Should I take Quechua next quarter?

[Sunspace]

@even_sven

I always advocate Spanish as a first language. It won’t get you an immediate job (but in all honesty, no language will- especially not Mandarin or Arabic, despite popular opinion.) But you can at least use it in a real situation on a relatively regular basis…

This is heavily location-dependent. In the US, yes. In Canada, I’d recommend French in a similar situation, though Spanish is a popular choice for a third language.

@even_sven

And your second, third and fourth languages get easier and easier. So unless you are convinced you are done with learning for life it makes sense to stick with the easy and obvious stuff for your first second language.

This is true: having two languages under your belt makes it easier to learn a third.

If you are monolingual and want an easy language to learn, to get a taste of what it’s like to ne bilingual, try Esperanto. There aren’t a huge number of speakers around, especially in English-speaking North America, but it’s easy enough to learn the basics that if something goes wrong or your plans change, you won’t have used up as much time and effort as you would have to get French or Spanish to the same basic level.

[RandMcnally]

I’ve taken a bit of Latin. I loved it but the school shut down the program after the first semester.

After that I took a year of American Sign Language. I have the basics down and could relearn it if I worked at it. Once my wife and I start trying for a kid I’m going to push so that way hopefully I’ll be decent enough to talk to the baby to get them fluent.

I’ve taken a semester of French. I liked it but my classes got screwed up the next semester and I had to drop it.

Oh, I am a history major, if that answers any question. I don’t really have a specialty yet.

[scootergirl]

@even_sven

Have you ever learned a language before?

There are two kinds of language learners. The rare kind, less than 10%…probably more like 5%, can just learn any language for the sheer pleasure of it. They can sit down in a short course and pick up more than enough to keep learning.

But the rest of us, myself included, will learn the bare minimum of what we need to know, and helpfully save our brain activity for other more pressing needs. That doesn’t mean we can’t speak new languages- I can speak a few. But it’s not easy. People like this can pick stuff up from classes, but most of it will be forgotten soon after. Immersion works a lot better, but even then you will mostly get up to the point where you can order dinner and making drinking buddies before you hit a heavy plateau.

And for these people (most people) learning a language without some idea of an immediate application is relatively pointless. Whatever knowledge you gain will be lost just as quickly.

I always advocate Spanish as a first language. It won’t get you an immediate job (but in all honesty, no language will- especially not Mandarin or Arabic, despite popular opinion.) But you can at least use it in a real situation on a relatively regular basis, which is one of the main reasons to learn any language. Language is, first and foremost, a means of communication. Learning a language that you will never communicate in is missing a LOT of what it means to learn a language..

And your second, third and fourth languages get easier and easier. So unless you are convinced you are done with learning for life it makes sense to stick with the easy and obvious stuff for your first second language.

This was so well said and written. English is my second language, Spanish my native tongue. Speaking for myself … I have lost a bit of my ability to always be completely fluent. This is probably more common than I think it is, I can be hard on myself at times. Language (even if it is your first) can be partially, or even completely forgotten. Because I speak, read, write, dream, think in English, and have for so many years now, I find myself forgetting certain words in Spanish. My advice to the OP…study Spanish. I am Peruvian, and as much as I would like to say - Oh sure! Learn Quechua! I’d rather advice you to learn a language that will be useful in various ways throughout your life. I would like to be able to study Portuguese, I love how it sounds. However, I have asked myself – how often would I use it? Rarely. I have to just be happy with knowing that when I hear it being spoken I can pick up a lot of it because I know Spanish. Think of that also - if you speak Spanish, you will understand much of the other Romance languages

[dropzone]

Rand, Quechua is useless unless you want to understand Greedo in Star Wars. Go with Portuguese.

[cckerberos]

Another point I think should probably be made is that you definitely shouldn’t put off those more mainstream languages you want to learn. College is the last chance most people get to do any kind of serious foreign language study.

[Jophiel]

My wife speaks Quechua and, even among other Peruvians in the US, uses Spanish near exclusively to speak with them. Short of living in the Andes, you’re unlikely to ever use it and will probably lose any skill in it in short order. Personally, I’d take a more “standard” foreign language just from a long-term benefits perspective.