Well, I have a little dilemma here, I am still learning English but I planned that in six months in the future I'll start to learn another language for a year or two. At this moment I am interested in Chinese, Russian, French and Portuguese. I want a useful language, to communicate with people and maybe one that helps me when I enter the world of work.
I want to speak Chinese because I like very much Chinese culture and I really like the way the language is made plus, this language is one of the most spoken in the world and not to many people can speak it here in Mexico but I know that it is a very hard language and may be to much for starting.
I was into Russian a year ago and I loved the Russian culture and also like the Russian people. I know it is hard too but not as hard as Chinese might be.
So, I wanted to learn something easier first. I researched about romance languages because my native tongue is Spanish and the ones that most interested me were Portuguese and French. I also read in some articles that French is not that useful anymore and I should not use my time learning it.
I want to see more opinions before starting this journey for learning a new language.
Thank you for reading!
Hey Angel! Welcome to Journaly! I'd say, whatever language you decide to pick, pick one, and stick with it for a good period of time. This could be a few months, or as you said, one to two years. If you have the most interest for Chinese and Russian, those will be easier to keep motivation going since you already have the experience of having a larger interest and experience in those cultures. They may be "harder," but many people still are able to learn them to high levels.
Thank you Tom! I like very much this platform and I'm still discovering it.
I also think people say that French isn't useful because the immediate business benefits aren't apparent to a learner, unless maybe you're working in Quebec, France, or even western Switzerland. I learned French in highschool, but my speaking level in it is abysmal lol. I still understand a lot of the written stuff, so I've used learning materials that were written for French speakers. A good example of this be Assimil's "Le Roumain sans peine" for learning Romanian. They didn't have a Romanian - English course, so I was glad I still had some level of French. But again, choose the one language you're most interested in and go for it, even if it's harder.))
Hi! I'm enjoying this platform too. I agree with Tom, it's probably best to pick a language you're really motivated to learn. Can you take classes or find a teacher? Especially with Chinese, I'd think that would help. About French: I've ended up using it more than I expected because several of my students come from French-speaking countries in Africa.
Go for Russian Angel! Not very close to your native tongue to be boring (if you can say such a thing) - not miles away to make it look scary and unreachable. Also, how many doors would that open? But you know what? Forget about what we say. I believe deep inside you have already chosen what you like the most! My only advice would be to not try to learn two languages of the same level at the same time, as they will compete with eachother for your attention.