What foreign language would you want to learn?

[Mr Rayon]

Which foreign language is most beneficial to learn for an Australian? Are there any Australians on SFN (I think I've only ever spotted two )?

 

Anybody got an ideas?

 

If you could learn any language in the world which language would it be?

[CaptainPanic]

I would go for Chinese. Huge country, upcoming economy.

[John Cuthber]

"Which foreign language is most beneficial to learn for an Australian? "

English (for a given definition of foreign).

[Mr Rayon]

"Which foreign language is most beneficial to learn for an Australian? "

English (for a given definition of foreign).

[DJBruce]

Personally I would love to learn Latin and German.

[pwagen]

As an Aussie? Honestly, you can get by almost everywhere with English. While an incredibly large population speaks Chinese, I'm not sure it will ever be a "world language". And I hope not, because I heard it's really really hard to learn!

 

If you really want to learn a foreign language, I would suggest you try to find one that is quite different in grammar and thinking than your own. That way, you'll get an increased understanding of how people actually think in that language. For example, learning Norwegian as a Swede would be quite redundant as not only do they share a majority of their words, the grammar is exactly the same.

 

I don't know if there is such a similar language for English, but I heard French referred to as a "sister language" to English, so in that case that would be out. But I don't know French, so can't say for sure. Also, French is apparently used a lot in business situations around the world, so it might be useful to learn still.

[JohnB]

At least we can translate for Americans.

 

[lemur]

I really wish people globally would make a serious effort to incorporate at least one second language into their lives in a thorough way. Imo, it is a waste of the internet to have unlimited global point-to-point transmission capabilities and yet so many people are limited in consuming the majority of media available to them due to language barriers. The problem with language-learning is that it requires a community of speakers so either people have to go to where the speakers are or there needs to emerge multiple communities of speakers for each language in various regions. I think the most effective way to do this would be for all schools globally to select a primary second language for the school. That way, students, teachers, and staff could all practice using this language in everyday life outside of critical instructional areas. Newcomers to the school would learn the language the only way that really works, imo, by practical immersion.

Edited June 3, 2011 by lemur

[Hal.]

As an Australian , what do you want to do with the foreign language that you learn ? You already have a foreign language in the sense that English is foreign to the country you are from . Do you speak native Australian ? , though not a foreign language it would be a good place to begin learning a second language if you don't know a lot .

 

If you intend travelling to Europe I think English will help you as it will be spoken by a lot of people , but it will also hinder you if the object is to learn another language . German , Dutch , French , Spanish , Polish , Russian ..................................... the list continues !

[Stefan-CoA]

Research has shown that knowing more languages can stave off Alzheimer's. It doesn't really matter what you learn, English is pretty much everywhere. I'm a native German speaker living in South Africa and I can speak English, German and Afrikaans, but I find that English is the one that I used most no matter where I am. So as far as that is concerned, go with whatever tickles your fancy.

 

If you're planning on going off to live somewhere else, I'd suggest learning the local language (or in some cases the appropriate dialect)

[Ringer]

I'm not sure what language would be helpful but I'm going to take Japanese and hope to learn Thai someday. Don't think either one will be helpful in the long run, but I think it would be fun to learn them.

 

 

On a side note, Chinese is not really a language. The two main languages of China are Mandarin and Cantonese with a few others and a lot of dialects. Most of these cannot understand each other, they all just use the same alphabet. The alphabet can be translated in any of these languages, thus the blanket term Chinese.

[JohnB]

Lemur, it's a nice idea but people have to prioritise. People have to learn what is important to them, another language may help in some cases but for most it's as useless as tits on a bull. Geography also plays a part. I have to fly some thousands of miles to get somewhere where english isn't the native language whereas in Europe you only need to take a long afternoon drive. It simply wouldn't get used in day to day affairs. You might as well argue that everybody should learn boolean algebra.

 

Granted I am learning another language but that is because Egyptology is a hobby and a knowledge of heiroglyphs allows me to check the veracity of translations for myself.

 

The time spent learning a language that has no use for me is far better spent increasing my knowledge of geology and gemmology. One could argue that an extra language would aid me in the international trade arena but I import from China, Bolivia, Brazil, Thailand, Zambia, Mozambique and Nigeria so it's pretty pointless, especially since all the traders in the arena speak english anyway.

 

Besides, and this might sound lazy of me but what the hell. Just as French was (is it still?) the language of Diplomacy, English is the language of technology and as technology spreads so will English be absorbed into other languages until they are finally redundant. Why put off the inevitable?

[Mr Rayon]

I really wish people globally would make a serious effort to incorporate at least one second language into their lives in a thorough way. Imo, it is a waste of the internet to have unlimited global point-to-point transmission capabilities and yet so many people are limited in consuming the majority of media available to them due to language barriers. The problem with language-learning is that it requires a community of speakers so either people have to go to where the speakers are or there needs to emerge multiple communities of speakers for each language in various regions. I think the most effective way to do this would be for all schools globally to select a primary second language for the school. That way, students, teachers, and staff could all practice using this language in everyday life outside of critical instructional areas. Newcomers to the school would learn the language the only way that really works, imo, by practical immersion.

 

Omg, that's actually a really smart idea!

Well done!

Have you thought about perhaps writing a letter to the government about it? It might give them some good ideas on how to improve their country's education system. I bet it also wouldn't be a too expensive project to initiate as well...could bring about some positive changes...