Languages

I obviously speak English and it is my first language and have been learning Spanish. I am in Spanish three, I take it seventh hour. For me, learning Spanish has helped me with my English. When I started Spanish in eighth grade it improved my knowledge of English. This is because we had to know all about verbs, nouns, sentence structure and other similar stuff, and I had been struggling to learn that.

Some of the world's easiest languages to learn in order are Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, German, Hindi, and Mandarin. This is ranked on speaking, grammar, writing, and overall. The last one on the list (Mandarin) ranking difficult or very difficult in all categories. One reason for this is because it is a tonal language. What that means is the pitch or intonation the word is said affects its meaning. The same word means something different depending on the way it is said.

Part of the reason Spanish is so high up (ranging from very easy to easy on the scale) is because everything is spelled how it is said. So writing in Spanish in theory is a very straightforward task. Though some people who have taken a Spanish class could argue that even though it is spelled the way it is said it is still very hard to spell and write. I think that if you can learn a somewhat easy language like Spanish you should. I think this because for some jobs the starting wage is higher if you can speak another language. Another thing is that if you can take it while you are still younger it is better than waiting until you are older. It is a lot harder to learn another language once you are older, almost like how you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

There are also some very big differences between languages. I used to think that you just had to learn different words that that was all but I was very wrong. There are some words in Spanish that do not exist in English. There are also some things that are the same in English but different in Spanish. An example of this would be how there is a difference in past tense, saying I did this or whatever else and it is the exact same word in English but in different context means something totally different in Spanish. This is one of the harder concepts for English speakers to learn and people who have Spanish as a first language just explain the difference as whatever sounds better which does not help an English speaker.

I feel that if people can learn a language they should. I also know that some people struggle with it a lot more than others and some people might never be able to be fluent in another language and some people find it extremely easy to learn another language. In the end it is just personal. Some people will just take another language class just for college and some are genuinely interested and are able to learn many. I personally enjoy learning Spanish but most likely it will be the only other language I learn.

Questions - Which person are you? Are you learning a new language for college, because you want to, or are you not learning a language?
Would you ever consider learning a new language that wasn’t on this list or have you learned a language other than your first language?

 

Source - https://www.jumpspeak.com/blog/easiest-languages-to-learn

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  • I am in my second year of Spanish and I plan to continue it for four years. If I get the chance for five years, I will probably take it. The reason I started taking Spanish was to be able to get into more colleges and to get a better pay at my future job. Now, I actually just want to keep learning it. I would also like to learn a little bit of French.

    • I am the same way. I joined Spanish class because I thought that there was no reason for me not to and now I am so glad that I did and I intend on continuing on to Spanish five, assuming they have it. I am interested in learning French but I'm worried ill just confuse my languages because I already struggle with switching from English to Spanish and having a third language sounds difficult.

  • I am in Spanish 2, I think that it is somewhat helpful because you are able to carry on a simple conversation with someone else in Spanish. I do not really like learning Spanish so I'm probably not going to take any more foreign language classes. I would not like to learn any other language. 

    • It is unfortuante that you aren't enjoying Spanish because that means that most likely, because you've only spent two years in it, you won't be able to speak it in coming years. This is part of the reason that I do not fully understand colleges saying that they want two years of a language.

  • I'm in my thrid year of spanish and I don't really enjoy it. I think learning a new language helps strengthen your brain. I would like to learn more german language. That is where my ancestors are from and I would like to learn that.

    • The issue is that if you dislike Spanish then you most likely wouldn't like learning German. I do think that learning the lanugage your ancestors are from is ver cool because if any of your family speaks it you can then be closer to them or be able to visit family if you have family in Germany or any other place.

  • I took four years of Spanish and am not currently learning any foreign languages. I plan on learning American Sign Language (ASL) next year in college. Most languages I'm interested in are for specific reasons. I learned Spanish to know a bit more about my Mexican heritage. I want to learn ASL to communicate with people better and for my career.

    • I took a small class on ASL over the summer but unfortunatly am not able to remember much but for me it was just something to do during the summer when nothing is going on. I feel that ASL is a very good lanugage to learn and I might look into learning it again. Also I intend on taking spanish for 5 years but unfortunalty it might not be offered if there isn't enough people signed up for it.

  • I like to learn new languages because I think that you can understand the world and different cultures a little bit better. It is also easier to travel if you know more languages. I know English and German and a little bit French. I would like to improve my French language skills. 

  • I have known spanish my whole life but learning spanish at school made me better at english. Before I took spanish 1 in 8th grade, my spanish was bad. I didn't know some words in spanish but spanish taught me them. I think spanish class is very benficial because your grammar gets better and many jobs pay more if you can speak spanish.

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