Learning a New Language
On the off-chance that your New Year’s resolution involves learning a new language, I thought this was a really cool map charting the number of jumps between a new language and English. It’s English-focused because the information is pulled together from the government agency that trains US government employees going to other countries, such as diplomats. If you speak a language other than English, it’s interesting to see the number of jumps it takes English-speakers to get to your language.
So French or Spanish take 575 – 600 hours to master whereas Hebrew takes 1100 hours and Japanese clocks in at 2200 hours.
What I’d love to know is the tipping point of how much of a language you should learn before going to the country and throwing yourself into the fray in order to absorb the language while it’s surrounding you. If you enter with nothing, it’s frustrating, but if you have a base of understanding, it feels like you pick up the language faster once you’re listening to it 24/7.
Which language would you love to learn? And where does it fall on the difficulty scale if you’re an English speaker?
10 comments
Fascinating! I’ve tried to learn a Category I and two Category Vs, and I can confirm that Cat 1 is so much easier/stickier.
Wait a minute…you mean my friends who took Spanish and French in school had it easy compared to those of us who took German?
My dad’s native language which I briefly tried to learn is a green, so level IV.
Mandarin.
600 hours? That’s IT? That makes it sound completely doable, well, as long as you don’t have a full time job. Haha. I’d like to learn Italian so that I can speak it to my in-laws. Spanish would be useful. I’ve always wanted to know French because I liked the way it sounds.
It’s funny, because I only have a smattering of high school French — but enough of the words are similar enough to Italian (& dh & his family throw in enough English words too) that I can usually get the gist of what the in-laws are saying. 😉 (Plus I have picked up a word or two along the way over the past 35 years…!) 😉
I would like to learn a little Swedish & Ukrainian, in deference to my cultural heritage. I did take Uk. classes after school one year when I was a kid, but I’m afraid the only things I’ve retained are the words for brother and sister, and how to count to 5. :p
I’ve studied two of the Category V and one of the hardest of category IV (Thai), as well as French at school. I can say that Mandarin is easier if you’ve studied Japanese and Thai before it – you understand the characters, and know tones. Anything with an alphabet is easier than the languages with characters, because at least you can sound out the words. I’m a very visual learner, and so love reading signs and notices when in a foreign country as a way of learning.
And I’ve taught myself Spanish, Italian, and a smattering of German for travel. All three of these were much easier, with their similarities to English. After French at school, Spanish is a breeze. And Spanish and Italian are so similar, it’s also easy to learn one after another. And there are no tonal variations to confuse. (The word in Thai for crazy, and for grandmother, are the same, barring the tone. Quite a quandary for young exchange students!)
I don’t really want to learn a new language, but I’d like to improve fluency in Mandarin and Spanish. Actually, I’d love to develop real fluency in any of my languages.
The key thing in language learning is enthusiasm, and humility, and just doing it. Being prepared to make mistakes, and trying to use the language, are the quickest ways to learn. Perhaps the hardest too! lol
I found German to be very easy. I had a devil of a time with French- I can read a little but I understand NONE of it spoken. I suspect it’s because my teacher was Vietnamese and had a very thick accent but I don’t know. And, I learned a little Spanish but I still say German was the easiest for me.
My high school taught 3 foreign languages. French, Spanish and Latin. Naturally, my parents chose Latin for their little 9th grader.
All I remember from Latin is amo, amas, amat and that agricola means farmer. I do remember the little poem a previous student had written on the inside back cover page.
If I had my choice, I’d want to give Finnish a try.
“Latin is a dead language buried in the dust,
First it killed the Romans and now it’s killing us.”
The only language I need to learn—Welsh—is unclassified. I kind of wish I knew what I was getting myself into!
Finnish is a class 4 with a star! I must have passed the 1100 mark by now, but I’m still no where near fluent and most likely never will be. However, like Mali said you just have to get in there and do it. Talk talk talk. I still make tons of mistakes, but I don’t generally care, so long as I am understood and I’m not saying “a girl’s bits” instead of “a drinking straw”. (<–my friend did that one in a burger chain. hahah)