What to learn?

Post by **Teaos** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:57 am

Ok I have decided to learn hoe to speak either French, German, Spanish, or Mandarin.

French is pretty common and thus would be easy to learn. Also from what I hear it is the easiet to lern as it is similar to English.

German is cool sounding and I have always been interested in Germany but the only people who speak German are Germans were the other 3 have huge numbers who seak them all across the world.

Spanish is pretty wide spread but I;m not to interested in it.

Mandarin. It is spoken by shit loads of people and lets face it China is taking over so it may pay to learn the lingo. Especially since My country is getting pulled into the asia economy and world more and more. The thing is though I think it would be by far the hardest. The other three are all based in the same way and have similar traits. Mandarin is so totally different it would be very hard to learn.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:37 pm

I learned Spanish in school, and found it fairly easy. It may also be of note that there are more fails among the people learning French or German in the school I teach at than people doing Spanish.

My last option would be Mandarin. Not only does it seem ridiculously hard, but you also have to learn a whole new alphapbet, too, and it has nothing in relation to the Latin-based Eurpean languages, which are all somewhat similar to each other.

shran · Post by **shran** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:23 pm

I'd say French. And while you're at it, Italian, because it has a certain grace over itself. German would be relatively hard for you to learn, because although it is from the same family of languages, it has little in common with English regarding vocabulary. Grammar is the least difficult part, but has proven itself to be the most difficult part to master.

As for Spanish and Mandarin, that is something I don't know anything about.

Another point of note: DO NOT TRY JAPANESE. It drives the people around you crazy and I know from experience.

Reliant121 · Post by **Reliant121** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:24 pm

First off... Ni HÃ¡o!

I would take German, French, Mandarin then chinese, ordered as preference. German, statistically is actually the most commonly used language in Europe. 22% of it speak german.
French is used alot in Pacifica (Blame Mr. Jones for that).
Mandarin is spoken alot through asia.
I chose spanish last because when I did some of it last year it was VERY difficult for me. Yet I can pick up french, German and to some extent, Dutch alot easier

shran · Post by **shran** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:27 pm

there is one active Dutch forum member here. If he was to communicate to you only in Dutch, do you think it would improve your Dutch? I just happen to be Dutch....

Post by **Mikey** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:59 pm

Spanish is helpful in the US because of the large numbers of Spanish-speaking (only) denizens, but I don't know what the situation is in NZ. Mandarin seems like the most useful, and you're a smart guy - don't let the degree of difficulty deter you.

Reliant121 · Post by **Reliant121** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:05 pm

I'm sorry Shran. It probably wouldn't help, because of the Complexity the Dutch language.

Jabber Swarky · Post by **Jabber Swarky** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:09 pm

Yeah, i'd say spanish. a Lot of countries speak it, both in Europe and in the wider world... as is French. Though, as Reliant said, German is more common than you'd think, .

But, yeah, spanish as the first choice, methinks.

mwhittington · Post by **mwhittington** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:51 pm

Yes, Spanish. I took 3 years in high school in Missouri, and from lack of use, I forgot a lot of it. But now that I live in Mexifornia, it's coming back!
Hey, is Spanglish a real language, like Ebonics?

Post by **Mikey** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:03 pm

I don't know if it's official, but I hear an awful lot of it.

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:26 pm

Having studied French and Spanish at university, I'd also say Spanish is easier to pick up. Also, probably (in my experience anyway) easier pronunciation-wise. But French may be somewhat more use and it isn't that difficult.

Also, I'd studied Latin and that helps with Spanish, there are some quite strong similarities.

Post by **Mikey** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:24 pm

Latin would help just as much with French, Portuguese, Romanian, and Italian - that's why they're called the Romance languages. Pardon the pun, but French isn't the lingua franca that it used to be; I would probably find Spanish or Mandarin more useful.

Blackstar the Chakat · Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:27 am

Go with French. Ladies love the french language.

Post by **Mikey** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:29 am

The ladies I know despise anything French.

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:02 am

Mikey wrote:Latin would help just as much with French, Portuguese, Romanian, and Italian - that's why they're called the Romance languages. Pardon the pun, but French isn't the lingua franca that it used to be; I would probably find Spanish or Mandarin more useful.

It doesn't actually help as much with French in my experience.