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Ive been very itnerested in foreign languages in recent years, more than anything i feel that it would be cool just to be fluent in another language, part of me resents that the american public school system is so different from the european and asian school systems, anyway! ive been taking french for a long time, but now despite investing time ( and making some progress ), im thinking its not gonna be the most useful language, i am curious to know which language, if you had to choose one would be the most valuable to learn and the most high in demand, im very interested in learning a language such as japanese madarin or cantonese where the alphabet is compltely different, a non phonetic, tonal language, it provides a challenge but it would also be great to be proficient in a lanuage like that, suggestions comments anything?

I suppose that depends on what your definition of useful is, where you're located and what you plan on using the language for. French is pretty useful in a lot of places, as is Spanish. I don't know a lot of places outside of Asian communities where the Chinese or Japanese languages will come in handy, but again, it depends on your purpose for wanting to learn the language.

I'm in a similar boat with an extra motive.

The idea of learning a foreign language has always seemed significant to me.

I'm studying Esperanto now. For three reasons, 1. It's a different Language, 2. It's much easier than any natinal language and will take less time to learn. 3. I've read that studies have indicated that other languages can be learned more effectively and quicker after studying esperanto first.

My additional motive, apart from the direct objects of learning another language listed above, is to put all of these 'learning techniques to the test'.

I'm using the free download program "kuruso de esperanto"

If anyone would like to correspond about this language, especially in term of accelerated learning techniques please contact me.

http://www.cursodeesperanto.com.br/en/index.html

Rob Reynolds
drinkblot@yahoo.com

Hi tk421,

Mandrain is a useful language if you intend to do business in China and some parts of Asia.I do not know about the potential of Japanese language but most people now learn it for fun or knowledge.
By the way,Cantonese is not a language in itself,it is a dialect.A lot of the Asian chinese speak this dialect,whether in Australia,New Zealand ,or Asia or even in America.

It's not easy to choose the language to learn,but it all depends on where you would want to work in the future.

Mage

PS:I have known that a lot of big US companies like HP,Motorola,GM...(I think Dell too) have moved into China to set up plants and operations there.

well now i am thinking arabic or chinese, chinese has a big global market and for arabic there is a great need for arabic speakers for obvious reasons, but im leaning more towards chinese, but now mandarin would seem the obvious dialect to learn as it is the most commonly used , but if i were to learn cantonese two good friends of mine are originally from cantonese one says she is more than willing and excitied to teach and help me learn, so using a pimsleur ( or pimselur- like) course a good dicitonary and some practice i could probably make some good progress but thend id only be able to speak to other cantonese speaks, found mostly in honk kong canton and a few other regions, so whats the better option............also can anyone think of any other language(s) that you think would be an advantage to learn in the next 20+ years, ive been tkaing french for many years and am close to mastering it, need the essential immersion time though, but im very interested in taking a different language

Hi tk421,

If you are interested to learn Chinese,it is better to start with Mandrain first,rather than Cantonese.This is to get a strong foundation for yourself.If you learn cantonese first,then learn mandrain,its gets much more difficult as you would get confuse about the pronunciation of chinese language.
What is likely to happen is that when they learn cantonese before mandrain,the way they speaks would sound funny.

To give you an idea,I personally have an uncle from grew up in Hong Kong.He understands mandrain,but he really could not speak well probably due to heavy usage of cantonese from young.If he tried to speak mandrain,we would find it difficult to understand what he said.(he could speak English though).

Mandrain is the commonly accepted language among the chinese(still it is not a dialect),and if you speak to an asian or someone with knowledge of chinese,its 90% the person would understand.

thanks for clearing that up, so mandarin it is, now i just gotta find a native speaker to practice with

hey drinkblot, im really glad you mentioned esperanto, i always used to just have the laymen's knowledge of esperanto, its a made up language, and pointless to learn, but ur post got me curious and i did a search and i think im gonna teach myself esperanto and then move on to other languages, because liek you said its not only a language when u learn it ur sort of learning how language works in a way anyway

Spanish seems to be the language that makes the most sense to learn because: 1)It is relatively easy to learn, 2) More people in America speak spanish than any other foreign language, 3)The majority of people in the Western Hemisphere speak spanish (beautiful vacation spots in Mexico, Puerto Rico, South America, etc), 4) It's easy to practice by going to Mexican restaurants, watching Spanish films and television, 5)multiply your chances of meeting and having a relationship with someone else who is Spanish speaking only, 6)Looks great on a resume and increases your marketability, and 7) LSC offers a pretty good and relatively low cost Easy Learn Foreign Language program in spanish.

I used the program and found it pretty helpful with the basics, enough to function in most situations.. I've been so busy with other projects lately, however, that I haven't really kept it up. I'm thinking about going back through the program again.. becoming fluent in spanish.. then moving on to French, Italian and maybe German. Afterwards, I would love to learn Mandarin, seeing as it probably represents the largest population in the world.

Este es mis dos centavos.

Su amigo,

Robert

There are a few reasons esperanto makes sense.

1. It's easy to learn.
2. The hypotetical: If you were a prisoner of war at a POW camp and you had to learn a language quickly so everyone could plan an escape or communicate in a way that the guards would have more difficulty understanding...esperanto makes sense.
3. English is difficult to learn. Non-English speakers the world over could more easily learn esperanto as a 'bridge' to english.
4. I will have to do some international travelling in the next few years and I have a better chance at finding people who speak Esperanto than I do at learning all the languages that I will encounter.
5. (probably the profound one but also the gamble) With the advent of the internet, people from many different cultures could use a 'made up language' (psst, they are all made up)to communicate...especially when there are a number of good FREE programs available to learn it.
6. Time: I've only been studying EO for a few weeks and I can interpret written EO very well and can understand at least the 'gist' of what is going on in the EO chat rooms.
7. Something in common: It's a cool way to meet interesting people, kinda like an IQ society but based on something more tangible...and useful (no offense to the HIQ deals).

I'm sure there are more and many drawbacks but the is my Humble Opinion.

Roberto Reynolds