Question on Foreign Launguages?

Question

Wouldn't it be more beneficial to learn languages of countries that have a bigger influence on the world (such as Chinese and Arabic) then learning languages like Itilian and French (which are in less places of the world)?

I know I spelled Italian wrong, I'm just too laszy to fix it.

Answer 1

You should learn a language because you have an interest in it, not because of whether or not you're going to benefit from it. Learning a language is a long, tough process which can take several years if you want to be native level fluent. Do you really think you have the persistence and dedication for that journey when you can't even be bothered to fix one typo?

Answer 2

Traditionally, foreign languages have been studied on the basis of their usefulness just like you are advocating.

For a long time, French and German were the only two modern foreign languages taught in most American high schools.

This because they had a lot of technical literature and Americans felt that these would be the languages most useful to their kids if they went to college.

Spanish started being introduced into American high schools in the 1930's largely as a result of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy towards Latin America. However, Latin, French and German were still the languages recommended for any students who were college-bound as unfair as that may seem to Hispanophiles.

French and German were both greatly hurt by the events of World War II. In the 1950's, especially after Sputnik, It was thought in that Russian would be the up-and-coming thing in foreign languages. However, it never happened. The Russians showed themselves perfectly willing to use and learn English instead.

What's more, The Soviet government continued Russia's historic policy of isolationalism and didn't really want foreigners visiting their country or learning their language.

You can almost say the same thing for the Arabs, who like the Russians, have historically resisted most. Westernization.

So you have a situation today where English virtually is the unchallenged international language. Of course, that will not last forever. It will only last as long as the United States remains a world power now that the British Empire no longer exists.

It is mostly only linguists, language mavens and multiculturalists who are interested in languages with smaller speaking populations like Welsh, Esperanto, Hungarian, Finnish, Romanian, Turkish, Korean, Japanese etc.

I think that the majority of people who decide to study a foreign language will always do so only for the pragmatic reasons that you suggest. If they don't see any "practical" reasons for studying a foreign language then they simply won't do it.

Answer 3

This depends on what chance you have to use the language. As respects the current world, English is the language of the Internet. As to China, it may be noted that Esperanto is becoming a required course in Chinese Univerities, and it is relatively easy to learn. Arabic is supposedly relatively easy to learn--if you don't want to learn to write it. As far as the European Languages are concerned, if one learned to speak Interlingua fluently, they could probably make themselves understood in England , France, Germany, Spain , Portugal and Italy as the language is based on the common elements of these languages. I'm not saying that you'd necessarily be able to understand them! I speak English, Spanish, German, and a little Turkish, French, Portuguese and Esperanto; but, have a horrible time understanding any of them!
What language is best to learn as an additional language depends on what use you may be able to make of it. Ciao.

Answer 4

I prefer to learn Mandarin Chinese, because it is the language which sounds nice, it is the language which is spoken by most people. It is the language, which has potential to influence the future. I learn Mandarin from http://www.hellomandarin.com Anyone who is interested in Chinese can join me.

Answer 5

Then you are probably too lazy to learn a foreign language. In any case, it depends on your goal of learning it.

Answer 6

Yes, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Brazilian-Portugese, or Hindi would give you an advantage in present and future job hunting.

Answer 7

Would it be more beneficial? Yes. Is it worth doing? Yes. Is it worth doing it properly? IE, going back and correcting spelling mistakes? Yes. Definitely.

Answer 8

Spanish is the one to learn

Answer 9

HONESTLY TO MY OPINION FRENCH IS BETTER TO LEARN DEN OTHER
EVEN THO U FRANCE IS SMALL U GOT PLACES IN CANADA DAT DATS ALL DEY SPEAK...
UNLESS U GOING TO CHINA DO CHINESE CUZ WELL NO1 DAT I SEEN IT SPEAK IT..
ARABIC IS MORE COMMON IN DA STATES U KNOW...
N WELL ITALIAN IONO...LOL

DATS MY 2CENTS SORRY MAN

Answer 10

yes it would be