Korean Job Discussion Forums

blunder1983 · Joined: 12 Apr 2005

I'm thinking of studying another language alongside korean, but i want one which is comparitvely easier (i am still struggling with the alphabet here).

So I'm curious which language do u believe to be the most useful after english?

French
German
Spanish
Italian

I'm going for Spanish atm as it is used in all of central and south america nearly. But I'm curious as to other's opinions. Also know any good books?

Chris

SarcasmKills · Joined: 07 Apr 2003 Location: Seoul

There ain't nuttin' mo' romantic den ebonics yo...

funplanet · Joined: 20 Jun 2003 Location: The new Bucheon!

Spanish will get you by in N/S America, Spain, Portugal, and Italy (you can get by on basics in these 2 countries)....and learning Spanish ties in beautifully with Portuguese and Italian...very flexible...

My speaking Russian gets me by in Belarus, Ukraine, and a few other places....

tzechuk · Joined: 20 Dec 2004

There is nothing romantic about German!!!!

For me it has to be Italian. I've had to study French at school.... and did German too. Then it was italian at university. Comparing all of the above, Italian wins hands down.

d503 · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Location: Daecheong, Seoul

Spanish spoken as a primarily language in 21 countries, not to mention in the US.

I am pretty sure it is in the top 5 for most spoken languages,

not to mention that the spelling is much easier than french,

blunder1983 · Joined: 12 Apr 2005

Well spainish it is then, it doesnt hurt that I wanna go exploring the south americas after my stint here.

So what books should i buy, anyone fancy a study meet in Seoul once every two weeks or summat?

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

joe_doufu · Joined: 09 May 2005 Location: Elsewhere

German is a Germanic language, not a Romance (Latin based) language. I hear Romanian is the closest living language to Latin... and Romanian girls are supposed to be hot. I would vote for Portuguese myself. Brazilian Portuguese, I mean. That language sounds (to my ear) like a Spaniard trying to speak French. And I go for Brazilian girls.

Also think about Chinese. It's almost the easiest language in the world. The easiest language is supposed to be Indonesian, but I've never studied it, that's just what I've heard. The most difficult is supposed to be Finnish, which has 14 noun cases or some absurd number like that.

mithridates · Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 8:47 am Post subject:

Yep, 14 or 15. They actually make things easier once you get them down. The hard part about Finnish and Estonian is looking up words that have the cases already added to them because they're often quite different from the dictionary form.

Vesi - water
Mul on vett - I have some water. This is the partitive case which you have to learn for each word. If I looked up 'vett' in the dictionary I wouldn't find it; it would be like looking up 'ate'.

mithridates · Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 8:50 am Post subject:

Romance language - if you're looking for a useful one for travel and whatnot then learn Spanish. If you want to learn one close to Latin learn Romanian. If you're unsure and you're not going anywhere yet learn Interlingua (modern Latin). Yeah, I think Spanish is a good choice.

There's also Catalan and Occitan if you feel like learning a smaller one that won't be of much use outside a small region.

Hollywoodaction · Joined: 02 Jul 2004

mishlert · Joined: 13 Mar 2003 Location: On the 3rd rock from the sun

blunder1983 · Joined: 12 Apr 2005

Whoops, shows how much I knowI figured romance = english style alphabet! Very Happy

I think Spanish is the best one for me as I'm likely gonna end up in South America. How does it match up with portugese? Would I be able to comprehend it?

Interesting to see French score so highly, yet no ones justified why!

Wangja · Joined: 17 May 2004 Location: Seoul, Yongsan

If you learn Spanish Spanish you will not understand spoken Portugese Portugese. If you learn Brazilian Portuguese you will undertsand most Latin American Spanish, which does not seem to contain the Castillian Royal lisp. Portugese grammar is tough, but the vocabulary has much in common with Spanish (and Italian, and to a lesser extent French).

Spanish grammar is supposed to be not too difficult.

All round, I'd go for Spanish, esepcially if you are American. If you are European, probably French which is spoken quite a lot as the second "international" langauge with most educated Europeans speaking it as their third language, after English. Of course.

trevorcollins · Joined: 02 Jul 2004

Most useful after English I think will be Mandarin Chinese. Imagine being able to speak that language fluently in 5 to 10 years. Your marketability will be incredible.
I'd say Spanish is another good one and far far easier than Mandarin.
I was amazed at how much I learnt in a week of one on one classes.
I studied Indonesia for five years plus have spent a little over a year there. Compared to other Asian languages it's easy (Personally I still think Spanish is more so, though), but it's maybe not so practical as far as the small region of the world where it is used.