What language do you wish to learn?

[wil]

While I'd like to learn more languages...the US is quite interesting in that we can get away with just one.

Thousands of square miles and only needing one language. Get near Quebec you might be hampered but not lost without French, head near the border of Mexico or in Florida same thing with Spanish...but the rest of Canada and US all the way to Alaska, English will serve one well.

I guess the same is for Australia, but you look at Europe, Asia, Africa you start crossing borders quickly where languages change...

So of all the languages I could have learned, I tell you the one I don't know that bothers me most....

When someone speaks another language and I can't understand or help them, I feel a little discontent. But when someone comes up to me signing, and I don't have the ability to respond...this is really the first language I think I should learn.

[cavalier]

Interesting, you can get away with just English in many countires I've visited. The only European country I had problems in was Hungary.
In Taiwan you can more than get away with English, so many people are learning and want to practice with you.

wil, maybe I'm being stupid (forgive me, I am under 30 ) do you mean that the language someone is singing in is the first one you should learn, or is it the language of song?

Me, I'm learning Chinese with the traditional characters used here and in Hong Kong (China uses simplified characters). It's hard work.

[wil]

Namaste Cav,

Sign language, the language of the deaf, using your hands/fingers. I feel quite inadequate when I haven't taken the time to learn the language of someone who can't physically learn mine.

[cavalier]

Oh, signing, not singing. I really am stupid, I can't even read.

Out of curiosity, how do you feel about the language of song?

[Prober]

I'd like to learn mandarin chinese.

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Which one don't I want to learn, that'll be easier.

I wish I was like this one character in one of Anne McCaffrey's book series (Pegasus in Flight), a girl who is fluent in every language she encounters almost immediately. I find it is easier to "build bridges" that way.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[InLove]

I just saw this conversation--been posting about languages on the "100 Things to Do" thread already, so I won't repeat it all.

Here's something I thought about recently. I know someone who has a very difficult time hearing, but he has arthritus, too, so signing is not a good option for him. With all the cell phone technology available to us, I wonder if there is a practical way to use it to help the hearing impaired in every day life (short of teen-texting, that would require the learning of a whole new "language").

And music can be a universal language, but it is not so handy to try and play, "Hey, watch out for that bus!" on one's violin at a moment's notice.

InPeace,
InLove

[17th Angel]

Language is awesome... I can speak;

English
Spanish
French

I can speak quite a bit of;

Japanese
Dutch
German
Latin

I know a fair bit of;

Greek
Russian

I wish to master;

Japanese

I just love learning other languages....

[Dondi]

I should have learned Tagolog earlier in my marriage. Up to now, my wife can talk in front of my back!

[17th Angel]

Originally Posted by Dondi

I should have learned Tagolog earlier in my marriage. Up to now, my wife can talk in front of my back!

lol

[juantoo3]

Good thread!

Got a smattering of Spanish and German in school, crash course of necessity in French on a trip to Quebec.

I'd like to learn mandarin chinese.

Am in process of necessity, but the wife is coming along much better than me with her English.

One language I keep telling myself I should learn to read and write is Hebrew, specifically Biblical Hebrew, and maybe a little Greek (koine?).

[17th Angel]

I think something else I would love to master... It's not a language, well, more of an accent.... Anyone from Cuba here? I would love to have a cuban accent... they make me giggle....

sway herro to mah w-lil fwiend mang!

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Originally Posted by InLove

And music can be a universal language, but it is not so handy to try and play, "Hey, watch out for that bus!" on one's violin at a moment's notice.

InPeace,
InLove

IL,

There is a language (Silbo? Salbo?) that is pretty much strictly whistling (I found out about this language from an online friend who is learning it.) If you can whistle, you can speak it.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[17th Angel]

*wolf whistles*

[InLove]

Why am I getting images of "Close Encounters"--only instead of all the techno stuff, it's just the Pied Piper?