Next language to study

[JackFrost]

I voted for Finnish because I know I'd win Stacy's and Varislintu's heart for doing that.

[Æxylis]

yeah, interestingly enough, the results are coming up closer to how I thought they would...

now I guess the question should be Korean or Finnish (first, lol)?

I already have a bit of music in both (though the stuff from Finland is oft in English )

[JackFrost]

I already have a bit of music in both (though the stuff from Finland is oft in English )

Though the Finns are great at making music in either language (Finnish or English). It's amazing...

[Æxylis]

yes, indeed... I have a few songs in Finnish that are just as good as their English songs...

[Karavinka]

Sure most American games (and many Japanese ones) would have been translated, but what's the point of playing the same game in another language? South Korea makes a lot of video games... that usually don't get to be translated. You can widen your horizon.

And of course you can download pirate copies from various places.

[Varislintu]

I voted for Finnish because I know I'd win Stacy's and Varislintu's heart for doing that.

Thanks, advocate Jack .

What I can say about Finnish:

Logical ability

Stacy and Egein always claim Finnish is very consistent . If that's what you're asking.

Interesting grammar

I suppose the "peculiarity" of Finnish is its cases.

Pronunciation that's not 'too' difficult

Finnish doesn't have that many sounds, and the written language follows pronunciation closely, so I'd say it is relatively easy.

Music available in the language

There's quite a bit, but perhaps not endless amounts of quality for every genre. We're only a people of 5 million, after all.

Video games available in the language

Same as for Hungarian; there are, but will you be able to get them?

Possibility of actual use

This one is smaller than with the other options.

[loqu]

With this thread you're starting to make me want to learn Finnish!! I have always thought of it as an impossible language, even though it sounds great in songs.

What do you mean by 'consistent'? Few exceptions?

[JackFrost]

With this thread you're starting to make me want to learn Finnish!! I have always thought of it as an impossible language, even though it sounds great in songs.

Why people always say it's impossible? -.-

It's not impossible. Learning Finnish requires some changes how you learn it since it's not your average Indo-European language. Don't let the number of cases scares you, they're very straightforward and not numerous endings for each case, unlike Icelandic and German.

The most challenging thing is the vocabulary. Most of the Finnish words aren't similar to Indo-European languages, so you'd have to put a lot of time memorizing them.

Of course, and learning the nominative-accusative-partitive really sucks ass. Even Varislintu's Finn-Swedish mother messes them up once every while despite living in Finland for almost all of her life.

[Varislintu]

What do you mean by 'consistent'? Few exceptions?

You'll have to ask the local learners for details, but that's how I understand it .

Even Varislintu's Finn-Swedish mother messes them up once every while despite living in Finland for almost all of her life.

Worse; she has lived in Finland all her life . (She just grew up in a totally Swedish speaking area and didn't start learning Finnish until her teens .)

[JackFrost]

Worse; she has lived in Finland all her life . (She just grew up in a totally Swedish speaking area and didn't start learning Finnish until her teens .)

I meant, living in a Finnish-speaking environment for almost all of her life.

[loqu]

With this thread you're starting to make me want to learn Finnish!! I have always thought of it as an impossible language, even though it sounds great in songs.

Why people always say it's impossible? -.-

just because of what you say, the vocabulary. I have only begun learning Indo-European languages (which are familiar for me) and Arabic (which has a whole different grammar but a lot of vocabulary that is common with my dialect of Spanish) -- so Finnish for me would mean beginning from a whole zero of knowledge and thus a big effort But that's a matter of willpower

[sa wulfs]

When I say Finnish has 15 cases, people usually say something like "That must be really hard!", and I can't help but smile. Sure, cases can be tricky, but they're fairly regular and consistent, especially once you grasp some basic phonological rules (involving words ending in -si or in -e, for example). I never learnt enough to get to the trickiest parts of Finnish grammar, though, so I didn't find partitive and accusative particularly confusing, once I learned the basic principles.

Regarding the vocabulary, most words don't resemble their Indo-European equivalents at all, but there are still more loanwords than in other languages that aren't generally regarded as "impossible".

And then there's the fact that Finnish is so beautiful it encourages you to keep learning.

[egao]

I voted Finnish. I know a little about it, and it seems like a very interesting language. It also looks a lot more challenging than Dutch (I'm not sure about the others).

[Kijdar]

Hungarian, because it has an interesting grammar, a good cookery and I think It's a nice place even if I haven't been there, not yet.

[linguanima]

Arabic, because

1. I've got Arabic ancestry;
2. Arabic culture always fascinates me;
3. It sounds wonderful (not ALWAYS but it CAN sound wonderfully solemn);
4. It's practical in modern world, creating career opportunities.

[polishboy]

Ｋｏｒｅａｎ，　Ｉ　ｌｅａｒｎ　Ｋｏｒｅａｎ，　ａｎｄ　Ｉ　ｈａｖｅ　ｍａｎｙ　ｐｅｎｐａｌｓ　ｆｒｏｍ　Ｋｏｒｅａ．

[Formiko]

I voted for Russian. It's easier than German (the gender is usally obvious instead of arbitary) and once you know it, Polish, Czech and the other Slavic languages won't be that hard to understand.

[ILuvEire]

Korean
Russian
Arabic
Finnish
Hungarian
Dutch

keeping in mind that some of the biggest things I look for in languages are:

Logical ability: What exactly does this mean?
Interesting grammar: Korean, Russian, Arabic, Finnish, and Hungarian. Dutch grammar isn't much. I got bored because it felt too English-y or German-y.

Pronunciation that's not 'too' difficult: Korean, Russian, Finnish, Hungarian, Dutch. Arabic is notorious for hard to pronounce consonants.

Music available in the language: All of them!

Video games available in the language: I've no idea.

Possibility of actual use: Here on Unilang there are many people that speak all those languages. The most "dead" one is probably Korean.

So, I would go for Finnish, Hungarian, or Russian.

[Boes]

Logical ability

Quite a fair amount of books and interactive learning material. Mostly of good quality.

Interesting grammar

Well... if 'challenging' qualifies as 'interesting'. Dutch is one of those languages with a grammar that most people get on 'average' level with enough practice fairly quickly. It's not that hard. But to get to the point that you get all constructions good, and know (and use) all (and god knows there are a lot of them) exceptions ... well, I've yet to meet that person. No exaggeration there.

Pronunciation that's not 'too' difficult

People always list the 'hard ch'. You don't need that though. It's no longer considered an intricate part of the Dutch standard language. The most difficult thing in Dutch pronunciation are its diphthongs. Like 'ui', 'eu', 'ieu' or 'ou/au' and its hard (almost unpredictable) stress patterns.

Music available in the language

Yes.

Video games available in the language

Yes.

Possibility of actual use

Yes, but make clear you want to. Most will try English when they think your level is too low.

[TaylorS]

Once I've gotten competency in Spanish I might try a Germanic language, perhaps German (again) or Norwegian (since I'm of Norwegian ancestry