What is the language that you would like to learn?

What is the language that you would like to learn and the strangest and more difficult language that you would like to give a try.

For example I would like to learn Basque's language. A Spanish aisled language that is talken in the Basque's country and is considered one of the most difficult languages and also one of the oldest.

 

Italian, fluently ( know bits and pieces), Spanish, then Chinese.
I do speak two others.

 

I've heard it said that English is actually the hardest language to learn. Don't know how true that is, though.

I want to learn how to speak Dutch, considering I wish to move to the Netherlands one day. That's the long term goal, anyway.

 

Greek or Spanish would be nice.

 

No, not true.

 

I don't belive English is the hardest language to learn. Obviously is quite hard to gain a native level, harder than Spanish for example.

But for nothing is the hardest, for me is harder Finnish, Russian or Japanese.

 

Chinese. It's always good to know the language of those who own you.

 

I'm learning to speak Australian (thanks Mek)...

My first sentence ... Aussi (pronounced Ozzy) bogans, wear dirty nappies!

 

They use buggies in the grocery store too...I think. At least someone does.

 

Thanks Shang! **adds to language lesson list**

...so, what you're suggesting is, they speak kinda like Texans?


Hahaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahaa!

 

Klingon.

Yes, it's an actual language, and it can be learned from the Klingon Language Institute.

 

The language of love.

I jest.

I would like to expand on my conversational Italian. I already speak Spanish.

 

Do you get the two mixed up? I do, often, but then, I'm not very fluent in either.

 

When I am at a loss in Italian, which is often, I simply use Spanish words,

 

Sounds good to me.

 

A bit off-topic to the original intent of the thread, pardon my digression.

I was thinking in a similar vein the other day about this very topic; in a way at least. Several years ago I took a pre-deployment culture and survival language course. This was a preparatory course for deploying to Afghanistan/Iraq. The Air Force was trying to incorporate 3C, cross cultural competence, and I volunteered
for the course and offered feedback as best I could.

The course was 49 hours extended over 4 weeks. It's comprised of 30 hours of language, 8 hours of general culture, 4 hours of specific training and 7 hours of practical exercises. The language emphasis for this specific course was Dari, which is a variety of Persian that is spoken in Afghanistan. The student teacher ratio was about 15:1, so we're talking a fairly small class size. There were also handouts which consisted of powerpoint presentations, smart cards and a CD; we were allowed to keep these materials.

My overall impression of the course and the materials provided was a good one, it was helpful and most of the information was practical.

I actually do have a point to make and that is, that I was thinking a course like this would also serve civilians very well. Folks who are planning to travel to a foreign land, contractors who maybe don't know the language at all, or the culture. Yes, the internet does have a plethora of information to offer up to the traveller and a course like this might seem unnecessary. However bear in mind that the instructors would be native speakers and those with direct knowledgle of both the language and culture of the specific area being
taught. They can offer the practiclal language and cultural knowledge a traveller
might need in real world situations.

For most travellers, a "crash course" in language and culture would be more practical
than spending the time and money, let alone the arduous task of learning a foreign language
to the level of fluency.

I was thinking about this as more a business venture, offer it at say, a Community college
or something along those lines. Hire instructors that know the language and culture
from experience, prepare materials that the traveller can use as reference; and keep the student-teacher ratio low. Just a thought anyway. Please continue.

 

when I was in the army I hung out with an Italian guy who would talk to the Mexicans and they under stood each other!! Latin based ?

I would like to re-learn french

 

At my age, I'll pass. In my life, I've studied three (in addition, of course, to English). By the time I got to the third one, I was about languaged out. To this day, I find that when I try to speak one, words from the other two wander into the sentences.

I think the greatest challenge was when I was flying home from a business trip to the Middle East. At the Airport, and at about 2 AM, the only taxi driver available was a man from the Ukraine, who wasn't very good at English. The language we had in common was German. Picture a jet-lagged American giving driving directions to a Ukrainian in German. I got home, however.

From now on, I think I'll stick to English, although German has some good swear words. "Unglaublishe dummheit" sounds so much more accurate than just saying "bone dumb."

 

Spanish is my 2nd language. I'd like to learn Mandarin as it's become needed in business

 

The grammar is a pushover, the tones a pain. In some ways, though, it is closer to English than most languages, so bear up.

 

True story.
I never took a spanish or italian class and I can understand both easily.

 

I have to ask excuses for what I will do now.

Eso esta por ver si eres capaz de entender el español sin el uso de un diccionario. ¿Qué tal este texto? Supongo que lo entenderás ya que incluso hay algunas palabras similares al inglés.

And what about with this?

Ja veurem si entens correctament el que escric . Segur que no pots entendre aquestes llengües tan diferents a la resta. Ah i per cert, quina llengua romànica coneixes per poder veure similituds entre una i l'altra?

 

I have heard some people have a way with words!!

 

I wish more people here could speak English.

And, no, we don't use buggies in the supermaket. Buggies are for golf courses and sand dunes.

 

I wouldn't mind learning Latin.