LearnHub

oLahav said:

Here’s a general thing I’m asking myself a lot these days… I want to learn another language, just because it’s useful. I’m having a hard time deciding between a few…

One the one hand, French is Canada’s second official language, and I hear it’s not too far off of English. The other hand has Spanish, which sounds way cooler than French and should be about as hard I think. Finally there’s Mandarin, which would be a lot harder but will enable me to speak with a great amount of people, plus I like a challenge.

Anybody has any tips on which one should I choose? Or how should I go about learning them?

Thanks a lot.

cesheppa said:

I would say learn French because there’s lots of (official even) resources for it, and then it’s a Latin language, so it will help you with Spanish I think. (maybe?).

But then I sort of know French, and I rather like it, so maybe I’m biased.

laurellion said:

@cesheppa Yes it is Spanish. French is a great language to learn first as other languages becomes easier to learn afterwards.

oLahav said:

Thanks, I didn’t think if it, but you’re right, there should be a lot of official resources for learning French, especially here in Canada. I can always try Chinese or something else out later…

Any tips on where to find resources? How did you learn French, did you just take it in school or did you do anything else?

oLahav said:

Error, sorry

lala said:

I took French in Junior High and did not do very well. However, I learned Spanish quite well. I lived in Mexico for a summer and it was wonderful. Now, I teach English to native Spanish speakers and one Chinese lady. With my knowledge of Spanish I can read a little French and Italian. But I can’t speak French or Chinese to save my life!

gloriaarze-bravo said:

I was told I didn’t need to take French when I came to Canada, because I already had Spanish and Portuguese down. I haven’t had a chance to take French, but I would love to. I took Italian in university, and loved it. It definitely helps to know another latin language. You can never know too many languages, I say!

cesheppa said:

I learned French from my mom, because she is Quebecois (so if I went to France my French would probably be considered provincial and backward, but whatever), and we would go to small-town Quebec for two weeks every summer; total immersion is somewhat helpful (see the comment about living in Mexico) so it was never too hard in school—so maybe that’s unfair on my part.

The Alliance Francaise (http://www.alliance-francaise.ca/en/in_about.php) offers French courses, and just about any college probably offers a French course, and from there you could probably meet like-minded people and maybe set up a conversation group; I don’t know of any conversation groups at the moment.

As for adding more to the ‘learn French’ side, I believe French is still the language of international diplomacy? So if you ever want to get an embassy posting, French might be helpful…

I know the Spanish centre here in Toronto offers Spanish lessons; I’m not sure of the price, and I’ve heard the place is a pick-up joint, but if that’s what you’re looking for…. ;-)

oLahav said:

Thanks for the tips cesheppa, I’ll check them out. The Spanish Centre sounds like a nice place… And it’s interesting about how you learned your French, I learned English the same way, so I guess it works.

I’ve got another question- you think it’s ever too late to start learning a language? Just for talking, not the reading/writing part… I’ve heard from some people that once you’re beyond highschool it’s tough to learn these things. But maybe they were just lazy.

Nina said:

One good way to learn languages is to have a learning buddy llike what they have on My Happy Planet. you cn learn French, Spanish and other languages as long as theres another member you can ask to teach you. Another good source of learning French is http://www.bonjour.com/

oLahav said in response to:

The bonjour website is great! I’ll definitely use it next time I’m trying to pick up some simple useful phrases.

ishma said:

Spanish and Portuguese are both similar and easy to learn. I speak both because of my parents, I know for a fact English, Spanish, French are the top tongues of the world, You could travel just about everywhere in the world and pretty much be able to communicate. My Grandpas was a second generation Frenchman in Guadalajara, Mexico. He died when i was a boy, and i never learned enough french from him. I have been learning it since. I find it difficult at times but i push on. Put your mind too it, if your living in the USA learn Spanish. It will make you more valuable at work and in the community, if youre in canada, learn french.

oLahav said:

There’s another thing in favour of learning French over Spanish, at least from my experience (thoughImay be stereotyping a bit)- French people are too proud, and a lot of them (outside of Montreal anyway) refuse to learn any other language, primarily English. So if you want to communicate with them, learning French is the way to go.
I find that with the Spanish, this is less often the case. Though I may be wrong. But a point for the Spanish is that it sounds so much nicer, at least to my ears.

Nina said in response to:

Ive heard Spanish spoken in a lot of different ways, I’m guessing that liking (or in this case hearing a language sound so much better) depends on your perception of the language. Growing up in a country where a lot of the root words of our native language stems from Spanish, it has become, more or less, quite familiar to my ears. Hearing someone speak Spanish can give me a gist of what they’re actually saying though i haven’t had any formal learning of the language. So French sounds so much more exotic to me, which is the reason why i decided to learn it. But whatever language we choose to learn is good as long as we enjoy it. Ce n’est pas grave, oui?

oLahav said:

Completely agree with your last line there- whatever language you’re going for is good as long as you enjoy it. Thanks for your input.