Which language would you learn?

[ShotoJuku]

私は、日本語を勉強しています

[COLOR="#000080"]良い - はい !


私は空手道松濤塾の私の研究から、日本に少量を話す。[/COLOR]

[Johann]

For the rest of us, Google tells me Shoto Juku says (roughly) :

"Yes - that's good. From my study of Shoto Juku Karate* I speak a bit of Japanese."

* IIRC (from a long time ago, when he and I first corresponded) "Shoto Juku" means "special school" of Martial Arts - the school of the Pine Waves.

Johann

[Leebo]

I asked Excelsior a while back, and they accept the NYU proficiency exam for Japanese. I might try that toward the end of this year if I feel like I'm ready.

[ShotoJuku]

I asked Excelsior a while back, and they accept the NYU proficiency exam for Japanese. I might try that toward the end of this year if I feel like I'm ready.

Is this for spoken, written, or both?

[Leebo]

Is this for spoken, written, or both?

Listening, reading, and writing with an optional essay.

https://www.scps.nyu.edu/academics/depar...sults.html

[dreamer]

I'm new, so hi all. I have always loved languages so for me learning any language is good. But for practical purposes i am working on Spanish. I also agree with some of the other posters, that you need to be able to practice the language. For those that don't have locals that speak your target language there are websites that can connect you with some that do.

Some areas have high concentration of local speakers you can practice with and would be practical for jobs. In Houston, Texas I saw a lot of jobs that wanted Vietnamese. In Hawaii the jobs wanted Japanese. Many jobs around the country would like to see Spanish. Cantonese is generally what is spoken in most of the China Towns around the country.

I saw a study that one of the Texas universities did about languages needed in local businesses. I believe the languages needed were Spanish, German, Arabic and Chinese. If I find it again I'll post a link.

If you are looking at languages that use a different writing system, I believe both Arabic and Korean are phonetic.

[Johann]

If you are looking at languages that use a different writing system, I believe both Arabic and Korean are phonetic.

Indeed they are. Korea is unique in that it has one day a year (Hangul day) to celebrate the invention of its alphabet. Some of its origins can be traced to the alphabets of Central Asia - and that's very fitting. Why? because the Korean language itself - though it has many Chinese and Japanese loan-words these days - is actually the farthest-eastern of the Turkic language family.

Hangul - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Unlike Korean, the Arabic alphabet is also used for other languages - notably Urdu in Pakistan, Pashto (Afghanistan) and Farsi (Iran). Centuries ago, it was sometimes used to write in Spanish -- but we all know what happened in 1492 with expulsion of the Moors from Spain. There are well-recorded incidents of trusted, Arabic-literate slaves keeping plantation records in Arabic in early America.

Arabic script - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Armenia has an interesting Alphabet - invented by one man, St. Mesrop Mashtots, around 405 A.D and still used today, with remarkably few alterations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_alphabet

Johann

[OE800_85]

On a random note, anyone who's looking to improve their language skills and/or learn a new language should check out Learning, powered by imagination. - Memrise It's possibly the greatest language tool I've ever come across and it's free. You can actually use it to build your memory for anything...

[swf]

I am beginning French and Hebrew... I hope to learn Russian and German in a few years too!

[happydayruth]

Oh, I like this thread. I would love to learn Russian fluently. I've studied it in the past, and I can read it (without understanding). It's a little dream of mine to take some Russian language classes at the local university...maybe after I finish the B.A. I'm working on at the moment... :-)