Which language(s) should I take?

[rachel83az]

Let me preface this by saying that I do not need a foreign language credit at all. Unless I decide to transfer to UMPI, a language credit is pretty worthless to me. That said, I do find language study to be kind of fun. So, I'm thinking of possibly taking 2 or 3 of ACTFL's RPT tests in different languages, to get a better idea of just how difficult they are for non-native speakers (specifically, for people just wanting language credit for UMPI). I wouldn't be doing this until January or February of 2023, at the earliest. 

The RPT currently has 6 non-English language exams available:

1. German - This is probably my best language right now. I can read it fairly well, but I don't speak it that well. I've already taken an official Goethe exam, so I'd be able to compare the ACTFL's RPT to the available Goethe materials. I don't think anyone has done this, at least not for this specific purpose.
   
2. Italian - Probably my second best language. I'm currently working on studying for an official certificate for this one, too, so I'm hoping to be approaching (if not at) B1 level by the time I'd be taking the exam next year.
   
3. French - I self-studied this briefly a few decades ago, but didn't really get further than basic nouns. I can read some French, due to English stealing a lot of French/Romance vocabulary, but I'd essentially be starting from 0 with this one. If I did this one, I would probably use Duolingo as the main/only resource, just to test their claims regarding the language.
   
4. Spanish - I took a couple of years of Spanish in HS and grew up in a Spanish-speaking area. I can understand quite a bit of written Spanish, though I haven't officially studied it in ages. This one would be Duolingo and probably the book "Poca a Poco" as study resources. 
   
5. Portuguese - I've never studied Portuguese, but I've heard it's close enough to Spanish to be almost mutually intelligible. So I'd probably start with a minor advantage here. I just did the first Duolingo Portuguese lesson, and it looks like Italian and Spanish had a weird baby. Duolingo Portuguese is only 4 checkpoints, so may not be sufficient for the ACTFL. 
   
6. Russian - I currently struggle with Cyrillic, so Russian would be extremely difficult. Probably similar to someone who thinks they are "not good" at languages taking the exam. I doubt I would get any credits for Russian, but you never know. I tried to do XAMK's beginner Russian course and didn't get very far because of the alphabet. Duolingo's Russian also only goes to 4 checkpoints.
   

So which 2 or 3 languages should I work towards? Assuming my self-assessments above are accurate, which one(s) do you think will give everyone the best idea of what to expect when studying from 0 for the average UMPI student?

I also have a bunch of other apps & resources, aside from Duolingo, available for study. Should I use them or stick to Duolingo?

[dfrecore]

I think Portuguese sounds more like Spanish and French had a baby - checked with a friend of mine who's a native Spanish speaker, he agrees - the pronunciation is quirky, and more French than Italian. He agrees though that he could get by in Brazil pretty easily with just his Spanish.

[rachel83az]

Could be! All I really know about Portuguese is the 5 minutes it took for me to get through DL's first lesson so I could see how long the course is.

[bjcheung77]

One of my kids French Immersion teachers knows 4 European languages and English, he's East Indian but born in the UK, he travelled to neighboring countries and learned French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Learning a language may be hard for non native speakers, you need to immerse yourself in the language for some time... I would stick with the choices as you've numbered them, intrinsically, you may have already sorted this out for yourself. I would pick French/Spanish though...

[ss20ts]

Depending on where one lives, Spanish could be the most useful especially in the US. You won't learn Spain Spanish though which is a bit different. It tends to be one of the easier languages to learn for most people. I took Russian in college and dropped it after a few weeks. That is a DIFFICULT language if you come into it without any knowledge. You have to learn how to read and write a whole new alphabet and how to pronounce the letters. Yes there's a few things to learn in Spanish like the ~, double ll's, rolling r's, silent h, j's sounding like an h, but it's easier for some reason. Many stores today have signs in both English and Spanish so you can practice while you shop!

[rachel83az]

Many stores today have signs in both English and Spanish so you can practice while you shop!

I used to do a lot of shopping in a Hispanic grocery store. Everything was in Spanish (including the store announcements) and English was secondary, but the clerks were bilingual. So I probably know a lot of food items, if nothing else.   

All I really remember from my actual Spanish classes is "saca un papel", which is probably not the most useful sentence out there. 

[ss20ts]

Many stores today have signs in both English and Spanish so you can practice while you shop!

I used to do a lot of shopping in a Hispanic grocery store. Everything was in Spanish (including the store announcements) and English was secondary, but the clerks were bilingual. So I probably know a lot of food items, if nothing else.   

All I really remember from my actual Spanish classes is "saca un papel", which is probably not the most useful sentence out there. 

I still remember the sentence I memorized for the oral portion of my high school Spanish Regents exam. My husband laughs at me. Quiero una hamburguesa y las papas fritas. Yup still eat lots of them today!

[Zardoz]

I have taken the German RPT and achieved a Superior rating.

Given my experience, you will find the test extremely challenging unless you have perfect (college-level) reading fluency. I would say the test is strongly predictive of actual ability.

The RPTs for the other languages are not likely to be easier, so since you say that German is your strongest language, I would start there.

I eventually plan on doing most of the remaining RPT's (2-5) from your list. My Spanish reading fluency is very strong, almost as strong as German. The next strongest one for me is Portuguese, with French and then Italian last. My Italian reading ability is pretty decent but as it now stands, I doubt I would score Superior.

So my personal order would be: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian

The more you read in the target language, the better you will test.

I wouldn't recommend attempting an RPT if you're starting from zero. Simply because in that case, there are easier ways to obtain language credits.

[bjcheung77]

Yeah, what Zardoz said. Personal preference for each language is different, I deducted the languages that I wanted to learn a similar way by fluency. So, for myself, I chose French/Spanish out of the few mentioned. Not only by reading, but the other options such as comprehension/understanding, speaking, writing is required... Languages is hard to learn, I took French from grade 4 up to grade 12 and that was a core subject for me (not immersion) and my kids are now much better than me and they're in elementary school still...

In regards to mutually intelligible languages, I would say Portuguese from Brazilian and Portugal would be considered the same language and they would understand each other pretty well, it's similar to comparing Australian and British English. Some words may "sound funny or weird" if you're not localized to that particular country. Having said that, some neighboring countries and their languages may be similar as well, like French from France vs French in Quebec, Canada. Once you cross into another language, such as Portuguese and Spanish, or French and Italian, that level of mutual intelligibility lowers significantly.

Decide on a language that suits you most, I would recommend working on a language you want most and then ladder that to a second language, for a language you may want to take your time learning it and not by rushing it. I think if you have the energy, time to study a language (like 500 hours vs a college course of 100 hours, or even a course from the ACE providers) your language of choice would be much better. For harder languages, you'll need to spend upwards of 700/750 hours to be as advanced or as fluent as possible...

[Jennr2z]

I just completed Spanish with Sophia for UMPI. I've always wanted to learn Italian but I was unable to find a quick course that would give me the credit for UMPI. So, I vote Italian