[LeBeau]

(06-11-2014 12:44 AM)fokker Wrote:  

(06-09-2014 01:08 PM)Hades Wrote:  

Why do you want to learn so many languages?

It's just those few that I find interesting. I have no idea why. I think I might just stick with russian for now.

I honestly thought this was a troll at first, but if I take it on face value, the biggest thing you may not be considering is opportunity cost.

Think of the sheer amount of hours it would take to learn even half those languages at a comfortable level of fluency.

What else could you be doing in that time to improve your lifestyle?

Also, if this is truly just for scholarly curiosity, are languages the only area you find interesting?

You could write multiple books in the same time, become an expert in other areas, read your way through many disciplines, etc.

[JWLZG]

(06-11-2014 12:44 AM)fokker Wrote:  

(06-09-2014 01:08 PM)Hades Wrote:  

Why do you want to learn so many languages?

It's just those few that I find interesting. I have no idea why. I think I might just stick with russian for now.

If I give you the benefit of doubt, it still doesn't sound like you're very sure of yourself nor have a plan in mind for this.

LeBeau has a point; for that lofty a target you'd want to have a particularly vested interest in languages and your original question comes across as somewhat half-arsed in terms of surety or commitment.

Realise that out of those choices, you're dealing with 5 very different language families with very little mutual intelligibility and barely any lexical similarity with English -- apart from German, but see above.

Even with the Slavic languages you've listed, there are myriad differences in syntax and phonetic emphasis for the similarities to overcome the differences.

I'd strongly suggest prioritising them in order of need and working on the first two.

If you're in Melbourne, I'm happy to practise German and Indo with you.

[Bushido]

I've loved languages for all of my adult life, so I used to be in the same position as the OP. Maybe others can relate, but it's a little bit like looking at all of the hot girls in a club and feeling the pain of wanting to bang them ALL. However, languages aren't one night stands, they are marriages.

It's great to aim for fluency in several but try to build a strong base in one first before taking on a "mistress" as it were. This will give you the confidence and experience to tackle others at a later stage. I'm concerned that a guy who tries to do 2-3 will end up failing at them all and then stopping for life. That's too big a risk.

Whenever I'm losing motivation, I always turn to this classic book on languages:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Learn-Language...567315437/

[Hades]

I guess what I was getting at is that if your goal with learning these languages isn't related to a job, getting pussy, or family, you probably don't have the necessary motivation required to push through difficult aspects of the language and learn it properly.

[Sargon of Akkad]

I'd reiterate what others here have posted. Becoming proficient in a language takes a LONG time, especially if it's a language with few similarities to your own. I'd say become at least conversational at one language before you start thinking seriously about taking on another, otherwise you'll end up with with factoids and a superficial understanding of many with little procifiency in any of them, a Jack of all trades but a master of none, so to speak. Dreambig's analogy with women is spot on.

[Fighting888]

(06-07-2014 07:22 PM)fokker Wrote:  

There are quite a few languages I want to learn:

* Russian
* Indonesian
* Serbo-Croatian
* Bulgarian
* Greek
* German
* Hebrew

I'm not sure which one I should do first, so am reaching out to other RVFers for their advice.

German. It's very widely spoken as a language of business in the EU.

[Eastside]

Pick the language that you are going to stick with until you reach a decent amount of fluency.

Factors to consider:
-usefulness
-interest in certain countries
-materials available
-people available to practice with
-difficulty
-similarity to other languages you want to learn

In the end only you can pick what you want to study, but make sure it is something that you can stick to.

[fokker]

As of yesterday, I've decided to stick to doing Russian 3x a week. My materials include the New Penguin Russian Course, a Langenscheidt-brand dictionary from the USSR era and Pimsleur.

[Veloce]

I used to have fantasies of being a polyglot. My grandpa is. He's fluent in French, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Turkish, German, and some Italian. Thing is, is it made sense for him to learn those languages as insane as that sounds. He was born in NYC to Hungarian parents, married a Bulgarian woman (my grandma), and was a tobacco trader in Turkey. French was part of his primary school education and he had a lot of business dealings with Germans.

As much as I envy him, I have no use for any of those languages, at least not at the moment.

As others have said, learning a language only makes sense if you plan on having TOTAL immersion for an extended period of time. If you travel someplace that you can see visiting 20+ more times or living there for more than 3 months, yeah start learning the language. It's a major commitment to simply have as a hobby.

[fokker]

I plan on moving somewhere in Macedonia or Bulgaria at some point, then when I'm in my late 40s or early 50s (somewhere around there), to move to Russia or Belarus (whichever one is cheaper) and find a wife. I already know a bit of MK and BG. I am not learning Belarusian because I heard it's unnecessary.

[Sonsowey]

The language of wherever you actually will travel or live abroad.

It doesn't matter what language is "hardest" or "easiest". The easiest language in the world to learn is the one you are motivated to learn.

A Spanish speaker will have an easier time learning Japanese if they love Japan and love the culture and want to go there, than they would learning Italian if they don't give a fuck about Italians or Italy.