What language to learn

[Demonweave]

So me and a friend are thinking of learning a language. We are thinking French, Spanish or Italian. But can't decide which.

Any recommendations? Anyone know if one is particularly easier to learn?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

So me and a friend are thinking of learning a language. We are thinking French, Spanish or Italian. But can't decide which.

Any recommendations? Anyone know if one is particularly easier to learn?

Spanish is very easier to learn. But I prefer French, on account of me already speaking French. French is a wonderful language. And you can pick up girls with French. It's wonderful.

[Drynwyn]

I, personally, have found French to be my favorite. I would recommend it to anyone.

[Demonweave]

She did also say French would be her choice, but I did it at school, and Just couldn't Pick it up. Found German alot easier tho. Hmmm

[Temotei]

I like Italian. French is just fine, though. French really isn't that difficult to learn, I think. I've never tried Spanish, so I've no input on that.

[Icewalker]

I know very little about French.

Spanish and Italian are roughly the same language. (If you speak one, people who speak the other will be able to understand you fine). Personally, I like the sound of Italian more.

If you learn Arabic or Chinese you are instantly more employable in the job market, and they may end up being more useful. Also, more unusual, which means they may teach you more from a linguistic perspective. However they're also further from English phonologically, so it'll be harder to learn to pronounce.

Personally, I suggest you study Nahuatl.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I've always wanted to study a new language in each different major alphabet.

Hebrew, Mandarin, Greek, Hindi etc.

Just for awesome also wish to learn Gaelic and Cherokee. The latter am teaching myself.

Problem is, while I pick up on languages quite easily, rarely have anyone to teach me. I'm not good with simply reading about it. I pick it up like I do instruments, by ear and learning how everything flows.

Start going on about glottal stops and female ventriculars and all that crap and my brainfuzzes.

[Ranger Mattos]

Out of those choices, I prefer French. Seems to me to be easy to learn, as well as useful.

Out of any language, you should learn Quenya. Or Sindarin.

[Kumori]

Out of any language, you should learn Quenya. Or Sindarin.

I wonder how many people on this board recognize those as Elvish...

As for the topic at hand, I'd probably go with Spanish or Italian. I don't favour French much, probably on account of one of my friends being French.

[Haruki-kun]

As much as I hate to admit it, probably French would be most useful out of those.

Between Spanish or Italian, go with Spanish. Spanish is more broadly used. It is true that you can get a rough understanding of the other if you speak one, but they're NOT the same language, and you can't go around saying "I speak Italian because I speak Spanish."

Languages.... do not work that way. <.<

[InaVegt]

Nahuatl, I choose thee!

[PJ the Epic]

Spanish is fun if you have somewhere to use/practice it. Or someone to speak it with. Otherwise it can be a real drag to learn, unless you absolutly love language, which some people do.

[Jay R]

You left out all useful information for forming an opinion.

Where do you live? How many speakers of each language live near you?

Where do you want to visit?

What do you want to read? Don Quixote's in Spanish; Cyrano de Bergerac and The Three Musketeers are French; most opera is in Italian.

If you're interested in 16th/17th century fencing manuals, Agrippa and Capo Ferro are in Italian; Narvaez is in Spanish; Sainct Didier is in French.

I live in Texas, and Spanish is more immediately relevant. People near Quebec would have more use for French.

Languages are tools for communication and learning. Until we know who you want to communicate with or what you want to learn, we cannot advise you.

[Eldariel]

Difficulty-wise, all of those are rather even. French has a tad more rigid rules and a bit more complex pronunciation on account of having been artificially regulated for centuries (while the other two have developed relatively freely), but all of them have the same basic grammar and structure with the same cases and actually quite a large overlap on words.

If anything, learn all of them. Once you learn one, the other two will be really easy. I know French and studying Spanish has been really simple as a consequence; and through both you can actually make quite some sense of other Romance languages like Italian & Portuguese.

[KerfuffleMach2]

If you learn Arabic or Chinese you are instantly more employable in the job market, and they may end up being more useful.

Spanish applies here as well. It is one of the most widely spoken languages.

Spanish isn't too difficult to learn. Hardest part for me is remembering the various verb forms.

[Pokonic]

I found french to be hard, but chinese is more important in the jobe market. The again, I may be biased, as chinese is my native tongue.

[Lord Seth]

You left out all useful information for forming an opinion.

Where do you live?

Underneath his Avatar it says "Location:
norfolk, england"

I don't know about England in particular, but I do think that after English, French is the most frequently spoken language in the U.K., so it might be most useful...

[ForzaFiori]

I've actually taken all three of those languages, and in my opinion, French is by far the hardest. Silent letters run rampant, and in many cases, 2 or more different conjugations of words will sound exactly the same. Italian and Spanish are about equal in difficulty. Each one has a couple of weird pronunciations to remember (rolling r's in spanish (or italian, actually), ll making a y sound, and x making an h sound in spanish, ch and z in italian (they make a K and ts sound, respectively, which are similar, but not quite the same.)

French also seemed to have more irregular verbs, as well as no easy distinction between masculine and feminine nouns (like spanish and italian's o and a endings.)

[Haruki-kun]

I found french to be hard, but chinese is more important in the jobe market. The again, I may be biased, as chinese is my native tongue.

Just a bit.

Seriously, though, Chinese is a better option... but it depends a lot on what you're working on.

For Engineering, Japanese and German are priority.

For international relations, French and Spanish are a bit higher (though not much, as Japanese and German are important, too).

If you're getting into something very specific, like a career in Fashion or Culinary arts, French is THE language, followed by Italian.

Chinese is good if you're doing International business and Relations, and a bit in Engineering, IIRC, but not much use if you're in Fashion or cooking.

That's what I recall being told, anyway. Asking someone at school might be a good choice.

[arguskos]

I wonder how many people on this board recognize those as Elvish...

I did.

I recommend Klingon, for the awesomeness factor. I also recommend a real language, such as French or Spanish, from your list and for the usability factor. I know if you lived here, in the States, it'd be Spanish, as Spanish is a rapidly growing language here, but in England, I imagine it's less useful.

[unosarta]

If you learn Arabic or Chinese you are instantly more employable in the job market, and they may end up being more useful. Also, more unusual, which means they may teach you more from a linguistic perspective. However they're also further from English phonologically, so it'll be harder to learn to pronounce.

Personally, I suggest you study Nahuatl.

If you learn Chinese, you might as well go learn Japanese at the same time. It makes every vastly easier. If you aren't necessarily that good at learning languages, then doing them at the same time might not be advisable, but learning one makes learning the other incredibly easier. Also, Chinese is really, really nice for an employment standpoint, as Icewalker pointed out. And China/Japan has some amazing food.

[VioletRice]

If you learn Chinese, you might as well go learn Japanese at the same time. It makes every vastly easier.

I actually tried this, and found it more difficult, cuz I mixed them up too much. Of course, I only tried it for a year until I decided I'd learn Japanese later. I also was already studying Latin and French as well, so it might have just been too much.

To answer the OP, I prefer French, mostly cuz I live near Montreal and Quebec. I'd try to go for whichever is the most common in you're area, wherever you want to visit the most, or whichever sounds the nicest to you.

[Claudius Maximus]

Ancient Greek

Doooo iiiiiiit

[unosarta]

I actually tried this, and found it more difficult, cuz I mixed them up too much. Of course, I only tried it for a year until I decided I'd learn Japanese later. I also was already studying Latin and French as well, so it might have just been too much.

To answer the OP, I prefer French, mostly cuz I live near Montreal and Quebec. I'd try to go for whichever is the most common in you're area, wherever you want to visit the most, or whichever sounds the nicest to you.

As someone who is learning both, it helps me a huge amount. The Japanese pronunciations are fairly similar to the Chinese ones, and being able to compare characters and meanings to be similar is a very good way to learn the languages.

Take a couple of characters; 新 あたらし, Shin1. Atarashi, and Shin. They have a fairly similar structure, and I instantly recognized it in my Chinese class because I had learned it in Japanese. They also both have the same meaning. Also, atarashi is only the most common usage, the kunyomi. The onyomi is Shin, which has the exact same pronunciation as the chinese word.

心, こころ/shin， 心, shin. Kokoro is the kunyomi in this case as well, shin is the onyomi. Every Japanese character has a kunyomi and an onyomi. The onyomi are specifically taken from the Chinese pronunciation. So, the onyomi in this case is the exact same as the Chinese. You will notice this pattern repeat across most any characters and words you are learning in either language.

[VioletRice]

As someone who is learning both, it helps me a huge amount. The Japanese pronunciations are fairly similar to the Chinese ones, and being able to compare characters and meanings to be similar is a very good way to learn the languages.

Yup, they're quite similar, and I can read a fair amount of Japanese because of my experience with Mandarin, but for some reason Mandarin is a lot easier for me than Japanese. I guess it just didn't work for me (which, again, I will probably put down to taking four languages at once, plus an altogether busy year).

[unosarta]

Yup, they're quite similar, and I can read a fair amount of Japanese because of my experience with Mandarin, but for some reason Mandarin is a lot easier for me than Japanese. I guess it just didn't work for me (which, again, I will probably put down to taking four languages at once, plus an altogether busy year).

Probably a good point. But I must digress, no matter what the OP chooses, learning a language is an amazing absolutely fantastic, incredible, wonderful and beautiful experience.

[Mauve Shirt]

Learn German. It is the best.

[Eldariel]

Probably a good point. But I must digress, no matter what the OP chooses, learning a language is an amazing absolutely fantastic, incredible, wonderful and beautiful experience.

The best part is, after you know ~10 languages or so, learning a new one becomes incredibly easy. You can just mirror the grammatic elements off other languages and probably have quite a good command of the basics right off the bat along with efficient methods for picking up the vocabulary.

[unosarta]

The best part is, after you know ~10 languages or so, learning a new one becomes incredibly easy. You can just mirror the grammatic elements off other languages and probably have quite a good command of the basics right off the bat along with efficient methods for picking up the vocabulary.

I am so jealous of you. My life goal is to learn more than 10 languages.

[Anxe]

As much as I hate to admit it, probably French would be most useful out of those.

Between Spanish or Italian, go with Spanish. Spanish is more broadly used. It is true that you can get a rough understanding of the other if you speak one, but they're NOT the same language, and you can't go around saying "I speak Italian because I speak Spanish."

Languages.... do not work that way. <.<

My experience in Italy was that Spanish and Italian were the same language. I could talk with people with occasional words not being understood, but sentences working.