What'S A Good Language (Or 2) To Learn?

[JurgenG]

Italien if you like Opera

French and German if you like philosophy. I

Spanish, the official language of the American continent with the exception of Brazil (Portuguese) and Canada (French and Cantonese).

[zzaa09]

Interesting to note: the smart money seems to favour less Euro-centric linguistic forms and a push towards generating stronger Asiatic understanding. This is the future cycling back in a historic representation, when at one time, Chinese; Malay; and Arabic were clearly the universal languages of choice in the ancient trading world.

[mca]

I've found using the Inuit languages has been invaluable when dealing with Thais in places like 7-11 etc. They obviously consider me crazier than a shithouse rat and serve me as quickly as possible or, in the case of places like Tesco Lotus when I've gone in to buy a kettle and they're trying to sell me a 100000 baht fridge that at that price I assume can fly or dance a Viennese waltz, leave me the f#ck alone.

[johnbits]

To make the most money, learn the international language of BS.

[StreetCowboy]

Interesting to note: the smart money seems to favour less Euro-centric linguistic forms and a push towards generating stronger Asiatic understanding. This is the future cycling back in a historic representation, when at one time, Chinese; Malay; and Arabic were clearly the universal languages of choice in the ancient trading world.

Speak for yourself, mate. I'm the first in my family to have even a smattering of Malay, and yet that has done us from Lahore to Vancouver and Hong Kong quite happily, thanks very much.

My dear old mother spoke a bit of Swahili, but I don't think it ever did her much good

If I was you, I would follow the example of the Chinese, and learn English. If its good enough for them as a second language, its good enough for me.

SC

[johnbits]

In 4-5 more years, hand held computers should be able to translate any language better than most can learn a language.

[bermondburi]

The optimist learns English, the pessimist learns Chinese, the realist learns AK-47.

the pessimist learns Chinese

I would say the realists learn Chinese.

Yep. That would be the one.

The international lingua franca of the future.

Best get on the bandwagon....

English is dying..

people come out with this myth but if you look at the internet now from when it started ( and it is more global now ) the actual percentage of English laguage stuff on there has risen, not fallen as many predicted it would. Pluse there are many areas where English is the spoken language ( air traffic control etc ) and that is not going to change anytime soon. Why is it that so many Chinese are learning English ?

[simon43]

Just for interest, here is a list of the primary language spoken by my hotel guests (for the last 300 or so bookings).

(English is then broken down into separate English-speaking countries).

From this data you can conclude:

- My hotel is not popular with Thais

- Chinese, Germans and Swedish form a major % of language needs for me to learn, (I already manage OK in German and I can generally assume that most younger Swedish people will speak better English than me).

Simon

[StreetCowboy]

Just for interest, here is a list of the primary language spoken by my hotel guests (for the last 300 or so bookings).

(English is then broken down into separate English-speaking countries).

From this data you can conclude:

- My hotel is not popular with Thais

- Chinese, Germans and Swedish form a major % of language needs for me to learn, (I already manage OK in German and I can generally assume that most younger Swedish people will speak better English than me).

Simon

I would have thought that was pretty unequivocal then, since most of the European dialects you can get by if you speak one already, Chinese and Russian would be the obvious first and second choices.

As already discussed ad nauseam, mandarin dialect is probably the easiest and most useful, since most Chinese speak that as a second tongue if not first, and most Cantonese speakers who do not will have a good chance of speaking English (Cantonese is the dominant dialect for Chinese in Lancashire, Malaysia and Hong Kong...)

Possibly a large minority of Eastern Europeans might have a smattering of Russian... I believe it was the lingua franca of the Eastern Block.

SC

[Heng]

If you learn Mandarin (or Cantonese or Hokkien, etc.) and learn how to write as well... you'll be able to communicate with all Chinese (who are literate anyway) because the writing is 'universal.' (with a few exceptions regarding usage...) Pen, paper, calculator. All you need in any Chinatown ...to start an import export business.

[StreetCowboy]

If you learn Mandarin (or Cantonese or Hokkien, etc.) and learn how to write as well... you'll be able to communicate with all Chinese (who are literate anyway) because the writing is 'universal.' (with a few exceptions regarding usage...) Pen, paper, calculator. All you need in any Chinatown ...to start an import export business.

The name for written Chinese is Chinese.

Although they share traditional characters, Tawiwanese and HKers use a different turn of phrase in many cases, so that their writing reads 'foreign' to the other.

Entertainingly enough, I believe, that the Japanese use simplifed characters, while the Koreans use traditional

SC

[zzaa09]

Can the language of rhetoric be translated?

Or such comparatives be applied?

Pure linguistics or singularly cultural relationships?

[StreetCowboy]

Can the language of rhetoric be translated?

Or such comparatives be applied?

Pure linguistics or singularly cultural relationships?

You're quite right. The OP should learn to speak, rather than learning a language.

I always thought that Arthur Scargill was a good orator, and I remain to be convinced that there is anything less dangerous to society than oration

SC

[RonanTheBarbarian]

Simon, out of curiosity, what is your first language?

You say you know four languages already..in what order did you learn tham?

[simon43]

My mother tongue is English - I then learnt French from the age of 5, (and worked for 4 years in France and Belgium). I learnt Italian as an 'add-on' to French, (because it's such an easy language to learn if you already know another Roman language). I learnt (and am still learning) Thai from about 8 years ago - studied at Chulalongkorn some years ago.

I think other members who speak several languages will agree that once you know a few languages, it's relatively easy to obtain a passable knowledge of other languages, due to the 'root' family of each language. So it was easy for me to attain passable German and Spanish. I can read/write/speak passable Lao, (and understan My Farsi and Arabic knowledge stems from my parents, who were both born and brought up in Alexandria, Eygpt. I studied written/spoken Mandarin some 8 years ago to basic level.

Finally, I can read/write/speak Burmese at basic level, but the reason for that is because I was intrigued by a language which looks like bubbles when written down!

But apart from my mother tongue, French and Thai, I would not regard myself as fluent in my languages base. Fluent in my definition means being able to speak the language without requiring any prior thought as to how your spoken sentence/phrase will be constructed, as well as being able to read/write in that language.

Simon

Edited August 24, 2011 by simon43

[thaivisitorTeeVee]

You sound like a real life Stu Jay Raj!

[londoedan]

My mother tongue is English - I then learnt French from the age of 5, (and worked for 4 years in France and Belgium). I learnt Italian as an 'add-on' to French, (because it's such an easy language to learn if you already know another Roman language). I learnt (and am still learning) Thai from about 8 years ago - studied at Chulalongkorn some years ago.

I think other members who speak several languages will agree that once you know a few languages, it's relatively easy to obtain a passable knowledge of other languages, due to the 'root' family of each language. So it was easy for me to attain passable German and Spanish. I can read/write/speak passable Lao, (and understan My Farsi and Arabic knowledge stems from my parents, who were both born and brought up in Alexandria, Eygpt. I studied written/spoken Mandarin some 8 years ago to basic level.

Finally, I can read/write/speak Burmese at basic level, but the reason for that is because I was intrigued by a language which looks like bubbles when written down!

But apart from my mother tongue, French and Thai, I would not regard myself as fluent in my languages base. Fluent in my definition means being able to speak the language without requiring any prior thought as to how your spoken sentence/phrase will be constructed, as well as being able to read/write in that language.

Simon

Hats-off for that effort ! :jap:

I went English (baby) - German (schoolboy - Grade 3 CSE) - Indonesian (fluent ) - Hindi (passable after 2 years living there) - Mandarin (failed despite several attempts) - Thai / Lao (failed dismally) - Arabic (failed) - Viet (passable after 1 year living with Viet girl).

I start a new job in Beijing next month for approx 2-3 years so I intend to have a real go at Mandarin again and hope I make it past the first 50 or so words / phrases.

Londo

[Heng]

If you learn Mandarin (or Cantonese or Hokkien, etc.) and learn how to write as well... you'll be able to communicate with all Chinese (who are literate anyway) because the writing is 'universal.' (with a few exceptions regarding usage...) Pen, paper, calculator. All you need in any Chinatown ...to start an import export business.

The name for written Chinese is Chinese.

Although they share traditional characters, Tawiwanese and HKers use a different turn of phrase in many cases, so that their writing reads 'foreign' to the other.

Entertainingly enough, I believe, that the Japanese use simplifed characters, while the Koreans use traditional

SC

Like I said, the usage is different, but it's otherwise universal in practical terms. You wouldn't be able to sit down and write poetry together, but you could most definitely sit down and deal in X goods, over Y terms, over Z time frame.

[thaivisitorTeeVee]

If you learn Mandarin (or Cantonese or Hokkien, etc.) and learn how to write as well... you'll be able to communicate with all Chinese (who are literate anyway) because the writing is 'universal.' (with a few exceptions regarding usage...) Pen, paper, calculator. All you need in any Chinatown ...to start an import export business.

The name for written Chinese is Chinese.

Although they share traditional characters, Tawiwanese and HKers use a different turn of phrase in many cases, so that their writing reads 'foreign' to the other.

Entertainingly enough, I believe, that the Japanese use simplifed characters, while the Koreans use traditional

SC

Like I said, the usage is different, but it's otherwise universal in practical terms. You wouldn't be able to sit down and write poetry together, but you could most definitely sit down and deal in X goods, over Y terms, over Z time frame.

Similar to Bahasa Indonesia and the Bahasa Melayu used in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore....some words and phrases might be different but no problems with understanding the other party Edited August 25, 2011 by thaivisitorTeeVee

[rubin]

Just read in the Interner that English is the language of optimists. Here http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/english-positivity/