# Best foreign language to learn for fun? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 11, 2020, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257 "2020-01-11T01:21:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/41 "2020-01-12T03:09:00Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Nobody’s mentioned American Sign Language (ASL) yet? Not only is it fun to learn, it’s very practical if you cross paths with deaf people, and while it uses English words, it is not English because it uses completely different grammar and syntax. In what sense are the words English? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/42 "2020-01-12T04:51:51Z")
> [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > Came here to say this. When I was first signing up for electives in middle school, I wanted to take French. My mom crapped all over my dream and told me to take Spanish because I’d actually use it. I did, grudgingly. It still pains me to admit how right she was. I use it all the time and really enjoy it. After English, it’s the most useful language for almost everyone in the US. Also, in my experience, Latinx folks are really nice about people butchering their language; they’re typically a lot more patient and appreciative of the effort than Americans talking to people who speak imperfect English. I took French in high school – at that time, 40 years ago, at the Catholic high school that I attended, if one was a high-performing student, you had your choice of taking French or German (plus Latin, of course). If one was a low-performing student, one took Spanish. In retrospect, of course, Spanish would have been _far_ more useful in my life. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/43 "2020-01-12T04:56:21Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Also, the OP should prepare a better answer than “It was for fun.” as some native speakers may be insulted by that, “You think our language is fun(ny)?”, though most will be appreciative. I don’t know. I teach English as a foreign language and that’s as good of a reason as any. For the OP, have you any ideas what you would like to do with the language? That will make a difference in deciding which one. Generally, languages which use the same letters are easier in that it’s easier to read. Both my wife and I learned Japanese as a second language, but she had a much easier time learning how to read the kainji because of her Chinese. There are many language exchange sites, so it’s easier to talk to a native speaker these days. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/44 "2020-01-12T13:03:48Z")
found a local Italian group so I will do that first. Still open to other ideas ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/45 "2020-01-12T13:33:31Z")
> [@carnut](#): > > Why not try Navajo or Ojibwe or Hawaiian? OMG. I tried Navajo. :eek: Navajo has no regular verbs. Each and every verb, in all its persons and numbers and tenses, has its own unique conjugation. Each one has to be memorized individually. Yeah, I was doing fine with Navajo until I got to the verb chapter in _Navajo Made Easier_. The word “easier” in the title instead of “easy” is… significant. To peruse the full compendium of the grammar, a great paving stone of a book titled _The Navajo Language_, is to invite cardiac arrest. I can’t speak to Ojibwe directly, but I’ve studied the related [Lenape](http://www.talk-lenape.org/) language. I think you’ll find Algonquian languages a lot less strange in terms of phonetics and grammar, but they still have a distinctively Native American flavor. For example, the gender distinction isn’t between masculine and feminine, it’s between animate and inanimate. Which makes plenty of sense when you think about it, that if you’re going to have gender, base it on animacy. > [@carnut](#): > > Finnish/Hungarian/Estonian is another small language family to consider. I’m currently immersed in the Uralic languages and loving 'em. There’s something about agglutinating words and harmonizing vowels that just chimes with my mind. Likewise with Altaic (yeah, I know, I know…). ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/46 "2020-01-12T13:45:36Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > What drivel did I post in the last sentence??? :smack: > > Edit: Once, while studying the Iliad, the professor gave us a treat by _bringing_ in another professor to \*read \*some of it in ancient Greek. It was the most boring monologue I’ve ever heard! When I read the original sentence, I noticed nothing amiss: My pre-conscious brain made the two corrections automatically. (Hmmm. Maybe that’s why my own posts are often garbled despite proof-reading. :o ) ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/47 "2020-01-12T14:36:21Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Once, while studying the Iliad, the professor gave us a treat by being in another professor to some of it in ancient Greek. It was the most boring monologue I’ve ever heard! It depends how it’s done. Sometimes people pay so much attention to pronouncing it with what they imagine is clinical correctness, that they don’t read it with meaning, or pay attention to the metre of poetry. Added to which, most of the ancient Greek works we have were originally performed with music and/or dance. It’s the same with Latin, or Old English, or other languages that are not spoken today. They can be read in inspiring way or in a very boring way. ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/48 "2020-01-12T16:39:40Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > found a local Italian group so I will do that first. Still open to other ideas I for one find it hard to have fun doing something utterly useless. You may be at least a little the same in this respect because you have mentioned you would rather not learn a dead language. And if I were of Italian origin, I would definitely find it fun to learn Italian, so I think your decision is the best. There is great Italian music and movies and I advise you to start gorging on them (that’s how I learned English too). ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/49 "2020-01-12T18:03:42Z")
Learning a language “for fun” kinda rings alarm bells for me, because it’s so often the kind of thing people IRL throw out there and never seems to go anywhere. Language learning can be very hard and there are a number of bitter pills to swallow when you’re learning the nth arbitrary grammar rule. IME something like joining a group class, or regularly going to language exchange events or whatever, is really useful to sustaining language learning as a hobby. Otherwise the majority of people seem to burn out fairly fast. I’m not trying to be a jerk, just possibly save someone some time. And of course if you don’t have any particular level of proficiency in mind and just want to learn and see where it goes, then ignore my comments. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/50 "2020-01-12T20:30:42Z")
Not trying to be fluent, as I said this is for fun and to exercise my brain when I am at home with free time. Or outside the home I can use my phone to learn. From what I recall about French you learn the verb “to be” to start. Then you learn common words and phrases and other verbs. French has a lot of “er” verbs so maybe Italian has something similar? My French teacher in school also knew Spanish, Italian , and German so sometimes she would get them mixed up . ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/51 "2020-01-12T20:45:24Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Don’t know about Ojibwe or Hawaiian, but Navajo is supposed to be one of the hardest languages to learn in the world. Probably the toughest of the First Settler languages. Hawaiian I am told isn’t too difficult but I don’t have any real experience with it other than a few lines. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/52 "2020-01-12T21:24:29Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Not trying to be fluent, as I said this is for fun and to exercise my brain when I am at home with free time. Or outside the home I can use my phone to learn. > > From what I recall about French you learn the verb “to be” to start. Then you learn common words and phrases and other verbs. French has a lot of “er” verbs so maybe Italian has something similar? My French teacher in school also knew Spanish, Italian , and German so sometimes she would get them mixed up . Instead of -er, -ar, and -ir verbs, Italian will have -ere, -are, and -ire verbs. And all the letters will be pronounced, unlike in French. For instance, “contare” is kahn tar ay. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/53 "2020-01-12T22:40:24Z")
> [@Esprise\_Me](#): > > When I was first signing up for electives in middle school, I wanted to take French. My mom crapped all over my dream and told me to take Spanish because I’d actually use it. I did, grudgingly. It still pains me to admit how right she was. I use it all the time and really enjoy it. When I began high school and signed up for electives, I chose Spanish, of course. I already knew Italian. They gave a linguistic aptitude test to entering students. I scored at the top. I got a phone call from the school. All the other high scorers had elected French and the low scorers had elected Spanish. I was to take French. I did, grudgingly. It still bemuses me to admit how right they were. I’ve used French ever since and it’s been of incalculable value. I even wound up with a Frenchwoman for some very memorable years. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2020, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/54 "2020-01-12T22:55:39Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Don’t know about Ojibwe or Hawaiian, but Navajo is supposed to be one of the hardest languages to learn in the world. > [@Johanna](#): > > To peruse the full compendium of the grammar, a great paving stone of a book titled _The Navajo Language_, is to invite cardiac arrest. To illustrate what I mean, look at the numbers in the physical description of the book in this [catalog record](https://lccn.loc.gov/88128627). Total of 1,521 pages. Spine of 29 cm (11½ inches) in length, figure ~8 inches in width. If that fell from a shelf, it could literally kill someone. It has to be that big to include all the conjugations of a grammar full of nothing but irregular verbs. The nouns are no picnic either. The phonetic aspects of Navajo are also going to be challenging for English speakers. Like I said, many Native American languages like the Algonquian family are not scary. Quechua, in particular, has a simple grammar that functions like familiar European ones and is also easy phonetically. But compared to all the other languages I’ve looked at, including the hard ones, _Navajo_ is like something from _another planet_! ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2020, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/55 "2020-01-13T00:10:58Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > But compared to all the other languages I’ve looked at, including the hard ones, _Navajo_ is like something from _another planet_! Which is why a lot of the alien conspiracy crowd … :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2020, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/56 "2020-01-13T01:21:50Z")
Most people know this ,but during WW II the Army and Marines used Native Americans to speak their native languages as a code that the Japanese never figured out. [Code talker - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2020, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/57 "2020-01-13T03:59:47Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Most people know this ,but during WW II the Army and Marines used Native Americans to speak their native languages as a code that the Japanese never figured out. > > [Code talker - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker) Earlier than that. The Cherokee and others were code talkers in WWI. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2020, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/58 "2020-01-13T06:58:44Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Nobody’s mentioned American Sign Language (ASL) yet? Not only is it fun to learn, it’s very practical if you cross paths with deaf people, and while it uses English words, it is not English because it uses completely different grammar and syntax. Sign Language is the other one I’ve always wanted to learn. But the one I had fun learning was Ventriloquism, which I studied a bit while studying linguistics. It’s got the same grammar and syntax as your native language, but different pronunciation, and actually a slightly different vocabulary as well, since you have select words based on what you can pronounce. So it’s learning a different dialect, not a whole new language, but learning a new dialect with obvious pronunciation differences is sufficient to give you a basis for thinking about pronunciation, and it’s one of the few were you can test yourself as beginner. And your friends can have an opinion. And it’s fun. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2020, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/59 "2020-01-13T07:10:28Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Most people know this ,but during WW II the Army and Marines used Native Americans to speak their native languages as a code that the Japanese never figured out. > > [Code talker - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker) I sometimes get the idea that you are much younger than I am… ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2020, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257/60 "2020-01-13T07:24:32Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Instead of -er, -ar, and -ir verbs, Italian will have -ere, -are, and -ire verbs. And all the letters will be pronounced, unlike in French. For instance, “contare” is kahn tar ay. … except you’re adding an extra vowel and all the usual jazz… I don’t know what word did you have in mind for that “ah”, but the first vowel is as the o in “don’t” and the final one is like the “eh” in jokes about Canadians. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-foreign-language-to-learn-for-fun/846257.md?page=4)