Post: #1

I wanted to pick the brains of you guys on here as I'm facing a bit of a dilemma.

I'm a native English speaker and I can also speak Spanish & Brazilian Portuguese to a very high standard.

I started learning Spanish in '09 when I was dating a madrileña and fell in love with the language. Then in 2012 I spent a year in Barcelona studying with all of my lectures & coursework done in Spanish. Put together, I've probably spent 18 months worth of time in Spain, and a further 4 months backpacking in Central & South America. I consider myself to be fluent.

Portuguese I picked up in 2012 as there was an easy transition and I found it to also be a very beautiful language. I learned it mostly online and through Skype with Brazilian friends. During my last year of university I was living with a couple of guys from Rio and my proficiency skyrocketed. I can now comfortably listen to music/watch movies/have full and complex conversations in the language.


I'm trying to decide whether it would be better to keep the ball rolling and pick up a third language, or to keep going with what I know. I have been trying to pick up French but I often confuse myself with the Spanish & Portuguese. Because of this, I am tempted to pick up an unrelated language from scratch.

Based on my situation, would you recommend me to start a new language? If so, what would be a worthwhile choice?

Post: #2

If either go with a similar romance language (french, Italian or romanian) or perhaps a more alien international language such as Russian or Arabic.

Post: #3

What's the purpose of wanting to learn a new language? Is it purely for intellectual challenge; or getting ahead in business; or getting women? Of course most people would want it for all three reasons, but sometimes there are tradeoffs.

I would suggest Russian. Not only for women, and maybe for business, but also because as a Slavic language, you can branch out with it (to Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Ukrainian).

Also, if you're going to start from scratch and study independently, you'll need to pick a language that has a variety of teaching material. That's easy with Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French, but somewhat harder for Hungarian, Uzbek, or Hausa.

Post: #4

(11-14-2014 08:58 PM)Kissinger2014 Wrote:  What's the purpose of wanting to learn a new language? Is it purely for intellectual challenge; or getting ahead in business; or getting women? Of course most people would want it for all three reasons, but sometimes there are tradeoffs.

I would suggest Russian. Not only for women, and maybe for business, but also because as a Slavic language, you can branch out with it (to Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Ukrainian).

Also, if you're going to start from scratch and study independently, you'll need to pick a language that has a variety of teaching material. That's easy with Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French, but somewhat harder for Hungarian, Uzbek, or Hausa.

Thanks for the reply mate.

It's a combination of the three. I thought about Russian as well, they say the alphabet is quite easy to learn and the language tends to stick to the rules unlike the romance languages!

In terms of studying I'm thinking about using some of the same methods I used in the past (Language Exchange sites, Michel Thomas, Immersion techniques, etc.) but also maybe taking an evening class or a few days a week seeing a tutor. As with anything, you'll get out of it what you put in and I've heard that Russian although its a very logical language is still very challenging.

Languages like Arabic & Mandarin intrigue me, but I think for me to really motivate me to learn a language there needs to be an interest in their culture. While I find Arab & Chinese culture intriguing, It's not going to captivate me in the same way Spanish & Portuguese did.

Post: #5

You seem very well traveled so you should have a pretty good idea of which cultures, countries and peoples you find most appealing. Trust in wherever that leads you. If that truly is French then go for it and don't worry about mixing them up too much, if you're regularly practicing Spanish and Portuguese (which I think are far easier to mix up) it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Usually when I try learning a language without genuine motivation it tails off soon enough, but that's me.

But if you're interested in random suggestions, you could think about Romanian (Latinate, related but different enough from Spanish/Portuguese, two interesting countries in a new region) or Swedish (easy for English speakers, cool country with lots of fun women to meet, however although Swedish definitely helps they almost all speak English anyway) might be two to consider.

Post: #6

I made the same decision about 2 months ago, and I chose Russian.

I try to choose the languages I learn by their 'usefulness' and how interesting and fun they are to me. So since you already know Spanish, Chinese would be a decent choice, but that is entirely up to you.

I speak Spanish, English, Chinese, a little of Italian and I think Russian would be the last language I will learn as a new language. I am 24 years old so by the time I am 30 years old I will be really proficient in all these languages.

Good luck with your choice!

Post: #7

You should ask yourself:

What part of the world do I like?

What culture do I like?

What historical period do I like?

Since you have mastered a couple modern vernaculars, why not try a classical language like Latin or Greek? If you became proficient in Latin, you would be able to see the "code" behind all of the Romance languages. They would mean more to you.

If this is not your interest, then focus on some part of the world that you are interested in.

Post: #8

These are all great suggestions guys, thanks for the input. In learning languages I agree that motivation is key.

Russian intrigues me not only because of the culture but also from the huge number of gates that it would open travel wise. I imagine you could have an amazing travel experience in eastern bloc countries if you were able to converse in Russian which many people understand in that part of the world.