I'm glad I know English, personally. It's a beautiful language. I mean, non-Anglos have to read Shakespeare translated. The horrors! But anyway... learning a language is a bitch. But if you could learn any language instantmomentaneously, which would you choose?

I'm torn. Right now I would love to know German because I can't make the fucking subtitles work in a torrent of Der Blaue Engel. Also, people say that Latin and Greek help with etymology but most english words are derived from German, not Latin or Greek or French. But I'd like to know a non-indo european language, like Hebrew or some Dravidian language.

At 11/13/15 01:51 AM, Homicidee wrote: I would like to learn more slang.

From what decade? 1920s slang is fantastic.

Shit, All of them if possible.

My favorite bit of 20s slang is "heavy petting".

Does anyone know why the subtitles aren't working? :(

I wanted to learn latin for a while, i even bought a cheap little latin dictionary.

Italian is my most sought after language at the moment

I guess Japanese because it's the only language other than English that would be useful to me.

I want to learn Japanese, and by extension katakana and/or hiragana, so I can enjoy my glorious Nippon vidya. And it would be fun to impress a qt Japanese girl with my knowledge of their language. But I can't remember anything more than the most basic, few-syllable words.

At 11/13/15 07:35 AM, Radaketor wrote: I wanted to learn latin for a while, i even bought a cheap little latin dictionary.

>Wanting to learn a dead language

Spanish would have the most utility.

I've been wanting to learn Japanese since middle school.

I have sampled every language the world has to offer and by far my favorite is French. Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d’enculé de ta mère.
Like wiping your ass with silk.

I'd learn any language

C would be a pretty useful language to learn.

At 11/13/15 03:24 PM, FinaLee wrote: C would be a pretty useful language to learn.

And C# and C++

At 11/13/15 03:24 PM, FinaLee wrote: C would be a pretty useful language to learn.

Alright clever dan.

German and Japanese are my choices.
Let's just say, I may need to be able to speak one of them, or both, in the near future.
Plus they both seem like a nice selection of languages in addition to English.

At 11/13/15 11:24 AM, MonkeyDLuffy wrote: I have sampled every language the world has to offer and by far my favorite is French. Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d’enculé de ta mère.
Like wiping your ass with silk.

French is beautiful. Honestly it depends on what you look for in a language. Do you want a language that you will be likely to use? Spanish. Do you want one with a rich vocabulary that has interesting words not found in english? Not spanish, it's full of lexical gaps.

Also, foreign media. The appeal of japanese is understandable if you like japanimation, and the appeal of Swedish is understandable if you like... um.... Greta Garbo?

Norwegian. Scandinavia, awwwwww yeah!

At 11/13/15 05:31 PM, rebellyus wrote: Norwegian. Scandinavia, awwwwww yeah!

Mmmm then you can read Ibsen. Gorgeousness.

Hebrew and African so I connect with my long lost roots

At 11/13/15 01:47 AM, MonochromeMonitor wrote: I'm glad I know English, personally. It's a beautiful language. I mean, non-Anglos have to read Shakespeare translated. The horrors! But anyway... learning a language is a bitch. But if you could learn any language instantmomentaneously, which would you choose?

from a monetary standpoint, mandarin or more or less anything on the pacific rim

from a personal standpoint, german, as it'd make my holidays a fair bit easier, i can get by but fluency would be a godsend

I would choose a language to learn based on how useful it is to know.

already know some japanese and spanish
don't have the tongue for french
maybe one of the scandinavian languages or hungarian

At 11/13/15 01:48 AM, Cordyceps wrote: I can learn any language, are you calling me a retard

Yes.

At 11/13/15 06:35 PM, Sense-Offender wrote: I would choose a language to learn based on how useful it is to know.

That is the only logical choice.

I would say the most useful worldwide is English, for obvious reasons. Already speaking English is a huge advantage.

Runners-up I would say would be Spanish, French, German, and Russian. They all have pretty broad reach in the civilized world.

Mandarin is pretty important, but almost exclusively only because of its large usage in China, and the importance of China itself. Worldwide, less useful. In China? A must.

Arabic is important if you intend to do business with any majority-Muslim countries. That's pretty much the only practical use I can see to learning it, other than military use.

Portuguese is important if you intend to do business with Brazil.
Japanese is important if you intend to do business with Japan.
Korean and Vietnamese are important if you intend to do business with the respective countries.

Latin or Esperanto are important if you intend to use them as a stepping stone to learning other Romance languages. So they wouldn't be the end, but rather a means to an end.

Likewise, if you're in the military or with the government and will be stationed in some country, then fluency with whatever the primary languages spoken there would be of great use.

Also, "if you could learn any language" ... I would argue you would learn it if you really want or need to. "Oh I wish I could speak blah blah" and then not putting forth the effort to learn it indicates a personal failure and I have no respect for that. Either learn it or don't, but don't just "wish".

If you "wish" you were good at something but clearly haven't put in any effort, expect those who actually are good at it to absolutely hate you. I don't blame them at all and I'm in their camp. If you want to learn, learn. Don't make excuses.

Arabic and spanish

Probably Mandarin, Spanish or Arabic.

Boy, do I ever wish I could learn a language.

*ducks