I am doing a lot of preparing for high school which will begin in the early fall. But my friends and i were talking and one of my friends asked me what language i would take. I responded that i would take Latin. then my friend reminded me of a time when my previous science teacher refered to Latin as "a dead language" and is just a waste of time. But then i remembered when one of my other teachers said that when i go to high school i should take latin because it will help me on tests like the SAT's and other tests.

and added with my previous knowledge, i thought i would take latin because most of the english language originates from latin.

So what is your recommendation? And why?

(My options are: Spanish, Lating, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean)

Latin would be my first choice. Around here, Spanish would be my second, then German or Japanese, French or Chinese would be next, then Korean.

Aside from Latin, it is really up in the air, depending on what you want to use the language for and what languages are used in your area. Latin interests me in particular, but I am sure there are many more people out there that would agree with your friend.

Also, english is a total mutt. I would not say that most of the language originates from Latin, it is a Germanic language and so it shares much more of its heritage with German, but it also has a healthy dollop of French.

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Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

See, i was struggling between Latin (which i chose for academic reasons) and Spanish (because i find it interesting especially because i live in a 95% hispanic neighborhood).

I have a story about my doubt in Latin that i will tell a little later after i have received some more feedback.

Oh yeah, could you tell me why Lating would be your first choice?

What do you want to do in life? That should be a good starting point for your decision!

I did Latin at school, and I don't regret it at all. It isn't a dead language, it still lives on in many guises. It is a basis for English (but not the only one - we've stolen a lot of words from a lot of other languages), French, Spanish, and Italian. German is a fairly easy language to learn as it doesn't have a large vocabulary, most concepts are compound words. I think Chinese or Japanese could be good choices for the future, but you would have to learn a new system of writing as well, remember they don't use our alphabet!

Anyway, good luck with whatever you choose!

PS I have a bit of Latin, French, German, Dutch and Italian. Latin is used most.

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Philip

I will not fear. Fear is the mindkiller, fear is the little death that brings total oblivion.

Frank Herbert, Dune

Well, I am attempting to learn it [Latin] now and none of the local colleges offer it, so I have to struggle along on my own. Had it been an option in HighSchool, I would have taken it over Spanish.

I took German, French and Japanese in college, and I have a list of 6 or 7 other languages I want to get comfortable with too.

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Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Latin's not a bad choice. The real question is what are you planning on doing with the language. Latin isn't very useful as a conversational language skill, though it will make learning the other Romance languages easier. Here in the South, Spanish is a very popular choice, since is rapidly becoming the second language in this area. Companies here often offer bilingual bonuses for Spanish speakers. If you are planning on doing something like engineering in the future, you can also find the same benefit for languages such as German and French. Latin can help you get through stuff like science classes and in the study of law.

I can't really offer a specific suggestion. What I would do is think about how you would want to use the new language and the difficulty level.

ETA: Asian languages would probably also be is great demand in engineering feilds.

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Well im not really sure what i want to do in the future when i grow up because that seems a huge step away. but i do see myself doing something 'sciency' mostl ikely branching off into something like medical, or space, aeronautics.

I think i might take spanish because i can use it conversationally, and i can communicate with more people.

Latin seems confusing because when i visited two private schools that i was thinking about attending at. i spent one period at each school in a latin class, and it seems that it is confusing and it is something that can only be used like when reading or something, not actually talking.

i just dont want to regret my choice, i dont want to force myself, i want to have fun with the language, but at the same time i want it to be beneficial for me in the future, be it professionally, or casually.

but it seems to me that latin is a top contender

English is derived from the Anglos, Saxons, and Jutes...all Germanic tribes. The grammar is different in German, but the vocabulary looks suspiciously familiar. As a science teacher of 35 years experience, I'd encourage you to learn Portuguese, and Spanish......Brazil is the country of the next century, poised to be a superpower, despite it's present economic woes (we didn't look all that great to the Europeans in 1792) Try Rosetta Stone on Google. Ciao. Pete

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A second rate theory explains after the fact.
A first rate theory predicts.
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so is that why german is so easy to learn? because it is like english?
im still not sure where to lean, im still waiting for others to respond to my previous post

I would choose Latin and then Chinese as a second choice from your options. If you could take Greek I would strongly suggest that instead.

Latin is a phenomenal language to learn because you can take it and apply it to Spanish, French, Portugese, Italian and Esperanto. You won't have the exact vocabulary from the other Romantic languages but you'll have the basic grammatic structure. Then when you experience another Romantic language you'll be able to pick it up MUCH faster.

I say Chinese because China has the largest population in the world and learning an Asian language will allow you to pick up new sounds that you won't be used to after learning an Anglo-Saxon or Romantic language. Asian languages also feature a bit of inflection changes that can change the meanings of certain words. This is something very useful in many ways, just think about practical applications of being able to detect voice inflections with ease and you'll be surprised at what you might find out from someone, even if they don't say it explicitly.

Chinese and Japanese might be good choices.

Japan is a world leader in industry and there's a chance China could very well become the most powerful economic force in the world.

In Canada, there are two official languages, English and French. People who are bilingual have the best shots at a lot of jobs in government as well as the private sector.

You can't use Latin for much. I'm in the medical profession. You learn the medical terminology. Knowing Latin first makes very little difference.

Spanish is the easiest language for English speakers to learn. It is spelled phonetically and easier to read, as well as only having a couple of sounds we don't have, rolling r's for one. (At the same time Spanish speakers have a hard time pronouncing girl.) Studies have shown that all toddlers learning to speak can say all the sounds of all languages. But as they adapt to one language they refine the phonetics while losing the ability to both hear and say some sounds in other languages.

I've not studied German so I don't know if it is as easy to learn as trin says. Spanish verbs are conjugated differently and some pronouns are structured differently in Spanish than in English. If German is structured more closely to English, it might be an advantage. French is structured like Spanish.

French is harder to read and pronounce. Then there are the Asian and Arabic (Greek and Russian to a lesser extent) languages that you not only need to learn to speak, you need to learn new letters, both writing and reading.

Now, if ease isn't your criteria, then there might be four other things to consider. Do you have a head start in any language such as one you already studied or your parents spoke? Do you plan to travel? Do you plan to use the language in some line of work? And do you live in a bilingual area so knowing both languages would be useful?

English is the most universal language. Around here Spanish is the next most common language. But in Europe and many countries, French is widely spoken. German, Italian and Portuguese are less common. But if you plan to go to Portugal or Brazil, then Portuguese is spoken there.

Canadians might use French, Americans definitely have bilingual areas with Spanish speakers.

For total numbers of speakers, I believe Hindu has the most speakers, followed by whichever Chinese dialect is the most common. But I could have those reversed. Arab languages might be very employable right now. Japanese might be good if you might work with Japanese businesses. Or Chinese could help as they have such a growing market. Lots of companies will be hiring Chinese translators in the years to come.

So first, figure out what you want to get out of the language you study, then decide which one.

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im not too interested int he asian languages like chinese and japanese because they seem to confusing and very difficult.

this is what i see so far:

Latin: A new language and a good sturdy foundation for other languages

Chinese, Japanese, French, Etc: Good for business and economic purposes

Spanish (as i see it): Purely conversationaly

Can you not learn Spanish from your friends outside school?

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Philip

I will not fear. Fear is the mindkiller, fear is the little death that brings total oblivion.

Frank Herbert, Dune

Lol, Hindu is a religion. The language is culturally known as Hindi but more properly and correctly known as Urdu, which is my native language. here is a list of the top five most spoken languages:

1. Mandarin Chinese
1 billion speakers (dominately* Chinese)

2. English
700 million speakers (worldwide)

3. Urdu (hindi)
497 million speakers (almost completely from Pakistan and India only)

4. Spanish
293 million speakers (continentally/ western hemisphere)

5. Russian
280 million speakers (mostly Russian)

I debated, Hindu... Hindi...Hindu...Hindi. Guess I chose the wrong one. I have material translated for Hindi speaking people and that is the title of the language. Interesting that Urdu is more accurate. That's the government for ya.

And it made sense that I had the numbers wrong on Hindi and Mandarin, but my memory had it strongly backward. Once again, the memory fails. Oh well.

Quite a while back French would have been up there above Spanish. Or perhaps that was in number of countries that speak each language. I know when I choose to learn Spanish I had travel on my mind. French had a bigger number but I preferred Spanish.

By the way, with Spanish it isn't just conversation. From FL to CA there are a lot of jobs that a bilingual person has an advantage in applying for.

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Democracy Now! - The lost art of investigative news reporting.

That's a reason to do one. You already know one Indo-European language, English. The others aren't that different. I took lots and lots of French in high school and college. I didn't really enjoy learning languages until I learned Japanese and then Chinese after college. They were stimulating because of their dissimilarity to English.

Push your boundaries. Take Chinese. It will be worth something to your future. Don't be afraid of the written system. If you get to learn some of it -- beginning Chinese courses often focus on conversation instead of reading and writing -- it will expand your mind. It's not really that hard. If you learn a couple hundred characters, and how to use a dictionary, you're well on your way. And knowledge of Chinese will make Japanese easier if you ever decide to tackle that. Chinese grammar is pretty easy, English-like, and so are most of the sounds -- but the tonal system will mess with your mind a little. That makes it fun.

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I don't consider Latin a dead language; I consider it a zombie language. It's been declared dead, but there's an awful lot of life in it.

It wasn't an option at my high school. We could choose Spanish or French. My mother enrolled me in Spanish. (I didn't get the choice because I was away at camp the week of registration.)

If given the option, however, I'd've taken the Latin. Why? Because I'm an etymology buff. While English may in theory be a Germanic language, you'd be simply amazed how many words have their origin in Latin. (Especially given that the Normans, who spoke a version of French, took over the country in 1066.)

Spanish was also very helpful--taking it was, frankly, better than learning it from the Hispanic kids with whom I went to high school. For one, I learned fewer, shall we say, colourful metaphors from Mr. Liden than from the girls in my history class.

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Latin is certainly not a bad choice.
Some of the advantages of studying the latin language, you can read in the link below:
http://www.promotelatin.org/latin.htm

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People call Latin dead because it is not spoken conversationally anywhere. Neither is geology, but it is worth knowing.

Latin makes you study the structure of the language. I took a couple years of it in HS, and when I studied Russian for a couple years in college, I was amazed at the similarity in structure. I already knew what genitive and adtive meant so I was ahead of the game. Latin does help with some word roots and you gain some insights into English, but I think just learning it for the sake of anothe language makes it valuable. ANy language for that matter.

Hah, I was going to suggest Hindi myself. I am guessing you would get a good grade in that class.

You can learn a language for practical reasons - career improvement, conversation, travel. or you can learn for intellectual reasons - the joy of exploring language.

When I was in school, my contemporaries seemed to think German was the hardest course. I found Spanish to be easy. I took that in HS as well as the Latin.

And somewhere on my shelf is a copy of a little book - Winnie Ille Pu.

Yes, Winnie the Pooh in Latin. All I recall from it was "tum, tum, tum" down the stairs. Reading that ought to be worth a couple years' study.

I want to learn latin...
Everyone had to learn japenese instead at my primary school though...
I did Japenese in grade 8 also...

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If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

I would go with Japanese. It is Asian and easier than Chinese. Pronunciation wouldnt be terribly hard for an English speaking and writing is mainily like pheonetic.
So many Japanese in my school, you automatically learn new words...
kamitsua...arrigatto... ich ni san chi go

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Considering...
If you choose Latin, you will gain access to a wealth of ancient literature. However, since Latin is no longer used conversationally, learning will be based mostly on reading, writing and grammar. You won't have any native speakers to practice with, you won't be able to use the language abroad, you probably won't even speak it in class.

If you choose Spanish:

- you'll be able to practice with native speakers, or by watching Spanish language media;
- you'll learn to read, write and speak;
- any advantage with the vocabulary of Romance languages that Latin may give you, Spanish will give you, too;
- just think of how many different countries you'll be able to visit and speak to locals in their own language! Either as a tourist, or, who knows, you may even decide to work and live abroad, one day. You're still very young, so increase your life options!

I'd go for Spanish, if I were you.

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You bring up a good point, even if you didn't realize you did it. Knowledge Seeker, ignore everything I said about Chinese and go for Japanese instead. There are two forms of writing in Japanese: Kanji which is the picture writing and Romanji which is writing with the English alphabet. Most beginner Japanese classes will teach you the language and how to write it in Romanji rather than in Kanji because Kanji is pretty difficult to learn.

Actually, most Japanese classed may start you with Romaji, but they should move quickly to hiragana and katakana. A good class will also get you learning Kanji.

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Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

I live in Arizona and work in a bank. Over the years I've answered a lot of phone calls, but I've never been asked if we have somebody who speaks French, or Chinese, or Japanese, or German. What we get asked a lot is if we have Spanish speakers. In my opinion, the best secondary language to have, if you plan to live and work in the United States, would be Spanish.

But as others have said, it also depends on the area in which you live. For example, when I lived in Wichita , KS, the most common secondary language was Vietnamese due to the number of immigrants in that area. Eventually, it all boils down to what you want the language for. It's really not that easy for us to make a reccomendation for you if you aren't sure even what field of work you are going into, as that may have a huge bearing on the choice.

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I'm going to have to go with Latin. It really helps with learning other languages and it helps your English grammar. My second choice would be Spanish, simply because it's a big language in the US.

Musashi: If you haven't already, I'd recommend picking up Wheelock's Latin. It's the book for learning the language.

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I have misplaced my Wheelock's... I have the workbook right here though.

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Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

My suggestion...

for practical reasons - start with spanish

It's fairly easy. You'll have more opportunity to use it. It will stick with you.
More than likely you have multiple spanish TV stations broadcasting in your area so you can watch shows to keep your listening skills sharp.
I've found it much easier to learn a new language when you are either forced to(deep in a foreign country, lost, with no english speakers in site) or highly motivated(hanging in a club looking to meet people, and not a single person speaks your language).


Once you start dreaming in spanish - you're there!

Your subsequant languages will come with less effort.
Latin will be easier with spanish under your belt, and then french and german too.

But unless you'll really need the latin, I'd then shoot for one of the asiatic ones with Japanese/Chinese/Korean as the top 3 choices.

If you want the practice, we could start a thread and post only in Latin. I'm up for it, and the more practice that I get, the better.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?