Genie grants you a language, which would you choose?

General discussion about learning languages
sillygoose1
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Re: Genie grants you a language, which would you choose?

Postby sillygoose1 » Wed Oct 14, 2020 6:06 pm

Right now it would be Japanese. It would save a lot of time and allow me immediate access to the completion of my goals with the language. Plus, it would make learning Mandarin all the more easier. The only parts of language learning I really enjoy are the beginning and post-intermediate stages. After about a year or two of on/off Japanese study I'm in intermediate right now and it's frustrating at times.
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Re: Genie grants you a language, which would you choose?

Postby lingua » Wed Oct 14, 2020 7:56 pm

Something with a non-Latin based writing system. Maybe Thai. Even though I quit studying Thai I have a collection of picture heavy cookbooks that I bought in Thailand and need to translate someday because all the food looks delicious. Or maybe Arabic since I find the writing attractive but it is more work than I'm willing to do.
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Re: Genie grants you a language, which would you choose?

Postby Cavesa » Thu Oct 15, 2020 12:14 pm

my first instinct was to ask for something with few resources, something notoriously hard, etc. But then I realized that I'd enjoy learning such a language normally.

What I don't enjoy learning too much is German. It would be very helpful in my life (an ultimate plan B for my career), I would like access to the culture in it, and so on. But for some unknown reason, learning it simply doesn't spark as much joy as other languages, and my brain resists it.

So, I'd ask Genie for German, to avoid all the struggles.
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Re: Genie grants you a language, which would you choose?

Postby Teango » Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:20 am

Harappan (Indus Valley script) - I love a good mystery!
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Re: Genie grants you a language, which would you choose?

Postby mick33 » Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:35 am

When I first saw this thread, my first thought was to ask the genie to grant me Finnish. Then I remebered that I'm having so much fun learning Finnish myself that I do not want to miss out by accepting any shortcuts to B2 or C1 level.

My next thought was what about some of the languages I've dabbled with learning, but am not learning now. A partial list of these "dabbling languages" would include Thai, Hindi, Russian, Japanese, Armenian, Turkish and Georgian.

I don't want to keep the genie waiting very long so I will ask for Thai in the hope that at a B2 or C1 level I'd have figured out how to hear and pronounce the tones well and know the writing system as well.
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Re: Genie grants you a language, which would you choose?

Postby Dragon27 » Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:42 am

Teango wrote:Harappan (Indus Valley script) - I love a good mystery!

How about Voynichese?
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Teango
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Re: Genie grants you a language, which would you choose?

Postby Teango » Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:58 am

Dragon27 wrote:
Teango wrote:Harappan (Indus Valley script) - I love a good mystery!

How about Voynichese?

My second choice of course (and most likely the genie's own L1!)
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Re: Genie grants you a language, which would you choose?

Postby Cèid Donn » Sat Oct 17, 2020 5:06 am

My first impulsive choice would be Arabic, because I really would like be able to speak it but learning it as a self-learner is such an immense task.

My second impulsive choice would be Russian, because I've wanted to learn it since forever and have been trying to get somewhere with it for the past year in between all my other TLs. Somedays I'm like, "Wow, I'm getting this!" but most days I'm really more like, "Wow, Russian is a lot of work and it never ends." I'm getting impatient, is what I'm trying to say, and I just want to skip to the part where I'm actually good at it.

My third impulsive choice would be Japanese, again for all the reasons mentioned above.
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Cèid Donn
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Re: Genie grants you a language, which would you choose?

Postby Cèid Donn » Sat Oct 17, 2020 5:12 am

Cavesa wrote:my first instinct was to ask for something with few resources, something notoriously hard, etc. But then I realized that I'd enjoy learning such a language normally.

What I don't enjoy learning too much is German. It would be very helpful in my life (an ultimate plan B for my career), I would like access to the culture in it, and so on. But for some unknown reason, learning it simply doesn't spark as much joy as other languages, and my brain resists it.

So, I'd ask Genie for German, to avoid all the struggles.



I'm very sympathetic to this. I have never really regretted learning German when I was young, because I know learning it at my age now would be super annoying. I love German, I love the way it sounds, I love how it's really clear and precise and also really weird and funky, I love German speakers, I love being able to read German, but damn, I would not like learning it at this stage in my life.
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Note from an educator and former ESL/test skills tutor: Any learner, including self-learners, can use the CEFR for self-assessment. The CEFR is for helping learners progress and not for gatekeeping and bullying.

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Re: Genie grants you a language, which would you choose?

Postby tarvos » Sat Oct 17, 2020 8:34 am

I totally agree with all your German sentiments, but unfortunately I already have that language at the required level...
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