/lit/ - Literature

the superior French language

Dutch is useless and hard to learn. Russian would be the most useful.

all dutch people speak english

>>1153302

nah not french, bamp for more opinions.

>>1153310

-1 dutch then, lol.

als je nederlands leert dan kan je later wraak nemen voor het feit dat ik je moeder op dit moment een hoer noem

>>1153317

damn you.

>>1153317
nee, je zus

>>1153332
kom dat hier zeggen. ik ben 5 meter groot en mijn vader werkt in het leger

I should have known this would happen.

learn Chinese dammit. In 10 years we'll need it for sure

>>1153354
ching chong ping pong im already fluent

Obvious you speak fluent English, so you should learn the language closest to it which is German.

>>1153395

I would have thought Latin... German would be my number 1. pick out of the three however, simply because part of my heritage is German.

>>1153405
heil hitlker

>>1153409

lolufunnie. In all seriousness, German is manly.

>>1153419
nazi

Hebrew.

>>1153424

Are you the only person responding to this thread or what? I would like more opinions please /lit/. Would Latin be too hard to learn or what, I've been looking around on the net(AKA Google), and I've seen a few people say Latin would be pretty easy to learn if you already speak English fluently since English is already made from a shit load of Latin so that leaves me with the question, what's the easiest way TO learn it? I don't think there's any kind of "school" in my area that would teach it or anything, so I'm thinking of downloading "Rosetta Stones" Language teacher program thing and teaching myself. Maybe someone here has used it or knows someone else who has and can give me some feedback? or maybe someone knows of a better way to learn it?

Here's some tits for your attention.

>>1153443

ehhhh, not so much.

>>1153448
you wont be able to teach latin to yourself

French. It is pretty simple to learn and the women love it.

relevant question /lit/. I thinking about lrning spanish, how long its gonna take to become awesome in it? I mean real good, not just this basic greetings and askings for locations but actually fluent and versatile

>>1153460

I lol'd, the program will teach me, not me teach me, it's actually got a pretty cool way of "teaching" too

http://resources.rosettastone.com/demo_launch_files/pc-media/launch.htm

Well.. since we're on /lit/, if you want to read original works of literature/philosophy I would recommend either german or french. These languages have the biggest corpus of texts to choose from.

>>1153498

Thanks, I think I'm going to just go ahead and download the Rosetta Stone program with the German and Latin language pack add-ons and see which one tickles my fancy.

chinese and spanish. most spoken languages in the world. srsly.

>>1153520

That doesn't make them the most interesting.

French would be easiest, because of all the French-derived words that are already in our vocabulary. It's pretty surprising how much of the English language was just borrowed from Norman French. After that would be any number of Germanic languages (German, Dutch, Danish, etc), not sure which is easiest. They say Frisian is the closest one to English, but no one cares about Frisian. Russian would be more difficult, but awesome.

Dutchfag reporting in.
I've had 4 years of french, 5 years of english and 3 years of german on my highschool. Now I speak English fluently and I can read german mid-tier /lit/ pretty easily. French on the other hand is still gibberish to me. I would really recommend german.
French =/= English and the grammatics suck ass. They are consistent, but there are a million exeptions to every rule.
German =/= English but at least it has easy to learn grammatics and it is consistent all the way.
Besides that it doesn't matter which language you choose.
I found german the easiest. Good Luck, you'll need it.
P.S.
Trying to learn latin is failblog. It is extremely hard (don't listen to the trolls) And you will never need it. Thats the thing you should ask yourself when learning a language, will i ever need it.

latin is really fun to study, but you wont be able to teach it to yrself and i dont think its on rosseta stone because thats not really how people teach/learn latin

>>1153883

Well I finished downloading the Rosetta Stone software last night and sat down with it for about 10 minutes, I have learned a few words already, such as vir, femina, feles, canis, puer, puella, et, and 5 or so more, so I would say it's pretty good. Wish me luck /lit/, I'm on a journey!

More beautiful tits for your amusement.

>>1155124
the words are not the problem in latin. it's the endless waves of changing verbs and nouns for every given situation and context which will eventually drive you mad and make you kill a cow

Lojban, for nerd cred.

Although Chinese isn't a bad idea. Learn both.

>>1155124
Can I ask what the point is?
Why not learn a language people actually speak?

>>1155152
latin is more than a language. it's the basis of a lot of things and it rules. im happy to have learned latin because it learned me how to write

OP, of your options I would go with German. I'm a native English speaker and German wasn't too hard for me to learn. I also speak (well, read and write) latin, and although I think everyone should learn it, it is significantly harder than any modern language I've encountered. You have to have good self-discipline to learn all the conjugations, tenses, moods, and declensions. So learn the German. It'll give you a challenge, but not too ridiculous, and then you can go to Oktoberfest in Munich to practice.

>>1155161
> it learned me how to write

hukt on foniks &c.

>>1155180
are you insane?

>>1155185
I'm spelling the opening words of "hooked on phonics worked for me" phonetically yet incorrectly as a humorous way of commenting on >>1155161's statement that Latin "learned them how to write".

>>1155195
thanks, now you have explained your humorous comment it's a lot funnier than before

I read on the Internet that the best way to learn Latin is to spend a few months memorizing all the conjugations first, so you'll never find yourself decoding sentences instead of reading them.

>>1155152
Please see
>>1155161

I find it very interesting that Latin is used in so many languages yet is not taught. I'm not learning it so I can go somewhere and be able to speak it, I'm probably going to try German for that later, I'm simply trying to learn Latin to better myself, and my understanding of where things come from in language.

>>1155211
>>1155135
After going through a few more exercises I would say these two comments hit the nail on the head, I'm going to have to leave Rosetta Stone alone for a while since it doesn't explain WHAT it's actually teaching me. It just shoves a bunch of Latin words in my face and makes me learn them, this will be still be useful later so I'll keep it around for now.

Do the above two commenters or anyone else know a good way I can learn Latin conjugations and nouns?

>>1155268

>this will still be useful

You are correct, most English vocabulary comes from Latin, but Latin grammar and syntax prove difficult for most English speakers, particularly since very few nowadays have a solid background in English grammar.

If you have a few hundred bucks, you might want to take a distance course. U Georgia IDL offers some Latin courses you can complete online (except for exams), from basic classes up to advanced literature, with a PhD in Classics in the department. I took Cicero and Vergil courses through them that were good, like $600 each all expenses. Like anything worth learning, Latin requires effort. Yes, I can tell you from experience that memorization is necessary if you want to become a proficient reader. You can't look up every inflected form you encounter. I had an old-fashioned instructor who made me memorize all of the conjugations and declensions when I started, almost 20 years ago, and I still remember them and use them. It is necessary and very valuable mental training.

Another option, perhaps the best, would be to seek out a Latin instructor in your area, perhaps a teacher at a local high school, and get some private tutoring. A few lessons would put you on the right track for further self-study, and of course if you need someone to consult once in a while you could do that.

It is certainly more difficult without a teacher, but I don't see why you couldn't teach yourself, if that is your only option. I'm not the biggest fan of Wheelock, but if you get that or another introductory text and work your way through it slowly, doing all the exercises, you should be able to achieve reading proficiency.

Good luck to you.

>>1155314

Cheers mate. I'm still a student at the moment so I don't have any money to spend on a tutor or online courses. I'll check out my local book store for Wheelocks Latin, and if that fails me I'll check google for an eBook.

Here's some more tits for your help.

>>1155360
>>1155314

After looking for Wheelock's Latin and not being able to find it, I looked for a torrent but I cant find that either, so I'm just curious to know if anyone here knows someone who's read it or has actually read it themselves? If you have, is it worth the purchase? From "Chucks" comment I'm not sure if I should actually spend money on it or not.

Pic related, it's Wheelock's Latin.

Im sorry OP learning a language that no-ones speaks for that simple fact is the most retarded thing iv ever heard of. Language is a medium for communication right? Who are you supposed to communicate with speaking latin? quit trying too hard.

If your going to learn a language, learn a nice one too. spanish or french or italian or something. most northern european languages are just ugly sounding

>>1156635

I'm sorry you disagree with my reasoning to learn Latin, but thank you for your opinion...

>>1153409
The funny thing is, Hitler was Austrian.

Don't learn Latin OP. It's hard and not used anywhere, and you WILL forget languages you don't use, trust me. Using a language is the very basis of learning it and keeping it in mind. I know 20-year-olds who have forgotten languages they used to speak as their mother tongue as a child because they didn't use them, and I personally wasted 3 years of my life studying French just to forget 95% of all that stuff because I didn't read, write or listen to French. Don't make the same mistake.

Learn a modern language, preferably one that is either one of the most widely spoken languages OR one of a culture you are particularly fond of and wish to visit and read the literature of.

Russian is the most practical. After all, Russians seem kinda cool and doesn't afraid of anything... oh, and if you speak Russian in Southern Mexico, they won't rob you. True story.

1. Learning neat language.
2. Keep your money (not just in Southern Mexico, either).

Russian all the way.

Lingua Latina optima est.

Russian is also fun, although I'm only in my first semester. It's actually similar to Latin in a lot of ways, which is nice.

Norwegian is an excellent language, despite its relative obscurity on the world language map. It's fairly similar in structure to English, doesn't have the difficulties associated with the German strong/weak adjective rules and subject alteration, and it allows you to read Danish and Swedish. Additionally, if you're interested in saga literature, it's a decent gateway to Icelandic/Old Norse, which is a brilliant poetic language and can help if you eventually decide to learn Latin.

>>1156587
Wheelock's Latin was used in the Latin course I took; honestly, I think if I had just used the book I wouldn't have learned it as well (our class had a badass teacher who didn't rely on the book all that much). Also, don't listen to the people telling you that Latin is super hard; it's probably more complex than many languages spoken today but really the hardest part is learning vocabulary, which you would have to do regardless of language.

Here's the lowdown on language learning:

Rosetta Stone is universally acknowledged by more serious language learners as a piece of shit. You know the part in the commercial where they say all those places use it? They don't mention that it's used as a small part of a larger program.

As for learning Latin, the language may not be in use anymore, but it's still worth it if you love the Romans or something. You need to be crazy about it before committing.

That said, being on the internet and all, it's easy to find places of dedicated people who want to learn is as much as you and are willing to help you. This gets the using the language part out of the way, though speaking it will still need work.

A few websites to help you out:

http://latinum.mypodcast.com/
http://www.textkit.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/evan1965
http://latinumstore.blogspot.com/

Keep looking on your own and maintain your passion in the language, or else it's pointless.

>>1156929
Russian would be cool and all but I can't be fucked learning a whole new alphabet system for a language I'm not really THAT fond of.

>>1157272
I would love to learn Norwegian, it seems like a really beautiful language(to me), my only problem is that being English, I think it would be really hard to pronounce a lot of the Norwegian alphabet, whereas it would probably be easier to learn German, so I'm just a little unsure if I should try it, but if anyone thinks Norwegian would be easier and/or better then German let me know.

I would still love to learn Latin but as everyone seems to be recommending, I think I will learn another language first(I love all the Germanic languages), then move on from there.

Tits for attention.

oh wow, there must be like, 20 people on /lit/ today, bump for an opinion on this >>1158300

Bump so someone can tell me if Norwegian is harder then German :/

Bump? :(

Pic gets funnier each time you watch it.

>>1158749
Norwegian is more useless than German

>>1158824
Not much information there, can you elaborate? and don't say "because less people use it", I don't give a shit how many people use it, from what I've read learning Norwegian is good because it is the middle ground between Danish and Swedish and provides a lot of the knowledge to understand and/or learn those other languages easier.

moar :3

>>1158300
russian alphabet is simple as fuck - with 0,0001% exception words are always sound exactly how they written. So once you've learned all letters you are perfect at reading properly

> Latin would be really cool simply because so few people speak it

I'm trying to think of a dumber thing I read today, and nothing's coming to me.

>>1158856
You don't think it would be cool to know how to speak a dead language?

>>1158849
This one's for you

>>1158856
nevertheless, latin is a beautiful and interesting language and I personally hope to learn it some time in the future when i have nothing better to do.

>>1158855
That's cool, unfortunately I'm not really in to Russian.

>>1158866
Exactly

>>1158865
you are a bro

Ive actually seen that music video before, its pretty faptastic


here's one for you :)

>>1158885

>>1158885

I like how the other chick is just casually brushing her hair as if nothing is happening.

>>1158300
Naturalized Swede here. Surprisingly, it's not that hard to pronounce Norwegian even if you come from an English-speaking background. It adds about three letters, and the sounds are not too difficult.

There's also a rich literary canon, if you're not trying to be one of those "Lol I read Russian for Dostoevsky and Chekov!" jackasses. Anything from the Modern Breakthrough period is excellent, and I challenge anyone to find a better writer than Strindberg.

Hell, just read some Ibsen. Most of the translations are shit. Skip "A Doll's House", read "Ghosts" and "Hedda Gabler". Then read "Brand", because that fucker is untranslatable in a form keeping with its original prose.

this

>>1158921
I've been looking around my area and I find it frustrating that I can only do courses on Dutch or German since my local "schools" leave out languages like Swedish, Danish and Norwegian... sigh.

What would it be like learning one of the languages above from a book and with online audio files? Any suggestions? I'm considering just going down to my library tomorrow and seeing if I cant find a book or two on learning them, probably along with Latin too, just to sate my curiosity.

>>1158928
Charming...

Why hasn't anyone mentioned Klingon? There's a Klingon dictionary, and some people actually speak it.

>>1158933

>>1158929
For reading, it actually works fairly well. The Rosetta Stone for these languages is horrible, trust me when I say avoid the living hell out of it. I teach Swedish, and I've had to evaluate the system as an educator, and it just doesn't do its job right.

What you'll need: get a good Norwegian-English dictionary. Admittedly, you'll need to decide whether to learn Nynorsk or Bokmål; Bokmål is more common, and more closely related to the older stuff, although Nynorsk is coming into vogue.

For books: there are a number of good books on the Norwegian language. I personally only know the books used for Swedish education: Mål 1 through 3 are excellent, and while not exactly what you're looking for, can point you in the right direction.

>>1158941
"good Norwegian-English dictionary", Is there a specific one I should get?

>>1158933
well, calling them 'people' is a bit of a stretch

>>1153448
>>1153448
>>1153448
>>1153448
fucking sauce

>>1158865
>>1158865
sauce for this too

>>1158955

the only sauce I can provide is that I got it from 4gifs and it has a watermark of "ifun.ru" on it, other then that, sorry bro. that goes for all my gifs.

>>1158941
>although Nynorsk is coming into vogue.
Thanks for the laugh, heh.

>>1158948

Anybody?

>>1158969
What can I say, one of the guys I work with is a rabid Nynorsk proponent. I personally prefer the hilarious number of dialects offered by proper Norwegian.

>>1158749
sauce pls

>>1158855
your'e wrong. russian words are almost never written the way they sound. there is ALWAYS a goddamn - o
where there should be a - а.

Latin isn't as hard as you might think, but it is failry useless if you're just gonna learn it for the sake of having a second language.
I would learn one of the other bigger European languages, like german, french (probably most resembling english), italian or spanish.

I wouldn't start learning a smaller, less influential language like swedish or dutch or something. Most people in those smaller nations speak english or are at least trying to learn.

If you wanna be a boss, learn Icelandic. That shit is difficult.

>>1159020
If you're gonna learn Icelandic, learn one of the other Scandinavian languages first. Seriously, it helps. Also, if you have trouble with vowel differentiation, be wary of this shit. You end up with more than 14 different vowels, with even more ridiculous sounds.

Most Germans know English as well. Also: knowing Swedish in Sweden will get you a lot more respect.

>>1159024
>>1159020

If I was to learn one of the Nordic languages wouldn't that make it a lot easier to learn the other ones as well? for example if I learned Swedish, wouldn't it make it easier to learn German?

>>1159042
If I'm right then I'm thinking I could learn Norwegian and then German, or vice versa.