Learning 2nd Language - Which One?
 

I'm gonna do it...learn a 2nd language. It's on my bucket list and the time has arrived. Now I have to decide which one. I'm not a world traveler or anything. It's mainly just for my own edification. I'm open to suggestions, but I have a couple of thoughts along those lines...

I'd like to take advantage of my knowledge of Latin to learn a modern language. I suppose French, Italian or Spanish might be good. I do plan to travel around the US and Canada. Would any particular language benefit me in those travels?

Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now. Any thoughts?

Sign Language?

Spanish is the second most-used language in the US.

I would say Spanish. Useful and easy to learn especially with your background in Latin. French very difficult and Italian not so useful in U.S and Canada.

Spanish....potential mandatory second language someday.

French is Canada's second language.
It would be especially helpful if you are planning to spend time in Quebec.
I just returned from the Gaspe Peninsula, a beautiful place.
Even the people who worked in the Tourist Offices spoke only French!

4 languages for me
 

;) I speak English and a little Spanish. I also do profanity and a little sarcasm too. :spoken:

French would be useful if you plan to spend a lot of time in Quebec and/or New Brunswick (English & French are both official languages in N.B.),but French is difficult to learn as very little is pronounced as it is spelled. Spanish on the other hand has no silent letters or variations on how written letters are pronounced and would have a larger geographic area of usefulness.

Depends on where of most of your travels take you.

A friend of mine who speaks Spanish fluently says he also learned Japanese, as they are somewhat similar.

I'm no expert but wouldn't Portugese, be another language close to Spanish?

I figured quite a few would recommend Spanish. (And thanks by-the-way.) But I have a question. And I have to be careful. I don't want to offend anybody and I will admit a certain degree of ignorance about something...

When you say to learn Spanish, I assume there are quite a few "variations" of the language. Spanish as spoken in Spain. Spanish as spoken in Mexico. Possibly Cuba. Other countries and regions. Am I mistaken? Is there a generally accepted "standard" Spanish language?

Spanish is probably one of the easiest languages to learn. In high school the books were formal Spanish (Castilian). Probably the same now as it is the least colloquial. 400 million people speak Spanish as their first language which also makes it good to know.

Go with learning Castillian Spanish which is what is primarily taught in academia. It will get you by anywhere. I learned Spanish in New Mexico while growing up - both in and out of school. It has gotten me by in Spain, in both France and Italy (where occasionally I had to use it when the person with whom I was dealing did not speak English) and all over Mexico and Central America. BTW, Costa Rican Spanish is different. While there one woman got a look of disgust on her face and told me I sounded like a Mexican! I took that as a compliment since I am not a native Spanish speaker. lol.

Once one learns the basics of Spanish or any other language it is helpful to spend some immersion time using the language exclusively for a few weeks. That can be done on an extended stay in a country where the language is spoken. Certain travel companies may specialize in such excursions. When a person starts to think in another language they have got it down. To stay in practice I mosty use Spanish with my gardners, cleaning ladies and other workers I encounter whenever I can. They seem to appreciate it.

When my wife and I were in Costa Rica, a guide on a birding trip suggested we might want to spend a couple of weeks doing an immersion learning of Spanish. He said that it was also best to do that in Costa Rica as, "We don't have an accent!" It cracked me up that he said that so seriously. Everybody who speaks a widely used language has an accent of some kind!

One other advantage of Spanish is that you can actually use it locally, especially if you like Mexican or Cuban food and go to authentic restaurants run by people from those countries. I don't know how often you'd get to practice French at any restaurants around TV. But then, my own taste in food tends to run more towards Mexican than French, so I could easily be wrong!

Reply
 

spanish will not benefit you in Canada but French will especially if in Quebec. The rest of Canada speaks English and the people are friendly and welcoming to everyone. For the long term here in t he US Spanish especially around Miami. Whatever you learn it can be fun and good for the brain.

Learn Spanish and Mandarin and with English you can communicate with 2/3 of the world.

In my experience few Mexican/Cuban restaurants in the US number the entries on their menus plus I frequently find it fun to kid around with the wait persons in Spanish. Fortunately when I go to a Chinese restaurant the menus usually provide numbers alongside their their listings so I can order number 23 but hold the soy sauce and bring me a bottle of Great Wall Wine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Wall_Wine

If you have an iPhone, there is a great Spanish learning app called Duolingo. It is free. I've been using it to brush up on my much forgotten Spanish in preparation for a trip to Cuba.

I took four years of Latin in high school. I consider myself very lucky that the teacher was very old school and spent the time needed to help me which resulted in helping me through other courses. She was instrumental in me gaining the confidence to overcome my educational weaknesses. When stationed in Japan I took a conversational Japanese course. That was a very useful tool to navigate restaurants, nightclubs, and bars.:pepper2:

Try Mango-- free language courses available through Sumter Library System.
 

https://www.mangolanguages.com/libra...#/search/32162

French is easy if you can get the pronunciation and practice it quite a bit. I found Spanish easier though even though still cannot pronounce some of the words. German is quite more difficult as is Dutch. Chinese and Japanese I found quite difficult along with Russian.

Italian is fairly easy with a background in Latin.

I took a bunch of languages so I would be a better cataloger of foreign language materials in libraries while at the University of Minnesota Law Library but had taken French, German and Spanish before starting law school while getting my dual BAs and MA.

I have not mastered any foreign language though as it seems you have to use it fairly regularly to learn it quite well.

Another vote for Spanish. In 1961 when I had to select which foreign language I would study in high school my Father told me to take Spanish because it would be the most important language in the future of govt and business. How did he know what would be happening to this country in this day and age? I venture to guess that you can do more eavesdropping with Spanish - it spooked some workers at my house when I interrupted their lunch to offer cold water and fresh fruit - in their native tongue! They then knew that I knew if/when they were speaking about hubs and me!

I took six years of French, two of Spanish, and two of German. I had an easy time with all of them. A few years ago we attempted to learn Italian and were brought to our knees by the possessives and descriptives (can't think of the grammar terms), surrounding which there are a gazillion rules. The verbs and nouns were not a problem.

Is it Portuguese that is closely related to Latin? Kind of a mix of Italian and Latin?

Learning 2nd Language - Which One?
 

I've heard that too. But I'd like to learn something a bit more mainstream.

French used to be the international language for ambassadors, secs of state, etc. Now it's English.

If you want mainstream, Spanish is the way to go. I think French is more fun, though. And I loved Italian pronunciation. My husband, fluent in French from living abroad, not so much.

Yeah. Spanish is of course the most mainstream. I just wish I felt more enthused about it. Without really knowing why, I've been kinda leaning toward French, just because of a gut feeling that it would be...like you said...more fun. :)

I don't know. I do know there is high and low German and when I tried to practice my French by communicating online I soon learned the idiomatic expressions and new ways of speaking make the knowledge of a classic language still a challenge to communicate with real people living and speaking it all of the time.

So true. Language is always changing, and the French my husband and sister became fluent in is now considered "old French." When I asked our thirty-something friend in Paris (a native) how you say "What is your name," the last thing she came up with was "Comment vous appelez-vous." That was what we learned in high school. In fact, she didn't even come up with it; I did.

The hardest part for me is understanding the modern spoken French. There are so many shortcuts, idioms, and slang. A few web sites help. Polar Bear, the French teacher at Lifelong Learning College, Mrs. Willard, is very good and supplies, through email, many help sites. She teaches from the standpoint of "This is what you need to know first."

Another vote for Spanish.
Here's a funny video to get you started.LOL

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=023GCDuXAaI

I change my vote to Spanish. Right now it would be more friendly on my part to actually talk to people instead of just smiling, nodding my head, moving my arms while saying the flowers look beautiful in broken English.

My admiration
 

:BigApplause: I do admire your ambition to learn a second language. I have enough problems remembering English! Too old, too tired and too lazy---not to mention too little time for me to learn one. But I'm a big fan of anybody willing to make the effort and take the time to actually do it. Fore!