Which Language Should You Learn?

Hi there, Steve Kaufmann here again, and I'm back in Vancouver back in

front of my real bookshelf, not the curtain that I use in Palm Springs.

And today I wanna talk about a question or answer a question that I get very often, and

that is, which language should I study?

You know, people say, you know, I'm very interested in French, but

I also am interested in Chinese.

And so which one should I study and can I study two at the same time?

All kinds of questions around the subject of what language to study.

So, my answer is, you know, in some cases we have no choice.

So, if you're going to work for a German company in Germany,

obviously you're gonna learn German.

If, uh, future employers are at demanding a certain level of English, then you have no choice.

So there are situations where we have no choice, but typically people who ask the question "which language should I study?" are not in that situation.

They are people who are learning languages out of interest.

And since motivation is such a big factor in language learning success, the obvious answer is which language are you keenest to learn?

Where where are you most enthusiastic?

And the motivation to learn a language can be, you know, anything.

I've often said that it's, it's a pity that in Canada, in the school system...

kids in the English language school system are forced to learn French

because that is one of the two official languages of Canada.

That's not a very strong motivator.

To some extent, I believe it doesn't matter what you study, because

once you get going, once you start learning language and you know how

to learn languages and you've done it once and you've been successful.

You can learn as many languages as you want and uh, as you have time for.

And so if kids in our, just to digress, in our English language school system

in Canada, were allowed to choose the language they wanted to learn,

they're more likely to succeed and therefore enjoy language learning and

therefore go on to learn other language.

By forcing them to learn French, because it's the official language,

you end up discouraging a lot of people who are forced to learn a language.

They're not very motivated to learn.

Now, insofar as you know, motivation to learn a language,

it can be many different things.

If you see, if you look at the bookshelf behind me and in particular the two

skinny bookshelves that are full of CDs.

We don't need CDs any longer because we can download audio from the internet

but I have material there in Czech, in uh, Japanese, in French, in German, in

Swedish, um, Russian, uh, you name it.

And similarly books, Latin even.

I have books in latin.

So any number of things can trigger your interest.

Right now, for example, I'm focusing on Polish.

I did some Danish because I'm gonna be in Denmark and then in Poland.

So a trip to the country can be a motivator.

So obviously if you're about to go to a country, you're very, or if

you know you're gonna go there in six months, that's a big motivator.

It could be a person, you know, I found, uh, some of the CDs in

themselves motivating because they were so interesting to listen to.

So, uh, but I, I still say in a way it doesn't matter.

Any time you invest in learning a language, it's with you

and you can always go back.

I have taken various stabs at learning Korean prior to going to Korea, or

for whatever reason, or maybe I think initially I was motivated to learn Korean

because it seemed to me that it would be easy after Chinese and Japanese.

That turned out not to be a very strong motivator.

The idea that a language might be easy may not be as strong a motivator

as I'm gonna go to the country, or I have a friend, or I'm interested

in anime in the case of Japanese.

So you have to make sure that the motivation is deep enough.

So in my case with Korea and the fact that it's similar to, not similar,

but the Japanese and Chinese help me in learning Korean was in itself

not a strong enough motivation.

Uh, when I was in Korea recently, four years ago and, uh, was speaking some

Korean, then that kind of motivated me.

But then when I went away and I didn't go back to Korean or to Korea, then

my motivation declined somewhat.

So it's important to find sort of a motivator that is gonna keep you

motivated, and very often that's just the enjoyment of the language itself,

the enjoyment of discovering things in the language, reading about the history

of the country and so forth and so on.

But I, I guess my conclusion on all of this is that which

language should you learn?

It doesn't really matter.

Uh, even if you're only motivated for a short period of time and then you

lead that language and study some other language, none of that is lost because

when you go back to that language, you will very soon pick up where you left off.

So I like having quite a few sort of irons in the fire.

Uh, I've left my Arabic, I mean, my Arabic is pretty bad right now.

I was a lot better even a year ago, but then I've spent more time on Persian and

I'm spending time on, you know, I was spending time on Danish and now on Polish.

All good.

You know, you don't lose anything.

And as for this question of, should I study two languages

at the same time, or not?

Again, it depends on your motive, uh, motivation.

Um, obviously if you stay with one language, you're gonna

learn that language faster.

If you try to do two languages at the same time, you will discover a little

bit about two languages, but you won't progress as far in the one language.

Although sometimes, if you feel that you're not making progress in one language

and then you go to a second language and it's fresh and new for you, and so

you have a sense of achievement in that language, then when you go back to the

first one, uh, you're kind of refreshed.

The batteries are charged up and you quickly pick up where

you left off and drive forward.

So I guess my conclusion is, you know, if you are in a situation where you

have to learn a language, try to find something motivating about the language

because you're gonna have to learn it.

On the other hand, if you are in a position where you have the luxury

of choosing which language to learn, go with your mood at the moment.

If you're more motivated, motivated to learn language a at a

certain point in time, go for it.

When the motivation for that language seems to sag, go and do another language.

A language you're very motivated to learn.

You can always come back to the first one.

Nothing lost.

Uh, tasting different languages in different ways is always

satisfying, always pleasurable.

And uh, and the main thing is not to worry about how well you're doing, uh,

if you don't have to learn the language.

You don't have to write an exam if you're doing it out of.

Don't compare yourself.

Don't be too demanding of yourself.

Just enjoy whatever you're doing in the language.

As Lomb Kato once said, uh, foreign language is one thing that is

worth learning, even imperfectly or words to that effect...

or learning poorly.

So there is never a negative to learning a language.

So I would go with a mood of the moment.

Which language am I most motivated to learn right now?

And that's my answer on which language should I learn.

I hope that was helpful.