Which new language should I learn first?

[The Mouse]

Hey everyone! first off, this is an awesome site. i have read about 95% of the topics in this pimsleur thread, and it has been very beneficial.
just to give a bit of a background, ill tell u all a bit about me. im 19 and i live in the usa (chicago) but i spent the last 1.5 years in israel.
i speak english and hebrew.

i have always loved languages, and i have a few that im very interested in learning. i dont have a specific purpose in mind, as i dont forsee me spending large amounts of time in any of the respective countries, but rather i just want to learn them just for the sake of knowing them. i am very motivated and i have always wanted to learn these.

heres the list: italian, spanish, french, german, and arabic. these are the main one i want to learn, in no specific order.
i probably will learn these (obviously one at a time) using pimsleur combined with living language and/or rosetta stone. as well as books and immersing myself in the language.

the question is this: which to learn first? im right now thinking either french, italian, or german, but honest to G-d i cant decide. im leaning towards either iltalian or german - but im not sure!!!

im looking to see if anyone has advice about learning european languages, as in, which one will be the easiest and get me started for the others!!! i dont mean to be saying that i am tryng to find a way to the cheat the "learning languages" system, but rather, since i eventually would like to learn all of these, i am merely trying to find out which is the best one to start with.

thanks so much in advance for all ur help!!!

ps. i especially want torsten to answer - ive read ur responses and i think that ur advice would benefit me greatly.

[Torsten]

Hi Mouse,

Many thanks for sharing your experiences with us. You are seem very eager to learn languages and that's the most important ingredient to success. To find out which language to start with, you might want to try and get an get an audio book in each language. Listen to every recording and see how much you understand and how you like the language. You should choose a story that you are familiar with. Also, why not get a movie on DVD that comes with audio tracks of the languages you want to learn? Watch the film in different languages and decide which one you like most.

Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[The Mouse]

thanks for the suggestion. one problem though - if i take out an audio book - i certainly wont understand anything they say!
i suppose though just to get a bit of a feel for the language it would be beneficial, to see which one sounds better.
but also, in ur opinion, will learning either italian over german or vice verca be more beneficial for me in the long run?

thanks so much

[Torsten]

Hi Mouse, when it comes to learning a language there a few basic principles you should follow. (Keeping in mind that only a small percentage of all people who want to learn a language successfully are aware of those principles let alone apply them.) What do you mean by "I certainly won't understand anything they say"? That's the approach the vast majority of 'language students' would use and that's exactly why they fail. Most people think that understanding a word means to know the exact meaning of it. That's not true. You can 'understand' any word if you shift your expectation a little.

When the word is new, it's absolutely sufficient for you to understand the word phonetically. This means, you can hear the word clearly and you can speak it too. Don't bother about the meaning of that word because the meaning will come to your subconscious mind at a certain point once you have heard that word often enough. How did you learn English? You heard new words and phrases all the time and you had fun repeating them without knowing their exact meaning. Why do you think you can learn another language by leaving out this important process of hearing and repeating words whose exact meaning you don't know?

Most people think they can learn the meaning of new word by looking it up in the dictionary. They don't enjoy the sound of new words. Kids always do. They hear a new word and try to pronounce it themselves without bothering about the 'meaning' of that word. Bottom line: Take a cartoon you like and are familiar with. (Something like Shrek, Finding Nemo, Iceage, etc.) Watch that movie in German. Don't try to understand the meaning of new words. Enjoy the sound of the words and phrases. Try to repeat some of the new words. Come back and write some of those words here on the forum and we'll explain them to you in English if you like.

As for your question which language you should start with. I think this not that important as you can learn several languages at the same time.

Let me know what you think.
Regards,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[The Mouse]

well, i suppose this is the very reason that i wanted you to respond.
and now i understand what u were telling that guy who was learning russian - to make sure you can pronounce the word. thanks very much. i will definitely shift my attitude about "understanding."

i havent had time to go for the cartoon yet. hopefully over the weekend ill be able to.

also, i asked one of my teachers, who happens to know english, spanish, italian, and german, and he said if i am planning on learning only one language at a time, then he would go with german, as its the hardest of all of those (at least grammer-wise). but he said italian is better to learn before french and spanish, as it will make learning both of those easier (grammer for french, and word similarity for spanish). what do u think of this? right now i am actually leaning towards italian, as it is his favorite and he said that its a very fun language and that intonation and body movement play a very big role.

thanks so much for all of your help!

the mouse

[Torsten]

Hi Mouse, your teacher is probably right about German grammar but then again you should start with the language you like most. In my opinion, Italian is a very melodic language with many vowels which makes it easy to learn new words. For example, if you hear the word "subito" several times it gets fixed in your head and stays there. So, if you develop a feeling for the sound of the language you want to learn, you will absorb new vocabulary much faster than if you try to cram grammar rules into your head. Let me know when you get a chance to watch the movie (cartoon) in several languages, should be fun....

Regards and ciao,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[pimgirl]

I like to learn multipe languages at a time but thats me. I would learn Spanish and French first. Just load one lesson from each every day and listen to them. Try and stay on track and you will be conversational in no time.
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[Jamie (K)]

Note that knowing another language well has benefit and utility whether you ever spend a lot of time in its country or not. I don't spend much time in France, and haven't been there for a long time, but once I knew French, I found that there are situations, small and large, that my French knowledge helps me in.

From a practical point of view, there is demand in business for various languages. I don't know what the breakdown in Chicago is, but in Detroit, I'm told by people who run language training agencies, the languages most demanded by business are:

1. Spanish and German, tied for first place.
2. Japanese
3. Portuguese

French is far down the list, somewhere below Chinese and Russian.