Language to learn

GO Japanese. It will come in handy caus its a language many people in europe dont speak, unlike german and french.

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*Originally posted by ukwali: *
wow was a bit surprised to see the number of responses :D

Thanks guys. I learnt French at school, and Spanish too. ALthough really rusty on both now.

I think Ill try German first, go for somethign a bti different, and if I can get my head around it, and brush up on french. And then one day learn japanese.

Thanks for the advice much appreciated

:)
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You sound very much like my sister. Us ko bhi dhair saari zabaanain seekhnai ka shauk hai.

She speaks German, English, Urdu, Arabic (fluent) and French, Turkish, Chinese (basic).

Learning German is a good choice, but keep in mind that it's not an easy language and it requires a lot more practice to get hold of it as compared to English. French is quite though too, while Spanish is relatively easy to learn.

I myself speak German, English and Urdu fluently and have learned a little French and Spanish at University.

As you wanna learn a language based on the requirements of the job market rather than your personal interests..I’d say chinese is the way to go!
If you go to Toronto downtown you would find more orientals than french, german or desi…even the ATM machines are in chinese..go figure :rolleyes: . I see chinese to be one of the dominant languages in the coming years but yeah its not hip, cool or romantic :-p I’d have taken 3 semesters of chinese in university if it wasn’t for the hot chicks in french classes…oh well je parle un peu francaise now!

Miss Sadia you wrote

Please elaborate on the 3rd sex i.e. neutral one…Are they only in Germany? :slight_smile:

^ :)

Its true that there are three genders(masc, fam, neutral) in German langauge. These genders mainly refer to objects/things. There is NO & absoluely NO logic in deciding which object belongs to which gender. One has to memorize it; which approach is seldom used unless one is very eager to learn the langauge. The other way is you just get used to it....and perhaps gradually learn the tricks/cheat codes to figure it out.

This to some extent is similar to urdu; urdu has two genders for every object(male & female). For example: kursi (chair) is female while darakhat (tree) is a male. No logic to that whatsoever.

Another aspect of German language which is similar to urdu is that it provides respect in its words while addressing somebody older than you or in a more formal situation. ( e.g. AAP )

English i think is the only language which does not categorize on the basis of gender...well i guess its not a racist language. :~)

on a side note, russian has 4 genders

Wow! Mashallah you have quite some knowledge about languages. While you only use “The” as an article in English, you would use “Der” (masc), “Die” (fem) and “Das” (neutral) in German. The classical example for the non-existent logic in deciding which object belongs to which gender is:

Das Mädchen (Mädchen = girl), which makes the word Mädchen neutral because of the “Das”. :rolleyes:

German language...humm I have been working w/ SAP for last three years...which is a german s/w...and i must say german sucks!!...I had to go to Germany for training -- for 6 lousy months-- and all i learned during that period was "Vielleicht bin ich deshalb so angetan von Dir"

nahh..no big deal..anybody who has a little knowledge about German language & can speak Urdu/English can probably figure that out.

actually isn’t it the other way around!..The article Das is used for Mädchen because Mädchen is neutral. It is confirm that Mädchen is neutral for reasons best known to God. And the article Das is used with any noun which is Neutral.

I was surprised to learn that in Germany English is preferrred over German in big companies.

SOURCE: My German Roommate :~)

On the contrary i was even further surprised to learn that company meetings/discussions in big companies take place in English but outside that meeting room it all comes down to German & German only. This makes it a liability for anybody who wants to work in a German environment to learn enough German to understand if his/her colleague is swearing at him/her. :~) Germans find it amusing and entertaining if their fellow colleague is unable to understand them. :~)

SOURCE: My German Professor

Apart from the working environment I think when you actually have to live there; your German skills will come in handy for everyday life routines and will save you a lot of time & unwanted attention.

SOURCE: ME

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by heart beat: *
meeting room it all comes down to German & German only. This makes it a liability for anybody who wants to work in a German environment to learn enough German to understand if his/her colleague is swearing at him/her. :~) Germans find it amusing and entertaining if their fellow colleague is unable to understand them. :~)

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Just as an aside, in a work environment it is more important to be able to converse with your colleagues then it is to understand the board meeting.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Jerablade: *
German language...humm I have been working w/ SAP for last three years...which is a german s/w...and i must say german sucks!!...I had to go to Germany for training -- for 6 lousy months-- and all i learned during that period was "Vielleicht bin ich deshalb so angetan von Dir"
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I personally love Germany, the country and the people....especially Bavaria.

bilingual and trilingual are always in demand :)

I have kind of decided on German for starters now :) just going to try and hunt for some classes or something on it

thanks all :)

If you wanna live or work in middle east, especially Gulf, Arabic would be a nice language to learn.

Gute Entscheidung! :k:

i bet ukwali did not understand a word u said :~)

ukwali might not say it but i have a feeling here’s how she would have reacted to ur post:

:smack:

Nice choice - I just speak Basic German & ya its fairly easy to learn & spoken not Only in Western Europe but in Eastern Europe as well. 60% population of Poland, Czech & Slovakia speaks Germans.

Viel Glueck


Arabic is good to learn but who is gonna go to Middle East to work there?

Learning another language is a fantastic idea. There is no downside; only upside.

In America, learning Spanish is most helpful. In Europe, it is likely to be French or German, or if you want to work in a specific country, than its native language.

Learning a new language can also be an enjoyable experience :)

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by heart beat: *

i bet ukwali did not understand a word u said :~)
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"Gute Entscheidung" just means "Good decision"! But I guess she would have understood it anyway, haina?

umer: of course i understood ( i looked it up online :D)