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| Most useful second romance language |
| French |
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52% |
[ 11 ] |
| German |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| Spanish |
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33% |
[ 7 ] |
| Italian |
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14% |
[ 3 ] |
| Other |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
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| Total Votes : 21 |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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 Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 7:02 pm Post subject: |
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| trevorcollins wrote: |
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. |
I speak fluent mandarin (and cantonese, for that matter..) .. I am not aware that my marketability has gone up....  |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 4:22 am Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
| trevorcollins wrote: |
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. |
I speak fluent mandarin (and cantonese, for that matter..) .. I am not aware that my marketability has gone up.... |
Maybe you're not in the right job. |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 7:36 am Post subject: |
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| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| joe_doufu wrote: |
| 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. |
Actually, there is no 'easy' language to learn.
I'm not sure Indonesian is the least complex language, but it does have several grammatical patterns that are easy to recognize. I think you're wrong about Finnish being the most complex language. |
I learned all this from Barry Farber's book. This is a guy who learned 25 languages or more, beginning with Latin and Mandarin and including most of the European languages, and more. His language learning strategy is the same as mine, so I figure if Indonesian was the easiest for him, it'd be the easiest for me, too. |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 7:39 am Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
| I speak fluent mandarin (and cantonese, for that matter..) .. I am not aware that my marketability has gone up.... |
I spent several months bumming around Hong Kong last fall thinking my Chinese abilities would help me get a job. They didn't. Also for nearly three years I've been applying for jobs with US companies in China and no luck. They're looking for something else I guess. |
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krats1976
Joined: 14 May 2003
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| Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:23 pm Post subject: |
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| blunder1983 wrote: |
Whoops, shows how much I knowI figured romance = english style alphabet! 
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! |
If you're American, Spanish is the most useful second language to learn, even if you don't go to Latin America. Hispanics are the 2nd largest (or is it largest now?) minority in the US. And, Spanish is easy (IMO!). French and Italian are beautiful languages, but when are you going to use them? German isn't a romantic language, and every German I've ever met speaks amazing English anyway. So, there ya go.
As for Portuguese, most Portuguese speakers can understand Spanish, but not vice versa. My brother is fluent in Brazilian Portuguese and he says his Spanish comprehension is about 80%... but I can't understand a word he says!  |
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trevorcollins
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 3:45 am Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| tzechuk wrote: |
| trevorcollins wrote: |
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. |
I speak fluent mandarin (and cantonese, for that matter..) .. I am not aware that my marketability has gone up.... |
Maybe you're not in the right job. |
Or place. |
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cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
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| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 3:45 am Post subject: |
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Ok...figure this topic is right up my alley:
I am fluent in Spanish and English. If you need help with Spanish, PM me. I would say Spanish. Grammar structure is EXTREMELY close to English, and if you know Spanish (contrary to what a poster said), you WILL understand roughly 40-50% of what an Italian says, 20-30% of what a portguese (sp?) speaker says, 15 - 20% of what a french speaker would say, etc.
Becareful though, the spanish language has many different dialects. To be honest with you, the type of spanish you learn will depend on the region you will be in.
For example, in Spain there are 4 distinct types of Spanish:
Catalan (written in Spanish) & 3 other's (can't remember the names). They are closely similar...but do vary. Learning one of these four would be best (FYI - Catalan is the most spoken in Spain) for you to pick up the other dialects from the other countries.
Columbians speak differently than mexicans, mexicans speak differently than cubans, cubans speak differently than dominicans, etc.
Each language structure is very similar, however some things do vary. Also, the vocabulary and mannarisms are different. Another example would be the following:
English = car
Cuban Spanish = carro
Columbian Spanish = coche
Mexican Spanish = automobile (pronounced in spanish)
Other South American Countries = auto (pronounced in spanish).
Amazingly enough, if you try to say "carro" to a columbian, unless they have been exposed to the word, they will be like "what did you just say"? Even the tone of speaking is different.
Anyways, hope this helps. If you need help, pm me.  I guess you can figure out through my handle that i am cuban. |
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funplanet
Joined: 20 Jun 2003
Location: The new Bucheon!
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| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:30 am Post subject: |
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| Perhaps your Spanish is NOT so fluent....it's COLOMBIA/COLOMBIAN...not Columbia/Columbian |
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Paji eh Wong
Joined: 03 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:46 am Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
There is nothing romantic about German!!!!
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Au contraire. I had an Irishman tell me "WE MUST MAKE SPOONS NOW" in German this weekend. It's beautiful, and will freak you wild. Now if only that Irishman would come forward and take a bow. |
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joe_doufu
Joined: 09 May 2005
Location: Elsewhere
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| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:09 am Post subject: |
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| Paji eh Wong wrote: |
| tzechuk wrote: |
There is nothing romantic about German!!!!
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Au contraire. I had an Irishman tell me "WE MUST MAKE SPOONS NOW" in German this weekend. It's beautiful, and will freak you wild. Now if only that Irishman would come forward and take a bow. |
You mean as in spooning?
I think the true language of love is Cantonese but that's kind of freaky, I know.
tzechuk, didn't you once mention having a sister? |
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buddy bradley
Joined: 24 Aug 2003
Location: The Beyond
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| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:23 am Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
| trevorcollins wrote: |
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. |
I speak fluent mandarin (and cantonese, for that matter..) .. I am not aware that my marketability has gone up.... |
What? When I sent you that PM in Pinyin, you said that your Mandarin was rusty.
What the ....? |
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cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
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| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 3:28 pm Post subject: |
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| hahaha...let me get this straight....so because i used a U instead of an O I don't know Spanish? hahahaha....man.....you REALLY need to get your head examined. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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| buddy bradley wrote: |
What? When I sent you that PM in Pinyin, you said that your Mandarin was rusty.
What the ....? |
It's like this: I don't speak it, I don't think about it, and if you ask me something suddenly, I probably need to think about it a bit.
I was just in Hong Kong for 2 weeks recently and was able to switch between Cantonese, Mandarin and English in a matter of seconds. Has to be at the right place to speak the right language.
Being rusty doesn't mean I am not fluent. Just got to get used to speaking it again, that's all. |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:03 pm Post subject: |
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| joe_doufu wrote: |
| tzechuk, didn't you once mention having a sister? |
I have two. Both older than me. One is married and the other is spoken for.
Why do you ask? |
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