What languages do you wish you knew...

[Fleur-de-Lys]

My husband wants to learn Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Hindi. He wants to know every major world language. He might actually manage it too. He already speaks most of the major European languages, and he's a better language learner than I am, or at least a more dedicated one.

[Michael Wilson]

Wow!

[Fleur-de-Lys]

A friend recently directed me to Duolingo. It's a really nice site! I've been using it to keep my Italian and Portuguese active, and I've even started learning Spanish, German, and Russian! I actually tested out of more than half of the Spanish course just using my knowledge of other Romance languages! I'm making good progress in German, but Russian is going slowly. I think it's just having to learn a new alphabet. So... I might learn these languages after all!

[Lynne]

A friend recently directed me to Duolingo. It's a really nice site! I've been using it to keep my Italian and Portuguese active, and I've even started learning Spanish, German, and Russian! I actually tested out of more than half of the Spanish course just using my knowledge of other Romance languages! I'm making good progress in German, but Russian is going slowly. I think it's just having to learn a new alphabet. So... I might learn these languages after all!

That's great! I have that app on my phone...haven't used it yet... 

[Greg]

Fortran and Cobol

[Lynne]

Fortran and Cobol

I know COBOL and SQL.

[Fleur-de-Lys]

For me, it's Spanish, German, and Russian.

Spanish is the world's easiest language. I know a 20-year old girl who picked up enough Spanish to communicate pretty fluently during a 2-week stay in Mexico City.

I agree with you about German and Russian. I wish I could speak or at least read those languages, but it seems unlikely that I ever will.

Chinese and Korean are also in that category for me.

You were right, Maximilian, Spanish is proving to be very easy. In fact I've already completed the course on Duolingo! Though I still have a lot to learn, I'm surprised how much progress I was able to make in such a short time.

However I wasn't enjoying German and Russian as much as I'd always thought I would, so I gave up on them. Oh well, at least now I don't regret not studying them. It seems they weren't quite right for me after all.

I'd like to try something else in future, but I don't know what. I'm running out of Romance languages!

[Bernadette]

Japanese and Latin. But the Japanese characters are so hard for me to see, that it seems like a waste of time to try learning, only to hit the eventual wall when the time comes where I need to be able to read in order to progress. And Latin is just so much book work, with no listening or actual communicating. :/

[Jayne]

I'd like to try something else in future, but I don't know what. I'm running out of Romance languages!

I have been enjoying studying Korean a lot.  It is completely unrelated to any other language I have ever studied.  It is not simply learning new grammar and vocabulary; it involves seeing the world a different way.  It has been endlessly fascinating and intriguing.  It is more difficult than any other language I have done but I am enjoying the challenge.  (The exception to the difficulty level is the writing system which is probably the easiest and most logical in the world.)

[Fleur-de-Lys]

I have been enjoying studying Korean a lot.  It is completely unrelated to any other language I have ever studied.  It is not simply learning new grammar and vocabulary; it involves seeing the world a different way.  It has been endlessly fascinating and intriguing.  It is more difficult than any other language I have done but I am enjoying the challenge.  (The exception to the difficulty level is the writing system which is probably the easiest and most logical in the world.)

Asian languages are fascinating in themselves, but I'm too prejudiced in favor of European culture to study a non-European language seriously, though it might be fun to know some well enough to order all my favorite take-out.

Duolingo is developing a Romanian course. I might try that when it's ready. Otherwise perhaps Catalan, Sicilian, or Sardinian. Lately I'm very interested in comparing and contrasting the various Romance languages in terms of how they developed from Latin.

[Maximilian]

I have been enjoying studying Korean a lot.  It is completely unrelated to any other language I have ever studied.  It is not simply learning new grammar and vocabulary; it involves seeing the world a different way.  It has been endlessly fascinating and intriguing.  It is more difficult than any other language I have done but I am enjoying the challenge.  (The exception to the difficulty level is the writing system which is probably the easiest and most logical in the world.)

Wow, that's impressive. I wish I had put in the effort like you have.

My brother was assigned to Korean at the Defense Language Institute, but it was too hard for him no matter how much he studied, so he was transferred.

The writing system may be logical, but it's also completely unlike any other system in the world, so you have to invest the effort to learn something totally new. It's like you said about getting your brain to work in new ways. Like learning a new mathematical notation. Yes, it's logical, but most people won't be able to get their brains to adopt a new system of thinking.

Knowing the Korean writing system would also have the big advantage of no longer dealing with the myriad variations of romanization systems that produce dozens of different spellings for the same word.

[Jayne]

Knowing the Korean writing system would also have the big advantage of no longer dealing with the myriad variations of romanization systems that produce dozens of different spellings for the same word.

That's right.  The phonology of Korean is too unlike that of English for it to be clearly expressed in our alphabet.  For example, there are 3 different sounds (phonemes) that we would perceive as "p", another 3 as "t" and another 3 as "k".  There is a phoneme that sometimes sounds like "l" and sometimes like "r".   There is another phoneme that sometimes sounds like "s" and sometime like "sh".  You can see the problem.

The Korean writing system, called Hangul, was designed specifically for the Korean language so it works much better. 

[Greg]

I'd like to learn to speak fluent pikey.

I can understand it, mostly.

[Ulrich Von Lichtenstein]

I'd like to learn to speak fluent pikey.

I can understand it, mostly.

Is it similar to shelta? A friend of mine from Ireland speaks a little shelta.

[Prayerful]

I'd like to learn to speak fluent pikey.

I can understand it, mostly.

Is it similar to shelta? A friend of mine from Ireland speaks a little shelta.

Travellers have accents like no others, but in addition they might use an argot to keep the conversation to travellers. So it can be.

This is fine:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelta