[nabs-l] Choosing a Foreign Language

[Robert Spangler]

LOL, did you learn to speak the supposed President of Iran's name in 
Arabic or Farsi, as Farsi is their official language?  Arabic, as others 
have said on this list, would be a very useful language in foreign 
relations.  I feel that Chinese would be very good for business as we 
will probably be negotiating with them more and more over the next 
decades.  I myself have studied Arabic but never how to write it--I used 
Pimsleur's audio tutorials which focus on speaking.  The only thing you 
run into here is that classes that you take will most likely require you 
to write as well and I am not sure what type of accommodations they 
would set up--If you could work with the teacher one-on-one, for 
instance, perhaps they can teach you how to write the language using 
Roman letters as that's what languages like Arabic and Chinese do for 
Braille.  In fact, in the 1800s, there were a few Roman systems 
developed for writing Chinese so that people in the Army could learn it 
easier.  Chinese, with its pictographic way of writing things, makes it 
impossible to "sound out" words to learn pronunciation.

- Robby

On 7/18/2009 10:04 PM, Elizabeth wrote:
>
> Hello List,
>
> Thank you for all of your suggestions for choosing a foreign language. It appears as though most of you would suggest Spanish on the grounds that it is a commonly spoken language and is easy to learn. Others suggested that I choose a language that would prove to be the most useful in obtaining a job. And this is where I hit a crossroad, because if I were to choose a language based on this criteria alone, it would most likely be Arabic. However, since it took me about a weeks worth of practice to be able to correctly pronounce the name of the currently proclaimed President of Iran, I’m not quite sure how easy it would be to learn.
>
> My current major is sociology, and when I transfer I am looking at majoring in social relations and policy. I am interested in obtaining a career in government or public service. I’m sure that I could benefit from learning Spanish, but I figure that I could learn it just as easily on my own away from the academic setting. Since it is such a common language, I was looking for something else that might give me a bit more advantage in securing a job and yet still somewhat easy to learn. So does anyone on here have any experience in a foreign language other than Spanish? Also, does anyone know which foreign languages would work well as a base language for learning additional languages?
>
> Thanks,
> Elizabeth
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