[ValdisSeroff]

If I recall correctly the j sound in spanish is of semitic origin and came from arabic, and hebrew also has that sound.

According to wiki it would seem that the vowels in spanish and hebrew are pretty much the same, hebrew also has a schwa sound (which spanish lacks) but many israelis only pronounce 5 vowels and having merged schwa with e as in "café"

[shodulsilfeli]

Has anybody here managed to learn a second language well without having learned any foreign language at all until they were a teenager?

I wonder if my lack of any prior foreign language instruction seriously cripples my ability to acquire such skills now as an adult.

[zttrftwsq]

Originally posted by Geronimo
Has anybody here managed to learn a second language well without having learned any foreign language at all until they were a teenager?

I wonder if my lack of any prior foreign language instruction seriously cripples my ability to acquire such skills now as an adult. Nah, adults are still able to learn languages fairly well. Of course, people have a different level of natural language-learning talent, and being bilingual from birth really helps, but every regular adult is fully capable of learning a language .

[maxfieldj1]

Originally posted by Geronimo
Has anybody here managed to learn a second language well without having learned any foreign language at all until they were a teenager?

I wonder if my lack of any prior foreign language instruction seriously cripples my ability to acquire such skills now as an adult. You'll be able to learn it but you will have an accent. Young children can learn any language without an accent and they tend to have an easier time remembering all of the grammar.

[*Playergirl*]

Try learning spoken Mandarin. It's the next language of business (probably of everything else as well). The grammer is very easy (no conjugation of verbs, no gendered nouns). The pronunciation is a bit of a pain (lots of words that sound almost exactly the same except for the tone), but because so many people in China already butcher the language (i.e. Cantonese, Fujianese, many ethnic Koreans), many native Mandarin speakers already can pick up broken pronunciation fairly well. Trying to learn the written characters is a completely different story, but not necessary for getting around China or dealing with Chinese people.

P.S. - Hot Chinese girls love "round eyes" i.e. western looking people, esp. when you can say "Ni hen piaoliang"

[mitiaycatq]

The problem with german is remembering the gender of things, in spanish you know the gender depending on the letter the word end in.

In german if you learn a new word, you have to memorize if it is die der or das

[Si8jy8HN]

Now that I think of it, by the time I finish learning that new language, some wise ass will invent a universal translator.

[envenonearo]

Originally posted by Solver
What the heck, am I the only one who really likes German? French is just about the only language I dislike. Of the languages I've heard, I either like them or feel neutral, French being the only exception.

So, German . I enjoyed studying German

As to the O.P., I'd suggest Arabic. It seems like it would be the most useful language for you, considering where you are.

EDIT: I see that you've already stated that you don't want to learn Arabic. Why did you list German and Arabic as options if you already knew that you weren't interested in learning them

[JohnfAclambrJA]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
The problem with german is remembering the gender of things, in spanish you know the gender depending on the letter the word end in.

In german if you learn a new word, you have to memorize if it is die der or das There are some German endings that tell you the gender of the word. -ung, for instance, is always feminine

Anyway, this is one area in which English has other languages beat. We only use gender when things actually have a gender. Everything else is neuter.

[Affolfembonge]

Originally posted by Wycoff
EDIT: I see that you've already stated that you don't want to learn Arabic. Why did you list German and Arabic as options if you already knew that you weren't interested in learning them I was doing the thinking in the OP, so I started from all possible major languages, narrowing it down.

LOTM:

Reading anything in the original is not a reason to learn a language. Get over it.

[Symnunidanimb]

Originally posted by Eli


I was doing the thinking in the OP, so I started from all possible major languages, narrowing it down.

LOTM:

Reading anything in the original is not a reason to learn a language. Get over it.
Poetry cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the language.
Johnson

[elects]

Originally posted by Aivo½so
BTW, I've noticed lately that I can't help thinking that languages other than English no longer are there but for the sake of simulation, or "fun". In practice, the "real" basis for the existence of multiple languages has disappeared. What do you think? Explain what you think this "real" basis for the existence of multiple languages was and how it disappeared. I'm not at all clear on what you're getting at.

[rozneesitcn]

Originally posted by Aivo½so
I'm thinking about the geographical and cultural barriers that in the earlier periods made linguistic differentiation and separate linguistic communities possible and that now are about to disappear due to the globalized economy and culture. So the only reason to keep multiple languages alive that one could think of would not be real necessity but simulation. I'm not sure that it matters if we are preserving them out of necessity or not. What matters is simply how much the languages themselves are valued.

It appears to me they are valued very highly indeed and this, rather than any assertions of necessity of linguisitic diversity are behind efforts to preserve the various languages.