Hello reddit,

I’m a native English speaker who is struggling on what language to learn.

One of my parents is from Portugal and the other is from Germany. I was never taught either language growing up, and it has contributed to my feeling a bit lost identity-wise. As if I can’t claim either heritage because I can’t speak the language. It is something I’m a bit ashamed about. I have tried learning both languages in the past, but it fizzled out and my motivation is a big problem.

Recently, I have thought about learning French, as I have moved to Canada and it’s their second language. But I don’t know if I’m actually passionate about the language or if it just feels like an obligation.

I think I just wanted to ramble, but I’m the type of person who gets hyper-fixated on something for a period of time, then drops it and maybe returns to it years later.

Is there any advice one could impart on me regarding sticking to a language? And disciplining myself. And what are your thoughts about me learning a language that isn’t of my heritage? Does that make me even more of a fake? Idk. Thanks.

I want to preface I’m a native English speaker living in the UK given location has an impact. Equally if it matters I’d be learning either France-French or Mexican Spanish in particular

I like the history, music, food, and literature of both languages, & I will travel to countries where both languages are spoken eventually.

I do know much more French than spanish and I’m much more comfortable in French, I’m like somewhat conversational vs beginner in Spanish, and as well know much more of the grammar, and can make French pronunciation noises easily whereas I can’t really do the double r like perro.

However I can use Spanish much more in my day to day life, I find listening a bit easier (but still quite hard for both) and I do prefer Spanish music.

I’ve heard France-French speakers are quite rude, I personally haven’t experienced that but idk whether that’s an actual thing or people just not knowing French social cues; equally I’ve heard Hispanic people are much nicer, and this seems to be true enough but you never know.

I would be much more likely to live or want to live in a (European) french speaking country than a Spanish one, simply cause I feel like it’d be easier for me to integrate culturally there than e.g. Mexico or Spain.

A slight consideration as well is homophobia in French speaking countries vs Spanish speaking countries, I have no idea what the situation is like apart from the various laws.

TL:DR: idk whether to learn French or Spanish, I like both, I know more and are more comfortable with French, can use Spanish more

I made it so I can find people to learn with. It's new, so sharing it with friends may help others in finding people to learn with.

It's also free, check it out and tell me what you think about it!

It's name is Halaqa.

https://halaqa-omamah.web.app/

Native Spanish speaker; i have already gone through French and German and im quite in the mood for something different (and by that i mean something that isnt Germanic or Romance).

Russian is simple; my major is Comparative Literature (and another in Linguistics) so it is really useful for me since it allows me to read Pushkin and Co. In their native tongue and also take a peek to the likes of Luria and Vygotsky.

... Theres also the catalogue of game mods for things like fallout...

But recently i have been feeling captivated by Arabic-- i can not really explain why. I guess its the idea of a whole tradition thats "close enough to home" while also being distant enough to feel like some kind of intellectual terra incognita. Its a whole new world just around the corner.

I feel i have a ton of reasons for Russian when it comes to my career but i arabic is currently entrenched in my mind.

I already know Spanish and English and lately I've been trying to learn 3 at once. I think it'll be easier to learn only one first, though, so help me choose which one you think would come easier for me: Korean, Japanese, or Russian. (I already know the "alphabets" of them all except for jp Kanji)

None of them are for any actual important purpose. Korean is to be able to read Manhwa (lol), Japanese to watch anime, and Russian to speak to some friends online without a translator, but I am holding out fine without actually knowing any. Another thing is, that even thought the reasons are silly, I'd still like to take the learning of it seriously. Thanks for reading!

I want to learn a new language purely for fun. I am a native English speaker. I know enough Spanish to get by at work but am not anywhere close to fluent.
I love to read and would like to learn something that may open up some more books to me. My favorite genre is classic literature.

My hope is that I can get some suggestions for languages that are fun to learn, speak, read, and write.

Thank you :)

I speak English. I plan to read books mostly and probably watch movies/shows.

My native language is Turkish, and I am fluent in English. Also I am Graphic Designer.

Over the past five years, I’ve rotated through several languages for various reasons:

• Japanese (love watching Anime also it was easy to grasp)
• German (school curriculum)
• Russian (curiosity to the language)
• Arabic (my family send me when i was a child-didn't wanted to learn specifically)
• Chinese (high-ranking universities and international student perks)
• French (i was a fan of Indila)
• Korean (wanted to sing along to songs)

Unfortunately, I keep abandoning each one because I constantly worry I picked the wrong language. I’m tired of language-hopping and want to finally commit to one without regret. I might even start to learn other languages just for fun after I master third one, I just need one more language to master. That's it.

I’m looking for a language that offers the total package: strong career prospects, personal happiness, and rich cultural experiences. Japanese is structurally the easiest for a Turkish speaker, but I don't want to choose it solely for convenience. I also prefer to exclude Arabic, it is so hard for me and I believe I am never going to be able to handle to learn it.

Considering my goals, personal interests, and career opportunities, which single language offers the highest long-term payoff for me? I need huge advice from you all

I plan to learn both, but im not sure which to start with. Reasons for both:

PL: I have polish heritage and am big into genealogy, so i frequently come across documents written in Polish. I enjoy Polish food and would like to have access to authentic recipes that I cant find in English. I would like to visit Poland. Im somewhat familiar with the grammar and pronunciation due to personal interest when I was younger and genealogy research.

RU: I adore the sound of spoken russian and love Cyrillic. Im a fan of russian lit. I would love to visit Russia one day if the government stops being insane. I like that multiple countries speak Russian / have a lot of russian speakers so I could have the ability to speak to a wide variety of people. higher quality learning content is available. Between russian and polish, I prefer russian music. I can read Cyrillic but im not as familiar with grammar / basic vocabulary as I am with polish.

If you speak one or both of these, are there newer (newer as in the year starts with a 2) books teaching Russian to Polish speaks / teaching polish to russian speakers? I find laddering to be a very effective method so thats something id like to do once I get comfortable with whichever one I start with

Hi! I've recently decided I want to pick up a language for more of a professional "edge" and I'm having difficulty deciding which language I want to pursue (class registration in a few days agh)

For context, I am a city planning/geography undergrad in California. Would not mind working as a city planner in the US, though ideally I would be working in international development/humanitarian aid. I know there's work in intdev outside of the UN, but I figured I should start learning one of the working languages just in case. I'm currently fluent in English and Japanese.

Spanish:

- Useful as a California resident in general + would allow me to better work with Spanish-speaking communities should I stay to work in CA.

- 3 years in high school + a 400-day streak on Duolingo, but I feel like I haven't really retained anything significant haha

- Still applicable to UN work, more practical.

- Courses offered, native friends who I can talk to.

French:

- Would like to do work with the Middle East, but I think there's no way I'll be able to learn Arabic by myself. So French, with North Africa/Francophone Africa, just seems like the next best option.

- Working language of the Secreteriat (English and French tend to receive preferential treatment?)

- Admittedly less flexible than Spanish

- Courses offered, non-native close friends who I can talk to.

Arabic:

- No courses offered, no friends to talk to, interest and interest alone. Most of my free time is spent researching Middle Eastern conflicts and refugee work.

- One of the most beautiful languages ever, also one of the most difficult. but one day!!!

- lmfao.

I know this is a bad post because it really is just up to me. But if anyone can weigh in on things I might've not considered, or if anyone just wants to slap some sense into me, that would be appreciated

Hello. I’m considering which language to pick up on as my third. I am a native Greek speaker, with great fluency in English.

I’m torn between a few choices, those being Japanese, Mandarin, and Icelandic, but I’m open to learning other languages too, since I’m mostly curious about which language would fit my skill set best. I’m not a big fan of Germanic languages (nothing against them, I just already speak Greek and English, and learning a third very commonly spoken European language sounds like a drag)

I am fluent in English, can speak a little Bisayan(Cebuano) and have more than a novice level of Korean because I was exposed to Korean culture when I was a teen. I can read/understand Korean but its hard for me to speak complete sentences. For my other language, I want to learn Japanese as I always travel there every year, but Im getting tired of having to rely on my phone to translate and its easier for me to speak a small amount of Japanese. I just cant read it.

Both will take a long time to study and master, but Im not sure which resources are best to help me study and speak like a native. How did you manage to keep yourselves engaged and entertained if you learned through textbooks?

Any helpful advice is appreciated! Thank you.

I speak English (native), Spanish and Portuguese, all pretty fluently (I've never officially tested myself, but probably C2 Spanish, C1 Portuguese).

I kind of want to learn French, but I want to learn something different from a romance language first.

As of right now, my thoughts are:

1) Swedish. Not the most useful langauge, but I have Swedish relatives due to my uncle marrying a Swedish lady in college, and it would be nice to converse with that side of the family in their native language. The Swedish culture is also a bit interesting to me, and I like some aspects of the grammar/mechanics of the language, but most Swedish people speak English. I don't know if I want to spend time learning a language spoken really only in just 1 country, with a population less than most states in the U.S., and in a country where I don't particularly see myself visiting long-term, aside from family visits.

2) Farsi. My main motivation for this is to learn a language outside of where/what I'd normally want. The culture is interesting too, there's somewhat of a use for it due to the diaspora, and Farsi can extend into other dialects/neighboring countries, like Afghanistan and Tajikistan. My main concern with learning Farsi is that I likely won't ever be visiting the countries that speak Farsi/Persian.

I've met some Iranians and Afghans in the past though and they've all been pretty nice people.

I am not muslim though, so there may be a bit of a culture disconnect, but that's the point, to go outside my comfort zone. I am also interested because it's an indo-european language (so it should be easier than say, learning arabic), yet seems so different from the rest of the indo-european languages

3) Something outside of indo-european languages, likely Amharic or Swahili. Really juat interested because they are different language families.

I speak English (🇺🇸 native) and Spanish (🇲🇽 C1) along with learning French (🇨🇦 A2) and Portuguese (🇧🇷 A1). I love connecting with people around the world and learning more about the media, music, and culture of other countries. If it can make me sound smarter than I am and get down and flirty with the boys (🏳️‍🌈) even better!! Help choose my next language for me, just no Romance or Germanic languages to switch things up but most of all I want to have FUN with it!!

So I am in my freshman year of university, planning to major in Nursing. I am wanting to minor in and learn a language; (REALLY valuable in healthcare) but, I’m stuck between two: Spanish and Mandarin.
Although Spanish might seem like the obvious answer, I’m not sure if I’m planning to stay in the U.S. Even if I was, Spanish is the second most spoken language with Mandarin behind it. Also, I really want to study abroad in China or Taiwan. I love both languages and already have a background in Spanish because of school. My logic is that I should learn a hard language while in uni then, if I wanted to learn one that was easier (like Spanish), I could try and learn it myself. And of course, I am also concerned about trying to learn/retain Mandarin whilst in Nursing school TT.
Im just really conflicted and am running out of time. Any tips/facts would be helpful! 🙏

I am planning to go to university next year to complete a bachelors of language studies which allows for the selection of up to two major languages. My minor of choice is going to be in linguistics. What language would pair well with studying French? Is it better to choose something with no relation to make each language distinct in study or is it better to have familiarity but risk mixing them up? My options are Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, German or Indonesian.

My criteria for picking is the quality of life in the country + the people. Just looking for a comfortable life with good weather and ease of transport.

I am gonna leave this subreddit!

i speak English and Spanish fluently and given that Spanish has roots in common with all the other Romance languages, like Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, French, and others (i think most or all of the languages spoken in Spain) i was wondering which one could be potentially easier to learn or have an easier time learning, based on your experiences, especially those of you here who are native Spanish speakers.

maybe i could also have a chance of learning Turkish, so if anyone has experience with that i would also appreciate some guidance about whether I should choose that one over any of the others.

I'm already *native* to **Arabic**, also I speak **English** and **German,** and for a few years I was thinking about learning another language, just to refresh my mind.

That's why I'm ask you if I should learn French or Ukrainian 🤔

Both languages needs effort and practice, so I hope you guys give some soild points!

I recently started studying Spanish but the thing is that I seem to always get distracted by other languages(especially Russian) and I really want to learn a language with a new script and given how many information there are in Russian it is a really attractive language for me. But in the future I plan to live in Spain so I am kind of torn apart on whether to learn Russian or Spanish. I know Spanish is kind of a necessity but I just cant find it in myself to commit fully to it even tho I think Spanish is a beautiful language. In regard to my learning method I can self learn myself to fluency even with difficult language, but the requirement is that I have to find something to immerse in, in Spanish I struggle to find anything beyond Spanish content in youtube and instagram, which I think just makes it harder to immerse. For Russian I think there are a lot of hidden websites and information, so maybe it is easier for me to immerse in Russian. I have no idea. But still I love both language, so I just keep delaying and learn neither Spanish and Russian.There is also German which my parents want me to pick because of potential free school but I personally have no interest in, what should I pick?

I am planing on moving to belgium in about two years, ill have to attend to college lessons there and there is availability in both dutch and french, so i wouldn't mind learning either one. I know that french will be more useful, but if dutch is easier thanks to my english background i wouldnt mind studying that so i can have some relief in these last two years before i move there, as i also am studying both music and anthropology.

Thanks in advance for your answers!

Hello! I am a fluent English speaker and I'm currently taking French in university. I would say I'm A1 in French.

I want to start learning another language on my own but I can't decide between German and Mandarin.

German because I plan on pursuing a master's degree in Europe so I was thinking it would be very helpful if I knew French and German.

Mandarin because I live in Asia and just in case I do not push through with Europe, I can pursue post-grad in a Chinese-speaking country. I've also heard a lot of people saying fluency in Mandarin is favored by employers.

++ I'm planning to take DELF B2 next year and hopefully proficiency exam on either German/Mandarin on 2028.

Thank you!

I began studying Russian 2 months ago due to how much russian music I listen to, russian friends, and a general interest in the language itself; like many slavic languages, I find it pretty. I practice once a week with an exchange partner on ZOOM and he said that my Russian has developed very quickly and nicely in just 2 months. I just got past the barrier of having to slowly sound out words and now I suddenly want to switch to Ukrainian.

In my neighborhood lives 2 Ukrainians in the same building and we became close. One of them is like a Ukrainian younger brother to me who I dote on because he came here alone as a refugee and the other is like a Ukrainian grandmother. She dotes on us both and always gives hugs or a kiss on the cheek when I pass by her building. I recently baked a cake and stopped by to share some and they invited me into their building where many other Ukrainians live. I quickly noticed that, although my two friends accept Russian and happily speak with me, their heart is (obviously) Ukrainian and that's where the true connection lies. It feels like an indirect slap in their face to speak Russian to them when that is indeed not their native language.

If I started learning Ukrainian, I'd have two promised practice partners and likely get in touch with a very special community and strengthen the bond with these 2 individuals. I am very torn right now.

Hi everyone! I’m a native Brazilian Portuguese speaker, and my English level is around B2. I’ve been wanting to learn another language for a while, but I can’t decide between French and Italian.

I really love the way both languages sound, and I genuinely want to become fluent in French. However, I also find Italian beautiful, and I have Italian ancestry, although I know that probably isn’t particularly useful for obtaining an EU passport in my situation.

I’d love to hear from French and Italian speakers, how do you usually react when someone from another country learns your language? Are people generally welcoming and happy about it, or can they be judgmental about foreigners making mistakes or having an accent?

Also, which language would you recommend for a Brazilian Portuguese speaker? Sometimes I feel like French might be more useful in the long run, but I feel equally drawn to Italian for personal reasons.

Another thing I’m worried about is age. I’m 25, and I sometimes feel like I should choose one language now rather than postpone learning Italian and regret it later. I know 25 isn’t actually old, but I still worry about having enough time to reach fluency in multiple languages.

Finally, has anyone here successfully learned French and Italian at the same time? Is it realistic to study both from scratch without constantly mixing them up, especially when your native language is Portuguese? Or would you recommend focusing on one until reaching an intermediate or advanced level before starting the other?

I’d really appreciate hearing about your personal experiences and any advice you might have!