Steve wrote a list of his next languages to tackle on another thread, I’ve decided to do the same but makes a new thread for it… Since I’m happy with my level in any of my foreign languages I’ll just put them all whether I’ve started or not in a semi ‘of importance’ order:
Polish (can’t wait to Lingq adds some of these smaller languages like Polish)
French
Japanese
Spanish
German
Hindi
Swahili
Czech
These are the languages I’d like to have high aptitudes in. However, I always want to add more, every time I hear someone speak another language…
German - Tried to learn this language many years ago but failed. Quite sure would be able to learn it this time with LingQ since there is so much material in the library.
Italian - Should be easy to learn once I’ve got French and Spanish. Would make travelling in Italy so much more enjoyable. However, not a lot of stuff in the library and so would need to spend time hunting for good content.
Russian - LingQ members seem to be fascinated by this language. Would open the door to a large part of the world that I know so little about. However learning this language would be a major undertaking since it’s so different from the languages I know. Realistically will be at least 3 or 4 years before I can start learning it and another 3 or 4 years of hard work to get my Russian up to a satisfactory level. This is really a long term project. Will have to see.
My list ( aside from occasionally refreshing my knowledge in existing languages). This is not in any order. Some efforts may be purely exploratory.
Czech
Korean
Arabic
Hindi
Latin
Turkish
Hebrew
Dutch
Tango,
I agree we need to work on Italian content. If you or other get going, and I recommend you connect with Zerimeri, our tutor who is wonderful, she can create some more. There is a wealth of content at the RAI. You might be able to import it. Let’s work on it.
With regard to German, the work that our members, especially Vera and Irene, have put in, makes this a must learn on our site.
Blinders,
If I did Czech I would probably dabble a bit in Polish just to impress the odd Pole that I might run into, not literally of course.
Russian becomes an addiction once you start. Lots there.
Here are mine: (These are in order that I would like to tackle them)
2010:
Arabic (Going to do some intensive studying during the summer)
German (Same as Arabic)
I will then take a break from adding any new languages because that fall I will be attending university, so I will just keep listening and reading to Arabic, German, and Spanish during this time. I want to walk into university with these three languages under my belt.
2011:
Japanese (major language)
Persian (minor language)
French (maybe)
Italian (maybe)
2012:
Korean (maybe)
Mandarin Chinese (major language)
If I were a computer, my OS may be more English than German these days, although I make a point of remaining German. My add-ons would be grouped according to ease of application: French, Spanish, Swedish, Russian. I’d be interested to add Italian and Arabic. In my garage (a seldom-used corner of my RAM?) there are textbooks for learning Japanese, Polish, Nepalese, Portuguese, Danish, Hebrew and there’s a big fat Chinese-English dictionary.
A full list would fill up a page, but some of the languages I could see myself taking on in the future, excluding Korean which I am studying at present:
French
Russian (nearly everyone in my family knows some which means lots of practice opportunities)
Mandarin (closing the 三国 circle ;))
Arabic
Icelandic
Turkish
Finnish (for making friends with the neighbors and getting in touch with my roots, also it’s cute)
Lithuanian
Danish (having to speak English with Danes is embarrassing)
Spanish (at least get a working knowledge)
Hebrew (possibly the most beautiful language in the world)
Sanskrit
Hungarian
I have languages i want to be able to speak, and languages i just want to understand. My list is…
German - This is my major language now, and the one i put all my time into. It is my first attempt at learning another language and thus i am finding it very hard. Vocabulary it is similar to English so the words are okay, it is just the grammar and syntax that i just cannot grasp yet. Then again i haven’t really spent any time on that side of things so i’m not worried.
Spanish - This i will dabble in when i need a break from German. The huge amount of Spanish speakers in my town plus the large amount of films and music will make this relatively easy in comparison to learn. Plus the syntax is familiar to me.
French - I will pick this up at some point as i learn’t it school and while i do not understand or speak it now, it is somewhat familar to me still.
Swedish - What can i say, i am attracted to Swedish women! Plus it is similar to both German and English.
Japanese - I am not interested in learning Kanji but i would like to understand Japanese movies and the like.
Portuguese and Italian - If i nail Spanish and French then i may spend a few months on these to get myself to a semi decent comprehension level, but i am not fussed about ever being near fluent.
English (Intermediate II)
French (Intermediate II)
Italian (Intermediate II)
Dutch (Intermediate I - II)
Spanish (Beginner II)
Many years ago I also studied Japanese and Russian, but only for a very short time (and I’ve forgotten almost everything apart from the Cyrillic alphabet and a little Hiragana).
The languages I want to start in the future:
Swedish (I’ve already started with the first lesson)
Portuguese
and maybe one language of Eastern Europe.
If human beings got 200 years old or more (without getting mentally nor physically ill), I would even learn many more languages. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Every new language opens a door to a new culture and to another way of thinking (thus it broadens in some way your mind). The contact with other cultures can even have a great influence on your world-view (esp. if they are completely different like the Asians) and your perception. This makes - among other things - the learning of foreign languages so interesting.
As those of you who have read at least once my profile know, my lifetime goal is to learn all the European languages (i.e. official languages spoken in the European continent) at a B1-B2 level (and some at a higher level).
So, I need to:
improve some languages I have studied but failed to learn well enough:
Polish (working on it)
Romanian (trying to start working on it)
Slovene
Serbo-Croatian
modern Greek
Finnish
Czech
learn the remaining languages (I won’t write them all now…)
I also want to improve the languages I already know well in order to attain a higher level in them (especially in German, Spanish and Portuguese).
I am not interested in non-European languages for the moment.
@Cantotango: you are right, the Italian library is not rich in content, even if there are quite a lot of resources listed on the Lesson page (and somewhere else maybe) from where you can import material for your own study.
@Steve: I could create more content for the Italian library, but just like Berta and Oscar, I don’t see why I should spend a lot of time to create them without getting an adequate reward. There are so few people who study Italian (the situation is not even comparable to Spanish) that I am not motivated at all. Moreover, I need to study my languages (and there’s a lot to be done in order to achieve my goals as you may have seen) and to find a job. So, I can only contribute by sharing audiobooks or other imported lessons.
“Modern Greek” as I meant it is better referred to as “Demotic” (see the “Demotic as Koiné (Standard) Modern Greek” chapter of this page: Modern Greek - Wikipedia).
“Modern Greek (Greek: Νέα Ελληνικά or Νεοελληνική, “Neo-Hellenic”, historically and colloquially also known as Ρωμαίικα, “Romaic” or “Roman”) refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the “modern” period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic modern features of the language had been present centuries earlier - from the third century BC to the tenth century AD”
