For all those looking to learn a second language (other than English)

[mahon83050]

Take it from me, who at 30, is wise enough to know. If you live in the States and want to take a second language DO NOT take French, German, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek or any other language that you won't be able to use or unable to advance your career with.

The languages you want to learn are Arabic, Hindi, Russian, Chinese or Spanish.

I minored in German in College and it really has done me jack. While some Financial jobs at places like Bloomberg and Thomson financial do post jobs where these languages are an asset, they are few and far between.

Germans do travel alot and I do run into them occassionally at the hotel I work at, but they seem very disinterested in speaking German while in the USA. However, this is just a small reason not to take up German or any of the other languages I mentioned above.

German, French, Italians, etc...have a high standard of living and many of them don't move to the U.S, so you will have a hard time practicing with someone.

If you are looking to break into government, I noticed the United Nations, CIA, FBI and other governmental agencies don't give a damn if you speak German, French, Latin etc.....they are looking for people who speak the second group of languages I mentioned.

As I mentioned earlier, I currently work in a hotel where there are many Spanish and Mandarin speaking people. It is a pity I can't communicate with them, because I chose German.

Go to New York City and you will find dozens of multi-ethnic neighborhoods where English is not the primary language, but Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Polish or Arabic are.

I took German because it sounded mean, harsh and different. I did not want to be like everyone else and take up Spanish, now I sort of regret it.

Mandarin, the language of the future, is my next conquest.

 

[djSlvt]

Ok, you work at a hotel, for CIA.

I'm Russian. My first language is Russian, second is Armenian (Sochi accent). My third is English. I was studying German in school while in Russia, that be middle school. Something I want to learn now, just because.

Yes, I agree, Spanish is a must for work. I'm not sure about Arabic, Hindi, Russian, or Chinese. But as any language, it's something for yourself, rather than work. I love that james bond feeling.

How much CIA is paying you?

 

[mahon83050]

Ok, you work at a hotel, for CIA.

I'm Russian. My first language is Russian, second is Armenian (Sochi accent). My third is English. I was studying German in school while in Russia, that be middle school. Something I want to learn now, just because.

Yes, I agree, Spanish is a must for work. I'm not sure about Arabic, Hindi, Russian, or Chinese. But as any language, it's something for yourself, rather than work. I love that james bond feeling.

How much CIA is paying you?

I work at a hotel, I DO NOT work for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

 

[djSlvt]

Tell me a story. You know what CIA and FBI wants, and you work for a hotel. I don't work and I know what they want.

 

[sparky0000]

Study what interests you. You will not learn a language if you have no interest in it. It is that simple. Arabic? What dialect? What is spoken on the streets of Syria will not be understood very well in Iraq or Yemen. If you are in Beirut you will here a dialect that borrows heavily from French and English. Plus, most Lebanese will speak French and English. What if you end up in Germany, Zurich, Austria, etc.? Well, your German is what you need.

Germans don't want to speak German to you because your German is not any good. If you spoke fluent German they would speak to you in German. My Russian is pretty retarded. If I am in a place like Latvia, Estonia, or Lithuania (where almost all speak fluent Russian) there is a good chance people will speak to me in English. Why? Because a huge percentage of the younger generation speak better English than I speak Russian.

Another thing. New York is America. Speak English. That simple. English is the best language on the planet. Use it when you can.

 

[seanchai]

Ok, you work at a hotel, for CIA.

I'm Russian. My first language is Russian, second is Armenian (Sochi accent). My third is English. I was studying German in school while in Russia, that be middle school. Something I want to learn now, just because.

Cool, an Armenian speaker! That's a beautiful language. Are you from Sochi or Armenia proper, and would that make it the Western dialect? I would like to learn it, but it's behind Russian (which I'm studying now), French, Irish (both of which I've studied in the past but forgotten), Basque, Norwegian...

 

[WhitePimp]

I'm actually trying to teach myself Russian...that's a fvcker of a language! Any tips on helping myself learn quicker/easier?

I'm still learning the letters/sounds of the Cyrillic alphabet, which mess me up because I always try to make the same sound they would make in English ( K B b A E etc) which is not always the case.

 

[Rudra]

I'm actually trying to teach myself Russian...that's a fvcker of a language! Any tips on helping myself learn quicker/easier?

I'm still learning the letters/sounds of the Cyrillic alphabet, which mess me up because I always try to make the same sound they would make in English ( K B b A E etc) which is not always the case.

- the internet is great for improving languages. Chat up russian chicks in icq that speak english so you can correct each other.
- give me a PM, I might mail you some stuff. I take it you are still at the beginning of the beginning?

greetz from Moscow

 

[MuayThai]

Holy ****, you're working undercover in a hotel for the CIA? Surly you can't tell us that?

 

[seanchai]

I'm actually trying to teach myself Russian...that's a fvcker of a language! Any tips on helping myself learn quicker/easier?

I'm still learning the letters/sounds of the Cyrillic alphabet, which mess me up because I always try to make the same sound they would make in English ( K B b A E etc) which is not always the case.

It gets even harder as you go I taught myself the alphabet when I was in 7th grade and thought that would help me when I took it at college, but then the fvckers went and changed the handwritten script! :cuss: Russian is a very impressively complex language but is still very logical, which has helped a lot. You need to practice speaking it to understand vowel reduction or you will sound like you're from Yaroslavl.

Udachi (good luck)!

EDIT: SS doesn't render Cyrillic

 

[djSlvt]

Cool, an Armenian speaker! That's a beautiful language. Are you from Sochi or Armenia proper, and would that make it the Western dialect? I would like to learn it, but it's behind Russian (which I'm studying now), French, Irish (both of which I've studied in the past but forgotten), Basque, Norwegian...

It's like different dialects. Proper is for those who from Yerevan, every city is gonna have different dialect. By the way, if you looking for vacation destination, here is one. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sochi+pictures

Most who travel to Russia go to Moscow, or St Pesburg. Nice destinations, but not much fun, those are like going to Denver, or Dallas, borring. Go to Sochi, summer time you have sea, rivers, lakes, a lot of hot women. It's same as Long Beach, only nicer.

 

[PureFlow]

Learning a new language does indeed expand your mind, and, what is probably more important, it can unlock great new opportunities, both in your personal and professional life. All I can do is give some tips on how to learn a language well:

1. There are two basic types of language: highly analytic, or highly synthetic. Most languages stand somewhere in between these two poles. The key behind these two types is the morpheme per word ratio. A morpheme in a language is the smallest unit of meaning, the smallest building block of any language. It is rather difficult to explain this in one paragraph, but it is quite simple. Highly synthetic languages sometimes express in one single word what a highly analytic language does in a sentense with 15 words. English is mostly analytic, with some synthetic touches here and there. If you want to know more, go to Wikipedia and seek for "analytic language", and you will quickly understand what it means.

2. There are two major groups of words in all languages: Open Words and Closed Words, and these in their turn consists out of the Parts Of Speech. There are tens of thousands of Open Words, but usually only a couple of hundred Closed Words. The easiest way to think about this, in English (and most other European languages), is to divide these into 10 Parts of Speech: Articles, Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns, Participles, Conjunctions, Prepositions, Interjections.

Open Words: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Interjections.
Closed Words: Conjunctions, Prepositions, Pronouns, Articles. (also axiliary verbs)

One of the most important skills to master is to be able to parse a sentence: knowing to what class of the Parts of Speech a word belongs, and thus knowing what role a word has in a sentence. In the beginning this is a little difficult, but after a while it becomes second nature, and you will barely have to think about it. And the parsing skills you learn in one language you can often use in other languages too.

If you want to parse a sentence, simply ask this: is it a Open or Closed word, and to what Part of Speech does it belong?

Open and Closed words exist in all languages, but the 10 Parts Of Speech above are for the English language(and many other European languages). Nouns and Verbs, however, are universal.

Open Words--like fax, computer, player--come and go. Closed Words, on the other hand, are usually quite fixed after a language has grown and matured. Many Closed Words symbolise functions of the human mind. (if, but, while, altough, in, against). WHILE walking on a small road, a stone fell on my head. We understand this because the human mind can conceive two occurences happening simultaneously (you walking and a stone falling).

3. Learning New Words. The more clearly you can imagine that something a word denotes, the bigger the chance that you'll be able to remember it. When you encounter a new word, look it up in the dictionary. Try to clearly imagine the person, place, thing, quality, object, etc. If you cannot remember a word, it's likely bacause you cannot clearly imagine and conceive it in your mind. Most words are simply labels we put onto our experiences in life. Also, see to which Part Of Speech a word belong: is it a noun or an adjective? (many words can be used as both: quick and quickness, etc.)

4. Subject and Predicate. The most important part of any sentence is the Subject and Predicate (usually simply a Noun and a Verb). Jake walks. Subject: Jake. Predicate: walks. The primary verb is always part of the predicate.Together they make predication.

5. Dependent and Independent Elements(or absolute and relative elements). "On a bleak winter morning, during a great and ominous hail storm, while the enemy was mercilessly bombarding the coast line, THE SOLDIERS LANDED ON THE BEACH, who, after a long and fierce fight, were all brutally killed." (heh) The part in capitals is the core of the sentence: all else depends on that part. It's good to know this. ("the soldiers landed on the beach": this is the predication: Subject + Predicate. Subject: the soldiers. Predicate: landed on the beach.)

5. Word Order. Some languages have fixed word order. English: the rapid car. French: l'automobile rapide. the Eiffel Tower > la tour Eiffel. Remember this, because not all languages have the same word order as English. English is only one language out of the many, and it is (on the whole) neither inferior or superior.

Final tip: Don't ask "why is this language like this?" A language evolves over time, and it just becomes what it becomes. There is almost an infintie variety of language, just like there are thousands of races and faces across the globe. Variety is the spice of life, and so it is with language. Eskimo's will think English is strange and complicated; English speaking people will think their language is even stranger. But everything in a language has a function. While subtle, nuanced, complex language is not important in a bar, when you are saving lives it is vital to say and express the right meanings. No language is easy to learn: it takes much time and great effort.

I'm really tired of writing this and i'll stop now

 

[seanchai]

It's like different dialects. Proper is for those who from Yerevan, every city is gonna have different dialect. By the way, if you looking for vacation destination, here is one. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sochi+pictures

Most who travel to Russia go to Moscow, or St Pesburg. Nice destinations, but not much fun, those are like going to Denver, or Dallas, borring. Go to Sochi, summer time you have sea, rivers, lakes, a lot of hot women. It's same as Long Beach, only nicer.

Sochi is actually top on my list when I go to Russia. I want to go down the coast to Georgia and into the Caucasus from there

 

[Last Man Standing]

Mahon - I always knew you were a spook!!! They want those who know those languages because they are ready to make war with them!!!

 

[Rudra]

Emil Krebs

For everybody learning languages or planning to do so, here´s your Daddy, your guru, your god and master...

Emil Krebs was the greatest language genius known to man that could actually prove his knowledge. He knew 68 languages fluently in speech and writing and studied about 120 languages. And he neither was a "savant", like one of those about 50 genii living right now that can memorize a phone book in one single day, but are absolutely disfunctional and cannot even tie their shoe laces. Nor was he even a philologer. He was a lawyer and diplomat to the Beijing embassy after having studied Chinese.

It is said that he always studied languages on a good beer buzz, that he had four columns of books in his study that he kept walking around when studying, that he usually worked until three in the morning and at times for 4 weeks wouldn´t speak to his wife :crackup:

Check this guy out... for me, huuuge inspiration, as he is an example for what the human mind can do... almost everything.

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

 

[Celadus]

Practicing a language with a buzz is so true. I studied Mandarin in Beijing and Spanish in Costa Rica and the classroom was tough but once I got to a bar it all came together and flowed easily. When you are sober you tend to hold back and may be a little embarrassed.

Once I figure out how to take classes at UT cheaply I'm going to give Russian a shot. Once my business takes off I plan to travel in Eastern Europe. Looks like a lot of Russians in the thread. Any types on learning Russian?

mahon is dead on as far as the languages to learn for business. Portuguese is another decent one but wouldn't be my first choice. Brazil is a growing economy. If you are creative any language can help you get a job but all those are the main ones to help you find a job nowadays.

 

[Last Man Standing]

Deus is a Spook too!!

 

[WhitePimp]

Whoa, forgot about this thread!

Rudra and seanchai, yeah, any help you guys could send me would be awesome! I'm learning out of a few books right now and I'm finally getting the hang of the alphabet/letter pronunciation and learning some of the basic words. I'm going to start undertaking the tenses soon of nouns and verbs and that I can tell is going to be a massive project.

I'm loving Russian...I think it's fascinating. I took Spanish in high school and it was too much like English for me to get excited about. Russian is a whole different world and it's made me real interested in their culture. Maybe in 5 years I'll visit over there

 

[backbreaker]

over the last 3 years I have learned to speak pretty fluent french. Ironically I took spanish for 6 years in high school and I'm horrible at it. I can pick up little things but I would have to basically start from scratch if I wnted to learn.

I also speak Sign Lanauge as fluently as I can speak english, as I was raised by my great grandmother (After school everyday) who is a death mute and blind in one eye.. she's still alive today.. 101

 

[seanchai]

Whoa, forgot about this thread!

Rudra and seanchai, yeah, any help you guys could send me would be awesome! I'm learning out of a few books right now and I'm finally getting the hang of the alphabet/letter pronunciation and learning some of the basic words. I'm going to start undertaking the tenses soon of nouns and verbs and that I can tell is going to be a massive project.

Tenses and cases in Russian will FVCK you UP. They're so crazy.

I still get a laugh out of the crazy word order, though... you can basically put the parts of speech in any order in the sentence depending on what you want to emphasize, so you end up with "Who at me the pen like to give?" :rockon: