haha two languages? lol
Spanish/German is looking good, like I said, anybody got any tips on methods of learning
Spanish/German is looking good, like I said, anybody got any tips on methods of learning
Language to learn
- Thread starter CoxyBoy123
- Start date
Soldato
Really?
The vocab is pretty easy to learn but the grammar side is probably one of the hardest out of the western European languages. I'd say French/Spanish/Italian would be a bit easier to learn.
Also if you can spend time out in the country of the language you're learning you'll pick it up much more quickly.
The company are trying to introduce me more to the customers, this is the reason the topic came up
Caporegime
learn't it a secondary school, was ridiculously easy for me, and I spend a lot of time in Amsterdam which helps as Dutch is just a butchered type of Deutsch.
I hated french with a passion.
Polish and slavic languages I think are over estimated. They have pretty strict grammar rules, so once you get over that first hurdle its all vocabulary from there on bar a few complex grammar rules and of course some exceptions that only fluent/near native speakers will remember.
When I was choosing a language, I decided to choose one that was common, but also surprising for the native speakers to here a foreigner speak. Not exactly froma business point of view, but go to a russian speaking country and speak russian and the girls love it. I cant imagine french, german etc girls being so easily impressed, or impressed so much that they will umm...
As for learning, I would say find a class, the pressure from the teacher and not wanting to look like an idiot infront of the teacher and classmates is a great incentive to learn. If thats not an option, look up the university league tables for that language then check what the recommended course text book is, most of them will come with audio supplementry material. Just make sure you get something which tests/quizzes you so its not all reading and memorising.
When I was choosing a language, I decided to choose one that was common, but also surprising for the native speakers to here a foreigner speak. Not exactly froma business point of view, but go to a russian speaking country and speak russian and the girls love it. I cant imagine french, german etc girls being so easily impressed, or impressed so much that they will umm...
As for learning, I would say find a class, the pressure from the teacher and not wanting to look like an idiot infront of the teacher and classmates is a great incentive to learn. If thats not an option, look up the university league tables for that language then check what the recommended course text book is, most of them will come with audio supplementry material. Just make sure you get something which tests/quizzes you so its not all reading and memorising.
- Joined
- 30 Jul 2006
- Posts
- 12,130
Seems to me like a spectacularly good reason to learn Spanish
Incidentally, you do know that Spanish is spoken outside of Spain as well, don't you?
German and English are both Germanic languages though, whereas the romance languages like French, Spanish and Italian come from Latin, so I can imagine German being the easiest to learn.
Man of Honour
I'm surprised no-one has suggested Klingon yet. It's GD - too much seriousness ruins the tone of the place 
Man of Honour
Why don't you learn mandolin?
Soldato
Mandarin and Russian would be my choices
Here's a list of languages by difficulty. Compare something like French/Dutch/Italian at 600 class hours with Japanese/Mandarin at 2200 class hours...
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Language_Learning_Difficulty_for_English_Speakers
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Language_Learning_Difficulty_for_English_Speakers
Soldato
I speak fluent German, comes in useful as I do quite a few exports to Germany. Russian would definetely be a very useful language to learn.
I'm considering learning mandarin - very useful now, and I'm sure it will be very useful in the future also , just need to find the time and motivation ...
I'm considering learning mandarin - very useful now, and I'm sure it will be very useful in the future also , just need to find the time and motivation ...
Associate
Mandarin
Soldato
Have you considered not fully learning any ONE language, but rather learning a reasonable chunk of several?
There is reason to my comment...nearly all international businessmen speak English these days, and the sad truth is they tend to speak English better than we can speak their native language. What IS a good gesture though, is being able to converse a small amount in their own language, as it is often seen as a respectful and understanding gesture. To that end, being able to talk a small amount in a selection of the languages you deal with might be just as useful to you.
There is reason to my comment...nearly all international businessmen speak English these days, and the sad truth is they tend to speak English better than we can speak their native language. What IS a good gesture though, is being able to converse a small amount in their own language, as it is often seen as a respectful and understanding gesture. To that end, being able to talk a small amount in a selection of the languages you deal with might be just as useful to you.
Seems to me like a spectacularly good reason to learn Spanish
Incidentally, you do know that Spanish is spoken outside of Spain as well, don't you?
I know that, I didnt know how much it was spoken though, the reasoning for the work being hard to get is, we deal in Resin Flooring, Spain and countries like that always use tiles. Always.