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Choosing the language you want to  learn

Learning languages | Francois Micheloud's homepage
The first step is to decide a target language. The first foreign language you want to learn is usually quite obvious, but beginning with the second there's usually a choice to be made.

As a general advice, a language that will be both useful and easy to practice is advisable. Beware of difficult languages that you can hardly practice, they will be hard to come and eventually you can loose them. If you are lucky enough to live in New York or London, practicing any language should be possible.

Here's a list of major languages with some observations to help you assess if that's what you want to learn. I recommend you to read my Language learner's guide before starting, as it contains definitions of all the specific terms used in the individual language pages.Ð refers to  Ðifficulty, from Ð easiest to ÐÐÐÐÐ most difficult. Color broadly refer to linguistic group.

English

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The most useful of all languages, pretty easy to learn and a breeze to practice. ÐÐ
More...

Spanish

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Easy, logical and useful language that is on top of most people's list.
Ð

Mandarin

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Immensely difficult, be it in its maddening writing or most tricky pronunciation. Learning it is the language achievement par excellence. 
More... ÐÐÐÐÐ

German

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Rather difficult but sharp, accurate, great for business and giving access to a wealth of culture.
More... ÐÐÐ
Click to read the full file !

French

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Complicated and illogical, this is the enfant terrible of the romance languages, difficult but charming.  More... ÐÐÐ

Japanese

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Difficult writing and subtilities but simple in other aspects, japanese is a must for those who want to understand Japan.
 ÐÐÐÐÐ

Dutch

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Easy language for those who already speak german or english, if you love Amsterdam or Belgium you should take it.  ÐÐÐ

Italian

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Arguably the most beaufiful spoken language there is, a must for the arts aficionado.
More... ÐÐ.

Thai

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Very difficult language but definitely a great country. ÐÐÐÐ
Read Mark Bailey's review ...

Russian

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Incredible language that is less difficult than most people thinks and opens you worlds to discover. More... ÐÐÐÐ

Portuguese

 		.
Easy language for those who already speak another romance language, portuguese is not the first choice in this group unless you have a special reason. Ð
Read Pedro Sá's review ...

Korean

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Very interesting language, great cooking and a country with a future : why not take it ? Mark Bailey reports.. ÐÐÐ
Read the review ...

Farsi

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Great indo european language with a load of culture and a fascinating country to discover, Iran.
 ÐÐÐ

Esperanto

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The most famous of all artificial languages, this one is also the most widespread. Read the contribution sent by Mark Bailey. Ð
More...

Turkish

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A wonderful grammar and a great civilization all clad in the roman alphabet should be enough to convince you. ÐÐ

Greek

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Difficult but a great language, be sure to take modern greek first even if you want to read Plato in the text. ÐÐÐÐ

Hindi

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Probably the easiest indian language there is, it is also the most useful. ÐÐÐ

Arabic

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Difficult but if you master a general arabic you can travel far and read a lot. ÐÐÐÐ
If you think a language should be included, write a review for a language ? Just send me a blue print and I'll include it in the next revision.

 

Learning languages | Francois Micheloud's homepage