What Language Should I Learn??

Wibbs · 16-06-2012 06:58PM

fleet wrote: »

The Chinese are coming lads (so long as they can keep sourcing cheap energy).

No they're really not. Cheap energy is the least of their worries, though a big one. They're sitting on the biggest commodities boom in world history* and facing a demographic shift that no economy has been able to navigate without going south(they're growing older before they're growing richer), never mind the governments hidden debt percentages. The future facing China's inexorable rise is anything but certain, it's more certain to go wallop in a spectacular fashion.

Mandarin? Great if you've an interest and fair play, or like you are living and working there or have a Chinese partner, but as a useful language in the sense it's being touted, I hardly think so. In any event, the buyer in a transaction chooses the language and the buyers for Chinese goods are outside the country(hence a fairly big push behind English as a second language in China itself).

*In 2010 the electrical stats for China showed sixty million apartments that used no electricity for over 6 months. That's unoccupied living space for a couple of hundred million people, yet the government is talking about building 20 new cities in the next decade. I find it - well not quite laughable, but quite puzzling, with a side order of amusement - that a fellow Irish person of all nationalities doesn't get a sense of deja vu on steroids.

SharpshooterTom · 16-06-2012 09:15PM

1ZRed wrote: »

It wouldn't be any weirder than an Irish person speaking French or any other language tbh.

Well if you think about Irish being useless, just think if you were to learn mandarin but never got to go to china or utilise it (you couldn't really here or in England to its full potential) wouldn't that be a useless language as well?

It's your own choice to make. I'm a fluent Irish speaker and I'm starting to appreciate it more now than when I was at school and the way I see it, I'm more Irish than a lot of people who can't speak their country's language.

But if you feel you would like a more mainstream language learn French. It's relatively easy to learn and sounds way better than German!:p

I like German culture though so thats why I find it interesting.

Irish though? Well I do live in Ireland now (for the past 12 years) my father speaks it fluently so it could very interesting. I wonder if I would freak some Irish people out speaking it with an English accent.

16-06-2012 09:26PM

Gnobe wrote: »

I like German culture though so thats why I find it interesting.

Irish though? Well I do live in Ireland now (for the past 12 years) my father speaks it fluently so it could very interesting. I wonder if I would freak some Irish people out speaking it with an English accent.

Why don't you just speak it with an Irish accent? I have an English accent when I speak English now, but if I speak Irish, I sound Irish.

SharpshooterTom · 16-06-2012 09:29PM

Mayson Old Advisor wrote: »

Why don't you just speak it with an Irish accent? I have an English accent when I speak English now, but if I speak Irish, I sound Irish.

Why would you do that? When foreigners speak English they speak it in their respective accents. Unless you're Jan Molby or something, its rare for a person to speak with the local dialect when learning the language.

3ndahalfof6 · 16-06-2012 09:40PM

Ferengie it is the business language of the universe.

Naomi00 · 16-06-2012 09:40PM

fleet wrote: »

Do you know how laughable that sounds to an Irish person sitting on his sofa, in Xi'an, with his Chinese girlfriend yabbering away on the blower in Mandarin?

The Chinese are coming lads (so long as they can keep sourcing cheap energy).

Eh, same could be said for an Irish person in any country speaking any other language.

1ZRed · 16-06-2012 09:44PM

Gnobe wrote: »

I like German culture though so thats why I find it interesting.

Irish though? Well I do live in Ireland now (for the past 12 years) my father speaks it fluently so it could very interesting. I wonder if I would freak some Irish people out speaking it with an English accent.

When I speack French I actually sound legitly French regardless of my accent (can't say I even have a strong one to begin with but still!:p)

And if you were to learn Irish it would sound weird to me up or down because it would be "book Irish" whereas I have the far superior Gaeltacht Irish:p
I'm only fcuking with you, it won't sound weird because you'll learn how to pronounce the words properly.
Do you think I go around saying Bon-jouR and tres bi-en when I speak French?:)

16-06-2012 09:48PM

Gnobe wrote: »

Why would you do that? When foreigners speak English they speak it in their respective accents. Unless you're Jan Molby or something, its rare for a person to speak with the local dialect when learning the language.

They speak with their own accents because making the sounds of the new language is difficult. Most people at least try to sound native, even if they don't manage it. It shouldn't be hard for you if you've lived in Ireland for ages and your dad is Irish. I speak two other languages fluently and I don't have an English accent in either of them.

Naomi00 · 16-06-2012 10:25PM

Gnobe wrote: »

I like German culture though so thats why I find it interesting.

Irish though? Well I do live in Ireland now (for the past 12 years) my father speaks it fluently so it could very interesting. I wonder if I would freak some Irish people out speaking it with an English accent.

No there's lots of people with English accents that learn Irish at school etc, it's not weird at all.

16-06-2012 10:28PM

Gnobe wrote: »

Why would you do that? When foreigners speak English they speak it in their respective accents. .

A french lady complained to me once that if we wanted to learn french, we could mimic the french accent. If we wanted to learn spanish, spanish accent. But if/when she wanted to learn english, they'd no idea what accent to go for since something like british was so different from american
not entirely accurate and doesn't allow for regional stuff I suppose, but could have had a point

SharpshooterTom · 16-06-2012 10:31PM

Naomi00 wrote: »

No there's lots of people with English accents that learn Irish at school etc, it's not weird at all.

Really where? There weren't many English accents at my school here!

Rhyme · 16-06-2012 10:33PM

nummnutts wrote: »

If it hasn't already been mentioned, I'd recommend Esperanto.

Came here to post this.

Get to it.

cynder · 16-06-2012 10:34PM

Flash, flex or cold fusion.

Or perhaps ancient Greek...

On a serious note, sign language....

16-06-2012 10:54PM

Pick a language that you'll enjoy the most, you might end up struggling to find motivation for another language otherwise. Are there any cultures you find very interesting in that you'd like to learn about their history and such? Say French for example, I studied literature in which I was able to learn more about France's history.Russian would be interesting. What about Arabic? Could get a job with the M15 then! I hear Korean is the easiest of the East Asian languages.

Burky126 · 16-06-2012 11:04PM

Funnily enough I was thinking the same thing.I've always wanted to learn a language on my own at my own pace and I've some time to do it! Going to try Swedish for a bit and see how I get on,already learning some interesting things like for example gift is Swedish for poison and marriage.What a people!

pconn062 · 16-06-2012 11:04PM

I thoroughly recommend learning German, especially if you have some experience of it in school. I have been learning it for about 4 months now and it's challenging but very rewarding. There are a lot of words that are similar to English and if you can get over the tricky grammar, it's a very easy language to fall in love with, making it easier to learn. Viel Glück!

FullRetard · 16-06-2012 11:08PM

1ZRed wrote: »

Irish?

might get you a job in the civil service if thats what you want otherwise I'd go for a more practical one like german or whatever the Han chinese speak

Naomi00 · 16-06-2012 11:08PM

Gnobe wrote: »

Really where? There weren't many English accents at my school here!

There's lots of English people in my school (just finished 6th year)

I've never really noticed accents when people speak Irish, if you pronounce the words properly it's not a problem.

byte · 16-06-2012 11:09PM

Would sign language not be difficult too, due to the likes of Irish, British and even US sign languages being different (I'm not sure to what degree).

Ficheall · 16-06-2012 11:11PM

byte wrote: »

Would sign language not be difficult too, due to the likes of Irish, British and even US sign languages being different (I'm not sure to what degree).

Learning one would make it much easier to learn others. As with most languages, I suppose, but to a greater extent as sign language seems more intuitive than other languages.

Enkidu · 16-06-2012 11:17PM

For an English speaker, with no additional information on their circumstances, Spanish would be the language which maximises practical utility and ease, by a long shot.

That said, to learn a language you really do need to find it interesting. Of all the languages I can read, the hardest for me to stay good at is French, even though it is the easiest of the languages I know, simply because I don't find it interesting.

Mance Rayder · 16-06-2012 11:34PM

mikemac1 wrote: »

Russian

It's very interesting, I did a short course on it

Of course there is the alphabet issue but it's one to consider

The good thing about Russian is that it's useful in understanding several Slavonic languages, The jump from speaking Russian to Ukrainian and Polish for example, is not huge.

I know Russian speakers who can understand Polish and vice-versa. The weirdest thing is to listen to them talking, ones speaking Russian, the other Polish and they can get along just fine, even though they cant actually speak the other language.

So alot of Eastern Europe actualy opens up to you when you can speak Russian, not just Russia and Ukraine.

A formidable chunk of Europe and Asia speaks Russian. The cyrillic alphabet in Russian is used phoneticly. One letter = One sound, so none of this combining of vowels for new sounds like in French and English. In that sense Russian is easier to learn.

I don't speak Russian well but i am getting there, My wife is Russian-Ukrainian so I hear it all day every day and have picked up quite a bit. Sometimes I even come out with something in Russian that I didn't even know I knew!

When I visit Ukraine with her I am fairly confident when it comes to getting around and in basic conversation with people in shops and public transport etc. I have been told on more than one occasion that my accent is perfect

.

The first thing I noticed about the Russian accent, particularly when they spoke English, is that they sound nothing like the stereotypical Russians portrayed in movies as I expected. They sound more like a French person speaking English than a bond villian:P

It's sort of like how the Irish were portrayed in older Hollywood movies, all "top o' da mornin to ya!" and " Ah to be sure to be sure!"

Nobody actually speaks like that or has that accent in the Real Ireland. Just as that hard Russian accent in movies is very very far from the truth.

I think If I was to spend a year living in Ukraine or Russia I would pick it up no problem, as I already have established a good foundation.

I have been working on German using Rosetta stone. I think it's another fine language to learn, not only is it used in countrys with jobs and decent economys! it's also a good base for getting to grips with other similar Languages.

I think being multilingual and in IT will really stand for me one day, when I finally build up enough knowledge and confidence in the languages I'm learning.

long range shooter · 11-08-2012 02:53PM

Ficheall wrote: »

The languages on my list to learn are Spanish and Norwegian. Spanish, because it's easy when you have French, and Norwegian because it sounds pretty, and more importantly - Scandinavian women are fierce attractive, as a rule. Finnish and Icelandic are beautiful sounding languages, but seem to be much more difficult than the other two.

Norwegian sounds pretty,lol,first time i heard of that:D:D:D
Greeting from Norwegian in Ireland.
I who thought English with an Irish accent sounded pretty.;):D
Atleast i speak with an accent know after 13 years in Ireland.
Besides Norwegian and English i also know the other scandinavian languages cause they are also very similar.
And i know some portugese after working offshore in Brazil for a cople of years.

Capt'n Midnight · 11-08-2012 04:21PM

byte wrote: »

Would sign language not be difficult too, due to the likes of Irish ... sign languages being different (I'm not sure to what degree).

IIRC Irish sign language has both Catholic and Protestant versions.

But with sign language is supposedly easier to communicate with people from different countries than with a written / spoken language

VEN · 11-08-2012 04:29PM

Enochian, followed by German.

dd972 · 11-08-2012 04:30PM

ThomasFlynn wrote: »

Why would you do that? When foreigners speak English they speak it in their respective accents. Unless you're Jan Molby or something, its rare for a person to speak with the local dialect when learning the language.

If you're living in the area where they speak the language you pick up the local dialect and idioms, ie; I speak Dutch with a Maastricht accent having lived there, I've heard Eastern Europeans here with Cork and Donegal twangs in their English, again due to proximity to the dialect.

What Language Should I Learn??

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