Has anyone tried to learn a second language in earnest? The obvious choice is Spanish, since we all learned it in school. But I have heard German is actually easier to learn for native English speakers. Then there is the notoriously difficult Chinese, and all it's tones and characters that seem totally alien to westerners... yet, China is where the money is going, and where you should be too if you want to ride the wave of wealth and glory to the Middle Kingdom alongside Ray Dalio and Mark Zuckerberg. Latin based languages are great for travelling, especially in Europe. For business, Chinese? Any ideas?
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during the pandemic I began getting fluent in spanish in earnest and have recently begun learning italian. I recommend learning a language you enjoy and not just out of pure utility. if you don't enjoy visiting the place where the language is spoken you won't use it or really stay passionate about it. I recommend abiding by the principles in the video below in terms of content that you enjoy and how to begin with the language (struggling through conversation, reading, etc.).
I'd consider another language that's distant from english if you seriously want to work there or want to marry someone from there. one of my good friends moved to japan after graduating, married a japanese girl, is fluent, but still was NEVER accepted into the culture because of their insularity and found it difficult to keep a job there so keep in mind the local culture as well.
in short, I'd ask yourself this - have there been opportunities you've been exposed to within your company/industry where having a second language would've sealed the deal? or, are you just thinking "china's growing, I should learn mandarin?" if the latter, I'd probably pause because mandarin (or so I've heard) is among the most difficult languages to learn and if you're not passionate about it, you won't learn it, and if you're not at least B2 level it won't do you any good.
rather, learn a language you're passionate about. maybe you're into BJJ and want to learn portuguese to do a camp in curitiba, maybe you're iranian american and want to learn farsi to impress your relatives, etc etc. not everything has to be about utility my friend, the benefits of language learning from a neuro perspective are plentiful and culturally, even more.
y si quisieras aprender el castellano, siempre quería visitar topicos por WSO en Español, podríamos resolver los problemas del mundo allá o mejor aún, ayudarte en tu camino hacía fluidez
How much time did you commit to learning Spanish?
I didn´t count, but I also didn´t miss a beat with work, exercise, or fun. here´s what I eliminated
in the past 14 months I've probably had 200 lessons with a tutor (italki.com) and it cost me <$3k all in (don't know exactly because I've also been studying italian and the credit card charge doesn't say what language)
learning a language is simple and inexpensive, but it's not easy. gotta dedicate the time and stay disciplined
He estado estudiando español por un poco más de un año y ahora puedo conversar con los padres de mi novia. Me gustaría viajar a Mexico para experimentar la cultura a través del idioma. Gracias por compartir tu experiencia en llegar a ser fluido en este hermosa idioma. Adelante!
vale, que bueno! Te avisaría que sigues practicando diariamente si sería posible. El proceso de ganar competencia en un idioma no es lineal, vas a sentirte que no estás progresando, pero en un momento, aparecerá algo nuevo, posiblemente un momento como la habilidad de platicar totalmente en castellano, escuchar a un video o un podcast sin parar, así. Si sigas, mejorarás. Buena suerte caballero
Urdu
Why? Seems like an interesting language, but don't most Pakistanis speak English? Could you ever use it in a business context outside of intelligence or other government work?
I have a B.A. in Spanish and also a minor in East Asian studies with a focus on Mandarin Chinese.
I lived in Spain for 6 months and was near fluent at the time. I spent the following year in Beijing for 3.5 months learning Mandarin Chinese.
My Spanish has somewhat remained intact, but I never brush up on the language so it has faded a bit. My Mandarin was only basic and I learned about 800 characters, but the first thing to go is writing Chinese. Speaking Mandarin is not too difficult; the structure of the language is straightforward and there are no articles. But, the characters have no relation to pronunciation, so you have to memorize every character.
Currently learning chinese.
Nice
For business in Europe: German (strong economy)
To work in Europe: German (Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg - lot of work opportunities and good salaries)
To travel: Spanish (Spain, LatAm) or French (France, Africa, Canada)
To impress girls: Italian, French or Spanish
To read philosophy: French (topics: about life) or German (topics: morality, rationality, etc.)
Easy and fast to learn: Spanish or Italian
Most practical: Spanish or German
Not learn: Non-European languages (difficulty, harder to find natives to practice, less exposure if you live in US/Europe, etc. = slower learning process)
Going for chinese is not worth it because any bilingual chinese with english and with a good US university will be 5000% times more competent than you to do business in China due to cultural fit.
So go for your main interest behind a language and if you have some advantages to learny any particular language (familiars who are fluent in it, friends, etc.) go for it.
I'm myself fluent in 5 languages: Italian, Spanish, Russian, French and English (perks of being an European I guess)
how do you maintain polyglotism and what're your native tongues? I'd consider myself fluent in 2, lower intermediate in 1 (italian) but would love to learn more once I get to upper intermediate or fluency in italian.
Natives: Russian (parents), Spanish (moved when was a kid in Spain). Russian is maintained by speaking it home and with friends. Spanish, even if I don't use often it's like a second mother language and you can't forget it + speaking with Spanish friends from where I lived). So, maintaining those two was easier due to travelling back and forth between those 2 countries (not now).
Italian was fairly easy to learn it because of it's similarity with Spanish. So I studied 6 months in Italy and followed courses of Itallian law getting into legal lingo. Although I now don't use it often, it's my favourite language and sometimes when I need to read about something more technical for example when I read a lof about any topic, I can switch to another paper on the same topic in a different language so it doesn't become monotonous and it gives a certain novelty to the reading (think books, research papers, etc.)
English it's understandable (forums, YouTube, reading), etc., all my English was at first learned from internent and then got into reading books.
French is the most recent one, worked temporarily in France and because of Italian/Spanish, the writing and reading was fairly easy to grasp, for speaking it was usually to practice with co-workers, locals, language learning apps (Duolingo, Busuu) amd following mews. But I'm not very interested in it, I got into it just so I may not regret in a future that I went to France and didn't learn the language.
Learning languages has also a certain compound effect, the more languages you speak the more you see similarities with other languages in words, sentance structure, etc. and you can grasp it easier. Also, during some years learning foreign languages was one of my main interests, so the curiosity and desire was there. Now I'm tired
I agree with most of what you have said, but I think it's important to note the vast majority (if not every) German person I have encountered can speak English fairly easily (unlike Spanish, French and Italian people), so it might not be that crucial to learn IMO (could perfectly be wrong). For some reason, Portugal (not Brazil) also has a lot of "fluent" English speakers.
True, from that point of view a better language would be French considering that the majority of France is monolingual (read: pride) BUT when you speak German you separate yourself from the majority and Germans also appreciate the effort.
French, from experience, even when you speak almost fluently they will shit you because your accent isn't 100% perfect.
Also, read some time ago a post from a guy in US who worked closely with some engineers from Germany and everyday after work he went with them to the bar and spoke with them only in German. They liked it and offered him a better position in Germany, so sometimes putting an additional effort to speak their language may open some interesting doors.
French is actually fastest growing due to Africa. Relatively easy to learn.
I think that makes the most sense. The last time this question was asked, it was a toss-up between Spanish and French. French has more cachet internationally (diplomacy, etc.), but really at that point you'll already be speaking English, so for a day to day kind of thing, I think thebrofessor's comment above about really trying to immerse yourself in the culture in question will guide most people
It's not a toss up between Spanish and French. The answer is always Spanish.
Don't do Chinese unless you're really serious about it. I took Chinese in college and after three semesters of hard work our professor told us that almost nobody in the class should speak about their Chinese skills in interviews as none of what we had learned would be enough to be used in real-world scenarios. The Spanish and German kids on the other hand were all able to hold long conversations on most topics.
Do what is fun. I'm trying to pick up some Spanish each day on Duo Lingo and am having a great time with it.
I am nearly fluent in Spanish and my kids go to a language immersion school where everything but English is in Spanish. It’s helped me revive my skills, and we live in Colorado so it makes sense.
LOL…they still have an English class, but math, science, PE and everything else is in Spanish.
that's sick, language immersion is something I really wish I took advantage of.
How serious are you? Where do you live. Are you single?
My Gf's sister is looking for a green card.
I have:
English - Fluent
Italian - Fluent
French - Intermediate
Chinese - Beginner
I strongly recommend Chinese :)
Yeah Chinese is challenging but cool.
Ukrainian
Everybody in this thread can apparently speak 3 languages but still can't figure out how to talk to women.
women speak a different language and it takes a lot of money, time, and embarrassment to learn their language
I've been with my wife for 4 presidents and still am not fluent
I’ve done the unthinkable. Make out with a chick without even talking to her.
I was headed home on the Orange line of the DC metro. Was sad I didn’t meet a chick that night. But, then I saw this chick. She was hot and we couldn’t stop staring at each other. She was with 2 other girls, but she was sitting at the window with a seat next to her open.
We just kept eye fucking each other until I couldn’t take it anymore. I sat next to her and leaned in a little bit and she closed the distance and we started making out hardcore. Then I got her name and her number.
Her friends didn’t like me at all - I think they were just jealous. She was the hottest one of the group.
Well, I have 2 daughters and a wife, who I’ve been with for 18 years. Pretty sure I can talk to girls.
Conversational Mandarin Chinese is actually not that hard to learn, despite the self-perpetuating myths. The tonal pronunciation is likely the most challenging, but the grammar is simple and sentence structure straightforward.
Learn Dutch or German. Both very practical in European business and both are very easy to learn for English speaker (even easier than Spanish) and Dutch in particular is strikingly similar to English.
I've taken French and German. French is in the same family as Spanish, so I can talk a little about the differences. I would say that German is very easy to listen too. Very easy. This is because Germans enunciate every syllable very clearly. French was a shit show in this regard, Spanish will be in between, but probable closer to German than French in terms of easiness. German grammar came to me more easily. It's just more intuitive to native English speakers imo.
In terms of vocab, I like to group it into 2 groups: basic words like (I, you, he, it, the, a, etc....) German is *much* easier in this regard. In terms of non-basic words, you'll have an easier time with Spanish. Personally, I just think the Germanic world is super cool. I like the DACH countries a lot. In IB, no language is going to help you unless you're fluent, so just do what you think you'd enjoy the most. I think I would have taken Russian if I could start over.
Why Russian? For the current landscape doesn't seem as a good language for business
I am working proficient in Mandarin and elementary-medium in Japanese. I would definitely NOT learn a language past the very basics if the only reason is because it seems good for business. I would say learning a crash-course in basic words is already very helpful for creating good will in most other countries. Then after that you kind of have to commit to being serious about it for the language to benefit you any more. Gotta have passion in order to motivate you to get over the hump of being a beginner.
C'mon. It may be a little harder, but learning chinese these days is a dart in the 10.
Yeah I mean there are mostly Chinese people in this world and if they know you gave a little effort towards their language and culture, they are happy.
Currently teaching myself Portuguese. 1000% recommend it, especially if you took basic Spanish in HS. It's basically a cooler, sexier, and livlier sounding version of Spanish. Not saying Spanish isn't those things, but Portuguese just sounds so sick. The sentences sound so melodic and calming, but also energetic and lively. Even more so with the Carioca (Rio) accent. You pretty much have a 40% headstart if you already took HS Spanish.
Not to mention Brazil and Portugal are some incredible countries to visit. Going there this summer & couldn't be more excited.
Whatever language you pick -- try to have some sort of deeper, emotional connection with it. Portuguese is a much less popular language vs. Spanish / French / Chinese / Hindi / Russian / etc. (9th most-spoken), but I really knew for a fact that I wanted to travel to Brazil & Portugal. A big thing for me was connecting with the people there on a deeper level, especially in Brazil where 95%+ don't speak any English. It's a great motivator to keep you going on your journey, especially once the Duolingo stuff starts to gets exhausting (trust me, it will.)
once you get tired of Duo, try LingQ
I'm on Duolingo now with Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian, but already have working knowledge of all three and feel like Duolingo is elementary.
Is LingQ the next best step? I'm looking for intermediate-level tutoring/learning.
Fluent in Portuguese. I have to say it is one of the most difficult Romance language ever so shoutout to you for choosing such a challenging language. Vais chegar lá não te preocupes !
kkk valeu, você tá certo mano! Let me know if you have any good shows, music, YouTube channels, etc. that might help with fluency. Would really appreciate it. Currently back and forth between Duo, HelloTalk, and CNN Brasil hahaha.
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