Reply to: Learning another anguage

[TraceRacing]

I'm reasonably lucky in that I learnt both Dutch and Engish as a child. A couple of years ago I was on a contract in China and learnt some Mandarin. It's a tough language as the written alphabet has some 2500 characters (and a character is not necessary just a character it can be a whole word). I was in "immersive" mode, very little English apart from a couple of the hotel staff and my translator, and even with 2 hours tuition a day (and a Chinese bit on the side) I only got to basic conversation (introductions, ordering a meal / drinks, asking if she was staying for breakfast etc)

The toughest parts to really get to are that there is no gender (he can be male or female or a group!) and no tense (past present future all one and the same) so there is an amount of interpretation in your mind even if you inderstand the words!

Of coursem then you have to go to Hong Kong monthly to revalidate your visa and they speak Cantonese...and it's bloody different again!

[Dearnla]

It all depends where you fancy going to work. It would take a lot of dedication to learn a new language to the point where you could actually use it for work, but for socialising after work it's possible.

Of the languages I've had a crack at (though not much more than beginner):

German - Almost pointless because the Germans will nearly always default to English as soon as you open your mouth to speak. Being forced to use a language is the quickest way to learn it, and they will never force you.

French - Useful but mostly unfulfilling because the French expect you to speak French anyway and just look bored if you struggle.

Italian - This is a winner for me because the Italians really appreciate it when you have a go at their language. It also follows a fantastically organised syntax, with only occasional irregular words. Learn the rules and you've basically learned the language. Vocabulary is often quite easy as well because we recognise so many of the words from the Latin source which we use so much ourselves anyway. Pronunciation is mostly just a matter of putting on an Italian accent (not so easy with French and German).

And French is recognisable in written form as there are about 1000 common words due to some bloke called Norman and 1066

[VectraMan]

I am learning German and i would recommend it. Not only for the kudos as Brits in general are awful at learning other languages, but for the ability to scare your wifey/girlfriend by telling her loudly "Ich Leibe Dich!"

As best as I can work out, Ich Leibe dich would be "I bodies you". No wonder that scares her.

[northernladuk]

Arabic and Hindi IMO.

[nealus]

I am learning German and i would recommend it. Not only for the kudos as Brits in general are awful at learning other languages, but for the ability to scare your wifey/girlfriend by telling her loudly "Ich Leibe Dich!" It is certainly not a beautiful lingo!

I'm finding it ok and slowly picking up the vocabulary and context. Don't expect to be fluent in six months but do expect to be able to visit Germany and get by adequately. I find listening to German TV aimed at young folks to be handy as German words are mixed with a lot of English (sounds more cool i guess) and this allows me to put the German in some kind of context... Not a classical way of learning but works for me..

[lightng]

Spanish, Mandarin and English are the three languages in the trilingual era apparently. Spanish is very easy to learn compared to other languages.

I'm currently brushing up on A-Level German from twenty odd years ago and Brazilian Portugeuse. I agree with what has been said about german grammar - it's a bugger when you're learning it.

[norrahe]

Never had a problem speaking French in various parts of France, only problem I came across was when a waiter heard me translating the menu into English and the refused to speak to me in French for the rest of the evening. Though that was in Paris.

Am currently trying to get to grips with Dutch using Michel Thomas which isn't bad, the cds, the Dutch does take a while to get your head around.

[norrahe]

There is no point learning french. One of our friends can speak french very well. Even went to france on their honeymoon, only to be screamed, sworn and talked down to for slightly mispronouncing one word.

Here is the easiest french lesson ever and the only sentence you need, works on every french person: Va chier!

Never had a problem speaking French in various parts of France, only problem I came across was when a waiter heard me translating the menu into English and the refused to speak to me in French for the rest of the evening. Though that was in Paris.

[petergriffin]

:

German - Almost pointless because the Germans will nearly always default to English as soon as you open your mouth to speak.

I disagree. You probably are talking of the Dutch who, annoyingly, refuse to speak Dutch to foreigners I speak a bit of Dutch and I had to pretend to be Belgian to be accepted into a conversation). The Germans I've met (I used to live in the Netherlands, near the border with Germany and visted Germany every weekend) do not really like to speak English unless politely asked (Sprechen Sie Englisch, bitte?).

My advice: go for German but travel frequently to Germany and try to practice your German without reverting to English while you're there.

[MikeNguyen]

Exactly. I cant believe no-one else said that.


I once did spanish in the evenings. Aside from English, it's spoken in more countries than any other language.

Also Spanish is the second most natively spoken language in the world (mandarin is the spoken the most purely on how many chinese people there are), above English at 3rd place.

It's a very nice language to learn as well ... Far more refined and romantic than italian or god forbid, french.




I would recommend rosetta stone by the way. Really is unbeatable language software ....

I was thinking the same thing! I did a bit of Spanish at school and got the hang of it, after spending the season in Ibiza a few years later I was amazed at how much I could remember! Its a really nice language and also very similar to Italian, so you could go on to learn this and be multi lingual!
I have heard Rosetta Stone is good, not actually used it myself as its quite pricey and I dont know anyone that has used it! Would you recommend it? Maybe I should invest in a language!

[stek]

Just a heads up, German grammar is f@c#ing difficult, frustrating and complex, however, once you've mastered it you're home free.. he hopes

German is a piece of piss compared to Russian or any other Slavic language. Trust me!

[wim121]

French - Useful but mostly unfulfilling because the French expect you to speak French anyway and just look bored if you struggle.

French has to be the easiest; if you don't know the word just say the English word in a French accent and you'll probably be right. And the word order is roughly the same as English too.

There is no point learning french. One of our friends can speak french very well. Even went to france on their honeymoon, only to be screamed, sworn and talked down to for slightly mispronouncing one word.

Here is the easiest french lesson ever and the only sentence you need, works on every french person: Va chier!

[wim121]

Spanish would be pretty useful

Exactly. I cant believe no-one else said that.


I once did spanish in the evenings. Aside from English, it's spoken in more countries than any other language.

Also Spanish is the second most natively spoken language in the world (mandarin is the spoken the most purely on how many chinese people there are), above English at 3rd place.

It's a very nice language to learn as well ... Far more refined and romantic than italian or god forbid, french.




I would recommend rosetta stone by the way. Really is unbeatable language software ....

[Jason Mitchell]

I learnt German in like 6 months. I recommend you join a German language course.

[Mushroombump]

Spanish would be pretty useful