[TelevisionUser]

Originally Posted by YoungAtHeart

Scandinavian languages are part of the Germanic language tree. Here is a link which gives a break down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Germanic_languages

Indeed they are, YoungAtHeart, but my point was that the Scandinavian languages are not mutually intelligible with German and an understanding of German grammar is not necessarily useful because the Scandinavian languages have evolved their own unique characteristics over centuries.

To use an analogy, Frisian is probably the language that is most closely related to English and there is more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Fr...lish_and_Dutch

However, English and Frisian are not mutually comprehensible as we can see here : http://www.omropfryslan.nl/fideo/it-...n-15-juny-2012

[YoungAtHeart]

Originally Posted by TelevisionUser

Indeed they are, YoungAtHeart, but my point was that the Scandinavian languages are not mutually intelligible with German and an understanding of German grammar is not necessarily useful because the Scandinavian languages have evolved their own unique characteristics over centuries.

To use an analogy, Frisian is probably the language that is most closely related to English and there is more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Fr...lish_and_Dutch

However, English and Frisian are not mutually comprehensible as we can see here : http://www.omropfryslan.nl/fideo/it-...n-15-juny-2012

I wasn't referring to the mutuality of the German languages. Only that the OP had said that he has already learnt a bit of German and has expressed that he is interested in the Scandinavian languages.

I can only conclude that some of the Germanic languages interests him more than the Romance languages.

And they are a good choice . Their economies are not doing too bad and they are close to the RoI. If one of these does appeal to the OP, I guess he would need to decide exactly which one he would wish to pursue.

But then there is still Irish, Mandarin and perhaps an Eastern European language under consideration too?

I think we need more info from the OP to break it down further.

[Thomas007]

Right well this becomes an issue of practicality over something I'm interested in.

If I wish picking languages based what I like alone, I would pick German (possible Scandinanvian language) and Japanese. But if I were to pick praticality, I would pick Mandarin or Spanish.

Its a tough decision because I would have to pour 1000 hours into some of these and have a lifelong commitment, so I want to pick the right one !

[YoungAtHeart]

Originally Posted by Thomas007

Right well this becomes an issue of practicality over something I'm interested in.

If I wish picking languages based what I like alone, I would pick German (possible Scandinanvian language) and Japanese. But if I were to pick praticality, I would pick Mandarin or Spanish.

Its a tough decision because I would have to pour 1000 hours into some of these and have a lifelong commitment, so I want to pick the right one !

As learning a language takes 1000 hours to learn it well, I would recommend you go for what **calls you** which are German and Japanese.

Germany has a reasonably strong economy, it is close to the RoI and it would help you if you decided to one day learn a Scandinavian language too. You also already know some German too so this is a good start

Japanese could also be good as there are opportunities to teach English in Japan or become a translator and so on. But it's definitely a language that requires lots of patience and diligence to learn.

I would wait until you are at an intermediate level (B1/B2) in German (if you are not already) before picking up Japanese so that you are not grappling with the basics of both languages at the same time.

If one day you feel a pull towards Mandarin or Spanish, you can pick it up then. Otherwise if you try to learn something your heart is not truly in, I suspect you will burn out very quickly in your language learning endeavours.

But this is only IMHO

Good luck OP and have fun with your languages!

[Thomas007]

Thanks. How many languages can you learn? More than 6-7 or seven gets a bit silly doesn't it?

[TelevisionUser]

Originally Posted by Thomas007

Right well this becomes an issue of practicality over something I'm interested in.

If I wish picking languages based what I like alone, I would pick German (possible Scandinanvian language) and Japanese. But if I were to pick praticality, I would pick Mandarin or Spanish.

Its a tough decision because I would have to pour 1000 hours into some of these and have a lifelong commitment, so I want to pick the right one !

It's out of print now, but this book might help you decide the ins and outs of which language to learn, Thomas007, because it covers aspects like difficulty, time needed to learn, etc: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lingo-Learn-...9861525&sr=1-2

[YoungAtHeart]

Originally Posted by Thomas007

Thanks. How many languages can you learn? More than 6-7 or seven gets a bit silly doesn't it?

6-7 does get silly. This is especially true if you haven't been brought up in a country that is at least trilingual, like Luxembourg, so you at least grow up with 3 languages. However, I have seen the odd person who has done it as an adult so it's not impossible.

With language learning it's not only about learning the languages but keeping them active too so each language needs constant maintenance. Therefore thought needs to be given to this aspect too.

According to the The FSI, an American institution which specialises in language learning for native English speakers, if you learn a language like Japanese (or Mandarin), it will take at least 3 times longer to learn than a language like German.

So if you learn a language like Japanese, expect a lot less time to learn other languages.

If you want to learn the maximum number of languages, I would recommend sticking to the same language tree ie. all Germanic languages or all Romance languages and so on.

I also would recommend visiting this site as it will probably help you with everything you could possibly know about learning languages. Even better is that it won't cost you a penny!

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/

The most important aspect, I think, is once the basics are down in a language, just try to have as much fun as possible utilising it. This works for me anyway

[Thomas007]

Languages I've thought about learning in my life are

German

Japanese

French

Spanish

Irish

On top which I speak English already so that would be 6 A LOT. I would only top 6-7 at max through my life I think.

[Kubrick]

Either German or French.

[alsmama]

I wouldn't worry too much about how many languages you can fit in til you have actually worked out if you actually can get to a good level of fluency with one, and whether you actually enjoy it when you get down to it.

And I stand by my original comment that you will get on best with a language you have a connection with and know some native speakers of so you can get some practice in and learn it as more than theoretical.

[mrkite77]

DuoLingo just went out of beta today:

http://duolingo.com/

Basically it teaches you a language, and as part of the "practice what you learned today" you help translate websites. Pretty clever concept, and it's free.

[frangipane]

If you're living in Ireland, then learn Irish. There'll always be someone knocking around to practice with. You can't beat talking with the natives to pick up a language, so you can't.
Learn yet another language later on if you intend to move away. Go there and perfect your fluency.

[Thomas007]

I could learn Irish but after seeing my fathers attempt on an online test (who's supposed to be near fluent) it looked hard.

I've decided the two languages I'm going to learn now are Japanese and German.

Japanese in particular, I know there is some language proficiency test that is done two times a year and I'm looking to do the level 5 one in december

I'm told Japanese is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn, speaking isn't to hard but reading and writing is. I did some kana and kanji back 09' but gave it up but I'm now going to look to get back into it. I love Japanese culture.

I'm interested in German and Germany as a country, I would like to read a lot of their newspapers and sport. So I'll learn that in time too.

Basically I'm picking two languages on the basis of countries and cultures which I like and find fascinating, as oppose to languages that are deemed just 'useful' e.g. Mandarin or Spanish.

[jra]

In terms of usefulness around the world, Spanish.

Then French.

[EuroChris]

I would say that you should learn a language that is from a country you are interested in. For example if you love Brazil then you could learn Brazilian Portuguese or if you love Germany you could learn German.

I say this because when learning a language you should try and emerse yourself in the culture as much as possible and listen to radio stations and watch TV shows in the language from the country you are learning about.

[jra]

Brazilian Portuguese. LMAO. It's Portuguese isn't it.

[alsmama]

Do you know some native Japanese or German speakers you could communicate with? This is key if you really want to learn a language properly.

And jra I'm not sure why you are laughing... Brazilian Portuguese is a common term just like American English. In both cases the adjective is important as the language is significantly different. From what I have heard there is a big difference in vocabulary between Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese from Portugal.

[jra]

Originally Posted by alsmama

Do you know some native Japanese or German speakers you could communicate with? This is key if you really want to learn a language properly.

And jra I'm not sure why you are laughing... Brazilian Portuguese is a common term just like American English. In both cases the adjective is important as the language is significantly different. From what I have heard there is a big difference in vocabulary between Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese from Portugal.

Ok, point taken.

I'll ask my German relatives in terms of what German they speak.

[alsmama]

Originally Posted by jra

Ok, point taken.

I'll ask my German relatives in terms of what German they speak.

Worth doing. Another example would of course be Swiss German which again is significantly different from "high German".

[Yorkie47]

Originally Posted by MarzBar85

The Dutch watch their TV shows in English, they learn it from a very early age. I remember being amazed when I met a group of them, they started off in Dutch then almost instantly they changed to English so I could join in!

I once shared a flat with a Dutch girl and she told me that at school they spend as much time learning English as they do Dutch. That's because they know hardly anyone else in the world speaks Dutch.

For usefulness I would go for French, German or Spanish.

For beauty of language I would opt for Italian or French.

Seems like the French language wins on two counts!

[Belligerence]

Originally Posted by mrkite77

DuoLingo just went out of beta today:

http://duolingo.com/

Basically it teaches you a language, and as part of the "practice what you learned today" you help translate websites. Pretty clever concept, and it's free.

That looks a good website. Might try German.

[15Million℃]

Originally Posted by Thomas007

Thanks. How many languages can you learn? More than 6-7 or seven gets a bit silly doesn't it?

What's silly about it. If you have the time, its all good.

I'm perfectly fluent in 5, and ok ish in another 2. No bother, but I was bought up on 3, so they just stuck with me.

The most useful to me (other than English) is Arabic. But depends what environment your in. If your looking to have use for the language or are just learning it for fun, should also be taken into consideration.

[GeneralMental]

Originally Posted by jra

Brazilian Portuguese. LMAO. It's Portuguese isn't it.

There are a fair few differences between the Brazilian (Latin American) version and the European version (much like Spanish). They are further apart than, say, American and British English.

(Eu falo um pouquinho de portugues)

[TelevisionUser]

Originally Posted by Thomas007

I could learn Irish but after seeing my fathers attempt on an online test (who's supposed to be near fluent) it looked hard.

I've decided the two languages I'm going to learn now are Japanese and German.

Japanese in particular, I know there is some language proficiency test that is done two times a year and I'm looking to do the level 5 one in december

I'm told Japanese is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn, speaking isn't to hard but reading and writing is. I did some kana and kanji back 09' but gave it up but I'm now going to look to get back into it. I love Japanese culture.

I'm interested in German and Germany as a country, I would like to read a lot of their newspapers and sport. So I'll learn that in time too.

Basically I'm picking two languages on the basis of countries and cultures which I like and find fascinating, as oppose to languages that are deemed just 'useful' e.g. Mandarin or Spanish.

Tysk it is then! In which case there should be no shortage of learning materials out there on CD and I'd suggest going to your local library to take out a course and if it works for you. If it does then it might be worth going to evening classes if they are available locally.

If cash and time are not a problem then you could always take a Goethe-Institut course in Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester or London or even in Germany itself.

[hannahjay]

Japanese is great if you want a challenge. Learning to write it is difficult but it pays off to be able to write in a system most people can't read :P Pronunciation is OK though the rolled R and to some extent 'tsu' at the beginning of words took a while to master. I find reading (currently at the speed of a 3 year old) and the grammar the most difficult to get my head round.

I think what attracted me to learning it is that it is so different to English that I think getting your head around all the differences is a real achievement. Some of these differences are the writing systems, formal/informal forms of verbs, ways of addressing people, word order etc. It's not just the differences in the grammar, speech and writing but also in the ideas behind the language which are so different to ours. I think learning Japanese in a way helps you learn about Japanese culture. Learning the language also opened up doors to other parts of Japanese culture which helped me in my language learning - for example music (helps with pronunciation) and film (more of a picture of everyday conversation). Getting a penpal (we e-mail and write regularly) also helps as you get to communicate with a native speaker and you find out more about everyday life in Japan!

Hope that helps you decide whether you want to learn Japanese or not