Which language to learn?

[ninwa]

Chinese (this will take years and years and years to learn properly compared to others

Is Chinese really that difficult relatively speaking? So the first language I ever made the conscious choice to learn was the hardest one 0.o, and according to Sm's link I should learn easier languages first.

Well when you have characters that look like this...
... I think so it's my first language too, and I have a Chinese kindergarten-level education in it, and when I try writing Chinese it looks like a 4-year-old's. And I can't read it at all. Too fancy.

French is one of those languages that gets spoken in all these random places where France used to conquer. German on the other hand was epic-fail and there's not many places that speak it outside Germany and Austria. French is also an official language of the UN (but so is Spanish, I think?)

[Gloamglozer]

Chinese (this will take years and years and years to learn properly compared to others

Is Chinese really that difficult relatively speaking? So the first language I ever made the conscious choice to learn was the hardest one 0.o, and according to Sm's link I should learn easier languages first.

Well when you have characters that look like this...(Image removed from quote.)

I don't know what that is, but that looks like traditional Chinese; not simplified.  If you're learning Chinese at uni, chances are that you're going to be taught simplified and not traditional so it's not as scary as ninwa suggests lol.

[ninwa]

LOL yeah I don't mean to put anyone off - I merely googled "most complicated Chinese character". Pretty sure that character isn't in common usage

[Gloamglozer]

LOL yeah I don't mean to put anyone off - I merely googled "most complicated Chinese character". Pretty sure that character isn't in common usage

Hey ninwa, I just asked someone who can read traditional Chinese and they said that it's not one character.  It's actually a few characters joined together.    You just got jibbed cos it's not one character.

[ninwa]

LOL yeah I don't mean to put anyone off - I merely googled "most complicated Chinese character". Pretty sure that character isn't in common usage

but but...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biang_Biang_Noodles

D: wikipedia, you have failed me

[jejak]

LOL yeah I don't mean to put anyone off - I merely googled "most complicated Chinese character". Pretty sure that character isn't in common usage

If anyone's interested:

Made up of 57 strokes, the Chinese character "biang2" is one of the most complex Chinese characters in contemporary usage, although the character is not found in modern dictionaries or even in the Kangxi dictionary. Because the Chinese character for "biang2" cannot be entered into computers, phonetic substitutes like 棒棒麵 (bang4 bang4 mian4) or 梆梆麵 (bang1 bang1 mian4) are often used.

edit: Sorry, nina beat me to the chase!

[Edmund]

LOL yeah I don't mean to put anyone off - I merely googled "most complicated Chinese character". Pretty sure that character isn't in common usage

but but...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biang_Biang_Noodles

D: wikipedia, you have failed me

LMAO Just imagine how hard it would be for a waitress to take down an order for biang biang noodles

[Gloamglozer]

LOL yeah I don't mean to put anyone off - I merely googled "most complicated Chinese character". Pretty sure that character isn't in common usage

but but...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biang_Biang_Noodles

D: wikipedia, you have failed me

Ah I see.  Wikipedia hasn't failed you, it's told you the truth.  But it's not in the dictionary and it can't be entered into computers, so technically, it's not really something you have to worry about.

[akira88]

I'd say French, Chinese or Spanish would be very good, but I disagree that Japanese is THAT useful... however do learn it if you're interested in it

[IntoTheNewWorld]

Simplified Hanzi look ugly =[

龙 vs 龍

 

[IntoTheNewWorld]

but I disagree that Japanese is THAT useful... however do learn it if you're interested in it

But Japanese people can't speak English

at all.

[the.watchman]

Simplified Hanzi look ugly =[

龙 vs 龍

 

+1, some of the changes are ridiculous!

[lynt.br]

An interesting aside about French:

I have a friend in Canada who speaks French and he says he can only understand Canadian French. When he was in France, he could barely understand European French because it had different pronunciation as well as other subtle differences (I think there are a lot of subtle differences at the informal, conversational level that arise from different social attitudes?).

If you're considering picking up French, it may be interesting to look at how universal French is and whether or not there are any significant geographic differences.

[jejak]

Insane and rarely-used characters aside, I've always thought that the complex form of rang4 (讓) was pretty brutal - all the more so because it's so common.

What do people think would be a useful language to learn? I'd rather it be one of the romantics, but it's not vital. I'd love to get into international business or something similar and (obviously) a language would be helpful, I'm just utterly lost as to which one. Any ideas?

Since you've mentioned that you have some intrinsic attraction to Spanish and French, my foremost advice would be to go with these. Whilst learning an Asian language might be commercially advantageous at the moment, you really need a far greater amount of personal motivation to learn a language - more than the prospect of a future business career (just my opinion.) I personally have found that It's hard enough to maintain my efforts in the languages that I love, let alone the ones I was "meh" about.

So, how to choose between them? Maybe download an introductory Pimsleur course in each (google it) - they give you a good "taste" of the language. Maybe one will sound more pleasant to your ear, or something.

Bon courage!

[IntoTheNewWorld]

if you find Pimsleur too hardcore (it's a brutally scientific method), I find http://www.innovativelanguage.com/languagelearning/learn-french to be easy to listen to (I wouldn't exactly call it effective, however). They have a few different languages to choose from.

Pimsleur is better to actually learn from in the early stages, however.