# Which language to learn?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 28, 2003, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945 "2003-05-28T03:52:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/21 "2003-05-28T11:25:46Z")
no, but soooo interesting.
makes you think in a different way
wish i had the money, time, and patience to study it
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### Author:  [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/22 "2003-05-28T12:52:52Z")
I once had a teacher tell me that English is really German-- and I have to say that picking up enough German to wander around the country for a week without any assistance is pretty damn simple. The verb conjugations are close to English (even if they are backward), and many of the nouns are pretty damn close.
But the romance languages are different entirely, despite **Collounsbury** ’s assertion. If you can get over the ridiculously complex verb conjugations of French (most of which you will never need in a conversation) it’s a useful language. And as an added benefit, it’ll be easier to pick up Spanish, Italian, or Latin at a later point should you choose.
I assume **Grimgrin** is a high school student in the U.S.? If so pick up French or Spanish – and as an added benefit you can convince your folks to send you to Quebec or Mexico as a language practice field trip.
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### Author:  [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/23 "2003-05-28T13:23:21Z")
Yes, romance languages are different from English, but you must remember that a lot of people have been suggesting languages like Mandarin, Arabic and Japanese.
A very large percentage of English vocabulary comes from Latin, Greek and Old French, which means that when you learn a romance language, there are hundreds if not a few thousands of words that are very easy to remember.
When you’re dealing with Mandarin, Arabic or Japanese you start almost at zero, vocabulary-wise. This directly translates in dozens, hundreds of additional hours of intensive study.
Mandarin, in an absolute way, is a fairly easy language. However, _relatively_ speaking, it’s a lot harder for an English speaker than Italian. Just for fun, take a look at the following sites:
> **[Yahoo Brasil: Email, notícias, finanças, esportes, entretenimento](https://br.yahoo.com/)**
>
> Vá além de email e busca. O melhor de notícias, esportes e entretenimento!
> **[Yahoo Español | Últimas noticias, Deportes, Finanzas y Mail](https://espanol.yahoo.com/)**
>
> Las noticias, el correo electrónico y las búsquedas son tan solo el comienzo. Descubre algo nuevo todos los días en Yahoo.
and count how many words that kind of make sense to you. Then compare with:
> **[Yahoo! JAPAN](https://www.yahoo.co.jp/)**
>
> あなたの毎日をアップデートする情報ポータル。検索、ニュース、天気、スポーツ、メール、ショッピング、オークションなど便利なサービスを展開しています。
[http://cn.yahoo.com/](http://cn.yahoo.com/)
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/24 "2003-05-28T13:39:07Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Barbarian \*
> I once had a teacher tell me that English is really German-- and I have to say that picking up enough German to wander around the country for a week without any assistance is pretty damn simple. The verb conjugations are close to English (even if they are backward), and many of the nouns are pretty damn close.
The person who opined this was an idiot, nor are Hochdeutsch conjugations particularly close to English (if you’re benchmarking against other similarly related languages, obv. in comp. with say Arabic they are). Wandering around the bloody country side is not learning the bloody lang., and by the standard I would opine the same regarding French.
> [@](#):
>
> But the romance languages are different entirely, despite **Collounsbury** ’s assertion. If you can get over the ridiculously complex verb conjugations of French (most of which you will never need in a conversation) it’s a useful language. And as an added benefit, it’ll be easier to pick up Spanish, Italian, or Latin at a later point should you choose.
It is not an assertion my dear fellow, it is a fact. German, French etc. are all fairly closely related, in comparision with Arabic and Chinese. You want “different entirely” go to a language w/o a to be a verb and which uses a root system.
French, English, German, all kissing indo-european cousins w/ a nice long history together and lovely little cognates and grammatical similarities to ease the learning process.
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### Author:  [@Nate\_the\_Great](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nate_the_Great)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/25 "2003-05-28T14:27:32Z")
Regarding SnoopyFan’s comment:
“German and French are basically useless, you’d never use them unless you’re gonna actually live in Europe.” - Bah?!?
If you plan on entering the world of academia, these two languages are essential, whether you live in Europe or not.
I think most of the people here make good cases, but it really depends on what you plan on doing. Having said that, I think most people in America should be proficient in Spanish.
But don’t look at me as an example of studying the practical languages - I’m a grad student studying Semitics. Here comes the shameless plug … screw practicality and study Hebrew. It’s fun!
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### Author:  [@sickboy51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sickboy51)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/26 "2003-05-28T14:42:20Z")
Well, I wouldn´t pick up Spanish because I AM spanish already, next year I´m going to pick German, just because I like the way it sounds (kinda strong), Chinese (Mandarin) or Japanese would be very funny to learn, but I know a couple of people who started learning those and told they were VERY difficult languages (at least for europeans).
Anyway, if you learn somo “rare” language (a uncommon one, you know, one of those people rarely go for), your work chnaces increase. You see, nowadays there is a big demmand of people able to speak arabic, as in the 90´s (after the collapse of the U.R.S.S) there was a big demmmand of people who could speak russian.
Odds are, you never know what will be the most demmanded language in a couple of years…
Of, by the way, I´m trying my best at english, yet I know I sould be making a lot of mistakes, so if anyone notices some, I´d be grateful if they correct me (politely, of course).
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### Author:  [@Peg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peg)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/27 "2003-05-28T20:28:16Z")
I am sure people will disagree, but what second or third language you speak will not preclude you from certain fields unless you are thinking about going into language or culture-specific jobs, or are planning to work abroad. That said, of your choices, the easiest and probably most useful language, is clearly Spanish.
Grammatically, Chinese is cake compared to English. Reading and writing, however, can be a nightmare. In English, if you forget to spell a word, you usually have a decent shot of getting it right by sounding it out. In Chinese, you don’t get this luxury. Proper pronunciation can also be an issue. I grew up speaking Mandarin Chinese (and another dialect) so I don’t have direct experience here, but I understand that the inflections, which English does not have, are difficult to learn. Of course, it can be done. One missed tone and you could be saying something else altogether (I’ve made my mother giggle many times because I slipped and said something else altogether).
Japanese is easier to write, but I think it’s similar to learning Chinese except that the Japanese really like to incorporate English in their vocabulary.
I took French for a year in high school because I loved the way it sound. The grammar isn’t difficult, but I couldn’t get the accent down and I felt so bad that I dropped it in favor of…
German, a much easier language to learn (you pronounce every letter!) with more structure. There are lots of common words w/ English. It may not sound as glamorous as French, but at least in Europe, more people speak German than French. Plus, it was kind of nice to surprise the Germans by speaking German since they don’t seem to expect that from an American. Occasionally you still see German in science texts.
I say go for the language you think would be _fun_ to learn. Trust me, in today’s world, you’ll likely find a use for it.
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### Author:  [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/28 "2003-05-28T21:09:02Z")
Probably not the most useful, but I think French would be one of the easiest languages to learn for a native English speaker. Many vocabulary words in common, some accents are different but at the same time others are similar, no different forms of “to be” (être vs. ser/estar), some similar adjective/adverb/noun constructions.
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### Author:  [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/29 "2003-05-28T21:26:26Z")
Friggin hamsters…
OK. try this again:
Of the languages you listed, all are fairly situational and/or based on having to be in another country. IMHO you will never regret learning Spanish. You will always be able to use it in the US, as well as Europe and South America. Unless you have a definite plan to move to China or study philosophy, Spanish is the obvious choice. I know many people who have studied various languages, and they all wish that they had studied Spanish. It is useful and you can always learn another one later. But you will use Spanish in your lifetime, guaranteed.
-Tcat
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### Author:  [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/30 "2003-05-28T22:55:33Z")
I took a year of Latin, managed to get a silver medal on the National Latin Exam, and decided to never take another year of it. I want a language that I can speak. Latin is a dead language, and besides, it’s too structured. I also didn’t like having to learn conjugations _and_ declensions. Now, I’m in Spanish, and liking it. In fact, my only objections to learning Spanish have been a series of bad teachers, not the language itself. Heck, it makes more sense than English! And I’m not even a language person!
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### Author:  [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/31 "2003-05-28T23:04:55Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by KarlGrenze \*
> \*\*Probably not the most useful, but I think French would be one of the easiest languages to learn for a native English speaker. Many vocabulary words in common, some accents are different but at the same time others are similar, no different forms of “to be” (être vs. ser/estar), some similar adjective/adverb/noun constructions. \*\*
The French vocabulary is fine. I found I could often guess at what a word was just by its resemblance to the English word. However, the French have verbs from HELL. And you don’t use em. But you will have to conjugate them.
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### Author:  [@Pablito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pablito)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/32 "2003-05-28T23:19:32Z")
Spanish. Wherever you live in the U.S., increasingly, you will run into people whose primary (often only) language is Spanish. Quite simply, it will be far and away the most useful to you and will not get as dusty as those other options, sitting on the shelves unused.
In addition, among those you’ve listed, Spanish is the easiest to learn. Which is not to say that learning another language is easy. Which is all the more reason to start with a simpler one. If it turns out that you have the interest and knack for languages, then you can add something more exotic. I took only 2 semesters of Spanish in college–a long, long time ago–yet I can still carry on a pretty good conversation with native speakers, especially if they’re around for a couple of days and I get a chance to work on it. And as others have mentioned, there are thousands of cognates (spanish/english), so you can have a pretty small Spanish vocab but basically guess at a lot of words and you’ll wind up being understood and right much of the time.
Most importantly, there are lots of attractive women from central and south america coming to the States every day whom you will want to be able to talk to.
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### Author:  [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/33 "2003-05-29T00:11:29Z")
GMRyujin: Every language has verbs from hell. And in French, you have less tenses to memorize. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2003, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/34 "2003-05-29T01:56:56Z")
Another vote for Spanish. It’s America’s second language. (If you were a Canadian, I’d recommend French for the same reason.) Spanish is the only second language you’re likely to encounter often enough to maintain a fluency in.
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### Author:  [@MarlaDurden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarlaDurden)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2003, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/35 "2003-05-29T02:03:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Pablito \*
> \*\*Spanish. Wherever you live in the U.S., increasingly, you will run into people whose primary (often only) language is Spanish. Quite simply, it will be far and away the most useful to you and will not get as dusty as those other options, sitting on the shelves unused.
> In addition, among those you’ve listed, Spanish is the easiest to learn. Which is not to say that learning another language is easy. Which is all the more reason to start with a simpler one. If it turns out that you have the interest and knack for languages, then you can add something more exotic. I took only 2 semesters of Spanish in college–a long, long time ago–yet I can still carry on a pretty good conversation with native speakers, especially if they’re around for a couple of days and I get a chance to work on it. And as others have mentioned, there are thousands of cognates (spanish/english), so you can have a pretty small Spanish vocab but basically guess at a lot of words and you’ll wind up being understood and right much of the time.
> Most importantly, there are lots of attractive women from central and south america coming to the States every day whom you will want to be able to talk to. \*\*
My thoughts exactly. I’ve studied Spanish for five years, and I actually use it often, and I live in a small town of 20,000 people, in the middle of Wisconsin. Laugh if you will, but I feel that the language is quite useful.
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### Author:  [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2003, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/36 "2003-05-29T02:24:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by KarlGrenze \*
> \*\*GMRyujin: Every language has verbs from hell. And in French, you have less tenses to memorize. 🙂 \*\*
Yea, but the French tenses have nothing to do with anything! They just make up half their verbs on the spot. They’re crazy! Look at etre.
Je suis
Tu es
Il/Elle/On est
Nous sommes
Vous êtes
Ils/Elles sont
None of these have anything to do with the other ones. Made up, I tell you!
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### Author:  [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2003, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/37 "2003-05-29T10:02:38Z")
Spanish: (ser)
Yo soy
Tu eres
El/ella/usted es
Nosotros somos
Ustedes/ellos/ellas son
And that’s not using the vos and vosotros conjugations (vos sois, vosotros sois, I think). BTW, I also think English invents half the verbs on the spot. 😉
I see your point, though. For you French is more difficult than Spanish, and that may be for many reasons, including perhaps the fact that it shares more vocabulary and one is tempted to slack a bit a study less, whereas Spanish is more different and you have no other choice but to study a bit more. I’m drawing that as an analogy to my learning Portuguese… I swear it was invented to confuse Spanish speakers! 🙂
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### Author:  [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/38 "2003-05-29T11:55:11Z")
all languages derived from Latin (Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian) are called _Roman_ languages. not _romance_ languages.
Germanic languages include English, Dutch, Fries, and German.
There was North, West and East German, all evolving into:
West German: current germanic languages
North German: current Scandinavian languages, bar Finnish, which is only related to Hungarian, and no other language)
East German: gothic.
see table here:
[http://www.ned.univie.ac.at/publicaties/taalgeschiedenis/nl/germaans.htm](http://www.ned.univie.ac.at/publicaties/taalgeschiedenis/nl/germaans.htm)
and more info:
[http://www.nevenzel.com/germaans.htm](http://www.nevenzel.com/germaans.htm)
I disagree with **monica**. It’s not because latin’s a dead language that it should be forgotten.
The Roman empire and its primary language, Latin, are responsible for transmitting to western civilization not only the rich culture of Rome but also Greek, Jewish, and Christian writings and ideas. Latin is thus one of the world’s most influential languages, both as a vehicle of ancient culture and as the direct source of the “Romance” (i.e., “Roman”) languages: French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. About six hundred million people around the world today speak a language derived from Latin. English is a Germanic language-the language of the Anglo-Saxons. But Latin has also had a huge influence on the English language via the Norman Conquest and direct borrowing, which continues to this day.
The historical significance of Latin, the beauty of Latin literature, the intrinsic interest of Roman culture and its influence on western civilization (in art, law, literature, political theory, et cetera) make the study of Latin exceptionally rewarding and useful. In learning Latin one gains access to the masterpieces of classical Roman literature-the poetry of Catullus, Vergil, and Ovid, the speeches of Cicero, the histories of Tacitus, for example-which have enthralled readers for two thousand years. Learning Latin is also a superb way to learn about language itself, and especially the languages it influenced.
forgive me, my mom teaches Latin.
I may be slightly biased
🙂
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### Author:  [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2003, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/39 "2003-05-29T12:39:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by elfje \*
> \*\*all languages derived from Latin (Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian) are called _Roman_ languages. not _romance_ languages. \*\*
MW disagrees with you:
> [@](#):
>
> Main Entry: Ro·mance
> Pronunciation: rO-'man(t)s, r&-; 'rO-"
> Function: adjective
> Date: 1690
> : of, relating to, or being any of several languages developed from Latin (as Italian, French, and Spanish)
Note the capital ‘R’.
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### Author:  [@brainfizz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainfizz)
#### Post date: [May 29, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-language-to-learn/177945/40 "2003-05-29T13:54:10Z")
Right, I’m an English native and I also speak French, German and Russian. I’m also learning Finnish atm, and learned Latin to quite a high level at school.
Since this is your first language and you only speak English, you will run into certain barriers when learning almost any other language…
Firstly, gender. Most other languages, for no apparent reason, have different genders for nouns. English doesn’t have to bother with that nonsense, so learning it for the first time can be annoying.
Secondly, structure. Sentence structure (time, manner, place, past participle at the end or beginning or all over the place) is often different in other languages, and can make things a little tricky.
Thirdly, vocabulary. Germanic and Romance languages (especially French and German) have very similar words to the words we use for things, and so it’s easy to guess translations. Other languages are not at all user friendly.
Fourthly, alphabet. Other languages have other alphabets. Some are totally different (e.g. oriental languages), some are very different (e.g. Russian - only 5 letters the same), and some are merely slightly different (e.g. Romance and Germanic languages).
Fifthly, tense and declension. Since you don’t know any other languages, picking up the rules of past/present/future/some other bizarre tense/etc for a different language can be totally confusing, especially if you’ve never studied English to a high level, but once you have picked up one language, the others are much easier.
There are loads more things to pick up, naturally, accents, special cases, inflections, etc.
If you’re American, then either pick up Spanish (although if any Spanish speaker in america doesn’t speak english, they should be hung, drawn and quartered - it IS your native tongue, after all!), or French or German since they’re all very easy to learn, and it’s best to start off with the simple languages.
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