Which language to learn?

somairle

I want to start learning a new language and Im looking for advice. I did French and German in school but don't remember any! (except sheiSe kopf) but I am sure some familiarity would come back to me. I also did Mandarin as an optional module in college and again only know a few words! I speak a fair bit of Irish which will help in that I know the ins and outs of grammar. Ive a bit of Greek too from living there a year.

Heres my comments on possible languages and I hope you can help with some advice on ease of learning, benefits and your experiences etc

Mandarin - way to hard, I will never have the time to reach fluency it was too alien to me, but saying that hard work may pay off in work as links become stronger between Ireland & China. I pretty much rule it out now, unless someone can convince me its worth it.

French - love the culture, spent holidays there, have a grounding that may come back to me, would give me access to a big economy too & speakers in Canada & Africa.

Spanish - I know non, but the amount of speakers would be a massive plus, I am very interested in South America & its increasingly spoken in the States. But Im not sure the potential jobs benefits are as high as French?

German - I dont have any real interest in German culture, but it would be handy as the largest economy in Europe, not wanting to emigrate too far it would give me access to that market. No other country that speaks it though?

Portuguese - would give me access to Brazil which I would be fascinated with both culturally and as an emerging economy, I wouldn't mind a job down there if push came to shove, or at the least get some business trips down there! However, it is fairly close to Spanish isn't it? Would it make it easier to learn if I learnt Spanish first and then went onto Portuguese? Combined they'd give me access to South America

Italian - Ah Italian, I would LOVE Italian, I love the country and culture, but this is the opposite to German for me, it wouldn't hold many economical advantages for me. Saying that, the climate is great, could retire there or something

Any advice would be great! I want a language that isn't too taxing, that is fun (in that it gives me access to movies, culture etc) and one that will benefit economically - even in Dublin a lot of companies seek a 2nd language and unfortunately for me they don't ask for Irish :-/

Thanks!

OMARS_COMING_

Im in the same boat,i really want to learn a language but i dont know which one,so im not much help in helping you choose although i am interested in any answers you may get.

Abit of topic maybe,but im wondering if it is possible to learn a language in 12 months with the right dedication and interest? By learn i mean be fairly decent and near fluent at it.

somairle

Yeah, check out this guy http://www.fluentin3months.com/ he is super dedicated though, but he can easily get to a good standard of conversation within a year. He does have the benefit of just throwing himself into the countries, but he says you dont have to do that at all.

My friend from England learnt Irish from scratch in 2 years, and he lives IN England. If you went for a language like French, Spanish etc you could easily find speakers in Dublin. I think the key from that link, its immersion and throwing yourself into it, even if its just in your own home, skyping, listening to the radio, watching the languages tv etc.

Good luck!

conor.hogan.2

Mandarin but ease into it by learning to speak and then small bits of pinyin.

HalloweenJack

somairle wrote: »

Spanish - I know non, but the amount of speakers would be a massive plus, I am very interested in South America & its increasingly spoken in the States. But Im not sure the potential jobs benefits are as high as French?

Spanish is a very easy language to pick up. It's very logical, consistent and has a lot less irregular verbs than English. The grammar is simpler too, much easier to remember. Also, the difference between dialects isn't so big. I have a Mexican friend who I've no trouble understanding. I also live with a Peruvian and, again, we have no problems.

Chile is a country that is booming at the moment, it has the highest standard of living in South America, afaik, so there are opportunities abound.

somairle wrote:

Portuguese - would give me access to Brazil which I would be fascinated with both culturally and as an emerging economy, I wouldn't mind a job down there if push came to shove, or at the least get some business trips down there! However, it is fairly close to Spanish isn't it? Would it make it easier to learn if I learnt Spanish first and then went onto Portuguese? Combined they'd give me access to South America

They're both very similar. I'm moving to Brazil so have been trying to pick up some Portuguese before going. Reading it is simple (if you already have Spanish) but speaking can be a big obstacle. Their accent runs totally contrary to Spanish pronunciation rules (which are very rigid and consistent). Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation is very flexible and complicated. My understanding is that European Portuguese is much easier in that regard.

Also, there are some subtle grammatical differences such as more rules to remember, different types of tenses and different uses for corresponding tenses.

I don't know how much easier it would be to learn Spanish first, then Portuguese. That's what I've done. Yes, I can understand the differences in grammar, etc. but I also make a lot of mistakes in using Spanish words or syntax. There are also quite a few false friends which leaves me lost occasionally. On the plus side, I'm already familiar with the grammar concepts that occur in both but are foreign to English so it does help there and I'm definitely able to understand an awful lot more owing to my Spanish.

LucaValla

Hi I'm an Italian boy, I'm living in Dublin, I'm looking for Irish or fluent english people who are interested to study with me. So you can learn Italian language speaking Italian with me and I can improve my English with you. We can speak one hour Italian and one hour English. Please let me know if you are interested.

Manach

Latin? It would provide a baseline to learn the basics of other languagse. It has a large volume of extant texts. It provides a grounding to understand technical terms, say in law and science. Everyone will likely pronounce it just as badly as yourself