25 replies to this topic

[Jayesaphine]

If you already have a basic knowledge of french, I would say opt for french and build on it. I'm bilingual in English and French and being able to speak more than one language really is a gift.

Also, do not learn a language through rosetta stone. If you want to learn a language quickly, thoroughly and completely, move to that country for a year. It's the only way.

[Ida Jóźwiak]

Learn French well, it's useful. German also seems to be a good choice, though it's difficult. Have you ever thought about Russian or any Scandinavian language? It may be interesting and pretty original

[tiffany_wu888]

I'm Chinese, and I take IB Chinese A: Lit
i'd say that, yes, chinese is a good language to know especially if you plan to do business in the greater asia region, but it really takes a lot of work, especially for someone not used to all these characters.
They say to read the newspaper, you need to know an average of at least 3000 characters, and a lot of my foreigner friends find it very difficult to memorize all the different radicals and pronunciations.

I had an English tutor who came to China to learn Chinese, and at first when he took classes frequently, he was improving a lot, but as he started to stop his classes and used Chinese less and less, his Chinese de-proved greatly

So I'd say unless you have the willpower and the means to practice it very often, don't take it, because you'll just end up being very frustrated at the language

Goodluck!

[sohanvs95]

French!!!!

[The Economist]

sohanvs95, on Mar 28, 2012 - 15:20, said:

French!!!!

Reasons? Elaborate please.

[Babydolleyes]

spereira14, on Jan 23, 2012 - 20:50, said:

I've been thinking about starting to learn a new language through Rosetta Stone, which I've heard wonders of. But I can't seem to decide which language I should learn.
I'm basically looking for a language that will be useful for me in the future, mostly when I start to work. I plan on being an economist, or something business related, which also has to do with foreign affairs, which I find really interesting. I also plan to go to college and to live in the US.
I'm a native spanish speaker, and consider English as a first language to me as well. I know basic French and will continue to take classes this year. I know Chinese is a really popular option, but I've read that the real future is in Japan, who the US will really embrace economically in the future.

What do you guys think?

Thanks!

I think you should definitely go for Mandarin. Japanese is so so so much harder to learn, and Mandarin will be very useful to you in the future regardless of whether Japanese becomes popular as well. I'm planning on learning Mandarin after IB I find it really exciting.

Nintai, on Feb 10, 2012 - 10:48, said:

flinquinnster, on Feb 10, 2012 - 06:30, said:

Chinese is probably much harder than Japanese... It is. It's good to continue with French as well. German sounds like a fairly solid bet, and Japanese/Chinese would be more challenging, but probably a good 'learning' experience as well.

Am I the only one who thinks Chinese is simple (this is coming from a European as well)? Granted, if you have no experience with the characters beforehand it may be a bit more difficult, as you have to grasp the concepts and ideas behind them, but the grammar is really simple; much more so compared to Japanese. Also, Japanese features multiple readings of pretty much all their Kanji (the characters borrowed from Chinese), depending on the context they're used in. The only balance here would be the easy pronunciation of Japanese and the difficulty with tones in Chinese, but then again; some people pick these things up faster than others.

I agree I just think people assume Chinese is much much harder than Japanese. I have always found it to be the opposite as well, I would definitely recommend Mandarin.