I'd like to learn a language.

[Shiny Grimer]

What are your interests? What do you like to do?

You don't need to speak with Norwegian speakers in real life. Are there any books in Norwegian you'd be interested in reading? Movies? I don't speak with any Russians in real life but I still find opportunities to use Russian every day.

The most important thing, I think, is to pick a language that will keep you motivated. Since it seems that part of your motivation is speaking to people in that language, look at what languages are widely spoken around you. I hear there's a lot of people that speak Urdu in the U.K. - these are both Indo-European languages (in the same overall family as English, Spanish, Russian) so they'll have some familiar features but they're still different enough to be exciting. Plus, if you learn Urdu, you'll be able to understand a lot of Hindi. The Hindi used on TV has more Sanskrit-derived vocabulary than Urdu does, so if you learn Urdu then Hindi is a matter of vocabulary. Plus, Urdu has a lot of Persian and Arabic vocabulary, so it could give you a leg up on Persian (Arabic is very difficult and I would not recommend it as a first foreign language for anyone speaking an IE language).

If you go to Hindi, then you would learn a lot of Sanskrit vocabulary. This would be useful if you ever wanted to learn any of the languages of Southeast Asia - I hear that a lot of their higher vocabulary is derived from Sanskrit, so it would be another advantage.

So yeah, I think Urdu/Hindi would be awesome. If you know any speakers around you, it would be even better. Interesting cultures, all of Bollywood at your disposal, and cool scripts... ;) What more could you want?

Of course, this is assuming there's many Urdu or Hindi speakers near you. Do some research into this - what language (other than English) do people near you speak a lot? I hear that some parts of the U.K. have a lot of Polish speakers. Polish is cool... but difficult. I find it more difficult than Russian.

Also, I personally wouldn't go with Mandarin for the first foreign language to study. It could work for you (it worked for Barry Farber) but it's quite difficult in many ways - the characters, the pronunciation, the completely foreign vocabulary, the grammar which, although simple, is not just like English... Mandarin is a lifetime devotion. If you want to see progress quickly, I think Mandarin is the worst you could do if you only speak English. If you already knew another language and knew what to expect from the language learning process, then I think Mandarin could be a good challenge.

tl;dr: what languages are spoken around you? what cultures do you have an interest in? how much time are you willing to dedicate to this language?

(If you can't tell, I'm really into languages.)

by comparison, learning Russian, Mandarin or Japanese would bring pretty limited benefits.

Russian is a lingua franca in, well, Russia, which is the largest country on Earth and covers an astounding range of cultures, geography... plus you can travel through the central asian republics (more people speak russian than kazakh in kazakhstan) and russian is pretty useful in parts of eastern europe (Ukraine, Belarus).

 

[goldenquagsire]

Russian is a lingua franca in, well, Russia, which is the largest country on Earth and covers an astounding range of cultures, geography... plus you can travel through the central asian republics (more people speak russian than kazakh in kazakhstan) and russian is pretty useful in parts of eastern europe (Ukraine, Belarus).

Russia might be large, but lots of it is literally uninhabitable.

and central asia is... a pretty unsafe region to visit. like, they still practice genocide and stuff.

 

[Tarvos]

Russian in general is a big lingua franca to know. Russian is always useful. Arabic is another one.

Also Russian is a general aid to learn any Slavic language.

 

[Dannichu]

How about sign language? It's widely offered, you're statistically more likely to come across someone who can do sign language than, say, Russian, and it looks brilliant on a CV.

 

[Espeon]

Well, I was put off of French for life when I was branded as good at it. As a result I got put on an accelerated course and somehow ended up taking AS French in year 11, which I subsequently dropped and just did additional music instead. My school is considered a languages college, or something along those lines, so we always had languages forcefully shoved our way. :(

Polish would be alright to learn. My mother speaks Polish, so I'd have someone to talk to, definitely. In my home town, we have a large population of just about every ethnic minority and over 100 different languages are spoken. According to Wikipedia, it's unrivalled in the world with regards to the number of languages spoken within one town. But hey, what does Wikipedia know? :P

What are your interests? What do you like to do?

Well, hopefully (if my grades are good enough, but they really won't be), I aim to go to University to study Veterinary Medicine. So my aim is really to learn a lanugage which would be useful in speaking to other people from other cultures who's pets seek medical attention.

Hence, having something to stick on my CV would be nice, which does really put sign language, Polish, Arabic, Hindi and Urdu quite high on my agenda. (Plus learning Hindi gives me an excuse to watch Bollywood. :X)
I also have a friend who speaks Hindi, which is very fortunate. :3

Sign language is literally putting English into actions, isn't it? So it could be possible to learn it on top of a foreign language.

With regard to hobbies/interests, I guess you could literally categorise them into music, science and animals. School's finishedfinished, and I have no place at University this year, so I right now I have every second of my free time to dedicate to learning a language.

 

[Wargle]

I'd recomend mein Deustch ((German)), Russian, Icelandic, or Kanji.

And who needs Latin? What do you plan on doing? Throwing a party for Ancient Rome?
English is already a lot of Latin.

I say Kanji or some other form of Japanese. It is very helpfull. But I love doing Deustch classes because there is always some other thing you never knew before.

 

[Shiny Grimer]

Well, I was put off of French for life when I was branded as good at it. As a result I got put on an accelerated course and somehow ended up taking AS French in year 11, which I subsequently dropped and just did additional music instead. My school is considered a languages college, or something along those lines, so we always had languages forcefully shoved our way. :(

That's a shame because French is really a lovely language. :( Don't let school let you down! I also took French in school and I was put off by it for a while, but

Polish would be alright to learn. My mother speaks Polish, so I'd have someone to talk to, definitely.

If your mother speaks Polish, then that's a great opportunity to practice Polish. Plus, I'm guessing there might be other family relatives pleased if you were learning Polish?

In my home town, we have a large population of just about every ethnic minority and over 100 different languages are spoken. According to Wikipedia, it's unrivalled in the world with regards to the number of languages spoken within one town. But hey, what does Wikipedia know? :P

Are you living in New York? ;)

Well, hopefully (if my grades are good enough, but they really won't be), I aim to go to University to study Veterinary Medicine. So my aim is really to learn a lanugage which would be useful in speaking to other people from other cultures who's pets seek medical attention.

Hence, having something to stick on my CV would be nice, which does really put sign language, Polish, Arabic, Hindi and Urdu quite high on my agenda. (Plus learning Hindi gives me an excuse to watch Bollywood. :X)
I also have a friend who speaks Hindi, which is very fortunate. :3

If you have a friend who speaks Hindi, that's great (and if you like Bollywood, even better). I think Hindi/Urdu would be also a good option for you.

Sign language is literally putting English into actions, isn't it? So it could be possible to learn it on top of a foreign language.

I don't know how British Sign Language works, but American Sign Language has a different grammar from English. Not radically different, I think, but definitely different. It is it's own language, not just signed English.

With regard to hobbies/interests, I guess you could literally categorise them into music, science and animals. School's finishedfinished, and I have no place at University this year, so I right now I have every second of my free time to dedicate to learning a language.

The reason I ask for this is because you'd probably want a language you could use for your interests too. For example, there are a lot of papers on rocket science being published in Russian (or so I heard) so if your interests included rocket science, Russian could be a rewarding language.

I'd recomend mein Deustch ((German)), Russian, Icelandic, or Kanji. [...] I say Kanji or some other form of Japanese. It is very helpfull.

Kanji is not a language. Kanji are Chinese characters in Japanese. It is not a form of Japanese.

And who needs Latin? What do you plan on doing? Throwing a party for Ancient Rome?
English is already a lot of Latin.

If you want to read Latin, you obviously have to study Latin. Plus, knowing Latin is useful if you want to be a historical linguist, and traditionally people wanting to specialize in the Romance languages learned Latin. It's personally not my thing, but Latin isn't useless.

Also, why Icelandic? At least Latin has a lot of resources for learning it and once you learn Latin there is a lot of stuff to read. Finding resources for Icelandic is difficult - at the very least, your local bookstore will probably not have any Icelandic dictionaries or grammars. Icelandic is also difficult to learn (or so I heard). I'd love to study Icelandic, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone learning their first language on their own.

 

[Espeon]

Noooo, I live in the UK. I am British. Here, we have real York. Not fake York. :(
Also, I thought New York was a city, not a town? :x

Maybe Hindi, then. Or Polish. I could always to two. I have no interestin rocket science, unfortunately. Mainly biological sciences and veterinary science.

 

[Wargle]

Kanji is not a language. Kanji are Chinese characters in Japanese. It is not a form of Japanese.


Also, why Icelandic? At least Latin has a lot of resources for learning it and once you learn Latin there is a lot of stuff to read. Finding resources for Icelandic is difficult - at the very least, your local bookstore will probably not have any Icelandic dictionaries or grammars. Icelandic is also difficult to learn (or so I heard). I'd love to study Icelandic, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone learning their first language on their own.

Hur.

Over here in my area of the States, they teach us that there are a few different kinds of Japanese, Kanji, Katanka((unsure if that is correct name, they screw pronounciation of it up so badly)), and some other form that escapses me at the moment.

And my local bookstore has Icelandic books and stuff. Don't they all? They should.

 

[Zuu]

what the fuck? they're probably talking about the three alphabets, Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana. christ, where do you live?

 

[Shiny Grimer]

Noooo, I live in the UK. I am British. Here, we have real York. Not fake York. :(
Also, I thought New York was a city, not a town? :x

I know you do; that's why I added the ";)".
And New York is a city, but I'd never heard about the most linguistically diverse town and thought "Well that's interesting because NYC is the most diverse city. Wonder what the town is?"

And it's not fake; it's new and improved.

is it bedford? :z

Maybe Hindi, then. Or Polish. I could always to two. I have no interestin rocket science, unfortunately. Mainly biological sciences and veterinary science.

I mentioned Russian and rocket science as a random example. I'm trying to find what kind of languages would be useful for biology and veterinarian...cy.

Hur.

Over here in my area of the States, they teach us that there are a few different kinds of Japanese, Kanji, Katanka((unsure if that is correct name, they screw pronounciation of it up so badly)), and some other form that escapses me at the moment.

I think they meant writing systems. Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. All three are used in Japanese.

And my local bookstore has Icelandic books and stuff. Don't they all? They should.

A B&N near me has a pocket Burmese dictionary and a Borders around here once had a Teach Yourself Icelandic course that I was dying to buy (it has since been bought by someone :( ). There's a used book store that has a Colloquial Hungarian course. However, Icelandic resources are very scarce here.

 

[Wargle]

what the fuck? they're probably talking about the three alphabets, Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana. christ, where do you live?

Ah that's what they were talking about. I must have misunderstood.

 

[Music Dragon]

And who needs Latin? What do you plan on doing? Throwing a party for Ancient Rome?

Or maybe becoming a jurist, or a physician, or a linguist (not that Espeon seems like the kind of person who would ever take an interest in languages or become a veterinarian).

 

[Tarvos]

I want to study a language as well, but I can't pick any.

Note:

I've studied five languages already: Dutch (native), English (fluent), German (reasonable), French (mediocre speaking/listening, written French comprehension is good), Latin (forgotten most of this since you only ever learn to read Latin and translate it)

Things I'm looking at are any Scandinavian language (doesn't matter which since if you know one you pretty much understand them all, I gather), Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, and modern Greek.

I don't want to do Spanish, I know that would be more useful most likely but I fucken hate the sound of Spanish. Italian would similarly be not enough of a challenge to learn because I understand French and Latin.

 

[IcySapphire]

If you're interested in music, you could try Italian...

 

[Superbird]

Also, why Icelandic? At least Latin has a lot of resources for learning it and once you learn Latin there is a lot of stuff to read. Finding resources for Icelandic is difficult - at the very least, your local bookstore will probably not have any Icelandic dictionaries or grammars. Icelandic is also difficult to learn (or so I heard). I'd love to study Icelandic, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone learning their first language on their own.

She could talk to Butterfree?

If you're interested in music, you could try Italian...

I play music, and without even trying, I've memorized about 95% of the Italian terms commonly used in music. Besides, certain headings and other notations are in various languages like German and French.

While my knowledge on the subject isn't the best, I think that Latin is a base for many romance languages. If you want to go all around, I'd suggest that. Then again, I don't really know much about this stuff.

 

[opaltiger]

English is already a lot of Latin.

What. English shares an alphabet and often borrows roots/prefixes/etc., but Latin grammar is completely different - not to mention several orders of magnitude more complex.

 

[Shiny Grimer]

Things I'm looking at are any Scandinavian language (doesn't matter which since if you know one you pretty much understand them all, I gather), Portuguese [...].

I don't want to do Spanish, I know that would be more useful most likely but I fucken hate the sound of Spanish. Italian would similarly be not enough of a challenge to learn because I understand French and Latin.

Why Portuguese, then? You say that Italian would be too easy - wouldn't Portuguese as well?

And any of the Scandinavian languages would be way too easy, seeing as you already know three Germanic languages (and German, I've heard, gives you a huge lead on Swedish vocabulary) and the grammar is really simple.

As for the sound of Spanish, well different strokes for different folks. :P What kind of Portuguese were you interested in?

 

[Espeon]

I know you do; that's why I added the ";)".
And New York is a city, but I'd never heard about the most linguistically diverse town and thought "Well that's interesting because NYC is the most diverse city. Wonder what the town is?"

And it's not fake; it's new and improved.

is it bedford? :z

Improved is a far stretch. :P
I'd have to look at both in detail to make a fair comparison. I'd like to go to New York some time so I can look around.

No. Reading.

I mentioned Russian and rocket science as a random example. I'm trying to find what kind of languages would be useful for biology and veterinarian...cy.

To be honest, probably the more commonly spoken languages for my area would be better. So again, just about anything works but the most common ones I hear are Polish and Indian languages.

A B&N near me has a pocket Burmese dictionary and a Borders around here once had a Teach Yourself Icelandic course that I was dying to buy (it has since been bought by someone :( ). There's a used book store that has a Colloquial Hungarian course. However, Icelandic resources are very scarce here.

I once downloaded a "Colloquial Icelandic" thingy off of the internet for fun. Never used it though.

She could talk to Butterfree?

...She?
I did once ask Butterfree to teach me a small portion of Icelandic. We got about as far as telling people that they needed help. Should have carried on but I was afraid of being a pest. :x

 

[Shiny Grimer]

Improved is a far stretch. :P
I'd have to look at both in detail to make a fair comparison. I'd like to go to New York some time so I can look around.

No. Reading.

Darn! My investigative skills need sharpening. :/

To be honest, probably the more commonly spoken languages for my area would be better. So again, just about anything works but the most common ones I hear are Polish and Indian languages.

Yeah, I've come to the conclusion that the only language that's really useful for biology is English. And maybe Latin since there are a lot of Latin terms, but these can probably be assimilated as English words. So yeah, you're better off going with languages spoken in your area.

I once downloaded a "Colloquial Icelandic" thingy off of the internet for fun. Never used it though.

You can probably find resources for Polish/Hindi/Urdu on the internet quite easily. I can definitely recommend a few for Hindi/Urdu *cough*. And probably some for Polish.

I did once ask Butterfree to teach me a small portion of Icelandic. We got about as far as telling people that they needed help. Should have carried on but I was afraid of being a pest. :x

lol. If you wanted to continue, you could have used this (but you probably know that link so yeah).