I'm just asking for feedback and suggestions on which foreign language to start learning. Right now I have three frontrunners, German, Russian, and Swedish.
A little background: I'm perfectly fluent in English. I can speak and understand Mandarin Chinese (as well as Hebei/Shaanxi dialect, I suppose) at a native level, I can read fairly well (enough to get through a daily newspaper), but I'm worse at writing (about the level of an elementary school student...I often forget how to write certain characters, but I'll recognize it if I see it). I've also studied French for seven years and can read it perfectly, write it fairly well (better than Chinese, embarrassingly enough), and speak/understand well enough such that if I were to be dropped in the middle of nowhere France, I'd easily be able to get by (except everyone would assume I have a slight speech impediment).
I'm currently quite attached to the thought of beginning a new foreign language, for various reasons as outlined below:
German: one of my best friends speaks German (she's Austrian...citizen and everything) and it'd be really cool to learn it just to communicate more or less secretly in public ...I'm aware that German is quite similar to English morphologically, although declension would be a slight issue in terms of learning.
Russian: I have a lot of friends who can speak Russian, and again, it'd just be one of those secret badass "oh yeah, I can speak Russian ROFL" type things to know. This is probably the hardest of the three for a native English/Chinese speaker, as it's heavily declined and the pronunciation would be quite difficult (I'm told the second person pronoun is especially difficult). It's also a Slavic language (which I have no prior experience with). I'm not averse to learning the Cyrillic alphabet, though, as it's pretty much just a mishmash of English, Greek, and miscellaneous (I figure the hardest parts would be the grammar, and speaking/listening skills).
Swedish: this is more of a random thing. I actually know some rudiments of Swedish (don't ask) in terms of pronunciation, basic grammar, etc. This would probably be the most random language to learn, but morphologically it's very similar to English. My only qualms are the facts that resources are hard to come by, and it's really not that useful (how often am I going to run into a native Swedish speaker?), although with knowing English, Chinese, and French, utility isn't really a concern for me.
Just wondering if you guys had any thoughts/suggestions or questions, and thanks for the advice. I'm not really learning this language for any practical purpose, pretty much mostly on a lark (although I'm dedicated).
I'll be back to check on this thread in the morning (...interning in Shanghai), so I'll apologize in advance for not being prompt in my answers to questions.
I would say German is likely to be the most useful.
However, I would go with Russian, for a couple reasons.
1) German, being a Germanic language like English, is going to be far easier to pick up if you ever needed to learn it quickly - learning enough to get around/ask for help in a German-speaking country would likely only take a couple days at most (plus whatever time for getting pronunciation down) while Russian as noted is much harder. 2) I kind of want to learn Russian myself so I'm vicariously doing that by encouraging you to.
I'd learn one of German or Russian if I couldn't learn both. I can speak German because of my cousins who live in Germany. Choosing one of them? Well, I don't know. Your best friend or some of your friends. Well, tough choice.
And learning German is so fucking easy. I did it in 2.5 months when I was 10.
It depends on what you want to do. German or Swedish will be nice for lots of math/science stuff (if you're an engineer or something). There's lots of civil engineering stuff going on in Scandinavia, for example (if Science Channel can be trusted).
Russian if you like computers and technology and such. Lots of programs and gaming groups come out of Russia.
I pretty much speak German (my vocab's a little lacking, but I understand 90% of the time when reading/listening) and I can tell you it'll be easy enough for you to learn. You're obviously pretty good at learning languages, so the fact that German is Germanic as VGhost said above will help immensely. There are loooooads of loanwords too, so you get an immediate headstart (I know loanwords exist in Russian/Swedish too, though)
Whether or not you learn Russian, I'd recommend learning to read the words. 1) They sound cool 2) Learning a new alphabet is going to be really handy.
Swedish... would be cool, but it's not going to be super useful.
Personally, I'd recommend learning German 'cause it's pretty useful, the food is good in the German speaking parts of the world, and you'll be able to enjoy Khaldor's stream to the fullest :D
Haha thanks for all the advice everyone! (keep it coming though!).
I actually think Swedish is closer to English than German is, right? They're all Germanic languages in any case, but Swedish grammar is much closer than German grammar is.
I'd probably want to learn German. I'm biased, as I am German, but still. I don't like the sound of Russian and Swedish has a few really hard phonemes (I do want to learn it some day, though, sounds really funny).
German, and I agree with vGhost here, is just a very useful language toi know. Scientific resources, literature, future market potential... overall utility.
Fact is - even if your knowledge of German is very basic, you can already communicate fairly well with Germans, mostly because pronunciation doesn't matter that much, so I think if you know someone you can practice with, it's easier to stay motivated. I once tried to pronounce 'WeiQi' (Chinese board game)... and somehow I ended up saying 'ministry of foreign affairs' or something, I was so embarassed I stopped trying.
If I were you, I'd first perfect my Mandarin writing skills, then learn Spanish. Arabic, Russian, Japanese, German are some other useful languages. If you're looking for the fun stuff, try some native American languages, or native South American 'hunting' languages.
Then again, it's all about what you want to do with it. If you're an American interning in Shanghai, I suppose you're doing something which requires wearing a tie, writing Mandarin would be an asset? In any event, try increasing your proficiency of all your languages, the last bit tends to make you appreciate it the most.
On June 14 2011 00:50 Empyrean wrote: I'm not averse to learning the Cyrillic alphabet, though, as it's pretty much just a mishmash of English, Greek, and miscellaneous (I figure the hardest parts would be the grammar, and speaking/listening skills)
cyrillic is super easy to learn. it's pretty much the only thing i remember from when i was learning russian
I would probably go with Russian if I were you. Like VGhost, I also kind of want to learn Russian myself. I'm Norwegian (Norwegian is probably around 90% the same as Swedish, and even closer to Danish), and had French for 3 years and German for 2 years while in school. I know from first hand experience that the Scandinavian languages aren't very useful to know unless you plan on living in one of the countries. Almost everyone speaks English in Scandinavia, especially if you are in one of the bigger cities.
I live and study in Prague, and so I'm learning Czech these days, also a Slavic language. What I can tell you is that it's a very hard transition from Germanic languages (like English, Norwegian/Swedish and German), but also very fun and interesting once you get into it. I know a lot of people who have traveled in Russia, and they tell me that the general knowledge of English isn't that great, while I from personal experiences know that you can easily get by in Germany, and of course Scandinavia with English and maybe some very basic local language. Also, most older people in the former Soviet states (like Poland, Czech and Slovak republics, Hungary and the more eastern countries) speak at least some Russian, although they're often reluctant to speak it due to their history with the Russians. If you were to learn Russian, you could, at least in theory, be able to get by with a combination of Russian and English.
Good luck, and do tell us which language you choose to learn!
On June 14 2011 01:25 nepeta wrote: If you're an American interning in Shanghai, I suppose you're doing something which requires wearing a tie, writing Mandarin would be an asset? In any event, try increasing your proficiency of all your languages, the last bit tends to make you appreciate it the most.
Haha I'm Chinese, but I moved to the states when I was very young (....as in before I could talk). I'm going to work on my non-computer Chinese writing (seriously, writing on a computer is so much easier because you can just use pinyin and recognition skills to figure things out), but probably not very much.
Thanks for all the advice from everyone so far. I guess German and Russian are the two front runners. How difficult is it for foreigners to speak with a convincing enough accent in each language? I feel like German's going to be slightly easier (although I'm anticipating trouble with the -ch sound <_<), but who knows.
Although being able to surreptitiously listen in on Russians speaking in Russian (who assume Asians don't know it) would be hilarious XD
First off, I'd say, though you've already listed the languages you're interested in, you should give it another think and choose a language that you'll be able to put to the most use. You mention you have friends that speak these various languages - think on who you're likely to spend the most time around and then go with that. It's pointless learning a language and only being able to put it to practical use once every 2 years when you visit your friend in "wherever". You'll have forgotten everything.
Secondly I wanted to ask where you plan to learn this language? The reason I was so blown away by this thread was because not more than 3 hours ago I typed "how to learn a new language" into Google and spent the last 3 hours doing a lesson in each Russian and Korean. You can imagine my surprise when I come back to TL and this blog catches my eye immediately. I looked at a number of websites and was tempted to buy a course but it was pretty pricey and I am worried I would stick with it.
I actually think Swedish is closer to English than German is, right?
It is not, genetically speaking. The majority of English vocabulary which is taken from pre-Norman England was taken from Anglo-Saxon, with Scandinavian infused as a later import from the Dane Law. However, the lexical input from Scandinavian pales in comparison to Anglo-Saxon.
Thanks for all the advice from everyone so far. I guess German and Russian are the two front runners. How difficult is it for foreigners to speak with a convincing enough accent in each language? I feel like German's going to be slightly easier (although I'm anticipating trouble with the -ch sound <_<), but who knows.
Not a concern. In any given language, pronunciation is always the least of your problems, unless you are encountering a language with an entirely alien phonetic concept.
Deciding on a language is not the same thing as deciding on a country for vacationing, or even an exchange semester. If it is going to go anywhere, it will be a lifelong commitment, with several years to acquire the basic competence, and the discipline to adhere to a strict regimen of study deprived of all social motivation. This can be somewhat alleviated by placing yourself in the right place, with the right people.
After all, Germans, Swedes and Russians are all renowned for their extroverted, outgoing, easy natures.
I have no real input, except that I think Swedish sounds more attractive than Russian or German. If a cute boy whispered something Swedish into my ear~ ♥__♥ I wouldn't know what he said, but I know i'd be incredibly... ♥____♥ <- that
EPT
...I'm aware that German is quite similar to English morphologically, although declension would be a slight issue in terms of learning. 
