Depending on where you're moving in California, you may want to learn either Spanish, Redneck, or every variation of asian languages ever.
What is a good second language to know?
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Also Spanish if you plan on living in America (at least that's what FBI/cop shows tell me), French if you plan on living in Canada (there are some areas of 'French Canada' where people won't serve you unless you speak french), I think Arabic is the language in Afghanistan/Iraq/that-general-area, so Arabic if you join the military, Chinese/Japanese if you want to be in large business or IT (because Japan and China would probably be related to you from a business/technological perspective at some point).MirrorSweep said:
Oh, and Latin and/or Greek; becuause they both are strongly affective on English, it could, in theory, improve your understanding of your own lagnuage.
I have a university degree in ESL (English as a 2nd language) teaching . My first language is French, 2nd is English.
I am currently working for a private English school in China. Mandarin (called hunan here - the language of the people) is difficult for me to learn for the following reason: vowels have up to 5 different tones so not only must you say the proper vowel, you must also use the proper tone. On the other hand, the Chinese learn pinyin at school which is how to transcribe Chinese to roman letters. Unfortunately, you would need to know the rules of pinyin to find it useful to begin with.
I am also learning Japanese and I have been doing so for a while. I know enough kanjis to keep myself out of trouble, but my focus is not on learning them but learning to talk and understand others fluently. Also: although the Chinese and Japanese writing systems differ, their use of "kanjis" makes it possible for you to read Chinese if you know enough Japanese and the reverse is also true. This puts you in situations where you can understand the meaning of a sentence without have an auditive representation of what you understand in your mind.
Another thing: I took some sign language classes at my university some years ago. Sign language is very territory-specific, meaning that your sign language may not be useful when talking to other signers in other countries.
Lastly, for those of you who like French because it is a romantic language, I present to you my performance for the Chinese new year party we had at my company. Keep in mind that I am NOT a singer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF6_ecVU8Tc
For those who may be interested: I know my employer is looking for 5 more foreigners for June to work here in China as English teachers. If you have any interest/questions, feel free to send me a PM and I'll see what can be done.
I am currently working for a private English school in China. Mandarin (called hunan here - the language of the people) is difficult for me to learn for the following reason: vowels have up to 5 different tones so not only must you say the proper vowel, you must also use the proper tone. On the other hand, the Chinese learn pinyin at school which is how to transcribe Chinese to roman letters. Unfortunately, you would need to know the rules of pinyin to find it useful to begin with.
I am also learning Japanese and I have been doing so for a while. I know enough kanjis to keep myself out of trouble, but my focus is not on learning them but learning to talk and understand others fluently. Also: although the Chinese and Japanese writing systems differ, their use of "kanjis" makes it possible for you to read Chinese if you know enough Japanese and the reverse is also true. This puts you in situations where you can understand the meaning of a sentence without have an auditive representation of what you understand in your mind.
Another thing: I took some sign language classes at my university some years ago. Sign language is very territory-specific, meaning that your sign language may not be useful when talking to other signers in other countries.
Lastly, for those of you who like French because it is a romantic language, I present to you my performance for the Chinese new year party we had at my company. Keep in mind that I am NOT a singer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF6_ecVU8Tc
For those who may be interested: I know my employer is looking for 5 more foreigners for June to work here in China as English teachers. If you have any interest/questions, feel free to send me a PM and I'll see what can be done.
Judging by the presence of an Escapist account in your life, I'm gonna say Java. Easy to learn the basics, fun to speak (If rather monotonous), and if you learn it well enough you can start to do things you've been leaving to game devs for all these years, things you never would've pictured yourself doing otherwise.
Or you could learn Chinese, seeing as how even the Space Cowboys of tomorrow know a little Chinese.
Or you could learn Chinese, seeing as how even the Space Cowboys of tomorrow know a little Chinese.
Johnnyallstar said:
Learning Mandarin and Cantonese is hard. I'm an Chinese 16 year old born in Hong Kong and I don't even know how to speak and write my own language that well. It's partially because I've got Aspergers and I'm educated in an international school, but I just find the language more complicated to use compared to English.sharkinz said:
You have to learn over 400 different characters in order to even read a Chinese newspaper or book. It's almost as hard as learning Japanese.
Pick a language and a culture that you're genuinely interested in (in order to speak any language properly, you really ought to understand or at least have studied the underlying culture.) Ideally, pick one from a country you'd actually like to visit and spend at least a semester there.
(Seriously, study abroad anyway, it's awesome.)
Me, I've got a degree in Japanese because I fell in love with the sound of the language many years ago thanks to anime music. (Oh, don't look at me like that. Anime's not a bad place to START getting interested in Japanese; it's just a bad place to confine your studies.)
Learning another language is a great idea. Just pick something you enjoy and can stick with, and you'll do fine.
(Seriously, study abroad anyway, it's awesome.)
Me, I've got a degree in Japanese because I fell in love with the sound of the language many years ago thanks to anime music. (Oh, don't look at me like that. Anime's not a bad place to START getting interested in Japanese; it's just a bad place to confine your studies.)
Learning another language is a great idea. Just pick something you enjoy and can stick with, and you'll do fine.
Latin: it will help you understand your own language better and allow you to sound like a clever cock. Not terribly practical, though.
spanish is the only damn thing thats useful in the midwest (take it from me, i live here)Vendayn said:
no offense, but there are a ridiculous amounts of spanish immigrants here, especially when your not in big towns, who don't know a pinch of english, so spanish is by far the most useful.
(i myself took german,so i have that language down a bit, but i have a good 50 spanish phrases down due to hearing/having to use them)
In Norway: English.
Other than that, probably French or Mandarin. And Norwegian. Because Norway is going to rule the world in the not too distant future.
Other than that, probably French or Mandarin. And Norwegian. Because Norway is going to rule the world in the not too distant future.
Wow. That's pretty uncanny. I'm Belgian as well, and speak the same languages at roughly the same proficienct levels. I'd even go for an Asian language as an 'exotic' choice, being partial to Japanese. If you now tell me you're studying English and Dutch as a linguist-in-training I'm afraid I'll have to take out a hit on one of us as we may just be the same person.HolKann said:
OT: Well, uh... what HolKann said, really.
