Languages

Hi everybody,

This is my first "real" post apart from my welcome thread.

At the moment im keen on learning a second language but am having a bit of trouble deciding.

In about 5 weeks ill hopefully going to do my open water certificate and have plans of (slowly) progressing up to divemaster inbetween my studies as id like to travel and if at all possible (considering i enjoy it - i think i will) working as a dive instructor whilst abroad.

I plan on a minimalistic life that revolves around travel and new exsperiences rather than a materialistic one.

Id like to travel "everywhere" and as much as possible.

The reason im having trouble deciding is even tho id like to travel to many places traveling to a place where i could speak the language would definately be + in my book. But as i have an interest in both the French and Spanish language im having trouble deciding.

So i figured (as i mentioned above id like to work as in instructor whilst abroad if possible) that i would choose based on the diving that that country has to offer. (even tho ill end up travelling and hopefully diving in both)

Im sure both countries have wonderfull dive destinations but as i really have no clue of the names of areas i would have trouble looking it up for myself.

I thought maybe someone could offer some advice? Maybe one would be preffered over the other due to visibility? warmer waters? maybe one of these countries is just more well-known for good scuba diving over the other?

Any information at all is appreciated,

Thanks for reading my thread,

Aussie!

JoshAussie:

Any information at all is appreciated,

Thanks for reading my thread,

Aussie!

Click to expand...

Both French and Spanish are good choices. Both have around 400 million speakers (native and 2nd language) world wide, both are common in areas you might want to travel and/or dive. Neither is significantly more difficult to learn than the other. Both have impossible "R" sounds.

That probably doesn't help you much but it might take away some arguments one way or the other.

One really important thing to consider is experience. If you live in an area with good opportunities to practice one or the other on the street then I would tend to suggest that one. Learning a language is done 20% in a classroom and 80% by experience.

In any case, don't do what I did. I learned Dutch. I think more people may speak Kalahari "click" languages than speak Dutch. LOL

R..

This is written from the perspective from someone who speaks no language fluently, not even English (as comedian Brian Regan said, I know enough English to order off a menu). Nevertheless, I had enough Spanish in college to qualify for a minor in that language decades ago, and, in the last few years I've spent time trying to learn French from the Rosetta stone program. My daughter is a French major and I've been to Paris several times and love the place. Incidentally, the Rosetta software is very nice, but pricey.

As posted above, no language will be learned well or even retained if not used frequently with other fluent speakers. My mother grew up with Slovak as her first language, and spoke it with my grandmother daily until she was in her forties, but barely recalls a word of the language now after years of not using it. Thus, you can unlearn even your native tongue with disuse.

Thus, the issue is: what language will you be most exposed to? In Europe, it will be French, elsewhere Spanish. One problem in Europe, again speaking from my own experience: most people there either know English (or are learning it), and want to practice their English on you, as opposed to letting you speak their language to them.

I disgree that both French and Spanish are equally easy to learn. French is way harder, IMHO, because the verb structure is more complex and the pronunciation much harder. So many sounds are dropped off the end of spoken French words that it is very difficult to correlate what we learn in print form with what is heard in spoken form. Although some sounds are hard to make in Spanish, French contains much harder sounds. Moreover, mispronouncing French words is going to affect meaning much more than mispronouncing Spanish. Even if you can't roll your tongue over an rr sound, they will still understand you.

I had a long talk with a eastern European tour guide once while in Europe and marvelled at how well she spoke English, as well as French. As an ugly American, I felt inferior about my poor language range. She comforted me: "First," she observed," my country, like most European nations, is quite small. Thus, if you ever want to travel or work outside of an area the size of Ohio, you have to learn another language. You have no choice. Second, a person who speaks English doesn't really need to learn another language ever. It is the one language spoken by someone almost everywhere." She went on to say that she knew people who were fluent in five or six languages who would have traded them all to know English well.

It's nice to try and learn other people's languages, but it is a) hard, especially the older you get and b) is becoming increasingly superfluous as more and more nations (like China) are making English training almost mandatory.