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noname223

Archangel
Aug 18, 2020
6,298
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?
 
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J

jandek

Down in a Mirror
Feb 19, 2022
149
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.
 
S

Someone123

Illuminated
Oct 19, 2021
3,874
Spanish because I work with some spanish speaking people an d it would actually be helpful.
 
StarlightDreamer

StarlightDreamer

Infinity Weaver
Aug 2, 2022
111
Japanese, for me. I wanna read/translate all the anime art I come across.
 
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L

lionetta12

Just a random person
Aug 5, 2022
1,278
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.
 
S

Someone123

Illuminated
Oct 19, 2021
3,874
I am fluent in English and Pig Latin.
 
WhatPowerIs

WhatPowerIs

Enlightened
Jun 19, 2022
1,058
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

rationaltake

I'm rocking it - in another universe
Sep 28, 2021
2,704
Finnish. I want to live in Moomin Valley.
 
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CTB Dream

CTB Dream

Injury damage disabl hard talk no argu make fun et
Sep 17, 2022
2,831
Japan
 
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𖣴 nadia 𖣴

𖣴 nadia 𖣴

...member...
Dec 15, 2021
252
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.
 
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Angst Filled Fuck Up

Angst Filled Fuck Up

Illuminati
Sep 9, 2018
3,107
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.
 
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Ashu

Ashu

novelist, sanskritist, Canadian living in India
Nov 13, 2021
870
Hindi. I already speak Marathi, but shittily, and there's so much more to do in Hindi.
 
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S

Scythe

Lost in a delusion
Sep 5, 2022
706
I want to prefect japanese too! Or korean, reading raw manga is always nice since some things gets lost in translation or misinterpreted.
 
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StolenLife

StolenLife

Warlock
Sep 19, 2022
740
I'd like to be fluent in japanese, german or french.
 
makethepainstop

makethepainstop

Visionary
Sep 16, 2022
2,029
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.
 
N

noname223

Archangel
Aug 18, 2020
6,298
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

makethepainstop

Visionary
Sep 16, 2022
2,029
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.😋
 
O

outatime_85

Warlock
May 17, 2022
789
This would be my list of what I would want to become proficient in.

Sign Language

Korean

Arabic

Indonesian

Russian

Norwegian
 
Ashu

Ashu

novelist, sanskritist, Canadian living in India
Nov 13, 2021
870
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.
 
J

jandek

Down in a Mirror
Feb 19, 2022
149
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

Celerity

shape without form, shade without colour
Jan 24, 2021
2,810
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

Ashu

novelist, sanskritist, Canadian living in India
Nov 13, 2021
870
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.
 
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rainbowbright

rainbowbright

Member
Oct 1, 2022
89
Probably Italian as I'm 1/4 Italian myself
 
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lofticries

lofticries

obedear
Feb 27, 2021
1,470
Japanese without a doubt since the thought of visiting Japan is partly keeping me alive.
 
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A

Anonymus

Enlightened
May 6, 2022
1,356
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).
 
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FoxSauce

FoxSauce

Emotionally unstable like an IKEA table
Aug 23, 2024
826
Swedish, Japanese Korean and German
 
PI3.14

PI3.14

what is chaos to the fly is normal to the spider
Oct 4, 2024
415
In order:
1- Italian cus it sounds beautiful
2- German cus why not lol
3- Spanish cus it's useful
4- Japanese cus I watch Anime sometimes
 
Freedombus'25

Freedombus'25

Hating every minute of being alive.
Dec 8, 2019
1,786
Korean, Japanese, French, Mandarin,

Tbh like all languages. Im obsessed with linguistics and such.

Also would add Jamaican to that. Tho I can understand it and kinda write in it. Can kinda speak it but only certain phrases. Would be nice to more comfortable fluent.
 
33K1LLM3

33K1LLM3

Pretty Girl, Sickness killed her…
Jun 28, 2025
143
Catalan, Japanese, Czech, Swiss German, German, Norwegian, Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, Finnish, Welsh.
 
Unbearable Mr. Bear

Unbearable Mr. Bear

Sometimes, all you need is a hug...
May 9, 2025
944
Japanese probably, because I would be able to play a lot of retro games in Japanese, many of which there is no translation available.

Also funny that the OP said which ONE would you choose and people are making laundry lists hahahah. No worries, keep on going, I'm sure it's OK. 🧸
 

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