Learning Languages?

Question

I'm a senior in high school who plans to minor in a langauge. I've taken Spanish 1-3 in high school, but Spanish doesn't really interest me (not to mention that i've already forgotten most of what i'd learned)

I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what language they think might be good. I would probably prefer to do a language which evolved using an alphabet other than latin's. The two that I am probably considering most right now are Chinese and Japanese (any insight into the difficulty of learning these languages would also be useful).

I obviously have a firm grasp of the English language, and I understood what Spanish I knew relatively well. I plan on majoring in computer engineering, if that helps with suggestions at all.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi,

I took a few languages including Spanish at the Berlitz schools as well as high school over the years. The general consensus was that for an native English speaker, Spanish or French would be the easiest to learn. German and other Eastern European languages have more complex grammar because of the noun declensions that must be memorized as well as different syntax.

Furthermore the experts in Berlitz told me that when dealing with a language with different alphabets from Arabic to Hindi they would take you four or five times as long to learn on average than Spanish or French for example. Two of my friends are teaching English in China over the last several years and they are also taking Chinese. Their assessment so far is that it is brutal. There is a lot of work to tune your vocal cord and nasal for different sound pronunciations and they haven't even attempted to learn the Chinese characters of which a minimum of 3000 are necessary to function. The only plus is the simpler grammar where there are no verb conjugations.

Finally to do well in any language you must have an interest and passion for it. Nothing like a girlfriend for a start.

Mike

Answer 2

Chinese and Japanese don't have a Roman alphabet. They contain more than 15,000 characters which must be memorized. They are a million times more complicated than spanish. You may learn Russian and Greek, except they use the cyrilic alphabet and or not spoken that often. German might be a good idea because of the German markets. You shouldn't learn French nor Italian because Italian is only spoken in Italy and French is spoken in France and Quebec. If you try arab, you'll have to learn about 30 symbols. The problem with arab is that it is spoken differently in all arab nations and they have to use another language in order to understand each other. I suggest you learn spanish because it will refresh your memory; plus spanish is spoken in 95% of Latin America, in some areas of the Carribean, some parts of Africa, in the Philipines, and Spain. Many jobs prefer spanish as a second language.

Answer 3

I love studying new languages and utilising them with natives, i journey plenty and i have found out kinda many, english, norwegian, swedish (they're practically identical, and as i talk norwegian i have an understanding of additionally danish), french, spanish the ones are those i have studied. I'm local finnish speaker so that is no longer crisis to me. I might like to be trained extra languages! I ain't no tuition learner i be trained by means of movement, great manner is to transport to nation and are living with locals and be trained language and paintings there. Write some thing? What you desire? I have Mercury Capricorn in sixth residence. Other manner i am emerging Leo. Wow Michael R, have you learnt Finnish!! So cool anybody learns it!

Answer 4

More and more people begin to learn Chinese, because here is clear career potential for the future. High school, I think, is the best period to start to learn Chinese or other language, so begin learning Chinese as early as you can. I suggest you take courses in language training school, because it can help you learn easier and faster. Check this site http://www.hellomandarin.com/ It may help you. Good luck!

Answer 5

If you want to major in any technical field,
French and German are still very important languages
to know. Many, many papers are still written
in these languages. I'd go for these with all
haste! Good luck.