If you could learn any language, what would it be?

[DarkRange55]

And why?

 

[sserafim]

Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish are the most useful. I already know Chinese. I like French though. German sounds cool

 

[EvisceratedJester]

Probably Japanese and French. French, because despite having taken french since elementary school up into grade 9 I'm still horrible at it and japanese because I just it would be a cool language to learn. I'd also want to dutch too, since I find that language to be oddly amusing.

 

[xhelx]

Learning Russian right now, I'd like to learn more slavic languages since I live in Eastern Europe

 

[sserafim]

Probably Japanese and French. French, because despite having taken french since elementary school up into grade 9 I'm still horrible at it and japanese because I just it would be a cool language to learn.

I took French in middle school and the first two years of high school, and I'm also still horrible at it

 

[astonishedturnip]

Already know German at a B1/A2 level. It's not too hard imo if English is your first language.

Would love to learn Russian (sounds cool but very tough to learn), Japanese (I'm a reformed weeb but still interested in the language and still watch anime occasionally) or ASL (tbh mostly so another friend can learn it and we can communicate silently in public).

 

[Dliena]

Probably Chinese as I've always had this connection not genetically with the culture and animals that reside there. But I'm lazy ass as usual so I'll never be able to learn
ANY other language besides boring ol Anglo Saxon unfortunately.

 

[Linda]

I took French in middle school and the first two years of high school, and I'm also still horrible at it

Try reading a book in French that you know very well in English. It will help a lot. I got that tip from a 19th century writer called George Borrow, who, in his book Wild Wales, recounted that he had learned Welsh by reading the bible in Welsh. (That was in the days when people knew the bible intimately). I have used that method with the one English book that I know as well as Borrow knew the bible, The Lord of the Rings. (I read it in Norwegian, Spanish, and Greek, while I was learning those languages, and French one time I had nothing better to do, so I know that it helps.) I wanted to play the same trick in Arabic, when I was living in an Arabic-speaking country in the 1990s, but unfortunately I discovered that the Lord of the Rings hadn't then been translated into Arabic. (Apparently, it has now.)

 

[marchshift]

Sign language. It's beautiful and helpful.

 

[Praestat_Mori]

I would like to improve my Latin skills to be able to read classical Latin texts fluently and maybe even speak the language of the roman empire. Latin is the root of so many languages (romance languages) and it was actively used up until the 18/19th century in science and so.

Unfortunately I'm not the best one in learning new languages but if I could learn any language I think Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish could be very useful.

 

[Linda]

I would like to improve my Latin skills to be able to read classical Latin texts fluently and maybe even speak the language of the roman empire. Latin is the root of so many languages (romance languages) and it was actively used up until the 18/19th century in science and so.

Unfortunately I'm not the best one in learning new languages but if I could learn any language I think Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish could be very useful.

If you already know some Latin, start with De Bello Gallico. It's about the easiest classical Latin text there is. Caesar was writing propaganda (masquerading as history), so he had to ensure that it could be read easily by as many people as possible. You can get it with the Latin text on one page and an English translation on the facing page, which would help when you get into difficulties. (Buy the Loeb Classical Library edition for that.) If you don't need assistance from a translation, you could buy the Oxford Classical Texts (Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis) edition - but try to get an old printing. The quality of recent editions is a disgrace, with abysmal print quality.

 

[4am]

i think more than anything else i'd like to improve my english to native level, then i'd like to learn spanish because it's the second most spoken language, and japanese because it looks cool af, all other languages are useless imo

 

[Praestat_Mori]

If you already know some Latin, start with De Bello Gallico. It's about the easiest classical Latin text there is. Caesar was writing propaganda (masquerading as history), so he had to ensure that it could be read easily by as many people as possible. You can get it with the Latin text on one page and an English translation on the facing page, which would help when you get into difficulties. (Buy the Loeb Classical Library edition for that.) If you don't need assistance from a translation, you could buy the Oxford Classical Texts (Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis) edition - but try to get an old printing. The quality of recent editions is a disgrace, with abysmal print quality.

I should have a pretty good base from the time when I learned Latin in school but that was several decades ago. Now I was curious and I read the first few paragraphs of De Bello Gallico - mainly lack of vocabulary and that makes it difficult. I have quite a few online sources. But my problem is that I get lazy quickly. I'll look for the books you mentioned.

 

[annxietty]

-I want to improve my english because its very important for anything nowadays, knowing english is a must, I already speak it but not as well as I would like...
-Japanese of course, I enjoy manga and anime, and going to Japan is a dream Ive always had, also I find it very pretty
-German, very cool language, someday I want to visit Germany
-Russian, simply because it would be awesome to be able to speak it lol also all the russian people Ive met has been awesome (maybe I just had very good luck lmao)
-I dont like French that much, or France, but I took french for 4 and a half years and I dont know shit, but I feel that if I started learning again it would be easier for me than other people? just because I feel I have the knowledge hidden in my brain lol it needs to get out, learning languages (ANY language) is always good, so why not?
-Forgot Chinese lol, very useful and cool

 

[psp3000]

more German, Dutch, French, and Spanish (because many people I interact with are fluent in these languages and I want to go to Germany at least once in the future if things get better for me also because I watch a lot of films that have these languages in them)

I practiced a little bit (or sometimes a lot in one sitting) of each of these for a while and then slowly stopped and then months later I repeat the cycle and then forget it again and do not remain consistent

and I would like to learn Portuguese in the future too if I finally get into a language learning routine

 

[ClaudeCTTE]

Every single one of them.

Languages were my hyperfocus in the past, but due to the pandemic, dropping out of school, my loneliness, and depression, I lost all motivation to learn languages...

 

[Ferdinand Bardamu]

Russian. Why? Its... LE COOL. Also, its useful to know.

 

[Homo erectus]

Arabic. I got ripped off twice in Cairo, buying perfume and paying for a pyramid trip on horse while I was catching the bus to Giza. Is Cairo related to XP, Chi Rho, Christ?

 

[vadim]

The struggles of wanting to learn Japanese as a non-weeb... (the struggle is having to bring up every time that you're not a weeb).

It's because some of my favourite authors were Japanese, many of whose work has not all been translated into English, and Japanese is so distant from English that I'd choose it over another language I'd like to read in which is closely related enough that I like to think I could learn it (never actually would lol, not that smart + don't have the discipline) like German or even Russian.

 

[Homo erectus]

The struggles of wanting to learn Japanese as a non-weeb... (the struggle is having to bring up every time that you're not a weeb).

It's because some of my favourite authors were Japanese, many of whose work has not all been translated into English, and Japanese is so distant from English that I'd choose it over another language I'd like to read in which is closely related enough that I like to think I could learn it (never actually would lol, not that smart + don't have the discipline) like German or even Russian.

Strangely, many Japanese animes are set in Europe, or have European languages, such as Steins; Gate. The characters also have many different hair colors.

 

[Malaria]

Currently learning Japanese. If I wasn't learning that, then probably Korean or Mandarin. I just think East Asian languages are cool.

 

[reclaimedbynature]

Latin. To be able to conjure the dead.

 

[sppplmgwiwlkiwbtft]

german and spanish, because they sound sooo beatiful, and also norwegian and swedish, firstly because again they sound pretty and secondly because many artists i listen too sing in these languages and id be happy to understand them firsthand and sing my fav songs! also.. kind of surprised that many users here are interested in learning russian, i didnt know it was this popular among foreigners hahah! wish you good luck with it and other languages <3

 

[Dida]

Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Amharic

 

[Unhumanly.]

Well my English aren't even so advanced yet I have to use Google translate sometimes just to talk a word I forgot what it translate to

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

Japanese so I could translate doujins for money.

 

[LevUwU]

Probably some untranslated or dead language to learn more about history