Which language should I learn?

[alexthe1]

Hi all,

I'm really not sure which language to learn. I have already singled out a few that I like, but they're not very useful. On the contrary, I tend to dislike the Romance and Germanic languages of the European powers, even though they're generally more useful. I love a challenge and I'm a total nerd for grammar, though, so maybe I'm just being too picky. I don't know why but it's hard for me to pick between fun/difficulty/history and usefulness when choosing a language.

Any recommendations and thoughts are much appreciated!

[Adrianslont]

Go for fun. It will sustain you.

[Chung]

Hi all,

I'm really not sure which language to learn. I have already singled out a few that I like, but they're not very useful. On the contrary, I tend to dislike the Romance and Germanic languages of the European powers, even though they're generally more useful. I love a challenge and I'm a total nerd for grammar, though, so maybe I'm just being too picky. I don't know why but it's hard for me to pick between fun/difficulty/history and usefulness when choosing a language.

Any recommendations and thoughts are much appreciated!

Finnish (with Northern Saami as an acceptable alternative)

[Decidida]

In some areas of the USA, Haitian Creole is the third most spoken language, but it is rarely TAUGHT. Language learning resources that offer 50 different language, often do not offer Haitian Creole. It usually is only included in collections of 100 languages and often is only an essentials course.

The history of the country is fascinating!

Purangi has a log of his Haitian studies
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9612

There is a study group thread with links
https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =26&t=8232

[cjareck]

I love a challenge and I'm a total nerd for grammar

Seems like a characteristic of a future Polish learner to me You may pick Russian also, but since you are not interested in languages of the great powers, I suggest Polish.

[David1917]

I have already singled out a few that I like, but they're not very useful. I love a challenge and I'm a total nerd for grammar

Edited for 2 points I want to address.

What is the list of the few that you like, but find to be not "useful"? This is something that gets overstated by "normal" people, especially when someone learns 5+ languages. "What are you going to do with all those languages?" Well, I'm going to satisfy my intellectual curiosity, have a stimulating hobby, engage in other cultures on a deeper level... I see Latin in your profile - talk about a useless language!

On the other hand, some people understate just how "useful" learning a language might be. If you work as an auto engineer and learn Japanese to work in Japan, do you really think you'll be the only foreigner there, thereby being required to speak Japanese 100% of the time? There are likely to be dozens of people in an international office, and the confines of the business probably extend internationally thanks to the internet. So, Japanese will be important for you to have a fulfilling time there, and engage at least in pleasantries with co-workers, but there is a high likelihood that much of your work will be in a language like English.

That is an extreme example, but all of that is to say: just do what you want unless a specific requirement presents itself to you.

As for the 2nd point: some grammatically dense languages include: Russian and the Slavic family as indicated above, Irish, Old Norse, Sanskrit, Korean, Hungarian, Arabic. Have you watched the LangFocus Youtube channel? He does great overviews of a sundry of world languages. It might be worthwhile to watch some of those that you're interested in and see which one really calls out to you.

[Cèid Donn]

In my experience, and by no means am I trying to insult the OP by saying this as this is just typical human behavior, when someone asks this sort of question, they already have an answer in mind and are just looking for some encouragement and support to pursue it.

So, whatever language that you heart secretly wants to learn, I vote for that. Go for it.

[Sayonaroo]

I say stick with Japanese get really good at it then choose another language since you really only know how to learn a language effectively once you actually learn one to a high level. You spend to spend a lot of time in your target language to get good at it so you have to choose a language that you will actually use whether it's passively or actively. There are so many great resources for Japanese that are not available for other languages ie yomichan (pop-up dictionary), kindle (pop-up dictionary), yomisama, japanese subtitles, english subtitles, SUB2SRS decks for anki, tae kim grammar guide, mattvsjapan on youtube, etc. Japanese seems to be a popular language to learn from what I glean from what internet.