If you could magically gain the skill to perfectly speak a foreign language which one would you choose?

[noname223]

With speaking I obivously also mean understanding.

My choice sounds pretty weird. I rather try to perfect the languages I currently know.
I would probably go for English. I always was not perfect at listening comprehension. I don't know I struggle with that. However this might even be the case for my native language. I try to improve my German (my native language) as good as possible. Many complimented me for being articulate. Though I am not 100% perfect with grammar. And even as a native speaker I have some flaws. My goal is to know as much technical terms as possible. I read the newspaper for that or listen to interesting scientific lectures. But I also listen to them because I am genuinely interested in them.

Often when I listen to David Foster Wallace on English I recognize that I don't know that many technical terms. To fully understand him is quite hard even for native speakers. And I can say for someone who is not native English speaker it is just really tough. He was not happy that his literature was translated into different languages. He said his work is too idiomatic for that. I think the German translators done a great job but I assume he would have hated it. Lol.
I prefer to read him on German so that i can somehow get a grasp about the content.

I am not that much interested to understand more foreign languages because they sound cool. For me there has to be a practical reason for learning them. I like anime and when I was young I considered to lean Japanese. I never did that and I don't regret it. Some of my friends are into that idea. I know it was cool to watch Japanese series without subtitles but the effort is way too huge. For me the relation of effort and reward is too low. I don't watch that many animes anymore.

I am not sure which I would choose Chinese or Japanese language. I could imagine Chinese would be quite benfical for a job. On the other hand I am a mental wreck that probably can never work. So I would rather choose Japanese. This is also what my heart wants.

Which would you choose? Maybe a very difficult one because you get the skill magically?

 

[jandek]

I'd love to be fluent in German, although that's hardly the most difficult goal. Out of "hard" languages to learn, I'd probably choose Sanskrit or Chinese. Japanese would be great too.

 

[Someone123]

Spanish because I work with some spanish speaking people an d it would actually be helpful.

 

[StarlightDreamer]

Japanese, for me. I wanna read/translate all the anime art I come across.

 

[lionetta12]

With speaking I obivously also mean understanding.

My choice sounds pretty weird. I rather try to perfect the languages I currently know.
I would probably go for English. I always was not perfect at listening comprehension. I don't know I struggle with that. However this might even be the case for my native language. I try to improve my German (my native language) as good as possible. Many complimented me for being articulate. Though I am not 100% perfect with grammar. And even as a native speaker I have some flaws. My goal is to know as much technical terms as possible. I read the newspaper for that or listen to interesting scientific lectures. But I also listen to them because I am genuinely interested in them.

Often when I listen to David Foster Wallace on English I recognize that I don't know that many technical terms. To fully understand him is quite hard even for native speakers. And I can say for someone who is not native English speaker it is just really tough. He was not happy that his literature was translated into different languages. He said his work is too idiomatic for that. I think the German translators done a great job but I assume he would have hated it. Lol.
I prefer to read him on German so that i can somehow get a grasp about the content.

I am not that much interested to understand more foreign languages because they sound cool. For me there has to be a practical reason for learning them. I like anime and when I was young I considered to lean Japanese. I never did that and I don't regret it. Some of my friends are into that idea. I know it was cool to watch Japanese series without subtitles but the effort is way too huge. For me the relation of effort and reward is too low. I don't watch that many animes anymore.

I am not sure which I would choose Chinese or Japanese language. I could imagine Chinese would be quite benfical for a job. On the other hand I am a mental wreck that probably can never work. So I would rather choose Japanese. This is also what my heart wants.

Which would you choose? Maybe a very difficult one because you get the skill magically?

German since most of my friends are half german.

 

[Someone123]

I am fluent in English and Pig Latin.

 

[WhatPowerIs]

Japanese, for me. I wanna read/translate all the anime art I come across.

Yeah same here. Japanese would be ideal, though I would prefer to be proficient in reading it rather than speaking, but I wouldn't mind either.

 

[rationaltake]

Finnish. I want to live in Moomin Valley.

 

[CTB Dream]

Japan

 

[𖣴 nadia 𖣴]

Like a lot of people, I'd probably pick Mandarin (Chinese isn't a language) because it would be easier to get a high paying job.

The flexibility of a well-paid freelance translation job would probably benefit a lot of people who have physical or mental health problems and can't handle the regular 9-5 grind.

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

I am fluent in Dutch and German from my old Euro life which is long behind me now. At this point what with living in the US, I would choose Spanish.

 

[Ashu]

Hindi. I already speak Marathi, but shittily, and there's so much more to do in Hindi.

 

[Scythe]

I want to prefect japanese too! Or korean, reading raw manga is always nice since some things gets lost in translation or misinterpreted.

 

[StolenLife]

I'd like to be fluent in japanese, german or french.

 

[makethepainstop]

Being of Germanic extraction, I'd love to be able to curse and swear in German. I just feel German is wonderful language for swearing in.

 

[noname223]

Being of Germanic extraction, I'd love to be able to curse and swear in German. I just feel German is wonderful language for swearing in.

Her some of my favorite insults. I even made thread about it. Sadly the search engine does not work otherwise I would have linked it. With my friends we call each other Hurensohn (plural: Hurensöhne). When we were teenagers it was extremely offending saying this and now it is a common joke for us. It means you son of a bitch.

Another one: Arschloch (asshole)
Another funny one: Ziegenficker (goat fucker)

I can remember Eminem was once in a German TV show and the host told him funny swearwords.
Have fun with it.

 

[makethepainstop]

Her some of my favorite insults. I even made thread about it. Sadly the search engine does not work otherwise I would have linked it. With my friends we call each other Hurensohn (plural: Hurensöhne). When we were teenagers it was extremely offending saying this and now it is a common joke for us. It means you son of a bitch.

Another one: Arschloch (asshole)
Another funny one: Ziegenficker (goat fucker)

I can remember Eminem was once in a German TV show and the host told him funny swearwords.
Have fun with it.

I love these, wish I could pronounce them! Appreciate the text.

 

[outatime_85]

This would be my list of what I would want to become proficient in.

Sign Language

Korean

Arabic

Indonesian

Russian

Norwegian

 

[Ashu]

Like a lot of people, I'd probably pick Mandarin (Chinese isn't a language)

It is if you mean "classical", "old", or "literary" Chinese (Li Bo and Du Fu didn't write in Mandarin), but since we seem to be talking about contemporary spoken languages here, yeah, you have a point.

 

[jandek]

but since we seem to be talking about contemporary spoken languages here, yeah, you have a point.

Oh wow, leave it to my crazy brain to think "foreign languages" includes dead ones.

 

[Celerity]

The most immediately useful to me would be Spanish given my location. There are tons of Spanish speakers in FL. Some parts of Miami are almost like a foreign country with how little English is spoken there. I would have more job opportunities if I were bilingual as well.

If I were to find a way to emigrate to Norway, I would obviously want to speak Norwegian. There is a fat chance of that happening though unless I married a native, so this option wouldn't be practical.

In regard to my own personal fulfillment, I want to learn French so that I can read some works in the original French instead of translations. If I emigrated to Canada, this could be useful - in Quebec at least.

 

[Ashu]

Oh wow, leave it to my crazy brain to think "foreign languages" includes dead ones.

I did think of how you had mentioned Sanskrit. Naturally most people have been talking about contemporary natural languages, but there's no reason we couldn't have wished for fluency in learned literary ones like Sanskrit and literary Chinese. I myself am a literary languages person. I worked through Michael Coulson's Teach Yourself Sanskrit while I was on psychiatric disability back in my native Canada, and Sanskrit remains my most treasured intellectual possession and achievement. If I could do it, you probably could too, given the time.

 

[rainbowbright]

Probably Italian as I'm 1/4 Italian myself

 

[lofticries]

Japanese without a doubt since the thought of visiting Japan is partly keeping me alive.

 

[Dead Ghost]

Sign language, English, Chinese (the official one) and mathematics, the universal language par excellence that cannot be read or written in its most complex varieties (and the semi-complex ones either, haha).

//

Llengua de signes, anglés, xinés (l'oficial) i les matemàtiques, el llenguatge universal per excel·lència que no se llegir ni escriure en les seves varietats més complexes (i les mig-complexes tampoc, haha).