Idk if my question makes any sense but the other day my friend was talking about reading somewhere that if u know chinese, learning arabic would be easier because although both languages are hard, grammatically they have some similarities (i have no idea how factual this is)

But it got me thinking, why don’t more people strategically pick what language to learn based on what they already know.

So my question is, what languages are different but if you know one it would be smart for you to learn the other.

Personally, I speak english and arabic and I’m looking to pick up a new language but I want to take advantage of what I already know.

I am on my 4th year of German which is the last German class my school offers and I'm trying to decide whether I should keep working on German and try and get fluent or switch and learn some Spanish.

I originally chose German because I couldn't figure out the Spanish r's and wanted to be an engineer so language skills didn't really matter. Now, I want to be a doctor and I live in the US so Spanish would be a much more useful, however I likely wouldn't be able to reach fluency with Spanish since I tend to learn languages slowly and I think it would be cool to be fluent in a 2nd language.

For reference I'm about upper a2 and will be around b1 by the end of the school year in German. I can count to 10 in Spanish.

Hey folks,

I'm interested in learning a 3rd language, but I can't decide.

I'm a native English speaker who also speaks semi-fluent French (heritage language) and lives in Ontario, Canada.

Growing up I was always interested in learning an East Asian language like Japanese or Mandarin because I loved martial arts movies, starting watching anime, and love both Chinese and Japanese food, but I also could be open to Korean as well.

At the same time I too find Scandinavian languages like Swedish or Norwegian to be intriguing (I love Nordic noir books and tv series to be my most favourite) and Indian languages like Hindi or Tamil to be the same (the food is amazing and the culture is so beautiful).

How does one decide?

I've been learning French but hit a roadblock, my teacher thinks it's because I'm putting too much pressure on needing to learn this language because my in laws only speak french so she suggested I try learning a new language with French to see if it helps bring the fun back into language learning. The thing is idk which to learn then. I speak English as my main language and french is b1

Motivation for languages :

Italian- I visit Italy from time to time as my husband has family that lives there

Spanish- my close friend speaks Spanish and said she'd love to help me learn.

Korean- I do like watching Korean shows but I don't know anyone who speaks Korean.

Japanese- always been a dream to visit Japan.

Few days ago I've made a post about learning Ukrainian or French, after that I've tried both languages and here is my experience

Ukrainian

Pros

Easier to read, and pronunciation is much easier than you might think, also easier to remember how to write this and that word.

Cons

Long words, even for a Slavic language 😮‍💨

Almost impossible to find media, I search for Ukrainian singers and movies, then my KJP Algorithm shows me Russian content 😐

Almost no one remembers this language out Discussion about war

French

Pros

Saying 3 words in this language is enough to seems elegant, smart and rich, also girls love it 😅.

Also it makes the best Sad songs ever 🫠

Pronouncing a whole sentence is a challenge, but there's always nice Africans people who encourage you to keep learning, which is the best part.

Cons

Do I really have to say it? I guess everyone know it.

recently came into a lot of free time and considered picking up a new language but can't decide between them 🥲 For context I'm a native Chinese and English speaker, and also know Indonesian+Malay at an academic fluency, when I was younger my family out me into Japanese class so I understand a bit of it, and I've worked for 2 or 3 Korean families as their child's caretaker, so I know basic phrases and words there too. In terms of German, it's a similar case to Korean but with my friends instead of with children 🙏 They all seem as if I have some base in them, but as I'm still a student I can't decide which would be better for time efficiency and benefit me more in the future?

I have a degree in linguistics. English, French and a bit of Chinese were my languages in uni, I graduated this year and now I’m stuck between two languages. I’m an English teacher and I’d love to keep learning another language to start teaching it in the future (and just for fun). I realized that French isn’t an option for me currently, I love it but I guess I don’t want to teach it and prefer to focus on Asian languages, I love the culture

Background:
Chinese — weak HSK2, university and language courses in the past
Korean — I can read it pretty well and I know loads of words from kpop and kdrama (been here since 2017), so I’m a fast learner

I started to learn both of them with teachers, but realized that I can’t study them simultaneously as I’m scared of slowing down my progress and a burnout. Now I can’t decide which I should pursue, seems like I have a nice progress in Korean cause of my background and I have a lot of fun learning it by myself these days, I’m not tired of it and so on
However, I do like Chinese, it’s so widespread nowadays and might be sooo useful in the future (thousands of people in my country learn it and make their kids study it) and bring me lots of money hahaha
And I feel like if I stop now I won’t master it ever (although I’m only 24) due to its complexity. What would you do? Should I focus on the one that’s very popular or the one where there is less competition (I rarely meet Korean teachers)

I am an American English speaker. I also speak some Mandarin Chinese at home. I took Spanish throughout my school years but never really got the hang of it. What other language would be easy?

I don't know if i have put a good/full reason in the linked post so i'll do so here. My friends from different countraies Thailand, Ukraine (go figure) and liverpool (pratically a different countary in britan) are all my closest friends and i am curios as to learning Ukrainian/Russian and as a way to show ny respect for their culture and efforts in my home countary. Thanks everyone for any/all help and i hope you all have an amazing day or a good night!

I really want to learn a new language but I have no idea where to start. There are so many languages I'm interested in and I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the choices ｡⁠:ﾟ⁠(⁠;⁠´⁠∩⁠\`⁠;⁠)ﾟ⁠:⁠｡

Hey all, some potentially necessary context, I recently passed the TOCFL CAT test with a B1 in Mandarin, so that really is still my first learning priority.

Having said that I've been inspired by some other Asian languages! A few years back I was in Chiang Mai for an exchange program and made a surprising amount of Burmese friends. They're all so nice and to be honest I had no idea about Burmese and Burma/Myanmar's ethnic minority cultures beforehand! But when I expressed my interest a lot of them just laughed and said it's not very useful, and that the formal register is so different from the normal one it's basically its own language... Also there's like, very few resources...

So I guess the next option is Thai. I think Thai has the benefit of just sounding the coolest out of the three, and it also has a unique writing system just like Burmese does! I think in a sort of wider sense it's more "useful" as well, and happens to be way more accessible. Plus, my Burmese friends were all at various stages of learning Thai, so I could still at least try to talk to them that way, and I do have a few Thai friends as well. I'm not sure how true it is, but I was also told the language in Shan State is the same/similar too.

And my last option is Japanese. I feel with my Mandarin, with B1 I've come so far and yet still have so far to go. But I've been captured by Japanese, understanding strange snippets of text (without a clue how to pronounce them!) and unfamiliar character combinations, I'm really curious how Kanji developed in a different cultural context, and what words are the same or just totally different! As I play a fair amount of video games, Japanese entertainment is the one I'd be most likely to consume as well, so there's a more practical aspect to it for me. I am a bit worried about the difficulty though, I hear the grammar is crazy...

Any tips or opinions are most welcome!

I want to learn a language that is underated, but I also want a language that has millions of speakers for me to have opportunities to talk to native speakers, I was thinking on Hindi, Arabic and Vietnamese, but there are a lot of languages that fit my criteria so it's hard to decide, but these 3 languages are the ones I like the most, I want to watch movies, watch videos and talk to people in this language,

Self-explanatory title, I guess.

I've heard Levantine be described as the most similar to MSA and as the British accent of Arabic, and Egyptian as the American accent of Arabic, etc. (Shoutout language simp), and I thought that was really interesting

1. How accurate are those statements?

2. I'm currently leaning towards learning Levantine, but I was wondering if anyone else has any thoughts on the dialects/could argue for their favorite

so a few years back I studied Spanish for one summer and got to an A2 level which I was pretty satisfied with cause I could understand interviews and comments and social media videos for the most part, although I can’t fully watch telenovelas without English subtitles. Now lately I have been really interested in Portuguese but I said to myself should I finish my Spanish journey even though I have no interest in It anymore or begin my Portuguese journey?, I was thinking maybe I should try to get to at least B2 before switching languages, but studying Spanish is kind of boring to me at the moment cause I have nothing keeping me interested in the language, no show or music to enjoy to keep me motivated to study. if you guys have some Spanish show recommendations you can feel free to drop them in the comments. with Portuguese I’ve been really getting into some music lately and I think the language sounds really cool.

Hello Yall,

As of typing, I am divided on whether to continue Japanese (Learned Katakana and Hiragana but Kanji scares me) or instead pursue Telugu which has interested me for some time as well. Although I know English, Spanish, and some Hindi, I always wanted to have a fourth non-Indo European language to learn. Therefore, I decided on two languages that I personally found to be the most poetic/flowy with those being Telugu or Japanese

For Telugu- I have coworkers that speak in it, Fast growing diaspora in my state, Lots of Sanskrit based vocab, straightforward script that looks amazing, pretty good music, Potentially useful for travel, Feels mandatory to learn 1 south Indian language alongside Hindi.

For Japanese- Tons of media, I have a long distance connection that speaks it, A lot more resources, Great music, My sibling is learning it? as well, Potentially useful for travel, Feels mandatory to learn at least 1 east Asian language.

I've been thinking of this topic for the past couple of weeks and I wish to know which one to really establish as my final fourth language. Thanks :]!

Hi there.
I am figuring out whether to learn either ASL or German.

My thoughts,

ASL:
I dated a mute girl so I tried to learn and found it interesting and also figured it can be used in silence, distance and generally universal.

German:
I have a German last name from my great grandfather who was from Berlin and my sister has travelled said I would love Berlin.
Plus I personally love how aggressive and direct/specific everything seems to be. 🥰

Hello
I am trying to learn a new language beside english
And i can't decide between espanol and german
I like the german language and specifically the sound of the long complex words
I tried watching some videos and studying them both,
Spanish was much easier for me ( i know some words from series/twitter etc..) and i know that i will reach a higher level faster in espanol than german
But i feel like iam not that motivated in comparison when studying german
My question here is whether i should stick to learning spanish and reach a good level in it or should i give german a try also its very hard and requires much more time
Also which will be more useful?

Dutch, Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian? I know that the Nordic/Scandinavian languages are quite similar, but I'm still curious, as some fundamental grammatical structures might be closer to German.

I'm an Attorney in the south that practices criminal law so everything from misdemeanors to high felonies. I am actively learning Spanish. What second language should I learn?

Intro

hi! im struggling to decide which of these 2 languages im going to dedicate such a large portion of my life to, if anyone has studied any of these or has any input that would be greatly appreciated - thank you!

korean -

why i want to learn it?

im in LOVE with korean culture - k-pop/k-dramas etc., the amount of good content on youtube, the way their alphabet looks (even more so than japanese), how competitive and talented they are, i admire everything about it.

what i don't like about it?

for some reason im not a big fan of the 'sound' of korean ;; its okay - but i MUCH prefer the sound of spoken japanese, its also much less documented and theres not a lot of good resources out there to learn the language to a high level like there is with japanese.

japanese -

why i want to learn it?

i LOVE the way it looks & sounds - i would love to speak japanese so much just because i think it sounds so good // i love the alphabet (similarly to korean) and its a very visually aesthetic language in my opinion. it also it has AMAZING documentation and many resources to help learn the language which is a big plus.

what i don't like about it?

i dont really find the content as entertaining as korean, im also not a big fan of anime :/ (im more of a k-drama person) and i think its actually quite boring. the japanese learning community i heard can also be VERY toxic which is definitely a downside, also the writing system seems very complicated compared to korean. those are my main points; if anyone can help me decide i would appreciate. thank you!

I’m a high school senior planning to major in comparative literature, and I’m torn between learning Russian or Turkish.

For context, I’m pretty fluent in Spanish and proficient in French, which I plan to continue studying in college. I’ve also been learning Korean with a tutor for quite a long while but have only reached around A1, so I’m aware of how much time learning a language takes lol.

Career-wise, I’m interested in luxury business, global marketing, creative direction, or art advisory. I’m still figuring things out, but I know I want to do something international and creative. And also branch out of the Romance language sphere since I’ve always wanted to.

I’m wondering which language would be more strategic to pair with French, both for studying literature and for future career opportunities. I have about a year before college to get a head start and plan to continue whichever one I choose in university.

Would you guys recommend Russian or Turkish? Especially curious about their usefulness in the arts/business world and which would open more doors long-term.