Which language should I learn?

Question

I know this has been asked before, but I am a major language lover and I would love to speak more than the ones I know.

Some languages I am deeply interested in learning are the following: Greek, Persian, Russian, Hindi, Swedish, Latin, Japanese, and German. I am also very interested in learning an African dialect, like the very famous Click Languages.

It is very difficult for me to find good sources to learn these languages. I am also a person that needs constant encouragement in other to keep learning, and to also have a reason for it to learn them.

I am fluent in Spanish, since it's my native language (I need to brush up my grammar, though.) I also consider myself to be fluent in English. I do have a lot of advantages from Spanish, and that is why I learned Italian (and for many other reasons, too.) I think I'm fairly good at it, but not fluent.

Could any of you also point out bizarre, almost never taught languages? I would be willing to find out more about them too.

I have many different reasons to learn those languages, here it goes:

Greek/Latin = To enrich my vocabulary and know roots of words. I think it's very useful to understand them.

Russian/Persian/Hindi = Also very useful languages, and beautiful ones to boot. I love the melody and the culture of these languages.

German = This was the original language I wanted to learn ever since I was a kid, just because of its history, its very opposite sound of Spanish and just the culture.

Japanese = Japanese is more of a fun language for me, but I do understand it's very useful for business and such.

Swedish: I don't know why. It's probably the weirdest of all my interests, but I think Swedish is so beautiful and refreshing. I want to know more about it.

African dialects: It's a very strange, very unique sound and it seems not many people study it. Also I am interested in Africa.

Answer 1

Adam said a lot, and hit many of the high points, so I'll try not to flog a dead horse. Yet inevitably I know I will a little at least.

I frequently make this statement and I live by it.

'If you can't learn Esperanto, you can't learn any language.'

It's completely regular and phonetic. It has only 16 gramatical rules and no exceptions. (That's right, you read that correctly, NO EXCEPTIONS!) You only need to learn the respective rules and know that it won't change on you out of the blue.

Believe it or not, Esperanto represents the best chance for the survival of the multitude of dying languages since it's purpose is to provide an alternative to any one National tongue to the disadvantage of others.
Consider if you will, Esperanto is an easily learnt AUXILIARY language. This means that myself and that German, Japanese or Korean fellow over there needn't sink a lot of time and effort into learning each others mother tongues if they don't wish, where whose ever tongue we settle to communicate in will hold the advantage in any discussions; since the likelihood of having a mastery of the second language will be remote at best. Each partner has exerted a similar effort in order to communicate; a linguisticly neutral hand shake if you will. Yet we are still free to talk in our mother tongues when and where we choose.
Further, I am now in a position to visit just about every country in the world and with the help of my new found Esperanto speaking friend (2 million plus) learn of his / her culture and language. This second facet is possible because in learning Esperanto I now have a firmer grip on linguistic principles. Again, that link is provided below on the benefits of learning tertiary languages after Esperanto.
However, if it is Culture you desire, then you've no need to look much further than the Internet. In music there are Folk, Jazz, Opera, Rock, Hip Hop, Rap, childrens' songs, etc. In literature there is multinational translations plus original works. The yearly Esperanto Congresses are a play ground for young and old alike for interaction.
It's use is expanding exponentially. The last educated guess puts the number of functionally fluent speakers at 2 million plus and another 2,000 native speakers (those that were born to an Esperanto household; yes they exist).
In a recent reprint of the Unua Libro (first book), editor Gene Keyes said that when he first started the project in 2000, he did a search for Esperanto on Google and it yielded over 1 million hits. At the completion of his task in February of 2007, the same search yielded over 34 million hits. Out of curiosity, after I had read that I did the same search and it yielded over 39.2 million hits. That's up over 5 million in two months. So it's growing. Slowly (or maybe not so slowly!)
Further, Wikipedia hosts around 250 different languages. Esperanto ranks 15th in the most numerous articles category.
More than these languages to name a few.
16 Turkish
17 Slovak
18 Czech
Even Arabic, one of the six official languages of the UN, only rates at 34th.
Check for yourself.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias
Yet many feel threatened by it because they feel it is atempting to be the ONLY language spoken, which is NOT the case. It is simply a tool to allow those that might otherwise struggle to learn a new language, the option of expanding their horizons.
Finally, there is currently $600 million plus a year being spent on translation services at the UN, and a similar amount in the EU, because no one nationality wants to loose the prestige of owning one of the 'working' languages in each of those institutions. This a huge waste of resources that might otherwise go to feeding and housing those less fortunate. A single working language, easily learnt (less than a year to become fluent) would certainly go along way towards that goal. The Universal Esperanto Asociation (UEA) currently holds observer status (class B) at the UN and UNESCO. So there is some movement towards this goal.

When you hear it's not useful, those are people who haven't taken the time to research their response.
Its Propaedeutic value is the best of any language because of it's logical structure and the fact that you could take a few months to learn Esperanto, or years to learn a national tongue.
My kids and I use it, every day, with people all over the world. You do have to look for them, but that gets easier every day.
Research and draw your own conclusions.

Point in case, I just got off the phone with a member of my Esperanto Rondo (Round). We have two Esperantist visitors from France coming in tomorrow for two days. A few months back we had an Esperantist from Japan. Some day my kids and I plan to make similar trips. All on account of Esperanto.

Ĝis!

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

As for bizarre languages you could try Finnish, Turkish or a Slavonic language. I think they are a challenge to learn.

Flemish is not language, it's a dialect of Dutch. I as a mother tongue speaker consider this a grammatically easy language. But it's not worldwide spoken.
Therefore I consider learning German a very good alternative. It's one the most used language in Europe besides French and English.

Swedish is indeed a lovely language but a difficult one to master (especially pronunciation).
The most useful languages to learn would probably be Russian and German (widely spoken).

I personaly think Japanese is a fun language to learn.

Answer 4

I suggest you think about learning Esperanto. This may also count as a "almost never taught language", because most people seems to ignore it for some reason.

There are lots and lots of reasons to learn Esperanto.

The linguistic reasons for learning Esperanto are my favorite, which I say as another language lover. First of all, especially for a language lover, Esperanto is a breeze to learn. I didn't set out to seriously learn it, just to dabble in it a bit, and I ended up with a good ability, nearly fluent, without even really trying.

Moreover, Esperanto has some interesting properties which a language lover can appreciate. Esperanto has a fairly rigorous grammar, since that ensures that clear communication takes places in international settings, and the grammar is fairly "transparent", by which I mean that the grammatical structure of a sentence is immediately obvious at a glance, because it's all explicit.

Even more interesting is that Esperanto is based on the principle of unchangeable word elements which can be freely combined. This freedom allows you to create words and sentences naturally, just as you think of them. A strong case can be made that Esperanto is more natural than most languages, because it follows the natural way of thinking, without putting up arbitrary rules as to what is allowed and what is disallowed. It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it, but I often find myself coming up with Esperanto words (and wanting to use them) while I'm speaking in another language, simply because the freedom of combination allows such concise expression of such great meaning, and sometimes gives you words which are difficult to express at all in other languages.

There are also a number of good non-linguistic reasons that it's good to learn Esperanto. The community of Esperanto speakers spans most of the globe, thus putting the Esperanto speaker in contact with a network of people from greatly diverse cultures, rather than just one or a handful, as with most national languages (not to mention the time savings).

Moreover, for those who need motivation, there's anecdotal evidence that the international contacts that one can have by means of Esperanto are one of the greatest motivators in learning about other cultures and languages. Not a few people have learned a foreign language after getting to know people from that culture through Esperanto.

A good site to learn Esperanto is http://lernu.net

Lots of interesting articles on Esperanto: http://claudepiron.free.fr/articles.htm

Answer 5

Japanese seems easier for Spanish speakers because the pronunciation is similar and the words are phonetic. It is very different from what you already know and the ease of pronunciation might keep you motivated to learn.

There is a growing US/Mexico/Japan relationship and there are some great job opportunities in that group.

Answer 6

Try Gaelic or Flemish. They are hardly used anymore but they aren't bizarre.

I would look into Chinese since over 1 billion people speak that. And German. You can basically travel the whole globe and find people who speak either English, Spanish, or German.

Answer 7

You could try Turkish. It's an interesting language, probably Hebrew, French, Flemish, Hungarian, Chinese, Yiddish, Créole, Portugese, Esperanto, etc

Those are suggstions. I hope this can help you choose among so many different languages and dialects,

Answer 8

I vote for Swedish. It's a great language, great culture, and you have to be smart to learn it as a second language (stresses on syllables are so important and change meanings of words). Also, if you can find a native Swede to help you, they're generally friendly and helpful.

Answer 9

i also know those three langauges, and i'm a native spanish speaker, right now i'm trying to learn french but from the ones you are interested in i think u should try either japanese or german, i think those would be cool. german is the most popular native language in europe and japanese is very popular in business.

Answer 10

If you are fluent in Spanish start out with Latin,Mater linguae Romanae modernis. Latin will help in building up English and Spanish vocabulary. Fortuna bona tibi sit!