Forums > Social Discussion > What new language should I learn?
Login/Join to Participatewith added berries
1,365 posts
Location: Manchester, England (UK)
OK, I really want to learn a new language, mainly because I'm fed up of conforming to the steriotype that English people can only speak English and expect everyone else to too. (I guess they have a point
). But I really don't know which one to learn. I have a GCSE in German, but can't really remember much of it (it was 7 years ago), and I learnt a bit of French.
I do want to take a gap year, travelling round different parts of the world, probably mainly Africa, and I want to go to Peru among many other places. French being useful for North Africa, and Spanish for South America. My friend is learning Spanish, which could be slightly useful, but she lives a long way away so I don't see her very often...
Alternatively I could try to learn an African language, which doesn't have very wide useage but would be fun and quite random. I tried learning Swahili for a while...
I'm determined to do it properly this time, and I'm looking into adult education courses, but I can't decide which language.
Any ideas?!
Live like there is no tomorrow,
dance like nobody is watching
and hula hoop like wiggling will save the world.
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 + 1 = 3
3,540 posts
Location: Bristol UK
you can never speak too many languages.
Why learn only one?
I go for option seven: all of the above
Empty your mind. Be formless, Shapeless, like Water.
Put Water into a cup, it becomes the cup, put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Water can flow, or it can Crash.
Be Water My Friend.
with added berries
1,365 posts
Location: Manchester, England (UK)
As much as I would like to learn all of them, I have other stuff to do. I might learn another one after, but I need to concentrate on just one at a time! :P
Live like there is no tomorrow,
dance like nobody is watching
and hula hoop like wiggling will save the world.
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1 + 1 = 3
3,540 posts
Location: Bristol UK
After learning one, another one will be easier to learn.
I would then choose spanish.
I reckon it's the easiest. plus french speakers are able to understand a bit of spanish, because of the similarities.
German is a good language to learn for travel in continental europe.
Empty your mind. Be formless, Shapeless, like Water.
Put Water into a cup, it becomes the cup, put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Water can flow, or it can Crash.
Be Water My Friend.
83 posts
Location: Kiwi land sounds great!
Well, I'd say Learn Finnish, Norwegian, or Turkish but those have no relevance to you lol.
Although, German is also a favourite language of mine.
Fire eaters are the most conceited people. Especially when they're on fire. "Help me, save me, put me out, me, me, me..."
-Paolo the Fire Eater
15,417 posts
Location: South Wales
German.
You already know some of it, and its a cool language.
Hitman
985 posts
Location: Gloucester England
I would say french as the alaphabet is not that differant to spainish and french is a handy languade to be able to speak
he he i am mike the amazing gloscircus person who is mike.
Officaly an exception to the Poi Boys are Girls Thing
10,530 posts
Location: They seek him here, they seek him there...
Chinese.
Language of the future, innit
The existance of flamethrowers says that someone, somewhere, at sometime said "I need to set that thing on fire, but it's too far away."
Elusive and Bearded
3,597 posts
Location: Scottsdale, AZ, USA
newbie
35 posts
Location: Sendai City, Japan
I'm having fun with japanese. Been learning for a little over a year. Plus I enjoy learning Kanji.
The problem with being a native english speaker is which language do you choose? What other major language will come in as handy as english? It can be a motivation killer sometimes.
I say either Thai, Khmer or Vietnamese just for fun, or Spanish or French if you want something more practical.
Member
32 posts
Location: Canada
I'd say french to be practical as well...
I'm learning Sign Language in a few months for school!
nut.
756 posts
Location: Bouncing off the walls., England (UK)
Umm.. practically, improving your French or starting Spanish would likely be the most useful, but...
WELSH!
THE MEEK WILL INHERIT THE EARTH!
If that's okay with you?
Lambretta Fanatic
4,997 posts
Location: United Kingdom
dont bother with Italian... its a dirty foul mouthed language when your fluent.
Returning to a unique state of Equilibrium
3,289 posts
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Spanish opens up a large chunk of Sth America. Also - its atonal, like english - unlike some Asian languages - which makes them much harder to learn. I think Mandarin would be useful, however only if you are traveling in China.
--
Help! My personality got stuck in this signature machine and I cant get it out!
Insert Champagne Here
13,215 posts
Location: without class distinction, Australia
I've learnt Japanese since Primary School and Romanian while living there.
When I started university I was going to study two languages and since Romanian isn't taught anywhere, it was Japanese and something.
I decided to look at what is the most useful in the scheme of things. I figured for employability that a UN language would be a smart choice, then I also considered countries where languages were spoken and the number of these countries. I narrowed it down to French and Spanish so I took both in first year. And well, after a year of doing French, there was no doubt in my mind that Spanish it was!!
Personally I wouldn't learn Chinese. Unless you are a native speaker or have been exposed to that language you will never sound like a native speaker (because it's tonal), unlike a European language where hard work can lead you to native-like competency. Oh, and I have enough characters in Japanese to *&^% me up a wall, I didn't want any more to learn!
But after saying all that; if you already have some German, I'd think furthering that would be a good idea
i would have changed ***** to phallus, and claire to petey Petey
Rougie: but that's what I'm doing here
Arnwyn: what letting me adjust myself in your room?..don't you dare quote that on HoP...
old hand
853 posts
Location: Behind you...
Spanish... mainly on the grounds that I found it easy to learn! I did French and Spanish up to GCSE level, that was years ago now, I have Spanish and French family but I find I have remembered more Spanish and find it easier to understand, even without studying, than French. But hey, everyone is probably different when it comes to what we find easy! Spanish is very sexy too.
Idolized by Aurinoko
Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind....
Bob Dylan
Your friendly neighbourhood mad scientist
479 posts
Location: Over the hills and far away, United Kingdom
Written by: PK_
dont bother with Italian... its a dirty foul mouthed language when your fluent.
Sounds like a good reason to me.
Ever listen to italians arguing? It sounds strangely poetic when you don't know what they're saying. Beautiful language...I'm learning Japanese, and it's not nearly as difficult as most people think. There's nothing tonal in it, there's none of that troublesome gender stuff like in French, there are no plural forms... The only tricky part is learning to read kanji.
nihongo wa totemo ikasu desu ne!
"Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art."
--Konstantin Stanislavisky
Insert Champagne Here
13,215 posts
Location: without class distinction, Australia
Japanese basic grammar is easy as. Japanese just gets hard when you move into the nuances
i would have changed ***** to phallus, and claire to petey Petey
Rougie: but that's what I'm doing here
Arnwyn: what letting me adjust myself in your room?..don't you dare quote that on HoP...
Your friendly neighbourhood mad scientist
479 posts
Location: Over the hills and far away, United Kingdom
That's true. I'm only just starting to get to that stuff.
I think the bit I like best is when speaking in conversation, sentences assume the context stays the same. Somehow it makes it feel tidier.
Actually, I heard it's desirable to keep your sentences as short as possible, even as short as 1 word.
"Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art."
--Konstantin Stanislavisky
Are we there yet?
1,897 posts
Location: australia
why study a live language...?
I studied Old English at uni...
Latin's another one that could be fun - no real rules on pronunciation!
Insert Champagne Here
13,215 posts
Location: without class distinction, Australia
i'm doing Old English at the moment! :loc:
i would have changed ***** to phallus, and claire to petey Petey
Rougie: but that's what I'm doing here
Arnwyn: what letting me adjust myself in your room?..don't you dare quote that on HoP...
6,650 posts
Try Cockney
Seriously I think it's a nice approach. Whilst Spanish (more than) French will give you access to roman languages and you will be able to get around in South America, German might just give you a headache and not get you anywhere
Think of what and where you want to use it for.
Is it just personal use for fun, or do you want to open up (business) oportunities... if the latter, I would suggest Mandarin, Hindi or Japponaise...
To me, all (foreign) languages sound nice - and the less I understand the better. If I am sitting in a cafe next to French talking rubbish, I can completely ignore it and indulge on the sounds - if the same happens with some German speaking, I have to make an effort.
the best smiles are the ones you lead to 
Insert Champagne Here
13,215 posts
Location: without class distinction, Australia
Warning: if you learn Japanese, "Lost in Translation" stops being a good movie (or never was a good movie if you learnt Japanese before the movie came out!)
i would have changed ***** to phallus, and claire to petey Petey
Rougie: but that's what I'm doing here
Arnwyn: what letting me adjust myself in your room?..don't you dare quote that on HoP...
Your friendly neighbourhood mad scientist
479 posts
Location: Over the hills and far away, United Kingdom
Y'know... if you want to go for obscure and interesting over useful, there are quite a few cool and random languages out there.
Have a look at these...
* Kernewek
* Olelo Hawai'i
* Romansh
* !Xóõ
I was going to learn some Kernewek myself. It's kind of where I'm from, n all.
"Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art."
--Konstantin Stanislavisky
nut.
756 posts
Location: Bouncing off the walls., England (UK)
Te Reo Māori, everyone should know some.
Sorry, there's probably a limit of one silly answer per person, but I wanna learn both my suggestions!
The Welsh due to the habit in remote areas of wales of the locals to switch the conversation into welsh (even though you could hear them talking English from outside) when a 'foreigner' walks into the room..
THE MEEK WILL INHERIT THE EARTH!
If that's okay with you?
Insert Champagne Here
13,215 posts
Location: without class distinction, Australia
!Xóõ would be almost impossible to learn for someone who wasn't brought up in that language (for the same reason as Chinese, although more phonemes)
And I thought Cornish was extinct? Which is sad, really; so many of the languages of the British Isles dying. I'd love to learn them if I were from there!
i would have changed ***** to phallus, and claire to petey Petey
Rougie: but that's what I'm doing here
Arnwyn: what letting me adjust myself in your room?..don't you dare quote that on HoP...
comfortably numb
2,676 posts
Location: The countryside, Australia
I want to learn Hungarian (it's my heritage, I should know it!)
My brother is learning Arabic and Hebrew atm
.All things are beautiful if we take the time to look.
Sitting down facing forward . . .
2,387 posts
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand
If Cornish is extinct, where do the Cornish pasties come from??
Written by: Doc Lightning talking about Marmite in Kichi's Intro thread
I have several large jars of the stuff. I actually like it... a little. And don't tell anyone I admitted to it. 
master of disaster
3,354 posts
Location: New York, USA
I'm learning German at the moment, although I eventually plan to also learn a Romance language or two and a bit of Lithuanian (my heritage) and even maybe Hebrew (also heritage)
The advice I was given was that if you're going to do more than one language at once was to not do it from the same language family, because it'll confuse you
and George... Pasties? scandalous...
kyrian: I've felt your finger connect with me many times
lou kitten: sneaky little meatball..
ezz: please corrupt me more
Insert Champagne Here
13,215 posts
Location: without class distinction, Australia
Written by: georgemc
If Cornish is extinct, where do the Cornish pasties come from??
What does a language have to do with pasties?
fNi, I've heard that about same-family languages too.
i would have changed ***** to phallus, and claire to petey Petey
Rougie: but that's what I'm doing here
Arnwyn: what letting me adjust myself in your room?..don't you dare quote that on HoP...
Your friendly neighbourhood mad scientist
479 posts
Location: Over the hills and far away, United Kingdom
Written by: georgemc
If Cornish is extinct, where do the Cornish pasties come from??
They're orphaned pasties!Everybody adopt your pasty today.
Actually, Cornish is undergoing a revival. It's now recognised by the EU as a minority European language. They're starting to teach it in Cornish schools, and there are radio shows and newspaper articles entirely in Cornish too!
Plus, it was never totally extinct. Fishermen in little villages like Marazion have never really stopped counting things out in old Cornish.
The UK is full of cool celtic languages though, it's true. Everyone knows about Scots, Irish and Welsh. Less people know about Manx and Bretton. Cumbric, alas, truly is long dead.
To anyone who wants to learn it, it's more advisable to learn Kernewek Kemmyn (or Common Cornish) than the older UCR (United Cornish Reformed... or something like that).
"Love the art in yourself and not yourself in the art."
--Konstantin Stanislavisky
Similar Topics
Using the keywords [new language learn] we found the following existing topics.
- Forums > What new language should I learn? [39 replies]
Show more..
© 1998 - 2025 Home of Poi
All prices converted to United States dollars using XE.com