I’ve been procrastinating for years, but it’s finally time to decide which foreign language I’ll take to satisfy a college requirement. I’ve narrowed down my list to the following, and stated my reason for wanting to take each:
[ol]
[li]French - I took French in high school and love the language. I intend to travel to France a lot (and perhaps move there) when I’m financially able to do so. I programmed my phone to have French support so I can talk to my European friends. I’m by no means fluent, however, and can barely speak in it (my reading and writing are a lot better). This would be to improve the skills I already have, but there’s little real-world application here other than tourism. No new alphabet to learn (a negative in my book).[/li][li]Greek - I’m a big Greek history snob and love the culture and food. I also love the alphabet, to the point that I taught it to myself in the 6th grade. Zero real-world application; this would be for my own fun and enrichment.[/li][li]Hebrew - Coming from a partly Jewish family, I have a special identification with this language. New alphabet and there’s something spiritual about it for me.[/li][li]Russian - A different alphabet to learn and different way of thinking grammatically. Still partially useful in the real world, though not as much now as during the Cold War. I find Russian culture very interesting, especially their history and governments. Very difficult for native Anglophones to learn.[/li][li]Arabic - New alphabet, new grammar, and it’s simply goddamn beautiful to look at. Along with Chinese, probably the most useful language to have in the real world. However, also very difficult to learn and I don’t have as much affinity for the culture as I do the other four.[/ol][/li]Thoughts?
French or Hebrew. You have background in both, and an affinity.
Hebrew and Arabic are both semitic languages so if you’ve got some knowledge of hebrew, arabic wouldn’t seem quite so foreign.
French from the list.
Spanish or Standard Chinese would be more useful IRL.
Oh, also: I have little interest in what could be applied “in the real world.” It’s always a good idea to leave myself options, but its real-world applications aren’t highly weighted in my decision.
Spanish is out. Zero interest in learning it. Chinese is too difficult and time-consuming. I have other classes which need more attention.
Spanish shares a lot with French IMHO. I have been to Mexico and Spain and found my high school French helped quite a bit when reading signs or menus, etc.
Moved Cafe Society --> IMHO.
From what you said, French.
If you’re at least like me learning a language is relatively simple but as soon as I stop using it it goes away. Learning a language you won’t actually use will probably be a language you don’t actually remember.
English is essentially the only language I speak even though in the past I’ve been conversational in both German and Russian. But once I was out of college I never used either and now I’m just happy that I can read signs slowly and figure out what they mean.
I took on semester of Arabic before running away in terror.
Don’t leave out German. It’s a really cool language in that it’s fun to speak, and it’s not so different from others it will be too time consuming.
Unquestionably French. You like it, you already can speak it a bit, and you have a real use for it in your future. Instead of starting at square one with an entirely new language, why not work hard at developing real fluency in the foreign language you already kinda/sorta know? Especially since you already know you’ll actually find it useful in the future to speak French fluently?
French, since it seems the one you will be mostly likely to use in the future.
As to business use I think you can get along fine with English anywhere.
I’d say Greek. Sounds like your French is good enough that you can improve it on your own, and Greek is likely the only other language that will be useful to you from a touristic point of view, based on your stated interests. And I think tourism is what you should be focusing on, because you’re likely not going to learn enough of any of these languages from a semester or two to be of use for business purposes.
You seem to be really stuck on alphabets. The Russian alphabet is quite similar to Greek, so you could probably learn it in an afternoon. Being Jewish, I’m going to guess you already know some of the Hebrew letters.
So, I say learn Arabic. It’s a brand new alphabet (although vaguely similar to Hebrew), and you’ll be learning a language that, while unusual to us westerners, is spoken by a shit load of people in a shit load of countries.
French it is, then. If you took French in high school, there’s a good chance you could test out of some of the required courses. I know it might seem boring since you’ve already studied it, and I *totally *get the desire to learn something new - I’ve taken French, Spanish, German, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese, myself. But if your primary concern is completing the requirement, then I say do it as quickly and easily as possible. You can always study other languages for your own enjoyment when there’s nothing at stake.
While it is true that Arabic is spoken by a lot of people, that isn’t so true of the Modern Standard Arabic you’ll learn in a classroom. Learning standard Arabic will let you read newspapers and books and watch TV but will be hampered in actual conversation in actual Arabic speaking countries. The locals will speak their local dialect (which is often as much a “dialect” of Arabic as Italian is a dialect of Latin).
If you plan to travel, learn French or Spanish. Unless you plan to predominantly travel to Arabic-speaking countries, in which case learn Arabic. Being able to communicate while traveling makes the experience significantly more enjoyable, and you’ll spend the rest of your life being grateful you learned a language that you actually get to use.
Ancient Greek is a really fun (but somewhat difficult) language to learn. If you’re interested, I can provide you with a pretty extensive bibliography of books to work with. If you want to get the requirement out of the way in the most fun and enriching way possible, the University of Texas at Austin offers a Summer Intensive Greek course, which is just amazing.
There’s been tons of research on how learning another language has widespread positive impact on your cognitive abilities from improving your writing and speaking ability in your native language to improving executive control. By forcing your brain to make new and varied connections between various concepts you have in your head (and have words for), you improve your brain in very general (but measurable and empirically verifiable) ways. If you want to get the most benefit out of your education, learn a language that is least related to one you already speak. In this case, neither Hebrew nor Arabic are Indo-European languages (like English and French are) so they’d do quite well.
So, if Hebrew is something you think you can motivate yourself to throw yourself into, then go with Hebrew. But I will point out that if you learned Arabic, you’d probably begin to identify and relate with the culture more than you think you would simply from having studied it. None the less, since Hebrew and Arabic are both equally not Indo-European languages, I’d go with Hebrew.
Personally, from that list I’d pick Greek (ancient, not modern), because I feel roughly the same way about it as you do, and I’d love to be able to read some of the ancient texts in the original. That seems like the biggest reward on the list, if that makes sense. The first three languages seem to be the ones you love and feel a real connection with, so I’d definitely go with one of those - and Greek seems to be the one where the end result of *knowing *the language, as well as the process of *learning *the language, could offer something that would mean a lot to you.
French, by a long shot. Language is first and foremost a tool of communication, and French is the language you have the best shot of actually applying- and thus the best chances of actually learning in a meaningful way and sticking with. You have a solid foundation, and you are likely to use it to actually communicate with native speakers in the near future. Everyone would love to pick up some exotic language, but the reality is that most of those people buy a bunch of books, putz around for a bit, and end up with no real language skill. The best way to avoid that extremely common outcome is to choose something you will use.
Then, after you have a high level in your first second language, you can try to branch out. It’s always easier to learn additional languages, so stick with something easy for the first and a difficult one for the next.
Incidentally, I’m not even kidding when I say French is the single most marketable skill I know. Anyone working with Africa needs to know it- it’s literally the lingua franca across much of the continent, and American professionals with French proficiency are relatively rare. Africa may seem like a small niche, but French is so essential that knowing it can give you a leg up in anything that might have anything to do with the place.
Also, Mandarin Chinese is the least useful thing that I know. It is absolutely essential if you actually live in China and need to give directions to your taxi driver. But if you are just wanting to cash in on the idea that China is rising- well, China has more English speakers than the US does. In international business, chances are your counterparts are going to have been studying English since childhood. And if they haven’t, there are literally millions of translators happy to work for a few dollars a day. Enough Mandarin to do greetings and maybe make a toast is great for smoothing business along, but unless you are absolutely in love with the language and spend years studying it intensely, you simply are not going to learn enough to actually do business.