What language would you learn?

Freefaller

Freefaller

Freefaller

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This was prompted by reading Scuzi's thread about greetings in numerous languages I was wondering how many people here would be interested in learning another language. Or just wish they could speak. And if so what language would you want to learn/know and why?

Furthermore if you're not interested in learning another language - why not?

Also, would you make the effort to learn a few words of a language relating to the country you are visiting?

Do you feel a bit embarassed or irritated when you go abroad and are completely clueless?



For me, I'd love to be able to speak Russian and Italian. Russian has always had an appeal for me for some reason, there's something very interesting about the language and the sound of it and the structure in which sentences are formed as well as the interaction.

Italian is just SUCH a beautiful language - whenever I'm in Italy I just get weak at the knees hearing the people talk. Most of the time it's in a marina or a shipyard and it sounds like they are having a huge a fight all the time :p but it's just fabulous to listen to.

I always make sure I learn enough in which ever country I go to to get by - i.e. order food, say please/thank you, ask for directions, basic questions (how are you/where is/etc....) Maybe I have an advantage owing to my multicultural /multilingual background and it makes me more interested in such cultural/language differences?

I guess languages aren't for everyone anyway but it's nice to know that people make the effort. :)
 
Im fairly fluent in (spoken) french, but I'd like to learn Spanish. No particular reason, it just seems interesting. Maybe brush up on my schoolboy German as well.
 
I'd learn either Russian or Japanese.

I enjoyed Russian at school but I couldn't pick it as GCSE level due to Computing being in the same column so lost interest. Was fun at the time as we were doing French at the same time and half the people in the class would mix the two languages in a sentence by mistake. :D

Japanese mostly due to the written script they have and would be a good employment oppertunity if I decided to move on from my current desktop support job.

If I was visiting a foreign country I'd at least want to know the basics like where to find the nearest pub, ordering drinks, etc.
 
I would love to learn Spanish and Latin :)

spanish would be the most usefully for me (obviously) and Latin as although it is considered anextinct language, it's still a major influence on many other languages making them all easier to grasp. :)
 
I'd like to learn French properly, I have a bit of knowledge and could probably get by for simple tasks but I can't keep up with anything said at speed.

I do normally try to learn a bit of the language for the places that I go to if I can so recently going to Canada I had to discover that pants <> undergarments ;)
 
I have learned some Russian. It is an interesting language and I genuinely enjoy the sound of the language - agressive yet beautiful at the same time.
I have a Russian girlfriend so thats why.

Spanish seems interesting to me too, seems like a lot of words are similar to French but it seems easier to pronounce although I may be wrong as I don't know it at all, just Hola, Uno, dos etc :D

However, lately German has become interesting as Germans seem to be able to learn English well so hopefully it will work the other way.
 
I wish I had taken the time to learn Welsh to a greater degree while at school, considering I was taught Welsh from my first class in primary school, up until and through my GCSE's I know very little.

I would love to learn how to speak Chinese, not sure which dialect, probably Mandarin.
 
I don't know any other languages :( My mistake for never learning a language when I was younger as my Mum never forced me to.
I've been considering lately trying to learn French, I figure it would be an useful language to speak.

I haven't been abroad in 16 years, and don't see it happening for the foreseeable future, so that's not really an issue for me but I think I would like to know at least the basics before I went somewhere.
 
I would'nt mind learning spanish,did french & german when at school,many moons ago :D

My sister-in-law is learning chinese,seems difficult to learn though

Rob
 
You see I travel a lot and I'm constantly surrounded by other languages. Obviously I'd never be able to learn all the languages of all the places I go (this is for work by the way, not just holidays). I'm currently spending a lot of time in Germany, and have picked up a bit of it, enough to get by VERY basically but I'm happy I've made the effort.

I can understand people's reticence in wanting to learn new languages especially if they don't travel - furthermore so many people speak english now it easy to be lazy about it.

Other than new languages I'd like to improve my other languages to higher levels... but that can only happen living in the countries and using it every day really.
 
I used to go to uni with a lass who learnt Greek and Latin. Let's just say it took her months to master French Italian and Portugese. :( Lucky sod!!

I learnt French at school - and because the rules are quite similar Italian and Spanish were a doddle. I found that once you learn one Roman language the others follow easily and is therefore useful for the future.
 
my wife could already speak german and french..she has sinced learned Italian (very cool language) and is going to have a go at spanish

its very useful on holidays! we definitely get better service if you can speak the lingo


she just seems to have an ear for languages which I dont..
 
I want to learn Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Japanese. I spend a fair bit of time in Asia and most of my favourite films are in the said languages. Plus, I love the sound of Cantonese and Mandarin when spoken and when its sung.

I would like to progress my Spanish too. Its not too bad, I can understand more than I can speak, but Im on a basic conversational level. Same goes for my German.
 
Freefaller said:
Italian is just SUCH a beautiful language - whenever I'm in Italy I just get weak at the knees hearing the people talk. Most of the time it's in a marina or a shipyard and it sounds like they are having a huge a fight all the time :p but it's just fabulous to listen to.
Click to expand...

Hehe, tis funny when you hear an Italian twang a ship into the quay! And thats why he is called captin crunch! lol :D Mamameya!

Edit: Spanish (Catalan) would probably be a good choice as i have cousins out there.
 
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I learned French at school and I've often thought about reviving it, I found foreign languages fascinating. I'd like to learn something Latin but I find it incredibly hard to get my teeth around the pronunciation, I'd have more luck with German, Dutch or something Scandinavian.
 
I want to learn japanese and madarin, one beacuse I work with a team in china and it would be usefull, but I have to finish learning german so I can catch people trying to **** me off here.
 
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