Additionally, which countries that speak these languages are pleasant and which are shitty?
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Anonymous2008-11-07 18:42
Where are you from? What are you studying? What do you want to learn one of those languages for?
Without knowing those details, I'd say Chinese.
Maybe Arabic/Turkish would be useful if you're French/German.
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Anonymous2008-11-07 18:54
I might obtain a scholarship to study one of these languages abroad. I am American, with paltry knowledge of French and Japanese. For any language, I would be mostly interested in the wealth of literature that would be opened up to me. A language and culture very much unlike my own is a plus.
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Anonymous2008-11-07 20:17
Chinese has the best literature in terms of classical stuff and Russian best when it comes to more modern stuff. Hindi is the most spoken Indian and (I think) the one most connected to Sanskrit, which is what all that classical Indian literature was written in. Arabic has a lot of really brilliant old poetry.
All of them are nice and different to American culture, with Russian a bit less so, and all of them could be worth learning for more practical reasons. I would go for one of those four, in the order I mentioned them. (Actually I am learning Chinese.) Also, that is actually the reverse order of what I would consider the pure aesthetic beauty of the literature, a bit different to its overall stature - I think Chinese classics are incredible but not necessarily so beautiful, maybe just because China and Chinese really are so different. This is a pointless and no doubt quite personal observation though, so just ignore my rambling...
I don't know much about Turkish or so much about the other Indian languages. Korean is useful in one small country, doesn't have so much literature, and is fucking annoying - I started learning it and gave up.
If you're looking for a language with a rich literary tradition then Russian might be your pick.
It's badass. The majority of Russian literature are the same texts written in old Russian language. The only difference is the replacement of pre-revolutionary orthography with modern one, but it's even not entirely done: things like "-ия", "-ыя", "суть" instead of "есть", "-ою" instead of "-ой" and other uncommon in modern speech bullshit remain the same.
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Anonymous2008-11-08 12:02
Also, if I pick Chinese or Russian, I would have to obtain at least an elementary level of speaking/writing/reading before next summer. I have the resources and time for this, but it would slow down my progress in the other languages I'm studying.
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Anonymous2008-11-08 12:16
>>7
If you have to choose between those two... well, you'll probably learn more Russian in 6 months.
What other languages are you studying?
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Anonymous2008-11-09 1:49
Well I for sure can tell you what not to pick and that would be Bengali, maybe punjabi and Urdu also. The general region that speak those languages are really under developed and somewhat third world. I'm speaking from experince here, native Bengali speaker and lived in Bangladesh for a few years as a kid and have gone back a few times. It's just a really bad area. Horrible smells , roads, buildings, and most things in general. No one wants to stay they all are trying to get out of the country by studying like crazy. Also its really fucking hot and humid.
tl;dr dont choose a south asian language
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Anonymous2008-11-09 18:38
It depends what you plan on "doing" with the language you learn. If it's to actually use, to be able to read classic literature, for business purposes, for traveling etc..then Russian, Chinese and Arabic are the only ones worth learning. All the other languages are either too sparsely spoken/unimportant in world-wide terms, or dying out due to English taking over. But if you just want to learn some cool language for the hell of it, just for bragging rights, you might prefer the less known, less important ones. Some people still learn Latin for those reasons.
I'd go with Russian. Then you could read Pushkin, Tolstoy, Chekhov etc.. in its native tongue, Some of the best literature ever written, untainted by translations. Plus if you like Russian/Eastern European/Soviet culture, you'd be able to travel to any former Soviet country and communicate with people since they pretty much all still speak it.
Chinese would be my second choice just because there are a lot of Chinese people where I live.
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Anonymous2008-11-15 5:21
Arabic and Russian would be your best picks. Perhaps Chinese.
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Anonymous2008-11-15 22:16
Does this sentence make sense:
僕は何時か上手になれば, 驚きます。
english: If I ever become skillful [at Japanese], I'll be surprised.
Someone on lang-8 changed it to 僕は何時か上手になれば, 嬉しいです, that's why I'm asking.
If I were to rate them, Russian is a pretty much unquestionable number one for me. Chinese would be more useful than fun, . Arabic is overrated. You'd be getting into pretty much the same thing with Korean and Turkish, I'd go with Turkish from the two as the latin alphabet would make it easier - and for some reason the other languages listed are completely uninteresting for me.
No seriously, I should learn Russian myself sometime.
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Anonymous2008-11-16 21:23
Russian is only useful when you travel Russia and central Asia.
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Anonymous2008-11-17 7:35
>>1
In my opinion: none.
Because I don't need them.
The list is pretty shit anyway, who the fuck needs Turkish, Urdu or Bengali? They'll never become superpowers anyway.
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Anonymous2008-11-20 18:12
To learn a language because it is a superpower is simply mean....
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Anonymous2008-11-21 11:20
>>18
Is simply dumb.
English will remain the universal language for many decades, even after USA's hegemony is over.
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Anonymous2008-11-21 15:00
Out of your list my order would be Russian, chinese, turkish, korean & hindi. Urdu, bengali are useless since only a certain state speaks it, urdu is almost hindi also. As a native indiafag dont bother learning an indian language since most indians that you will interact with will speak basic english even though its with a heavy ass accent. So learn either russian or chinese with turkish and korean on the latter end.
Currently speak english, hindi, telugu. Learning swedish at the moment. Hopefully I will be able to learn russian, italian & japanese before I die.
Just because they WERE awesome doesn't mean you should learn the language. Look at were they are now.
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Anonymous2008-11-24 21:22
>>26
Actually the abbasid is relevant because most of the region under their dominion then speaks arabic. Turks failed in assimilation and mongols probably killed whomever they ran into, so they are pretty much confined to their countries now I guess.
>>1
They're all shitty, just in different ways, if you just want to be safe then China, Turkey and to a lesser extent Korea.
Still, In Turkey I still feel like watching my back. Never been to China, but my ex travels there a lot, she feels safe to a degree.
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Anonymous2008-12-08 6:54
>>31
Turkey used to be good, but not worth the time now or any time soon IMO
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Anonymous2008-12-09 14:16
>>9
That's quite a stupid reason to not learn a language.
Russia is a shithole, but the language is still cool to learn. China is a shithole, but the language is still cool to learn.
Besides, maybe OP doesn't want to travel to the country. Maybe he just wants to learn a language.
I know Punjabi because I am Punjabi.
Not very useful to learn, but still fun nonetheless.
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Anonymous2008-12-09 20:30
>>33
∧＿∧ ／￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
（ ´∀｀） ＜ PUNJABI LOL STFU you just learned that to kiss the great khali
／ | ＼＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
/ .|
/ "⌒ヽ |.ｲ |
＿＿ | .ノ | || |＿＿
. ノく＿＿つ∪∪ ＼
＿（（＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿_＼
￣￣ヽつ￣￣￣￣￣￣ | |￣
＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿__| |
￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣| |
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Anonymous2008-12-10 14:39
Turkish is kinda sorta useful in Azerbaijan - for native Turkish speakers it's mutually intelligible but it was hard for me. I worked there for a while, and since they were nominally at war with Armenia I got the "warzone" pay. Was good while it lasted...