What language to learn...

Tednol

I get 20 credits next semester which I am able to choose freely. I'm very tempted by doing an introductory language module and I have the following choice: German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin, Urdu, and Japanese.

I'm more or less decided I'll do either Spanish or Italian. Has anyone learnt both these languages, and feel they have any insight into which may be 'easier' to pick up?

I havent done either, but i did do the Japanese short course for 2 years and found it really interesting. I found it easier than i expected. Probably because it was taken quite slow; we spent quite a long time just learning the characters. Anyway, I would defiently recommend it

Reply 6

Sire

10

Tednol

I get 20 credits next semester which I am able to choose freely. I'm very tempted by doing an introductory language module and I have the following choice: German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin, Urdu, and Japanese.

I'm more or less decided I'll do either Spanish or Italian. Has anyone learnt both these languages, and feel they have any insight into which may be 'easier' to pick up?

Japanese is relatively easy to learn in terms of the oral aspect, but the characters for writing get rather tricky. There is a certain way to do them, and remembering the differences is a prick of a thing.
German I found interesting, despite some very long words that sound like broken bottles.
No ideas on the other ones sorry. Hope that helps

Reply 7

d750

Tednol

I get 20 credits next semester which I am able to choose freely. I'm very tempted by doing an introductory language module and I have the following choice: German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Mandarin, Urdu, and Japanese.

I'm more or less decided I'll do either Spanish or Italian. Has anyone learnt both these languages, and feel they have any insight into which may be 'easier' to pick up?

It may not be one of the two on your shortlist, but Russian would definitely be a good bet. It has a relatively regular grammar, and can be picked up quite easily. It should be good for a CV too. Russia will probably end up playing some role in Europe, and not many English who know the language.

Reply 8

kokopops

10

italian's sexier...if that helps....

Reply 9

d750

Sire

Japanese is relatively easy to learn in terms of the oral aspect, but the characters for writing get rather tricky. There is a certain way to do them, and remembering the differences is a prick of a thing.
German I found interesting, despite some very long words that sound like broken bottles.
No ideas on the other ones sorry. Hope that helps

It's really tricky to get the Japanese accent right, 'though. It's an open language without any consonant clusters, and it just feels unnatural when spoken.

Reply 10

d750

It's really tricky to get the Japanese accent right, 'though. It's an open language without any consonant clusters, and it just feels unnatural when spoken.

You dont need to do the accent, as long as they know what you are saying :biggrin:

Reply 11

ChloeChloe

I tried to learn Italian so I could talk to the sexy men. But it was too difficult so I gave up after five lessons. But they sound good enough speaking English anyway.

Reply 12

d750

Baron

You dont need to do the accent, as long as they know what you are saying :biggrin:

Yeah, but it's hard to be intelligible - it takes a lot of practice. The same the other way round, too - so it's an impressive achivement for a Japanese person to speak English understandably.

Reply 13

d750

Yeah, but it's hard to be intelligible - it takes a lot of practice. The same the other way round, too - so it's an impressive achivement for a Japanese person to speak English understandably.

Yeh, they always have problems with r's and l's. In japanese there is no "r" or "l" sound, there is a sound that is kinda inbetween; nevertheless, you can usually understand what they are saying

Reply 14

Sire

10

d750

It's really tricky to get the Japanese accent right, 'though. It's an open language without any consonant clusters, and it just feels unnatural when spoken.

Not really, I found it difficult with the R and L sounds at first but after that it just seemed to roll off the tongue.

Reply 15

Fly By

if you could speak mandarin then you'd know the two most widely spoken language in the wolrd..

Reply 16

_Shines_

I speak Portuguese, Spanish, French and understand Italian I'd say portuguese as brasil is just opening up economically also mozambique, goa timor, portugal speak it as well...portuguese and spanish are close so when you know one you easily pick up the other

Reply 17

Fly By

if you could speak mandarin then you'd know the two most widely spoken language in the wolrd..

isnt spanish more widely spoken than english?

Reply 18

Ellie4

2

German's the best. German's the best. German's the best. German's the best. German's the best. German's the best.

Oh, but out of your two, I'd say Spanish was easier and Italian was sexier. Are you prepared to put in the work to be even more sexy?! Heh!

Reply 19

Fly By