Hey, so I am currently learning German and was curious to see how many others are either in the process of learning a language, or have done so in the past (school, semester abroad, etc.).
How hard did you find it?
Was it worth it?
What language?
Why?
Studying for my oral test tomorrow and am super nervous. German grammar is way harder than English, and the short semesters of College/University make it tough to learn IMO.
By learning German I have learned a lot by English as well which has been pretty neat.
I've dabbled in French, Spanish, German, Mandarin and Russian.
I've come to the conclusion that Spanish is by far the easiest to learn, read, and retain. French is easy enough to speak, but hard to write. German is surprisingly similar to English, which helps, but ultimately the grammar pooches you so writing is out. Mandarin is tricky with the tones, but if you give up on learning any kind of reading, you can pick it up fairly quickly. Russian is fun to read because the alphabet is 50% the same, but it's just impossible to speak.
I think, if you're going to learn 3 languages in your life, they should be English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Those'll get you most places you want to go and help you get rich beyond your wildest dreams.
Although...
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My plans are to spend a year or two in Germany (I love it there!) so I want to get the basics down before I go, then I can learn while I am there and it will be A LOT easier to retain the language.
With German you can get around Germany, Austria, Switzerland, even the Czech Republic and Poland.
I want to become fluent as well, so hopefully by the time I am 25-26 (5+ years from now, lots of time) that comes true.
I would like to learn Arabic but damn that language is hard to learn (I work with a bunch of Arabs), the pronunciation is a bitch.
Well, you can definitely get around Germany and Austria with German. But in Switzerland they speak Swiss-German, which is basically German spoken through a mouthful of goat's cheese and gold coins. And there's not much German spoken in Poland at all, at least, not in my experience. Probably because most of the Germans got the old heave-ho after WWII.
As for the Czech Republic, you'll probably be okay with English most places there.
But don't let that deter you - Germany is great, I agree. And there's something fun about speaking German. I think it's the Monty Python influence.
Well, you can definitely get around Germany and Austria with German. But in Switzerland they speak Swiss-German, which is basically German spoken through a mouthful of goat's cheese and gold coins. And there's not much German spoken in Poland at all, at least, not in my experience. Probably because most of the Germans got the old heave-ho after WWII.
As for the Czech Republic, you'll probably be okay with English most places there.
But don't let that deter you - Germany is great, I agree. And there's something fun about speaking German. I think it's the Monty Python influence.
German is also a common 2nd language for many people in Croatia. It wouldn't be too hard to get by as a tourist if you knew German as well as English.
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If you're trying to travel in Eastern Europe, unfortunately the older generation tends to speak or at least understand Russian. It's changing of course, but still it's a useful language if you want to travel that part of the world. Hard to learn!
I speak French because I grew up in Ottawa and went to school half-French, half-English after grade 4 (before it was all French). I also did graduate school at the U of Ottawa where all the administration and half my coworkers were French so I got a good chance to use it - and now I work with some people from Quebec and France. The only way to keep a language in your head is to use it regularly. I took German in high school, went to Germany, and realized I didn't remember 99% of what I learned, because I hadn't spoken it in 10 years.
I was bored at work and learned Estonian from my friend. There was no reason to learn it (and there's so few people who actually speak it) but it wound up being useful when I went to Estonia. People there were suprised that I could speak it... it's not common to have foreigners speaking it.
I think that languages are like passports......you can never have too many of them. I studied spanish with a private tutor for a couple of years, and it was a fantastic decision.
I chose Spanish because it's the second-most native spoken language in the world (Mandarin #1), an official language of the UN, and a gateway romance language.....shares grammar/vocabulary rules with languages like Italian and French.
Currently taking Spanish in University in order to shake off the rust (it's been a few years....) and improve my skill. I'll look at French next.
Learning a new language
