Having a hard time picking a foreign language

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

"i am just naturally picking it up anyway."

how does that work, like osmosis?
can i have some of that??, mine was by blood sweat and tears.

Mine too. But I think that the "osmosis" technique can work. A friend of mine married a bilingual foreigner and moved to his country. In the family only his sister was bilingual. Her kids went to the local school. Between listening to her relatives and following her kids in school she achieved a working use of the language...and she now has a very close relationship with her mother-in-law.

A German friend in Portugal who spoke only English as a second language, decided he had to learn Portuguese or starve. So, he bought self-instruction books, listened only to Portuguese language TV and read only Portuguese language newspapers...and no matter how foolish he sounded he spoke Portuguese as best he could. He does have an iron will, and it paid off. Today he has a good job and supervises a staff in Portuguese.

[hkgal]

I'm going through the process of second language learning right now. I'm learning Chinese (Cantonese) because everyone around me speaks this language so it's the natural one for me to learn. I'd love to learn Mandarin but no-one here speaks it. So I'm learning to love Cantonese.

It is a HUGE advantage in language learning to pick one that you are frequently exposed to. Mandarin might be the language of the the future BUT if you are not exposed to it on a frequent basis you will require, as one poster put it, blood, sweat and tears. You will need to go out of your way, every single day, to seek out the required exposure to your target language.

If you choose a language that you are exposed to, in this case Spanish, you will learn it very quickly. You will also have the opportunity to use it. If you have no opportunity to hear or use your chosen language outside the classroom you can not achieve true fluency.

Language learning should not be an ordeal. It is a lot of work but it happens much more naturally if it surrounds you and you are naturally curious about it. That's how we learn our first language so why it should be different for your second? This is where so many adult language learners go wrong.

So the crux of this is, pick Spanish, if that's the foreign language you hear most frequently. It's your natural choice.

[AliveandWell]

The area where I live there are lots of Korean residents, but as far as the the big three Asian languages go, whether its Japanese, Chinese or Korean I'd say they are all good to learn in their own way. The more languages you know the better

[decafdave]

Here's my list:

1. Mandarin
2. German
3. Arabic or Turkish

I am currently learning Mandarin and have elementary fluency. Conversational Chinese (although it's tonal) really isn't that hard to pick up due to its easy grammar. Writing is another story but I'm not even going to attempt that until I achieve fluency. I also lived in China this past summer which greatly helped. The economic benefits associated with business for learning Chinese are obvious.

I took a class in German my freshman year of college 3 years ago but had to quit because of schedule and degree requirements. I'm still interested in learning it although I'm a complete beginner. I find German culture and the people very interesting!

Also, for some reason I feel drawn to learning either Arabic or Turkish. Turkey is a fascinating place and I think will only grow in importance this century. Arabic is such a widespread language. English is the de facto world language but after in my opinion there is Arabic and maybe Spanish and French.

[sarahkate_m]

Originally Posted by j_k_k

If you want something that's marketable as a fallback, consider Japanese, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese or Korean. French is quite versatile, and keeps coming in handy. Might think about Bahasa Indonesia, which is supposed to be pretty easy, Portuguese or Italian. Languages aren't that useful professionally unless you achieve full fluency, so I'd say consider three years of whichever one you pick.

I met a lady once from a country that was a former Soviet Union region. She met her husband who did not speak her language while living there. She at the time did not speak English. To get to know each other, they spoke French.

I told her that sounded so romantic & she looked at me rather puzzled. She said "French" is pretty much a universal language in Europe & she simply thought of her luck in having that language in common with him as "practical".

Sigh. I still think it was romantic!

For utmost practical reasons, it would seem Chinese would be the most valuable language of the future. I think they'll be the future super power, ranking above ours.

I'm patriotic but I think that is the way it'll... unfortunately... turn out.

Kate

[AliveandWell]

I have to agree that the Mandarin dialect of Chinese is one of the most useful ones to learn. That does not mean it is easy though. Pronunciation is the key. If you don't pronounce the words correctly, the locals won't be able to understand you. I experienced this on my recent trip to China.

Also it depends on where in the world you live in and the ethnicity of the people in the area you live in.

[It'sAutomatic]

Pick a language based on a field of work that you are considering and/or a culture that interests you. Forget about general "usefulness".

[AliveandWell]

Originally Posted by It'sAutomatic

Pick a language based on a field of work that you are considering and/or a culture that interests you. Forget about general "usefulness".

That's a very valid point you are making. Sometimes people learn a certain language not for its usefulness, but because they really are fascinated with the culture of a specific country. I'd like to learn Finnish someday because I am so fascinated with their country and I love their women True, Finnish isn't all that useful but I say that no language is truly useless to learn. I am a lover of languages and I just think that even if you study or learn a language which isn't known to be useful in the traditional sense, it still allows for a lifetime of appreciation of other nations and cultures. Some languages are harder to learn than others. As I said before, I'd find it hard to choose if I was in the OP's situation.

[eskercurve]

As an engineer you really don't have to learn any other languages. English and local languages are pretty much what dominate engineering & the sciences.

Major engineering local languages (like if you work for a major multinational corporation and go out to a foreign supplier) are, in no particular order or "popularity", it's just a list:

0) English (many foreign companies require senior engineers to have a conversational knowledge of English)
1) Japanese (auto, refined products, electronics)
2) Korean (electronics, auto, refined products)
3) Chinese (mandarin if you interface with raw materials or business, cantonese if you do business only)
4) Russian (aerospace, raw materials, arms)
5) German (industrial products, auto)
6) Italian (auto, industrial products)
7) French (ditto, aerospace)
8) Portuguese (mainly for Brazilian influences)
9) Urdu, Punjabi, or Hindi (for Indian industrial products and software)

If I were you and you didn't know where you wanted to start, and you already have a working knowledge of Spanish, I would try German, French, or Italian or Portuguese. Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, and others are also Romance languages.

If you're feeling brave go for Chinese or Japanese if not as brave. Chinese, as noted above, is tonal, meaning the tone and pitch of your voice can change the meaning of a word, and it's not just "stressed" syllables like English, it's a rising, falling, or flat crescendo. On top of that you have to memorize thousands of characters just to get by. Japanese you only need to know around 1500 symbols + whatever specialized symbols for engineering, plus hiragana and katakana (their two "alphabets"), because the other parts of the language are syllablic and is a flat tone - no need to raise or lower your pitch (with rare exception, like はし, ha-shi, can mean bridge or chopsticks). Both languages are somewhat "implied", meaning if a word or symbol has multiple meanings then it is up to you to determine the subject of the conversation and determine what the best fit. I know English can be this way but not as much in my experience.

Russian would be interesting, as they will likely remain a global power for some years and their engineers and scientists haven't gotten any dumber.

The Indian languages are probably unnecessary unless you manage a team of Indian engineers, and even then it is only a convenience as you'd likely need to learn it if you lived there. I say this because 100% of all Indian technical graduates must pass English. That's right - it's mandatory.

Anyway, good luck choosing! If still in doubt, just choose a language of a country you'd like to visit. China, Japan, France, and Germany and Italy are all safe, India a little less so but not due to crime, and Russia is notorious for crime against foreigners, especially dark skinned or Asian ones, so if you are basically non-white, watch out in western Russia (eastern Russia things are a little better as many asiatic ethnicities live there).