Which language should I learn to speak?

Question

I would like to learn another language. English is my 'mother' tongue - although my mother's language is Punjabi (an Indian language, which I speak badly with an English accent)! I work in the computer industry as a consultant, when I do travel it is to mostly European countries. Spanish is widely spoken in the world, China (Mandarin?) is up and coming and I've always fancied learning Japanese but have never travelled there!

So, which should I go for? Can you comment on usefullness in business, social situations, potential future popularity, ease of learning or just fun use? Are there any good e-learning sites or societies to join? I live in England, about 25 miles SE of central London.
Thanks in advance for your answers :)

Answer 1

If you're just looking for fun: Portuguese or Italian
If you're looking to foreward a business outlook: Chinese or Japanese (any Asian language, really)
If you're looking for usefulness in everyday life: Spanish or French
If you're looking for a challenge: Russian or Arabic
If you're looking to be special with a rare language: Macedonian or Slovak

These are just some of my favourites. For some help on 'traveller's languages' check out BBC's websites. They've got some free and easy web bits. Now, if you'd like to be EXTRA special and only be able to speak with some extreme geeks, (trust me, this will make you look like a serious but really awesome geek) give Tolkien's Quenya a shot (bloody hell, it's hard!). It's completely worthless, but it's great fun! (go to www.Ardalambion.com for lessons on Quenya.)

Have fun!

Answer 2

Spanish, would be good for you although I think you should go for an European language cause you travel a lot over there.
I Honestly, don't know of any sites or societies to join, but let me give you my example, I am from Mexico, I learned English in 2 years, and I liked always to chat with English speakers even if my English was limited, and that was they way I learned grammatically (including slams) how to use and speak the language.
If you join a chat room, perhaps you can learn and practice some of the language you chose to speak.

Answer 3

Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken language in the world. If you spoke this you could get a job in government and trade.

Considering the Middle Eastern situation, you could definitely get a job if you read and wrote Arabic. There is a high demand for English-speaking people who can speak Arabic.
You could get a job in government, trade, business or with the UN.

If you work in medical circles, then German would be your best bet. Go to the Goethe Institute for this.

You could use Spanish in South America, but as for Europe, not much is spoken outside of Spain.

The best way to learn a language, quickly, is to visit that county. When you need a washroom or something to eat, you learn, quickly.

Perhaps you should travel for awhile and see where you would like to spend your life. More than language is to be considered here, such as lifestyle, rights and community prejudices.

Answer 4

Spanish would be the best choice as it is a Romantic language (that is it is descended from Roman times) it would be a useful base for having an understanding of the other Romantic languages:French, Spanish, Portuguese. I understand that large parts of central and or South America speak Spanish.Remember the Latino countries are called Latino because the the language originates from Latin the original ROMAN-tic language. Whilst the China economy is up and coming coming it is unlikely that its language will be as dominant as English (that includes American English) because it is the language of choice for global media and entertainment. That is why every other country can speak better English than any other language (blame MTV)! Moreover if you wished to use it in your local take away then that is Cantonese. Different language. I have been told by an ex Royal Hong Kong police that it freaks the waiters if you hide in the restuarant and order in Cantonese.

Answer 5

Try esperanto.

"Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international language. The name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof first published the Unua Libro in 1887. Zamenhof's goal was to create an easy and flexible language as a universal second language to foster peace and international understanding."

"Esperanto is much easier to learn than any other language. In fact, it can be learned in about a quarter of the time needed to learn a national language! The spelling is easy: each letter has exactly one sound. The pronunciation is easy, and the accent is always on the next to last syllable. The grammar is easy. (That means, for example, that there are no irregular verbs.) "

"Today, Esperanto is employed in world travel, correspondence, cultural exchange, conventions, literature, language instruction, television (Internacia Televido) and radio broadcasting. Some state education systems offer elective courses in Esperanto; there is evidence that learning Esperanto is a useful preparation for later language learning"
(Wikipedia)

Answer 6

I would tell that you have to start speaking with native people. Otherwise, it is extremely difficult. Listening and speaking are the best ways to learn and use any language. You should force yourself to speak in that language with those native speakers even if you have an option to converse in a different (say french or english) language.

Answer 7

Each language has its own musical cadence and color. To some people, German sounds harsh to the ear while English is more like staccato. French and Spanish may sound melifluous while Italian is characterized by its singsong intonations.

Probe your hearing, buy one of those CDs with multiple language resources and listen to each language. See how your ears react to the sounds of a particular language. That should help you narrow down the field considerably.

In short, study a language you can readily practice with neighbors or friends in your city. If you study Chinese, for example, and have nobody to practice it with or don´t plan on traveling to China in the foreseeable future, you´ll be wasting your time.

I am a translator, so I know things about languages. :)

Answer 8

Hey! You are to be congratulated for desiring to learn another language. At the moment, with bigoted undercurrents circulating around the world, you stand out as a positive person.

First of all you ought to learn Punjabi really well - it is part of your heritage and you should always remain cognizant of, and conversant in, your ancestral tongue.

Secondly: what language(s) to choose?

What you need to do before you decide what language(s) to acquire, ask yourself whether you will need - let's say - Chinese because you will be
speaking directly to Chinese business people, or because you will want to immerse yourself in that country's culture. That decision will steer your choices.

If you need the languages principally for business, and you are going to speak one-on-one with foreign nationals, Chinese, Spanish, German and Russian all would be useful.

If you want to acquire a language for cultural exploration, ask yourself which foreign authors you'd like to read in the original, what films, etc.
Let's say you are enamored of Dostoievski, Turgenev etc - Russian;
if the South American authors are your first choice - Spanish and Portuguese.

Good luck and enjoy your learning experience.

Answer 9

If you learned Chinese that'd be it for me. I don't think Chinese is all that difficult; there are the tones which kind of stops me ( you have to have someone to talk with and practice speaking to learn them.) The writing is pretty hard until you get to a level where everything that you write is included in somewhere else... it is still difficult but it starts to make sense. Finally, China has that asian weirdness I think it is called culture that you run into if you are learning Chinese and It can only make things more difficult.

Answer 10

Chinese is good if you fancy travelling around Asia, but nearly every time you come across a Chinese person they will speak very good English, besides it's only spoken as a first language in China.

German is a very good language to learn, especially now it's considered the main European language by the EU. It's actually fairly similar to English (I've been learning it for 3 years now, it is NOT hard to learn), and is good for business.

Japanese is a very smart language and is fairly useful (I bet most of your electronics are Japanese!), however IS quite hard to learn, but worth it. Again a good one for business.

Russian is an up and coming language in European business, but again, hard to learn.

Spanish, besides being spoken in Britain's most popular holiday destination (Spain!), is spoken largely around the world in countries like Mexico and even in the US.

French is getting less useful and is usually spoken by awkward French people who pretend not to understand you.

Finally, one of the languages of India (Punjabi, Hindi, etc) are becoming increasingly used (just phone your bank's call centre) and a few new business are based in India.