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

[bankai]

Just Japanese. I can watch anime without subtitles.

 

[Satori Komeiji]

Japanese so that I didn't have to rely on translators for Touhou stuff :) For actual practical use though probably German or Dutch.

 

[bankai]

Japanese so that I didn't have to rely on translators for Touhou stuff :) For actual practical use though probably German or Dutch.

The problem is, Japan is such a homogeneous and standalone country that you can't actually speak Japanese with anyone anywhere else. Whereas I guess you'd be able to speak German in multiple countries.

 

[moribundwhispers]

Indus Valley Script purely for money (indian govt will pay 1 million dollars for deciphering it)
i am not indian or of indian heritage i just want the money lol

 

[Satori Komeiji]

The problem is, Japan is such a homogeneous and standalone country that you can't actually speak Japanese with anyone anywhere else. Whereas I guess you'd be able to speak German in multiple countries.

Exactly. As it stands right now though, distractions and cope are what keep me sane (and alive, to some extent) so being able to distract and cope better would be nice. I'll probably never have the money to visit Switzerland or Netherlands which are the two countries I want to visit most so might as well pick the fun language rather than the practical one.

 

[moribundwhispers]

The problem is, Japan is such a homogeneous and standalone country that you can't actually speak Japanese with anyone anywhere else. Whereas I guess you'd be able to speak German in multiple countries.

reading manga and anime would be cool but it's not useful outside of Japan for much else.

 

[bankai]

Exactly. As it stands right now though, distractions and cope are what keep me sane (and alive, to some extent) so being able to distract and cope better would be nice. I'll probably never have the money to visit Switzerland or Netherlands which are the two countries I want to visit most so might as well pick the fun language rather than the practical one.

Interesting. The Netherlands is not often mentioned by people, but I know how utterly beautiful it is because The Amazing Race had an episode in Netherlands.Another lesser known but very beautiful country is Latvia featured in another episode.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Klingon. Maybe Russian.

 

[star.trip]

English, German, Russian and Mandarin

 

[OvercastingClouds]

Japanese or Russian

 

[manchuman123]

Probably Mandarin only because, i dont think i could ever learn to be fluent in it, I tried but didnt get far.

 

[amerie]

Arabic. I love Lebanon

 

[fedup1982]

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?

I think I'd choose French. It's a beautiful language, plus then I could maybe move to Belgium and get euthanised

 

[Cauliflour]

Japanese. Yes I know, I'm a weeb. I find the language fascinating though but I don't have the time to learn it. I wish English was as cool as Japanese...

 

[Grog]

Japanese. I've already learned a bit of the language.

こんにちは！僕はグローグです。僕の日本語はまだ上手じゃありません。ごめんなさい。どうぞよろしくお願いします！
Hello! I'm Grog. My Japanese language skills aren't very good yet. I apologize. How do you do!