What second language would you choose to learn?

[Fat Tone]

OK, I know for a lot here it would be a third language

I have the chance to learn a foreign language quite cheaply via work. The list is Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portugese, Russian, Spanish.

French - I can remember a smattering, certainly enough to survive if I find myself in France for some strange reason, or even better certain parts of Canada

Spanish - Have enough for holidays, but more would be useful as my family starts to spend more and more time there.

Italian - would love to revisit Italy sometime, but not likely to happen too much.

Chinese - was wondering if, as the chinese economy booms, there would be a demand for an IT or Education worker with Chinese language skills?

The rest don't hold any appeal (sorry Smurf, Az etc, no offence )

[TransformX]

Japanese, so you can see all the dirty hentai movies without needing translation!!!

[ND66]

What, no Poll?????????




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[ZokesPro]

For me it would be a third language.
I'd love to learn Chinese, then Japanese. Maybe then learn Spanish after that.

[rylan]

Most likely an Asian language, probably Chinese or Japanese.
In my opinion, they are the most useful languages for making progress in the future.

[ND66]

OK, no Poll..... .



French, women love it!


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[Dr Mordrid]

Cantonese or Standard Mandarin, probably the latter.

[ZokesPro]

Cantonese or Standard Mandarin, probably the latter.

I'd rather learn Mandarin over Cantonese. I hear that it's easier to learn Japanese once you know Mandarin.

[Elie]

Japanese, big time!!

Then I would learn my native language, Armenian

[az]

Apart from the fact that you're missing out on a lot by not learning german, my vote would go for either french or spanish, because they both sound beautifuland are often used.

[Brian Ellis]

I'm already bilingual English/French and can understand, with concentration, a lot of German (written and spoken, but unable to construct good sentences) with some smatterings of Italian and Spanish. I suppose my native language is Lallans, but I'm terribly bad at it. My Arabic is limited to a vocabulary of a few indecencies and enough to send importuning kids running for their mother. Have a few words of Bahasa Malaya/Indonesia (they are nearly the same), mostly things like good morning, thank you and so on, not forgetting a few English words corrupted into Bahasa, such as for school bus (bas sekolah). I stll remember a little Latin and Russian from my schooldays.

My Achilles heel is Modern Greek and I have a block here. I have a moderate vocabulary of everyday Greek but I get totally confused with genders, conjugations, tenses, declensions and accordance. I can read it reasonably; its saving grace is that it is pronounced pretty much as it is spelt. This is the language I would most like to get to grips with.

For the anecdote, transliteration can be very hazardous. For example, the street names here are always transliterated from Greek into English. Some Street names are from UK or US notables, so their names are first changed into Greek and then back into English, letter by letter, so we have a Tzon Kenenti Avenue or Fragklinou Rousvelt Street after two US Presidents. I kid you not!

[az]

Oh, or Arabic. I believe there is a lot to learn from being able to understand those who might see you as an enemy (and being able to understand all the peaceful arabs and those who sell the oil wouldn't hurt, either). But I don't like its sound.

[ND66]

You know, If you don’t feel confused enough, it’s always good to pop the question here. At least that’s why I’m here for..... .


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[NetSnake]

It takes a lot of commitment to learn chinese/japanese. I hear that even people who lived in those countries for many years still have problems understanding, let alone writing properly...

[Jessterw]

I would have loved to have learned more Japanese, but sadly I don't have much use for it anymore. I already know Spanish and can roughly comprehend Italian, so I'd probably go with French or German.