that there is a good deal of convenient overlap.
As a Spanish speaker, this is true, but personally I sometimes find my brain wants to use the entirely wrong accent when I say things in Italian.
As a couple of people stated, don't underestimate the ability to get in a lot of practice. I am currently studying Hebrew, which I chose because my boyfriend's family is Israeli, and I'll have people to speak to if I want.
Growing up, I wanted to learn French because it interested me and Russian so I could read literature. I know a little French now, but can read much more than I can speak in my mangled pronunciation.
Where I live, there are a lot of Russian speakers, but if there aren't many where you are, it may be a lot of effort that slips away if you lack practice. but for you if you are interested in French, go for that. The BBC has a free course online that I liked. And there's always Livemocha, which I really like.
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:49 PM on January 7, 2010
As a Spanish speaker, this is true, but personally I sometimes find my brain wants to use the entirely wrong accent when I say things in Italian.
As a couple of people stated, don't underestimate the ability to get in a lot of practice. I am currently studying Hebrew, which I chose because my boyfriend's family is Israeli, and I'll have people to speak to if I want.
Growing up, I wanted to learn French because it interested me and Russian so I could read literature. I know a little French now, but can read much more than I can speak in my mangled pronunciation.
Where I live, there are a lot of Russian speakers, but if there aren't many where you are, it may be a lot of effort that slips away if you lack practice. but for you if you are interested in French, go for that. The BBC has a free course online that I liked. And there's always Livemocha, which I really like.
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:49 PM on January 7, 2010
Learn a language because you enjoy it. It's hard enough as it is, and if you ever need to learn a language for career/practical reasons you'll have motivation as well as greater skills for having already learned one foreign language. (For those wondering why crapmatic's not interested in Spanish -- I can't answer for him/her, but for many Texans it's not interesting precisely because one hears Spanglish or border Spanish all the time, so it's not foreign or exotic. Plus for many it has lower class connotations, rather than Cervantes/Neruda/etc. associations. Whatever crapmatic's reasons, learning a language because you "should" rather than because you want to is a recipe for a long, hard slog.)
I took Italian because my family was Italian and I felt a connection to the language. Yes, not precisely useful in central Texas, but lots of fun and a great help when I wanted to travel to Italy. I would vote for a language useful somewhere you'd like to travel, and a language that intrigues you in whatever way. For me, with Italian, it was pursuing family history and better understanding family culture. For you, it may be a lifelong goal of reading literature in the original language. This is a project you're undertaking for your own enjoyment and enrichment -- don't let a sense of obligation get in the way of that.
If you're near any major university, you should be able to find conversation groups for whichever language you choose, making it easier to keep your skills up. Also keep an eye out for videos online -- I have never been more interested in learning French than while watching this adorable video.
posted by katemonster at 10:50 PM on January 7, 2010
I took Italian because my family was Italian and I felt a connection to the language. Yes, not precisely useful in central Texas, but lots of fun and a great help when I wanted to travel to Italy. I would vote for a language useful somewhere you'd like to travel, and a language that intrigues you in whatever way. For me, with Italian, it was pursuing family history and better understanding family culture. For you, it may be a lifelong goal of reading literature in the original language. This is a project you're undertaking for your own enjoyment and enrichment -- don't let a sense of obligation get in the way of that.
If you're near any major university, you should be able to find conversation groups for whichever language you choose, making it easier to keep your skills up. Also keep an eye out for videos online -- I have never been more interested in learning French than while watching this adorable video.
posted by katemonster at 10:50 PM on January 7, 2010
Maybe you want to consider what native speakers you have in your area. Chinese seems a good deal since you will probably have a number of Chinese immigrants in many places around your state (1st or 2nd generation) whom you could get acquainted with. (Not to mention that it makes perfect sense from a geo-political perspective.)
If you go for "exotic" languages at least do some research previously. Not only should you be interested enough that you will be motivated to learn; the language(s) should have some linguistic value that will make you either proud to know about, or that will allow you to "think differently". For instance check out evidentials in Quechua; the 400,000+ inflection forms of Basque; the agglutinations in Finnish, etc.
Also regardless of what you chose you should not attempt to learn two languages simultaneously. Try to achieve at least some level of fluency in the 2nd before you start learning your 3rd language.
posted by knz at 12:30 AM on January 8, 2010
If you go for "exotic" languages at least do some research previously. Not only should you be interested enough that you will be motivated to learn; the language(s) should have some linguistic value that will make you either proud to know about, or that will allow you to "think differently". For instance check out evidentials in Quechua; the 400,000+ inflection forms of Basque; the agglutinations in Finnish, etc.
Also regardless of what you chose you should not attempt to learn two languages simultaneously. Try to achieve at least some level of fluency in the 2nd before you start learning your 3rd language.
posted by knz at 12:30 AM on January 8, 2010
To second what many have said here, Spanish is a great language to learn for Americans because you will suddenly be able to speak with your neighbors, employees, employers, doctors, sisters-in-law, etc. This will only become more valuable (not to mention necessary) in the future.
Spanish aside, I think it's neat to learn a language that opens up the possibility of talking to a lot of people you otherwise wouldn't be able to. For example, you could learn Dutch, but many Dutch people have such a generally high level of English proficiency that they're accessible to you even now.
posted by threeants at 12:39 AM on January 8, 2010
Spanish aside, I think it's neat to learn a language that opens up the possibility of talking to a lot of people you otherwise wouldn't be able to. For example, you could learn Dutch, but many Dutch people have such a generally high level of English proficiency that they're accessible to you even now.
posted by threeants at 12:39 AM on January 8, 2010
Screw "learn Spanish because it's more useful where you are." You want to learn a language for fun & mental practice. Ergo, you should learn a language that seems fun to you.
I had a South American dance teacher who barely spoke English. I speak fluent French. When necessary, I communicated by speaking French with a Spanish accent. It worked. Good enough.
Learn French if you fancy it. Russian is a pretty big piece to chew, for a second language (when your first is English), FWIW - but if you prefer it, go after Russian.
posted by IAmBroom at 2:00 AM on January 8, 2010
I had a South American dance teacher who barely spoke English. I speak fluent French. When necessary, I communicated by speaking French with a Spanish accent. It worked. Good enough.
Learn French if you fancy it. Russian is a pretty big piece to chew, for a second language (when your first is English), FWIW - but if you prefer it, go after Russian.
posted by IAmBroom at 2:00 AM on January 8, 2010
It depends what you want to do:
For the history and the literature: French
For way it could change your thinking on romance languages: Latin
For the likelihood you'll actually use it: Spanish
For the impact on your future earnings potential: Chinese
That said, learning Italian's kinda fun too. Of the various languages I've studied at various points, it is the one that was the most fun learning and talking.
In summary: Spanish. Languages are things to live and breathe, not learn once, leave on the shelf and forget. It's simple-ish to learn to a reasonable level and fun to speak. You won't get flummoxed on awkward pronunciations if you want to speak it to an OK level. It has some decent literature if you want to read something and being in Texas gives you a great chance of finding a conversation buddy who can bring on your language skills at warp speed, and in a more fun way than spending hours learning verb declensions and grammatical rules.
You can use Spanish through almost all of Latin America, obviously, and failing that Spain is a fantastic, underrated country with a great mix of attractive climate, countryside, food, wine and people.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:22 AM on January 8, 2010
For the history and the literature: French
For way it could change your thinking on romance languages: Latin
For the likelihood you'll actually use it: Spanish
For the impact on your future earnings potential: Chinese
That said, learning Italian's kinda fun too. Of the various languages I've studied at various points, it is the one that was the most fun learning and talking.
In summary: Spanish. Languages are things to live and breathe, not learn once, leave on the shelf and forget. It's simple-ish to learn to a reasonable level and fun to speak. You won't get flummoxed on awkward pronunciations if you want to speak it to an OK level. It has some decent literature if you want to read something and being in Texas gives you a great chance of finding a conversation buddy who can bring on your language skills at warp speed, and in a more fun way than spending hours learning verb declensions and grammatical rules.
You can use Spanish through almost all of Latin America, obviously, and failing that Spain is a fantastic, underrated country with a great mix of attractive climate, countryside, food, wine and people.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:22 AM on January 8, 2010
Pick one you want to read literature in. If you like Russian literature, learn that. You know the cliche "it's better in the original" - It's true. When you read something in translation you get the story, but you're missing a lot about the way the author describes things, the way the characters talk, the way it sounds. I learned French mostly for that reason. It was totally worth it.
You might find language hat's blog interesting. He posts a lot about Russian literature.
Don't be put off by the alphabet. Learning an alphabet isn't hard. I don't know Russian, but I haven't heard anything about it being that hard. The spelling's a little harder than Spanish, I think, and much easier than French or English. It's got declensions, but not a big deal, a lot of languages do that, German does, it's a different way of putting words together.
Getting the hang of French pronunciation is hard for English speakers. (The vowels and intonation are very different.) It takes longer to get to the point that native speakers can understand what you trying to say, or you can understand them, than it does with Spanish or German, although a lot of words are spelled almost the same and the language isn't hard to learn to read.
posted by nangar at 2:25 AM on January 8, 2010
You might find language hat's blog interesting. He posts a lot about Russian literature.
Don't be put off by the alphabet. Learning an alphabet isn't hard. I don't know Russian, but I haven't heard anything about it being that hard. The spelling's a little harder than Spanish, I think, and much easier than French or English. It's got declensions, but not a big deal, a lot of languages do that, German does, it's a different way of putting words together.
Getting the hang of French pronunciation is hard for English speakers. (The vowels and intonation are very different.) It takes longer to get to the point that native speakers can understand what you trying to say, or you can understand them, than it does with Spanish or German, although a lot of words are spelled almost the same and the language isn't hard to learn to read.
posted by nangar at 2:25 AM on January 8, 2010
All comments after mine have been lost due to a server problem. pb recovered as many as he could, but he couldn't get everything.
language hat recommended Russian, and chided other posters a bit for pushing Spanish if you're not interested in it.
vacapinta recommended French as a good place to start if want learn other Romance languages later (even though his native language is Spanish).
Somebody who knows both French and Russian pointed out that Russian pronunciation is tricky too in its own way.
Somebody commented that learning French can help with English, since a lot of English vocabulary comes from French.
That's all I can remember.
posted by nangar at 7:53 AM on January 9, 2010
language hat recommended Russian, and chided other posters a bit for pushing Spanish if you're not interested in it.
vacapinta recommended French as a good place to start if want learn other Romance languages later (even though his native language is Spanish).
Somebody who knows both French and Russian pointed out that Russian pronunciation is tricky too in its own way.
Somebody commented that learning French can help with English, since a lot of English vocabulary comes from French.
That's all I can remember.
posted by nangar at 7:53 AM on January 9, 2010
What do you want to use a language for? I can speak French, and generally I use it in this order:
1. Soeaking to French people for fun (I live in London, and the French people I meet can all speak English)
2. Travelling in France. It can be useful, but in restaurants and hotels staff speak English and generally don't really like you speaking to them in French.
3. Occasionally reading books, comics or watching French films. Don't overstate this though, (I'm impressed by/suspicious of the number of people in this thread who claim that they read French/Russian literature in the original)
I'm currently learning Spanish as I want to go travelling in South America, but beyond this, I don't think it will be much more useful than French. I learn languages because I enjoy learning them, not because they're very useful.
That said, I think you should learn Spanish, because you'll find it a lot easier to find people to practice with.
posted by greytape at 11:33 AM on January 9, 2010
1. Soeaking to French people for fun (I live in London, and the French people I meet can all speak English)
2. Travelling in France. It can be useful, but in restaurants and hotels staff speak English and generally don't really like you speaking to them in French.
3. Occasionally reading books, comics or watching French films. Don't overstate this though, (I'm impressed by/suspicious of the number of people in this thread who claim that they read French/Russian literature in the original)
I'm currently learning Spanish as I want to go travelling in South America, but beyond this, I don't think it will be much more useful than French. I learn languages because I enjoy learning them, not because they're very useful.
That said, I think you should learn Spanish, because you'll find it a lot easier to find people to practice with.
posted by greytape at 11:33 AM on January 9, 2010
It sounds like you're interested in French, so go with French.
You might find learning a second language easier than the first, so there's nothing stopping you from learning Russian after you've got a reasonable proficiency in French.
I mostly just wanted to pop in to say that, if your library offers Pimsleur language CDs, definitely give them a try. I love learning languages (I've studied Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, and tiny bits of Japanese and Greek), and I recently grabbed the Pimsleur Italian CDs from my local library for a bit of a refresher, and I am really impressed.
Bonne chance!
posted by kristi at 10:48 AM on January 13, 2010
You might find learning a second language easier than the first, so there's nothing stopping you from learning Russian after you've got a reasonable proficiency in French.
I mostly just wanted to pop in to say that, if your library offers Pimsleur language CDs, definitely give them a try. I love learning languages (I've studied Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, and tiny bits of Japanese and Greek), and I recently grabbed the Pimsleur Italian CDs from my local library for a bit of a refresher, and I am really impressed.
Bonne chance!
posted by kristi at 10:48 AM on January 13, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by box at 8:38 PM on January 7, 2010