Make my life decisions for me, intertubes!

[tisiphone]

So, I know I'm going to keep on with my German (assuming I don't test out of the top level, which I won't). I'm conflicted about a second language though. My main options as I see them include:

1) French. Pros: Useful for general communication as well as being an EU working language (completing the trifecta) and UN working language (which German is technically not). Cons: It bores me and it sounds mushy.

2) Russian: Pros: Useful for historical and archival research if I decide to do post-Soviet research. Cons: Could be more effort than I want to put in, especially if I don't need it as a field language.

3) No second language. Pros: More time for me. Cons: No second language.

WHAT SHOULD I DO, INTERTUBES? WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Comments

[erik]

Is there another Romance language you think you'd like better than French? Any of them will give you a little boost if you decide to take a stab at French later. Spanish is a UN working language and would also be of some day-to-day utility (although not as much as French for you I think).

[taldragon.livejournal.com]

Romanian! :D

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

Haha, I was actually considering whether Romanian would be useful. Alas, it's not possible.

[taldragon.livejournal.com]

i wasnt entirely serious! however, i do have a Romanian coworker, she might be able to recommend self-study material ;)

[taldragon.livejournal.com]

i think you should leave the second language until next semester. that way you can see where your focus lies, have more time for yourself _and_ more time to decide which language you want.

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

The language centre only runs one session a year, it's cross-semester.

[taldragon.livejournal.com]

ah :(Spanish might be useful, if they have it or possibly Arabic.

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

Arabic is totally out of band for me - it's a culture I'm not interested in and has no institutional advantages. Japanese is a possibility, though. (Spanish has many of the same disadvantages with French, and would be less useful for working in northern Europe.)

Tough call!

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

If you're bored, you can't give your heart to the work on French. If you can't use it as a field language, your Russian may fall into deseutude as my Spanish has. Mine is mostly now "menu Spanish" and "light reading Spanish".

Perhaps the French will become less boring as the course progresses? I agree that it's hard to wrap one's mouth around. There must be some way to make French more fun, other than games such as Mind Snacks French.

[jabber.livejournal.com]

Option #4: Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi or Urdu.

[hkitsune.livejournal.com]

Instead of French I'd vote for Spanish. Sounds less mushy, Spain is gorgeous in the winter, and opens up similar (pardon if this isn't entirely true, I don't do culture stuff and don't know the ins and outs) places as French would have. The downside is that it isn't French, which has a greater volume of literature, especially academic.

If you're choosing between French and Russian, though, you sound more into Russian and it's probably more interesting and fruitful, assuming you have to or want to use it for any kind of dissertation work.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

I'd go with this - it's a UN working language, yet not mushy French.

(I think I'd have been much keener on modern languages if it hadn't been for French.)

[stone-bitch.livejournal.com]

France- French
Germany-German
Belgium- French/Flemish
Netherlands- Dutch/Flemish
Luxenbourg-French
Poland-Polish/German
Latvia-Latvian/Russian
Estonia-Estonian/Russian
Lithuania-Lithuanian/Russian

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

French sounds better, easier to get more rapid useful level of skill. Even if Russian is better for swearing in.

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

Russian might be more fun?

[cinema-babe.livejournal.com]

If you opt to take a second language, I would suggest to make it a Romantic one (French or something else). Even though I don't really speak French or Italian, becasue my Spanish is still sort of decent, I can get the gist of things in a pinch. When my Spanish was even better I could even fake my way through entry to mid level French, Italian and Latin textbooks.

(FWIW, I would also opt for Spanish as opposed to French if I had a choice).

[tla]

I have a lovely book called 'French for reading knowledge' which is how I taught myself enough French to be able to read scholarly articles with little problem, and why I still don't actually speak it. You're welcome to borrow the book if you learn easily enough that way.

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

I do, actually (which is why I can read Dutch more or less competently even though it sounds like I'm gargling cats when I try to speak it). Who's it by?

[tla]

Palmeri / Milligan - this one. http://www.librarything.com/work/125674/book/78387396

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

Thanks, wishlisted!

[indicolite.livejournal.com]

I would say not going with what bores you - although I have my doubts as to how much of a language being boring depends on how it's presented. Could you self-study French while taking Russian? (i.e. why choose, embrace the power of 'and'.) If it is easier for you to find immersion contexts in French where you are, you can save Russian for class and use immersion contexts to improve your French.

Or just flip a coin, heads for French, tails for Russian, and see whether when it lands you breathe a sigh of relief, or go 'Best two out of three?" :)

[dreamsewing.livejournal.com]

Mandarin, UN official, and it may actually be easier to focus on a language w/out the pitfalls of assumed Romance language similarities. Plus you can the use the characters for a leg up on Japanese kanji if choose to persue Japanese ay a later date. Many eas the time I thanked the shared characters when needing the loo or transport directions ;)

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

That has its own merits, but I'm also looking at research and career, and basically I don't have more than a passing interest in China; in addition to UN-official for future employment, I need to think about academic and archival/official languages I'll need, and my interests are mostly in northern Europe.

[dreamsewing.livejournal.com]

Mmm, the I would say Russian, especially if you are looking at economonic archives for Northern European trade routes/ Hanseatic League. or Dutch? (very good for modern and ancient business.)

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

Reading Dutch I've pretty much got sorted, my pronunciation is embarrassing but there's enough similarity that I can triangulate between English and German and get 95% of it. I'm kind of thinking I'll do French for a year and then switch to Russian.

[mhaille.livejournal.com]

French probably does have the most utility academically speaking, but I am also in the pro-Spanish camp for ease of learning. Latin?

[catness.livejournal.com]

French. For reasons you described. ;)

[cos]

I learned French and the main thing that interests me in learning German (which I have no specific use for and which I don't find aesthetically pleasing) is that I'd then know the two languages that are the main sources of English, which I think would give me a better understanding of English and better linguistic breadth in general, taking advantage of my native-level English to get more of an intuition into how languages related and combine and develop.