Current Events > What World Language should I take this year?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Background info: my school makes it a requirement to complete 2 years of a language, my freshman and sophomore year I've taken spanish, I'm going into my junior year, I want to switch up the language I want to take and schedule changes are tomorrow morning and school doesn't start till the 13th.

Edit: I also live in California
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ProfessorKukui posted...

The language of love

So French?
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I speak some German, fluent in Japanese, and pretty decent in Mandarin (can read fluently, but speaking is often a struggle).

I think in the end it comes down to which you will enjoy the most, but of those German and French are obviously by far the easiest for a native English speaker. Both will have tons of overlapping vocab, largely identical grammar (but they have that nasty gender system), and no need to learn a new writing system. Pronunciation can be hard for both, but not a major hurdle. Chinese and Japanese are at the opposite end of difficulty. The hardest languages you could learn as a native English speaker (Japanese being considered the single hardest). But they will present unique challenges.

Japanese has easy pronunciation, but the grammar is nothing like English, and although there are a lot of English loanwords the pronunciation is often quite different and they tend to be lower frequency words. Most of Japanese is going to be Chinese loanwords and Native Japanese words. The writing system is an absolute disaster of three scripts and inconsistent rules that lead even natives to be occasionally unable to correctly guess how to read words they haven't seen before.

Chinese has absolutely brutal pronunciation, not just tones, but new sounds not in English. Loanwords are almost non-existent, and pronounced quite differently much of the time. Although it technically uses more characters than Japanese, they have less readings (usually just 1), making it much easier to learn to read. Grammar is like English but simpler, and it is easily the simplest grammar of all the languages listed here.
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why not just stick with spanish and keep developing it?

otherwise, just pick whichever one you think you'll enjoy most/find most interesting
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Well I'm lowkey tryna sail and boost my gpa this year with an easy A so I'm leaning towards French. A friend of mine is taking AP French this year and most language 1 classes are easy to get an A in. German is kind of tempting because of a girl but I can't take the language because of that reason so French might be it.
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cavalierking posted...

why not just stick with spanish and keep developing it?

otherwise, just pick whichever one you think you'll enjoy most/find most interesting

Well aside from wanting to try the taste of a different language, Spanish 2 kicked my ass last year and having met the requirement I'm free to learn something else.
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Japanese because Anime
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I think Mandarin is the most popular language. You might actually use Mandarin or Japanese in conversation with people since you live in Cali which has its share of Asian citizens.

You could learn a language that is used in a particular country that you'd like to visit in the future.

And I wouldn't blame you at all for taking the easy A.
:)

Big_Gold posted...

I think Mandarin is the most popular language.

It has the most Native speakers in the world, but actually English is the most spoken language in the world. Mandarin is great, but almost every country that uses it has compulsory English. Outside of mainland China they also tend to be extremely strong in English (Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan).
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Big_Gold posted...

I think Mandarin is the most popular language. You might actually use Mandarin or Japanese in conversation with people since you live in Cali which has its share of Asian citizens.

You could learn a language that is used in a particular country that you'd like to visit in the future.

And I wouldn't blame you at all for taking the easy A.
:)

I mean, living in Cali myself it makes sense to stick to Spanish since you've a higher population of Hispanics. And years ago when I worked retail and for a good amount of the customers, Spanish was the only language some of them knew, so knowing Spanish is a pretty big plus for employers despite the common misconception that it's not because it being so common. I had ASL and Japanese on my resume at the time and I don't think they really cared about that. I don't know how much has changed since then however.

However, TC if you don't plan on sticking around in Cali then yeah it might not prove to be too important. In that case I'd say learn the language you want to use. Where's your dream destinations? Go with that. Although Mexico is a beautiful place. So many great vacay destinations. It's also right there for us Cali residents. Very affordable and very fun!

However if I were back in high school I'd probably take French because it sounds pretty cool. Not as cool as Spanish imo, but it's up there
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ssjevot posted...

Big_Gold posted...

I think Mandarin is the most popular language.

It has the most Native speakers in the world, but actually English is the most spoken language in the world. Mandarin is great, but almost every country that uses it has compulsory English. Outside of mainland China they also tend to be extremely strong in English (Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan).

Noted. Thanks for the info.

Among those, I'd choose French.
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Rika_Furude posted...

Japanese because Anime

I should really learn Japanese. I have seen several dubs, and subtitled versions of the same Anime's, and the translations have been different each time. Sure like to know what they are really saying if the translators are so inconsistent.
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Japanese is the hardest option out of those, but its also the most interesting. If youre willing to work incredibly hard TC, Id recommend learning Japanese.

Le franais est la plus belle langue du monde
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Gotta ask yourself which of those is going to be useful in a global sense. Yes you could say Mandarin but actually I think French has the greater spread globally. You already have Spanish so add French to that mix (not to mention English that you already know) and that is a lot of the world covered.

did you really want to learn other languages or just doing it for mandatory class?
if you want it to be useful in the future, mandarin or japanese.
if you want an easier class, german or french.
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I like how languages such as Arabic, farsi, or hindi are never listed as options on these polls

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Other: Kinyarwanda 1
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OffTempo posted...

Background info: my school makes it a requirement to complete 2 years of a language, my freshman and sophomore year I've taken spanish

So therefore you've met the requirement and can take something more interesting and useful.
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How old are you? High school or college?
It would depend a lot on what you want to do.
French or German if you intend to take it for a career. Japanese if you're me and want to marry a Japanese Ronda Rousey. Or Mandarian if you're Trump and want to be a spy.
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RdVEHfJqAvUPIbk posted...

How old are you? High school or college?
It would depend a lot on what you want to do.
French or German if you intend to take it for a career. Japanese if you're me and want to marry a Japanese Ronda Rousey. Or Mandarian if you're Trump and want to be a spy.

High school.

Rob Cesternino posted...

I like how languages such as Arabic, farsi, or hindi are never listed as options on these polls

They aren't taught at my school

gguirao posted...

Among those, I'd choose French.

I think that might be the move
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Die schnste Sprache der Welt, natrlich!

Rob Cesternino posted...

I like how languages such as Arabic, farsi, or hindi are never listed as options on these polls

Theyre uncommon to nonexistant at most American unis m8
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Esperanto

Obviously French.
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SerperiorThanU posted...

Interesting options. I can speak fluent Chinese, was top of my class in French 5 in high school (before stopping), know a bit of Japanese and my father is fluent in German

humble brag
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Keep taking Spanish and choose another one.
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I would not take French. This is just me and other might see it as bonus. But since Spanish and French have so many things in common, I would start speaking Spanish and end up speaking french before I got done speaking.

I Learned French first.
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