HELP: I'm facing a crisis

[carmen510]

You can probably learn Latin, its not as dead as most people think.

Although only the Vatican, medicine, biology, and law use it nowadays.

But you can make yourself seem smarter than anybody else and use disses noone else can decipher.

 

[Bast]

Not sure what the problem is. Tackle it analytically. Do you want to be an interpreter? You can still be an interpreter of any language in the world, and an American national.

I'd approach it from why I even want to learn a language, and then secondarily what languages are technically easy for me to learn.
If you just want to be a bilingual American, consider learning Spanish first, and French second. Also consider that some Spanish in North America borders on dialects, so you might even want to learn regional differences between say Mexican Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish, etc..

In the US the only useful second language is English, uh I mean Spanish.

Yeah Spanish would be easier than what I was learning before.

The thing is a few years ago I was very much into Europe. Now I'm not so much anymore. Like I don't want to spend months or years trying to brush up on a language there, let alone living there. I'm kinda over it. At least with Spanish there's a whole world outside of Europe. And I'm also interested in places and cultures like India. I just need to do soul searching to see if this temporary or if it's a lifelong commitment.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I keep changing my mind about what languages to learn. I know that learning languages is a lifetime commitment. But I seem to be starting a language and not following through. Therefore, I never gain fluency in any one language but I just seem to know about how many languages work and get to beginner or intermediate level - which in itself is fine - but I need to settle down and pick one or two to become really fluent in.

I admire your tenacity and desire to improve yourself, but I seem to have exactly the same problem without the tenacity and desire aspects.

I think using the same strategy with even more languages is a good approach, at least until you decide for yourself which ones you want to learn in depth, especially since you don't plan to move to a non-English speaking country. Being in Asia, you have reason to learn a little about even more languages than the typical American or European. Have you tried Chinese or Japanese?

 

[yesboii]

I admire your tenacity and desire to improve yourself, but I seem to have exactly the same problem without the tenacity and desire aspects.

I think using the same strategy with even more languages is a good approach, at least until you decide for yourself which ones you want to learn in depth, especially since you don't plan to move to a non-English speaking country. Being in Asia, you have reason to learn a little about even more languages than the typical American or European. Have you tried Chinese or Japanese?

Chinese and Japanese is ridiculously difficult for Westerns with no background in them.

 

[eastsidebagel]

You know, just learn languages with the same background as your native one, like French or Spanish. If you suceed in them in the first place, then you should look out for further, more "abstract" languages like German or Japanese or whatever you share interests in.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Chinese and Japanese is ridiculously difficult for Westerns with no background in them.

To speak or write? From what I understand, spoken Japanese is comparatively easy, at least grammatically, to many other languages. Of course, the kanji make it a whole different game...