What language should i learn?

bailefionn

Ok so heres my situation.. Im a newly graduated commerce student, but currently unemployed.. Im on the dole and before any haters post, i am actively looking for work.. Thing is, im getting really really bored jus sitting around all the time.. Im thinking of getting a 'Rosetta Stone' program and learning a language, but dont know which one would be most useful/beneficial in life.. (if any actually)
I do already know some french.. leaving cert standard, so dont want to tackle any more of that..

Any advice? Oh and has anyone else used this program?

FruitLover

Spanish would be pretty useful. But I wouldn't use Rosetta Stone (expensive and crap). Check out www.spanishpod101.com (free and good).

bailefionn

FruitLover wrote: »

Spanish would be pretty useful. But I wouldn't use Rosetta Stone.

No? how come? What would u use?

MagicMarker

txt spk, it's quite difficult at first but your IQ will gradually lower to a standard more compatible.

phenomenon

I'm semi-fluent in several languages and I'd say try your hand at spanish. Simple grammar and words are pronounced exactly as they're spelt. Also I believe its the third most spoken language in the world so it'll come in handy on your travels!

I'm not a huge fan of learning from these book courses tho. The only way to become truly fluent in a language is to engage in convo with native speakers. Why don't you join a class if you've so much free time?

Gillo

A year ago I would have said Chinese, not sure now but they were viewed as the next celtic tiger (Oriental Tiger??).

artanevilla

Spanish, it's easy.

dlofnep

I personally started learning Gaeilge last year. Not sure how useful it would be outside of Ireland - But you could always give it a shot.

bailefionn

Gillo wrote: »

A year ago I would have said Chinese, not sure now but they were viewed as the next celtic tiger (Oriental Tiger??).

Was thinking of this. Might come in handy in a business sense in years to come.. Heard its one of the more difficult ones to pick up tho..

ejmaztec

I'd say Polish or another Slavic language. Those countries seem to be thriving even in the current economic climate because they're still in the throes of catching up.

What about the Pimsleur language audio courses?

Random

Learn sign language.

AnonoBoy

dlofnep wrote: »

I personally started learning Gaeilge last year. Not sure how useful it would be outside of Ireland

I'd say about 0.1% to 0.5% useful outside of Ireland.

I'd go for a European language Italian or Spanish. As already pointed out Spanish would be more useful worldwide.

Oh yeah - and if anyone suggests Klingon I will come around your house and smack you in the back of the head.

bailefionn

ejmaztec wrote: »

I'd say Polish or another Slavic language. Those countries seem to be thriving even in the current economic climate because they're still in the throes of catching up.

An eastern european languauge might actually be a really good idea,

What about the Pimsleur language audio courses?

I know nothing about this course. Have u used it?

AckwelFoley

Manduran, china are an increasing force in the world.
I'd like to say 'i surrender, please dont make soup out of me' in their native tongue

Pride Fighter

Catalan
Welsh
Irish
Provencal
Latin
Ancient Greek

Any one of those old reliables.

bailefionn

ejmaztec wrote: »

I'd say Polish or another Slavic language. Those countries seem to be thriving even in the current economic climate because they're still in the throes of catching up.

What about the Pimsleur language audio courses?

An eastern european languauge might actually be a really good idea,

I know nothing about this course. Have u used it?

Spanish is also a front runner for me too..

As for the gaeilge thing.. I know basic conversational irish, but as much as i love the idea of the language, sadly its almost completely useless in a practical sense

MagicMarker

Personally, I would pick something that would be useful for me. For instance, Spanish may be spoken a lot throughout the world, but do you see yourself living in Spain, or Latin America? I personally wouldn't.

However, French is spoken across Europe and in Canada, as well as Africa etc. Plus it's sexier than spanish:)

Other than that, I'd opt for Mandarin, simply to watch kung fu movies.

bailefionn

snyper wrote: »

Manduran, china are an increasing force in the world.
I'd like to say 'i surrender, please dont make soup out of me' in their native tongue

hahaha

Pride Fighter

Slightly serious, I'd Croatian would be the easiest Slavic language to learn. Croatian uses the Latin alphabet where as the majority of other Slavic languages use the Cyrillic alphabet. Most practical Slavic language would be Russian. A lot of the former Soviet Union is Russified and there are 150 million Russians too.

giggsy664

Gillo wrote: »

A year ago I would have said Chinese, not sure now but they were viewed as the next celtic tiger (Oriental Tiger??).

Actuallythe tiger economy is that of most rapidly developing Asian countries. When we had our huge growth it was named the Celtic tiger after the Asian "tiger" economy.

Crash

Spanish is simple - though there are better ways to learn it than rosetta stone.

Btw, i know how you feel. Recent grad, still unemployed, so i've started learning all the basic things about how to do up a house (thanks to odd jobs left around ours) that'll come in handy in later life. I've been grouting, painting, bit of basic carpentry, next plan is some tiling - figure its one of those things that'll come in very handy when I get my own place.

Next step will be a bit more carpentry, and a bit more on basic electrical wiring, and i'll be happy.

TimTim

If I wasn't so crap at foreign languages I'd choose one of the following to learn

French
Spanish
Arabic
Mandarin
Russian

bailefionn

Ive added a poll to this thread now, with the 5 most realistic options..

ejmaztec

bailefionn wrote: »

I know nothing about this course. Have u used it?

I've used it for Czech and German. It concentrates on audio repetition and assumes that it's more natural to learn that way than ploughing through text-books and frying your brain. I haven't tried Rosetta.

I find it easier than the old-fashioned way that I somehow managed to learn French.

MagicMarker

ejmaztec wrote: »

I've used it for Czech and German. It concentrates on audio repetition and assumes that it's more natural to learn that way than ploughing through text-books and frying your brain. I haven't tried Rosetta.

I find it easier than the old-fashioned way that I somehow managed to learn French.

I downloaded Rosetta with every possible language to learn... But you have to use this weird application that looked like it came from Windows 97, it hurt my eyes so I promptly closed and deleted. Tis a shame as I would like to learn a friggin language!

Holsten

Deutsch uber alles!

oztots

French or german for first world applications. What about japenese? i hear they're into business aswell.

ejmaztec

MagicMarker wrote: »

I downloaded Rosetta with every possible language to learn... But you have to use this weird application that looked like it came from Windows 97, it hurt my eyes so I promptly closed and deleted. Tis a shame as I would like to learn a friggin language!

There's nothing to look at with Pimsleur - it's all MP3s and a few sheets of paper.

MagicMarker

ejmaztec wrote: »

There's nothing to look at with Pimsleur - it's all MP3s and a few sheets of paper.

pffft! I can't download paper!!

jeeeeez!

ejmaztec

MagicMarker wrote: »

pffft! I can't download paper!!

jeeeeez!

.doc or .pdf

Biggins

Chinese definately (Currently also learning Japanese).
Russian also would/will be a help.

Spanish, it's easy.

It's funny, a lot of people seem to say Spanish is easy, but I've never met anyone who said that and who didn't speak it REALLY badly. At higher levels, it's no easier than the likes of French or German, IMO.

EamonnKeane

But virtually all Chinese business people learn English. French would be better. Or Esperanto. Or Klingon to impress your Internet friends.

Epic Tissue

python

bailefionn

EamonnKeane wrote: »

But virtually all Chinese business people learn English. French would be better. Or Esperanto. Or Klingon to impress your Internet friends.

Klingon..... nooooooooooooooooo! lol

Tech3

wouldnt learn polish cause all the polish can speak english as it is!! wouldnt mind learning a bit of italian or spanish myself

Biggins

EamonnKeane wrote: »

...Or Klingon to impress your Internet friends.

Kaplaa!

tlhIngan maH!

Smart Bug

bailefionn wrote: »

Ok so heres my situation.. Im a newly graduated commerce student, but currently unemployed.. Im on the dole and before any haters post, i am actively looking for work.. Thing is, im getting really really bored jus sitting around all the time.. Im thinking of getting a 'Rosetta Stone' program and learning a language, but dont know which one would be most useful/beneficial in life.. (if any actually)
I do already know some french.. leaving cert standard, so dont want to tackle any more of that..

Any advice? Oh and has anyone else used this program?

Judging from your spelling and grammar I suggest English. :rolleyes:

delta_bravo

German is a good language to learn for business

emeraldstar

[quote=[Deleted User];58293190]It's funny, a lot of people seem to say Spanish is easy, but I've never met anyone who said that and who didn't speak it REALLY badly. At higher levels, it's no easier than the likes of French or German, IMO.[/QUOTE]
Hmm, I don't know. I did French and Spanish in college. I'd been studying French for about 10 years already, got an A1 in Honours Leaving Cert. I started Spanish in college as an absolute beginner and found it easier to learn than French. Of course I know that the more languages you've learnt the easier it becomes to learn new ones, but I'd still rate Spanish as far far easier to learn - definitely in the beginning anyway - but even beyond that, Spanish grammar is nowhere as awful as French grammar (now that's awful :eek:)

Roadend

delta_bravo wrote: »

German is a good language to learn for business

Wie komme ich am besten zum Lufthaus bitte

hobochris

c++

maninasia

German is a reliable, even though they speak English it will still help with making connections. Spanish is useful for S.American markets. I speak Chinese but that's because I live over this way and put a huge amount of effort in learning characters there's absolutely no point unless you intend to live in China (that said Chinese tourists will be absolutely massive business in a couple of years, for that purpose speaking is only neccessary and quite easy acutally, tourists will head to the major EU cities but not so much to Ireland) as you will find it hard to get the pronounciation right otherwise to get really fluent, it's not really neccessary for general trading business.
Ideally you'd want to move to the country to really learn it properly (for business use) otherwise it's just something for holidays, culture and fun. So German, go to Germany for couple of years, then you can use that in German speaking nations. Spanish, go to Spain etc. But not only the language, think about if you would also like to live in that place and what reason (business, culture, women, climate etc.). I'd say Russian is also a goer and Japanese is also a good one but of limited use in Ireland (although very useful in Asia).
Personally I'd like to learn some Spanish and brush up on the school French. I found I can read quite a bit of Japanese since it uses many Chinese characters. Lastly would be nice to get back into the Irish a bit.

emeraldstar

Roadend wrote: »

Wie komme ich am besten zum Lufthaus bitte

Gehen Sie geradeaus und nehmen Sie die erste straße recht.

CountingCrows

delta_bravo wrote: »

German is a good language to learn for business

Plus it works wonders on the laaadies

emeraldstar

CountingCrows wrote: »

Plus it works wonders on the laaadies

Yes. Oh so sexy.

jane86

I'd lean more toward topping up on your French. It's a much nicer language IMO. Although I think Spanish is used more in different countries across the world.

biko

Chinese or Arabic. Will give you a definite advantage in the business world.

experiMental

Irish for having some pride in yourselves and Russian for getting the bragging rights for a shack in the Ural Mountains in case most of Western Europe will be flooded.

Aurora Borealis

I think in terms of business prospects the ideal would to be to go for the one that the minority of your counterparts speak so perhaps as suggested an Oriental language, Russian or Arabic. Clearly one of the Romance or Germanic languages would be easiest as they are the ones to which we have the most exposure in the Irish educational system or indeed Irish which in my own experience has proved worthwhile in work scenarios.

Ultimately to learn a language you do have to like it to be able to immerse yourself in it so you do have to factor in your own personal taste as going on business prospects alone will make for tough learning and there is a lot to learning languages if you want to gain a sufficent level of proficiency.

Perhaps if you listed the ones that might interest you and then get feedback on their perceived usefulness in terms of employment etc.

Enjoy whichever one you choose. Learning another language really does give you a great insight into another culture on a far greater level than just vocabulary.

Ckal

Esperanto