Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One

Chapter 10 (Excerpt)

Which Language Should You Learn?

A Very Brief Introduction to the Languages of the World

Which language do you want to learn? Perhaps you already have picked one out—or perhaps you are just window-shopping at this point. Your selection of a language is analogous to your choice of an undergraduate major. You have to determine your goals.

Do you want to learn a difficult language (like Korean) or a relatively easy language (like Spanish)? Would you be interested in a language that you could use extensively in the Western Hemisphere (Spanish or Portuguese), or are you looking for a language that would involve opportunities in exotic, faraway countries (Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.)? Is there a particular region of the world that has always interested you? Does your heart race at the thought of strolling down the streets of a stately European capital, or are you drawn to the high-tech factories of Japan?

You should consider the difficulty of the language. As a general rule, Western European languages—Spanish, French, German, Italian, etc.-are easier for native English speakers to learn than Asian, Eastern European, or Middle Eastern languages.

A Look at Language Families

Most languages share common elements with at least one or two other languages. A language family is a group of languages that share common characteristics. Some of the most important language families are indicated below:

• Western Germanic: German, English, Yiddish, Dutch, Afrikaans, Flemish
• Scandinavian: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic
• Romance: Portuguese, Spanish, French, Romanian, Italian
• Slavic: Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Polish, Slovak, Czech, Slovenian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian
• Sino-Tibetan: Chinese, Thai, Lao, Burmese
• Semitic: Hebrew, Arabic

            These close relationships between languages result from a variety of historical and geographic circumstances. (You probably noticed that many of the languages within the same family are spoken in neighboring countries.) In many cases, similar languages represent divergent branches of the same linguistic origin. At one point, a group of people were speaking essentially the same language, but one branch of the tribe migrated to another area. As a result, two mutually unintelligible but closely related languages developed. If you decide to specialize in the languages of a particular region, you may be able to take advantage of such similarities. For example, the languages of Scandinavia, which include Norwegian and Swedish, are substantially alike due to their common roots. If you learn Norwegian, then it will be fairly easy for you to learn Swedish later on.

A Look at Some Specific Languages

As mentioned earlier, each language has its own special challenges and rewards. Some languages are easier than others. Given the current trends in international business, some languages are guaranteed to be useful in the business world, while the commercial value of other languages is more speculative.

What follows are my observations about some specific languages that you might choose to learn. I have concluded this section with some concrete recommendations for those who are still undecided.....

(End of Chapter Excerpt)

Copyright © 2005 Beechmont Crest Publishing