Vianna of the Fae ([info]vianna_dufaye) wrote in [info]ljtravel,
2009-01-15 22:36:00
I spend a lot of time on Greyhound, bouncing around the country. I eventually intend to travel over and backpack Europe.
The only language I'm fluent in is English.

Seeing as most of the time I spend on Greyhound, I sleep in excess, which is starting to amount to a waste of time.

I decided I should start carrying a CD player again, and work on learning a foreign language.

Would anyone have any recommendations as to what language? And also, if you learned anything from a CD, what CD would you recommend?

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  • 13 comments

[info]koniglio

January 17 2009, 01:54:11 UTC 3 years ago

What language to learn???
Urdu

[info]taschenrechner

January 17 2009, 01:59:36 UTC 3 years ago

While Urdu is pretty badass, it'll get you nowhere really in Europe. I'd try French or German first.

Pimsleur makes pretty decent stuff if you only want to focus on the spoken aspect of the language.

[info]bellichka

January 17 2009, 03:10:06 UTC 3 years ago

I would say Spanish. It's similar enough to Italian that it would be helpful in Italy as well. German would be a good language to learn, but it's much more difficult than Spanish (imho, having spent time learning both).

[info]je11ifysh

January 17 2009, 03:42:12 UTC 3 years ago

I second this. Spanish would also be helpful in Portugal, even in France to an extent.
German is good for Eastern Europe.
You can get MP3 players pretty cheap now and download all kinds of stuff.

[info]bellichka

January 17 2009, 03:47:55 UTC 3 years ago

What about Russian for Eastern Europe? I guess it depends on which part of E. Europe. Russian, I would think, would be helpful for Yugo, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Moldova, Belarus, and the three Baltics. And maybe Hungary too? Not sure. Spanish/Italian would actually probably come in handy in Romania, too, since the two languages are related. Russian and German are both so haaaaard though :P

[info]krizteen

January 17 2009, 09:35:36 UTC 3 years ago

You can't use Russian in Hungary in the slightest. You can use German/English in Hungary though. German doesn't seem like a terrible language to learn. I only know a bit and when you hear it being spoken, it reminds me a lot of English.

I would recommend English and/or Spanish. Once you start learning languages, you'll learn that a lot of them share the same words (err the base for the same words).

I've heard good things about Rosetta Stone (the one set up in kiosks in the mall and airport) but I have personally never used them.

[info]bellichka

January 17 2009, 12:28:14 UTC 3 years ago

German is hard due to the declensions, same with Russian. I supposed it's not difficult to get the basics, but I think to be able to speak it well is difficult, especially for someone whose native language doesn't decline.

[info]je11ifysh

January 17 2009, 18:51:27 UTC 3 years ago

Russian would, of course, be quite handy for Eastern Europe. You would have to learn a whole new alphabet, though, on top of everything else.

[info]bellichka

January 17 2009, 20:47:27 UTC 3 years ago

The cyrillic alphabet isn't hard, you get used to it after like a week. It's the case endings that were difficult for me.

[info]je11ifysh

January 18 2009, 01:15:46 UTC 3 years ago

Okay.
Russian is also probably a good language to learn for business.
Spanish, though, is also good for Central and South America and the Caribbean and comes in handy in nuch of North America as well.
French is good for parts of South and North America and Africa.
But if there is something about a language, something besides pure practicality, that attracts you to a language and makes you want to study it, that's the language you should go with. Learning a new language as an adult is freaking hard. You need all the motivation you can get.

[info]labrax

January 17 2009, 12:35:14 UTC 3 years ago

English will get you anywhere in Europe (from Finland to Portugal), there's no need to learn another language but if you insist i would say french because that's in France that you'll find more resistance to the english language (however if you make a point by saying you're US citizen they will make an effort as opposed to being UK citizen).

[info]aliki

January 17 2009, 12:51:43 UTC 3 years ago

I suggest Pimsleur if you're interested in just the spoken aspect of the language. I've tried two other companies and they weren't as good for language retention.

[info]vianna_dufaye

January 18 2009, 04:08:44 UTC 3 years ago

Wow. Thank you everyone.

Honestly, I was figuring either Spanish or French (I think I may go with French, I do speak a few phrases in Spanish at least), but I had no idea for the Northern areas. I think I'll pick up a CD on Russian as well.

And, I'll look into 'Pimsleur '.

Thank you so much.

:)
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