# What new language do you want to learn? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 25, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877 "2009-11-25T04:45:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kenner116](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@kenner116](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenner116)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/21 "2009-11-25T14:58:06Z")
Mandarin, but it’s not going to happen unless I spend a significant amount of time there. I tried to take classes in college, but the schedule didn’t work out. I’ve used some online sources like LiveMocha and ChinesePod, but I have been too lazy to learn more than a few words and phrases. If I lose my current job and fail to land another right away, I may take the first flight to Shanghai and take a class there. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/22 "2009-11-25T15:00:23Z")
What the hell, man? What a Eurocentric group of languages. I’m almost offended. “Something spoken in China” : Mandorin or Cantonese. “Something spoken in India”: Hindi, Telegu, Tamil, Malyali. Out of all of these admittedly I’d only expect you to know Hindi, but India has something like 14 languages and 700 different dialects. How about Hebrew? Japanese? Arabic? I refuse to even answer the question. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/23 "2009-11-25T15:11:35Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Russian. I’m here struggling with it even now. > [@Lobot](#): > > Russian. My father speaks it, as does most of my father’s side of the family. > > I like the fact that there’s already three votes for Russian, yet it isn’t an option in the poll itself. 😉 Ugh. I made the mistake of taking a quarter of Russian (allegedly “through Pushkin,” in college. “На берегу пустынных волн. Стоял Он, дум великих полн, И вдаль глядел. Пред ним широко. Река неслася; бедный челн…”). On the other hand, Nabokov is alleged to have replied, when asked the favorite of the languages he spoke: “English to my mind, French to my ear, and Russian to my heart.” Or something like that. It was in _Strong Opinions_. > [@Nava](#): > > I’m still working on my French. Hopefully some day I’ll be able to graduate from speaking it like a Spanish cow to sounding like a French cow. I will trade you my French for your Spanish. I once worked with these Catalans, and every time they would tell me about going to “Sahn Frahn-THEETH-co,” I would just melt.\* - Yes, I know there is a separate Catalan language ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/24 "2009-11-25T15:27:50Z")
More than one of those, to be sure, plus Irish Gaelic and Hawaiian. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/25 "2009-11-25T18:48:10Z")
> [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](#): > > On the other hand, Nabokov is alleged to have replied, when asked the favorite of the languages he spoke: “English to my mind, French to my ear, and Russian to my heart.” Or something like that. It was in _Strong Opinions_. Charles V supposedly said “I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse” or some variation on that. ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/26 "2009-11-25T18:56:46Z")
I picked “Portuguese,” because … well, I have never heard a Brazilian man I didn’t want to hear more from. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/27 "2009-11-25T18:57:55Z")
I have tried to learn French so many times, I am just exhausted. Forget it. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/28 "2009-11-25T19:02:22Z")
Cherokee. It’s pretty tough to learn on your own, though. Also want to learn Polish. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/29 "2009-11-25T20:39:56Z")
Don’t see how Korean didn’t make the poll. I won’t be able to learn Korean, but I’d like to wake up one day being able to speak and understand it. ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/30 "2009-11-25T20:45:11Z")
I speak english and some spanish. My brother’s wife is french, so his whole family speaks french. I’d like to learn persian and portuguese as well. I love me some brazilian jazz. Sung, I find portuguese sexier any other language. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/31 "2009-11-25T21:52:39Z")
I know some Spanish and French, but would prefer to work on improving those before I take on something else. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/32 "2009-11-26T01:14:00Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Cherokee. > > It’s pretty tough to learn on your own, though. Scroll to the bottom of [this page](http://www.cherokee.org/home.aspx?section=culture&culture=language), there is a link to on-line classes in Cherokee. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877/33 "2009-11-26T02:18:10Z")
I’d like to learn Welsh. It’s so different from English, but once you get the pronunciations down I don’t think it’s too difficult. I took a semester of Irish in college that I really enjoyed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-new-language-do-you-want-to-learn/518877.md?page=1)