What language to learn?

[Skomatth]

I'm a native english speaker who took latin in high school. What language do you think I should learn in college? I'm considering ancient greek because I might go for a classics major, but I'm also thinking about something that would make it easier to travel the world. Any advice?

[Dutch_guy]

hehe learn Dutch if you learn that you can actually read the ''Talk your own language thread ''

No but seriously, Ancient greek is a good choice ( sp ) if you got good grades in your latin lessons you should do all right with Ancient Greek at least that's my experience with Latin & Ancient Greek.

Have you considerd Spanish - or did you get that in high school ?
That would probably make it easier to travel to Brazil and surrounding countries.
And maybe learning Chinees would be interresting since they are becoming more and more powerfull , and it's probably an interresting country to visit.

[ichi]

Matt
If you learn one of the Arabic languages/dialects you are pretty much guaranteed a job with the guv (same with Chinese/Korean)

If you learn Spanish you are pretty much guaranteed a supervisory job in any number of manufacturing/service industries

If you learn German you can read and understand many many technical/scientific journals.

If you learn Japanese you can move there and teach English

If you learn French you'll never have to say your sorry

So ask yourself, is it to work, or travel, or . . .

do you prefer women of a certain nationality?

ichi

[English assassin]

IMHO Spanish would unquestionably be the most useful "easy" language to learn from the point of view of travelling. And increasingly dealing with people in the USA too.

German is also quite useful but only really in Europe. they do have those really cool compund words, i want those in English.

Unless you want to do classics I can't see any point in ancient greek myself. I studied it for five years but whereas I liked Latin for some reason I could never get on with greek at all. Do you in fact have to have studied greek beforehand to do a classics major, a lot of the classics degrees here will teach you greek from scratch because so few people do it in school.

[IliaDN]

Russian.

[Hurin_Rules]

Latin is very useful in many ways. It will help you with any other romance languages you decide to learn, because Latin is the root of all of them. This means that if you become proficient in Latin, French, Spanish, Portugese, Italian, and Romanian will all become much easier. So if you plan to travel anywhere in central or south America (where Spanish and Portugese are spoken), or in areas of Africa and SE Asia (philippines, Algeria, etc. where French is and Spanish are useful), Latin may be the way to go. Latin also helps with english-- if you know Latin, you can pretty much guess what half of the words in English mean. The only downside is that Latin itself won't be usefull in these areas, so you might want to go to Spanish or French first.

[Duke Malcolm]

Learn Scots, so you can come over here and find out for the world what neds say.

Learn the Language of Eden (Scots Gaelic), so you can actually understand what the Gaelic programmes on BBC2 are all about...

[Fragony]

If you want to travel, spanish and french since you already speak english. These are the international languages everyone at least understands.

[Craterus]

I would go for commonly spoken languages.

1. English (spoken throughout the world)
2. Mandarin Chinese (Lots of people speak this language, unsurprisingly, most live in China)
3. Spanish

[Kaiser of Arabia]

German, I'd say. It's alot like english and not too hard. I'm in my first year (2nd semester) of it and I'm not doing too bad in it and if I can pass it anyone can.

[Big_John]

MattIf you learn Japanese you can move there and teach English

you don't need to speak the native language to teach english in a foreign country (though it obviously helps to get around and such).

i'll second spanish for usefulness and travel (spain and much of south/central america). french is a nice language, but where else is it useful besides france, part of canada, and parts of west africa? if you know you're going to be a classics major, i'd go with ancient greek. heck, do both spanish and greek, why not?

[Husar]

German, I'd say. It's alot like english and not too hard. I'm in my first year (2nd semester) of it and I'm not doing too bad in it and if I can pass it anyone can.

Yes, German is easy.

But I seriously think Spanish is more useful.
There´s just a small region in Europe that nobody likes , where people speak German. Well, some Dutch people can understand German as well and Mallorca is almost considered a german island.

[Somebody Else]

Go for Mandarin, Russian and Spanish - in that order - then you've got pretty much the world covered - in one way or another.

[TheWingedVictory]

learn to speak afrikaan. It's useful.
For me I currently take Spanish and I hate every minute of taking that class. I really really really want to take German but my parents keep saying that spanish is more useful. I personally think that eventually US will become a spanish speaking country (much like quebec) by the latin american immigrants, so it is useful to learn it if I plan to live in the US. But I don't CARE! I want to speak German!!!!

[Husar]

Maybe I should emigrate to the US and become a German-teacher. I get the feeling that a lot of people there would like to speak German. Sadly, I´m not a grammatical ace, I can only learn languages if I get a feeling for them, I stopped Latin just before screwing it up completely, wasn´t able(too lazy ) to catch up with the grammar.

[GoreBag]

It depends on where you live. No language is a bad language, but I would reccomend German and another romance language, probably Spanish or French.

[Es Arkajae]

Learn Welsh, then when WW3 breaks out your country can use you as a special 'gibberish talker' able to send coded transmissions which no one but other gibberish talkers can understand.

Then when the war is over you can go and live in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and raise lots of little kids to warm your heart and sheep to warm your bed.

[Fragony]

Yes, German is easy.

But I seriously think Spanish is more useful.
There´s just a small region in Europe that nobody likes , where people speak German. Well, some Dutch people can understand German as well and Mallorca is almost considered a german island.

German is hard, perhaps because it is so similar to dutch. German grammar is a pain in the derriere. That being said, german is really a beautifull language. 'Mein liebe' , 'entschuldigung', beautifull words.

[doc_bean]

Spanish, Arabic or Chinese

[ICantSpellDawg]

Spanish, Arabic or Chinese

i concur

i really need to learn mandarin
im totally obsessed with asian women and it would be so good to get a job with the gov

the crappy thing is that i study history with a european emphasis, so it wouldnt be all that useful

i speak a bit of spanish and im always getting better

[Franconicus]

Matt
If you learn one of the Arabic languages/dialects you are pretty much guaranteed a job with the guv (same with Chinese/Korean)

If you learn Spanish you are pretty much guaranteed a supervisory job in any number of manufacturing/service industries

If you learn German you can read and understand many many technical/scientific journals.

If you learn Japanese you can move there and teach English

If you learn French you'll never have to say your sorry

So ask yourself, is it to work, or travel, or . . .

do you prefer women of a certain nationality?

ichi

Usually Germans write their technical papers in English. Leran German if you are interested in literature, philosophy, bear ...

[Franconicus]

German is hard, perhaps because it is so similar to dutch. German grammar is a pain in the derriere. That being said, german is really a beautifull language. 'Mein liebe' , 'entschuldigung', beautifull words.

On the other hand you can easily pronounce it. Much easier tha French.
My daughter is 15 months now and she starts talking German. So two or three years of lesson should be enough to learn that language

[Drisos]

hehe learn Dutch if you learn that you can actually read the ''Talk your own language thread ''

I totally agree! All of you learn dutch, and we make the .org into a dutch forum. That would make it lots easier for me.

Dutch_guy, kun je niet eens een andere kleur ballon posten, het wordt eentonig!

[Laridus Konivaich]

I totally agree! All of you learn dutch, and we make the .org into a dutch forum. That would make it lots easier for me.

How about everyone learns English properly!?

[The Stranger]

How about everyone learns English properly!?

and yo fost, cost yu r ta wust. spoamer

[Ldvs]

German is also quite useful but only really in Europe. they do have those really cool compund words, i want those in English.

Some are funny, some are horrific:
Samstagmorgeneinkaufsbummel or "A saturday morning spent wandering to shop (or something close)". Say it straight

Do you want their numbers too?
1986: tausendneunhundertsechsundachtzig (number)
neunzehnhundertsechsundachtzig (date)

Good luck with cheques

Spanish seems the best language if you need to travel (behind English of course).

[Butcher]

Learn Swedish, it isn't too dissimilar from English.

[Laridus Konivaich]

¡Apréndase español! Usted necesita ir a América del sur, y retraer unas latinas para Grande Juan. El quiere ellas para realizar sus fantasías de esa tipa de mujer.

[The Stranger]

i know spanish, the main language in south america, ..... latinos for great Juan.......sumthing like it. and stop spamming the fronroom i warn you one more time. sorry BKS