Hello,

I am going to College next year and I am between learning Japanese and German. I am a native English speaker and I know a little bit from both languages from studying both in my own. My problem is I like both languages, but I know German will most likely benefit me in the long run since I am most likely going into an economics major. I like Japanese and German about the same and I wouldn’t mind learning either or in college. So I am left with 3 options,

1. Study German

2. Study Japanese

3. Study both and be overwhelmed

I like both languages because I have liked both cultures for years and I find Germanys and Japans history (pre ww2) interesting. So, what would y’all’s advice be?

I can't decide between the three. All three look fun to learn in their own ways but I want to learn a language that is a lot harder than Spanish, which is my second language.

I've heard that Russian and Chinese are very challenging for native English speakers and that Indonesian is easier than the other two but not as easy as Spanish.

Which one do you think will be the most useful to know in 10-15 years?

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I eventually wanna learn both of these languages but I don’t know where to start. Next year after the summer I might be able to take Japanese at a different school and drive there during that period. I wanna learn Japanese cause my dad used to live there and it would be cool to visit that country again and speak Japanese. But I also wanna learn Vietnamese because it seems like a cool language and I’m really interested in the tones. And I would like to visit Vietnam too one day. I’m super interested in the Vietnamese language and I wanna learn more. But I don’t know which one to start on because I’m about to have a free summer where I can spend my time starting a language and then slowly start studying them at night later.

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I have been learning French on and off since 7th grade. This year I’ll be a freshman at university.

I have been thinking of switching to Spanish because of how wide spoken it is in my country (The US) and how you practically need to know it to travel in Latin America (which I’m interested in visiting.) I’m only a novice at French (I’m hardly A2) so switching languages at this point wouldn’t be detrimental.

However, French is still interesting to me because of how prevalent it is in Africa, and in certain African countries you need French just like you need Spanish in Latin America.

I want to eventually learn Brazilian Portuguese as a third language and three Romance languages seems too much to me so I would like to choose either of these.

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I recently found out that the Armenian language is actually divided into eastern and western, and numerous dialects of course. My question is, what are the differences and which do people usually learn? As a foreigner should I learn eastern or western?

Thank you

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Hi everyone. Story time:

Years ago, my sister came from school crazy about K-pop. She couldn't stop talking about her Koreans and even learned Hangul and whatnot. Sibling competition ensued.

For months after that, I spent every afternoon joyously studying Korean. It was the first and last time I ever studied something conscientiously (and enjoyed it to boot).

All went well until I tried to read stuff in Korean. Disaster struck. I realized I knew a lot of grammar but had near-zero vocabulary knowledge. Got burned out.

I spent a lot of time researching how to learn languages effectively. End result: I finally knew WHAT I had to do, but the WHY had been diluted. I had been exposed to so many languages and language learners that now I was curious about a dozen different languages (and probably still scared about Korean; can't really remember.)

My new, theoretical darling was Japanese. (Blame AJATT)

So, years passed. Lots of inaction, reflection and guilt tripping myself aka Growing Up happened. Yes, that is my excuse.

I still don't know any extra language but have convinced myself to narrow my options to the three major East Asian languages. I decided to find Anki decks I like for the three languages, do about 15-20 sentences a day, analyzing them and so on, to see if I like any language more than the others. End result: I'm still as undecided as the first day, but I've realized I. AM. NOT gonna make any serious progress if I don't focus on a single language. I'm also getting them all mixed up.

Also because I really want, for once in my life, to do a focused and organized learning project with an end goal. Doomscrolling and random reading isn't a satisfying way to spend my free time, even if I've learned a lot over the years.

So, the pros and cons of each language for me:

-Korean: it's always in the back of my mind because it feels like an unfinished labor of love project that's ended up gathering dust in a shed. At the same time, it's a touchy spot because my brain seems to have conflated all of the really nice AND really crappy experiences I've had with people I've met thru our shared interest in Korea/Korean culture under the label "Korean," so whenever I think of it it feels like a Pandora's box of mixed feelings. I think I still have a soft spot for Korea the Country itself, bc it feels like my own little out of the way discovery, even if it's supposedly a cultural powerhouse nowadays. On the other hand, I think it's objectively a rather useless language, even if only for looking up content online. And Korea seems like a rather rough society, which feels rather off-putting. But that rationalization doesn't help when confronted with The Feels.

-Japanese: I never set out to study it very seriously (except for the kanji, out of curiosity) but since it sounds very close to my native language, and I enjoy their music/movies/dramas/anime, I seem to have picked up quite a bit over the years, to the point of understanding a lot even without subtitles. I also think of all the learners I've seen online who seem to have learned it in a sort of monk-like self-improvement project and I'm like "YES, I want THAT". I see the influence Japanese popular culture seems to have over other Asian countries and even their cultural production and I feel like "I gotta get this shite from the source." I enjoy Japanese music a lot and listen to it almost daily, and I wish I could understand even more of it from just listening. Also, for good or ill, I find myself making up mixed sentences in my head all the time. Feeling like I am 39.9999997% of the way through with it, it also feels like another half-assed/abandoned project and that fact bothers me a lot all the time. But at the same time I feel it's gonna be like "good, I know Japanese. Now what?" and I wonder if those feelings would change with commitment to it.

-Chinese: little did my parents know about the chaos they were about to sow in their young child's spirit when they randomly grabbed that copy of Dynasty Warriors 5 years and years ago. I've been fascinated by China ever since (and since watching Red Cliff, which made it all sink in like "wait, all the weird characters from that game are actually a thing?"). So it's a fact that I'd love to know Mandarin and eventually read Classical Chinese (and maybe even try Cantonese). The language manages to sound both silly and sexy, and I think I'd look badass to myself if I could speak it. And there is SO. Much. Stuff in the Chinese internet, and even game mods that are exclusively in Chinese and so on.

BUT (and this is a huge But):

A) I enjoy reading a lot, and I'd foremost like to be able to read any language I learn; but even though I know many many characters, I'm still terrified of large blocks of Chinese text.

B) I can't get myself to exclusively focus on Chinese because I'm always reminding myself (like, is this stuff even conscious?) about my "unfinished projects." (And frankly, the whole mess that is my relationship to Korea/n)

So, kind Redditors, what do you think is the way forward?

Which order should i try to learn these languages? As in which one should I learn first to help aid with the other ones, I know that they are all very hard languages so I’m trying to learn them in a strategic order to try and make the process more efficient, not that i’m trying to learn them all to C2 in 2.69 years, but i also don’t necessarily want to jump into the deep end straight away with mandarin (unless that’s the best one to go for first)

I am interested in Indian Languages and any language based on Sanskrit. I am B1 in Thai which has 2/3 of its vocabulary based on Sanskrit but I would like to start with something that gives me a good base to get around on the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. I want to travel through the Indian and Nepali Himalayas and be able to have basic conversations with the people.

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I don't have very strong leanings either way. I'm slightly drawn to Korean, but I wonder if Japanese would be better because there's so much anime to choose from and it would be nice to watch it in Japanese. I'm also on the chubbier side and worried I would be more bullied and ostracized in South Korea for being ugly. However, I know Japanese people can also be a little xenophobic so it's probably not like I'd have better luck making friends over there as a foreigner. I'm interested in learning more about both country's food and culture. Japan seems to pay teachers higher but has a higher COL. It also seems like the Korean alphabet is easier. Not being able to read basic texts in Japanese after months of study would be demotivating for me, is that what I should expect? I feel like being able to read Korean would help me greatly with learning but Japanese has more speakers and media in the language.

Also, as a socially awkward person would I be happier in Korea or Japan? Which language should I learn?

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Good day to everyone. I've come over here for a piece of advice because I'm tired of feeling torn between languages. I'll be grateful for any help. 

For the record: I speak English at about B2 level besides my native language. My major is related to Computer Science and I'm also studying English + any second language interpretation as my minor one. 

I'm a student from a non-EU country and I'm pursuing an ML career (also I'm thinking about becoming a back-end developer). I'm going to leave my country by applying for a Master's degree in CS or an IT job as soon as I graduate. I'd chosen German as a second language for studying at uni since the country provides good conditions for IT/ML specialists and a good education. But the teaching turned out to be very poor, so I'm thinking about switching to another language (I won't quit German though, but I'm going to study it on my own) So I'd like to ask what language out of all listed below would be beneficial in my case.

Spanish: the language is pretty widespread and gives a lot of countries as potential relocation options. I don't know a lot about the IT industry in LATAM and wouldn't like to rule it out if it's a promising market. The language itself is ok. However, I don't feel like I'm much interested in Spanish or Hispanic cultures.

French: an important language in the EU. To be honest, this language appeals to me more than Spanish, because France + Belgium have such rich cultures (movies/books/comic books).  I like the way it sounds. But I heard a lot that the IT market isn't very developed in France. Not to mention the cost of living in the country. 

Japanese: this language isn't provided by my university. However, I've always been interested in Japan, I read manga a lot as well as Japanese literature, so I'd be glad to learn this language one day. The main obstacle is I don't know if Japan is a reachable country to work.(the IT market seems to become decent). Also, I don't think my adaptation there will be smooth given how different from mine the culture is.

I also don't mind if you give me some suggestions I haven't thought about.

Thank you in advance!

so for context i have just cane back from a trip to europe i’m also fairly young (16F), but i just found the languages in europe so pretty so i was wondering which language i should learn, i speak english as i’m from Australia. My choices are French, German or Italian. I also know a bit of german as I was forced to do it in school for a while.

I have a foreign language course in my college and the options offered are: Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish and French.

I am confused between what to pick amongst them. I am not quite leaning towards french since I had it in school and the college will most probably teach basics only. Other than that, Spanish is pretty close to French and German is similar to English so I wanted to challenge myself.

Thus i have narrowed my options down to Mandarin and Japanese and am confused what to pick. I have no personal bias towards any and am down to learn any of the two. I want to pick based on which will be more useful in my career, how much will i actually be able to learn in an introductory course (just for one sem) and which is more fun. I don't want to pick just based on difficulty as I am actually interested in learning languages.

For background context, I am a business major and have native proficiency in Hindi and Telugu and bilingual proficiency in English

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On the surface, it would be Mandarin and Hindi. But given that I'm in my mid 20s and my Spanish is pretty bad, Mandarin seems like a pipe dream.

Hindi maybe, but English is also a big business language in India, even though only 12% of the population speaks it. I haven't given much thought to Bengali.

German or Portuguese maybe, but their pieces of the pie are considerably smaller.

Generally speaking, there are a few ways to approach this. Developing nations will be mostly responsible for future growth in CO2 emissions, so we should focus on languages they speak. On the flip side, wealthier nations are responsible for far more emissions per capita, and can somewhat set the tone for how the developing world industrializes.

We could also look at the largest emitters of CO2 right now, which are China, the US, and India. The EU as a whole also comparably emits a good bit.

If you're looking at current CO2 emissions per capita, loosely speaking the bad eggs are the developed world, China, and the Middle East.

Geopolitics obviously also matters. As an American, what could learning Mandarin or Russian really do for me?

Also a dose of pragmatism. If I were to learn Mandarin, Arabic, or Japanese, I assume I'd probably face more permanent difficulties in trying to communicate with people. This would likely be less true of Indo-European languages like Hindi, Bengali, German, or Portuguese.

Thanks.

I understand that learning any new language is difficult but realistically I know if I attempt both I gain no progress in either.

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hi everyone so i’m a about a C1 level of french now and i would really like to start learning a new foreign language. I’m torn between german and spanish, i hope to learn both someday but i’d rather just concentrate on one and see how that goes. i’m really unsure which to pick as i’m very indecisive so any help would be very appreciated 🥲

spanish - i like the way it sounds, i don’t really know much about the media spanish speaking world has produced but i do like some spanish music. i would definitely be interested in living or travelling in a spanish speaking country as i like the warmer weather and food there. i also like how friendly many spanish speaking cultures are. also think it would be helpful career wise.

german - i also really like the sound of german. i like Falco but haven’t heard much else in terms of music. some shows like Dark interest me. would be good for careers (esp since i’m based in the uk there seems to be a high demand for german speaking positions). very interested in travelling to german speaking countries and am looking at maybe a post grad degree in germany or switzerland. interested in trying a language with completely different grammar to english or french. what puts me off is that i’m not sure i’d resonate with the german culture as much

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I speak Arabic, English and Russian. I want to learn a new language, but I can't come to a final decision. I really like the way Dutch sounds and looks when written. However I've read a lot about Dutch people not wanting to speak Dutch with learners, preferring English instead, which makes me a bit reluctant. I'm also torn between French and Spanish, both of which I like, Spanish probably a bit more. French however is more culturally relevant to the country I'm originally from (Lebanon). Next is Turkish, which I also find beautiful as well as interesting grammar-wise. Turkey is one of my favourite countries of all time, and I find its history extremely fascinating. Last, but not least, is Esperanto: I like the way it sounds, it's pretty easy to learn, it has a well developed online community.

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I'm fluent in Hindi (Native) and English, and am at around B1 level in French. I'd like to start learning another language just for fun on Duolingo. I'd be switching to much better resources later, but I'd start with Duolingo.

I plan on doing my master's and PhD from Europe after my bachelor's (that is, 3-5 years from now), so I plan to learn the language of whichever country (hopefully Netherlands!) I end up going to even though my studies will be in English. Before doing that, I wanted to start learning another language just for fun.

I consume a lot of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese media, but I'm scared the language might be too hard to learn especially since I have to study a lot for the next 2 months. I'm considering Esperanto as an option, since the community sounds fun. Apart from that, I'm interested in Dutch, Norwegian and German, atleast for the future.

So tell me, if you were in my situation, which language would you learn for fun, and which language do YOU find the most 'fun'?

Hello everyone,

I am considering learning Russian as I am interested in Russian Empire and USSR history. I also want to learn about contemporary Russia, its culture, food etc.

However, there are 3 things are holding me back: 1. Is it worth it to learn Russian for reading history? I mean there are already so many books written in English about USSR. 2. I heard that the number of Russian speakers is decreasing rapidly. 3. Russian is very hard.

So, would you recommend learning Russian now?

Can’t put this in a flair cos they’re all different! I’m native English and around B1 in Spanish, need to take a short break and choose a very different language. I’ve always liked Norwegian but the non-phonetics throws me off.

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Hi all,

I am struggling to decide which language to learn. For starters: I have basics in both languages. I spent 6 months living in italy and learned the basics there and I can have simple conversations. While being there I met a lot of spanish speaking people, so I started to learn spanish as well. Now I am back at home in Germany and don’t know how to proceed. I am still in contact with my spanish friends but I don’t have any living here in germany. I have some italian friends though and my new job has also some italien speaking people, so I could practice with them a little bit. Also it’s way more probable to meet spanish speaking people in public when going out in germany than italian speaking ones.

My brain says, that it’s logical to learn spanish since it’s more used in the world than italian, but I feel a little better in speaking italian, because I already had to practice it. I am still too shy to speak spanish in front of people.

I’d say that I have a similar level in both languages in terms of grammar and vocabulary, but I am better at speaking in italian.

By the way, in any case, I want to learn both languages at some point. It would be really nice if you could give me your opinions on my dilemma.

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I speak English natively and Spanish as a second language.

I've been learning Spanish for two years and want to start learning another one but I'm not sure which one to learn.

I want to learn Russian because a lot of people speak it and it's very different compared to English and Spanish so I think learning the grammar would be a blast. I could start now and probably wouldn't confuse Spanish and Russian but I know I would still have anxiety about confusing them and I would progress less in Spanish.

I want to learn Portuguese because there are so many people from Brazil and I seem to meet so many Brazilians online and it sounds like a very beautiful language although the learning grammar would probably feel like repeating Spanish (I know it's different but it's not anywhere close to as different as Russian). The time zone difference between me and Brazil is also only an hour in the summer and two hours in the winter.

In 2021-2022 I studied Italian but stopped in April 2022 because I wanted to study Spanish. I still have one friend from when I studied Italian who I would consider a close friend. I want to learn her language to fluency but at the same time I don't think she cares if we only speak in English and she isn't fluent in English so I'm sure she appreciates being able to practice it.

Deep down I want to learn Russian because it's so different and because I could start today with little risk of confusion but I think Portuguese would be more useful and it would be nice to be able to communicate with my friend in Italian again.

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Hello I am stuck between learning japanese and spanish. I already know English (N), German (C2), Russian (C2), and Norwegian (C1). I want to learn spanish because I currently live in the US where there is a bunch of spanish speakers. I also am interested in the mayans and ancient Mexico. I want to learn Japanese because I love sushi, samuraiis, temples, and japanese giant salamanders. I don't really see myself moving to either, but if I would I choose Japan by a longshot. I don't want to learn both though because I already know so many languages and I don't want any of them to suffer.

Next Language

I already speak English (obviously) and Spanish. I have a basic grasp of French and German. I would like, however, to spend some time working on either Mandarin or Korean next. Partly because I would like to know at least one non-European language and also because I would get paid extra at my job for being able to speak certain languages and those are two on the list that interest me most.

I have dabled in Mandarin and can put some simple sentences together but I am functionally illiterate. I really only know less than a dozen characters that are mostly food and I've read that you need about two thousand just to read a newspaper or magazine. I know a handful of Korean words from doing Taekwondo and have heard that hangul is the easiest writing system to learn. Does anyone with experience learning one or both of these languages have any recommendations for which one to focus on?

I know there are far more Mandarin speakers in the world and more Mandarin speaking countries but learning enough hanzi to be able to actually read and write seems like it would take quite a long time. Korean feels like I would be able to have a working understanding of it much more quickly but would also offer far fewer opportunities to use.

Any input is welcome. Thanks, everyone.

I want to take advantage of my new geographical position to travel, meet people and learn about new cultures. I already speak English and Mandarin (and some European languages).

Malay/Indonesian - This would be very convenient for travel and some local use. However, nothing about Malaysian or Indonesian culture appeals to me, because I know almost nothing about them. If someone introduced me to cool things from these cultures, I'd probably choose this.

Japanese - I like baseball, Japanese luxury goods, food, fashion and cinema. I plan to become an NPB fan since MLB will be too difficult to keep up with. I also know some basic Japanese already. Japan's a cool country. But, it's about 7 hours from Singapore, which isn't terrible, but a bit far to go there often.

Thai - I could definitely see myself going to Thailand often, and I like Thai cuisine. But the stereotype it has as a big tourist destination (and those tourists have bad reputations, from my limited perspective) makes it a turn off. Plus it's not as easy for me.

Cantonese - My partner's family speaks this as a second language. I like it, and it would be easy after knowing Mandarin, but, not particularly useful.

Hindi/Urdu or any other South Asian language - India (not to mention Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh) seems like such an interesting and unknown country that I would love to explore. It is, however, intimidating as a travel destination, and I know my partner would feel very uncomfortable traveling there.

Other options I haven't thought about much are Tagalog, Vietnamese and Korean.

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I am from Slovakia and currently speak Slovak and English C1.

I have to choose a second language to study from French, Spanish, Italian and Russian. I dont know anything about any one of them. Which one would be the easiest for me to learn?

I'm 29 years old and I live in Greece. I'm thinking to register in a language school to learn either czech or chinese. I have visited Czech Republic and I liked it very much. I want to visit it again some day. Also, according to FSI, czech is easier than chinese. However, I think that chinese is more helpful for the tourism sector in Greece, in which maybe I'll work in the future. Regarding the culture of the two countries, I'm not versed in neither of them. Generally, I think it's more of a debate between travel for leisure and work, but I would like to hear your opinions on the matter. Also, if I learn czech, will I be able to understand and speak with people from Slovakia?

I'm going to college soon and luckily they provide free study abroad to me every year to various different countries. My top choices are either China or Japan. However, for me to "qualify" for these trips I would have to take classes in either Chinese or Japanese. I personally have little experience in Canto, I know how to speak like a 3rd grader but I don't know how to read and write (college teaches Mandarin). I definitely lean more towards Japanese as I grew up watching more Japanese media, but I feel like I have somewhat of a moral obligation to learn Chinese first since I'm really not good at it and I'm Chinese myself.

I do have more of an interest in visiting Japan than I do China since there are heavy political tensions and well there's a reason my parents escaped from immigrated from there in the first place.

Also, in terms of job opportunities, I feel like having a minor in Japanese would benefit me more than say a minor in Chinese since, ya know I'm already Chinese. It seems redundant somehow.

On the other hand, I would like to communicate better with my parents. Growing up, they were always working and thus I don't have deep knowledge and culture about China/Cantonese. Being able to actually have a grown up conversation with them would be nice.

Let me know what you think.

Hey Y'all! I'm a Brazilian guy who has the dream of becoming a full polyglot until the end of my life, I already dabble in English, French, Spanish, Hebrew, and I'm starting to learn Japanese. In the future I want to start delving into Mandarin Chinese and Russian. My question for today is: What language should I pick next? I really like Arabic but Arabic native speakers speak a whole "Language continuum dialects" be it that for many words there are zillion ways to say it, plus the MSA. And there are a lot of Arab diaspora (my aunt) included that can't understand MSA or other dialects out there, therefore sometimes I think I shouldn't stick myself into Arabic. As far as I know the difference between Farsi and its dialects (Tajik, Iranian and Dari) aren't as wide as we do have in Arabic, plus It seems that when I will travel to the Farsi speaking countries, it will be easier to get by anywhere even in the most remote villages, thing that might not happen with Arabic. (Plus, Brazilians can go to Iran without the need of Visa) Regarding Turkish, I really like how it sounds, and the food looks delightful. Despite that, there are no many places to go to that speak Turkish (perhaps, northern Cyprus and/or Azerbaijan). Which one should I choose?

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