<p>to the OP: study whatever language you'll feel most beneficial to you. </p>
<p>for example, my personal case is that i'd need to learn chinese because i envision myself in a job dealing with chinese customers, but i'd also like to learn at least an intermediate level of spanish for personal use since i live in southern california. so do whatever you feel will be most beneficial to you.</p>
<p>
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In an attempt to be non-Western, they switched to the cyrillic alphabet, which has set them back significantly.
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<p>Clearly, because anything that is not Anglo-Norman is screwed up and backwards and barbaric.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Clearly, because anything that is not Anglo-Norman is screwed up and backwards and barbaric.
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</p>
<p>Not necessarily; take for example Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese. None of them use a western-based alphabet (though I'm unsure of arabic; please correct me if I'm wrong). </p>
<p>In Russia's situation however, it's proximity to Europe and adopting a western-based alphabet would've been beneficial in terms of communication; instead , they opted with the cyrillic alphabet which requires transliteration. As a result, exchange of ideas may have been slower, leading to Russia's lag in scientific study (prior to the Russian Revolution; but it can also be argued that this lag extended until the Soviet Union's decision to pursue military technology).</p>
<p>Though I've never personally translated Russian myself, my understanding is that the translator must transliterate first by sound, then make sense of it with English letters.</p>
<p>In terms of a "western-based alphabet," translation is easier. Take for example French to English. Translation is relatively easier than from Russian to English because French and English share a common alphapet (in general). Some words in English come from French, Old French, and other Romantic languages. Exchange of ideas--let's say Enlightment--can exist rather easily; or in science, study of chemistry.</p>
<p>Well I speak both fluently and I must disagree. Respectfully, of course. I'm not going to argue over if it's easier to translate from French to English or Russian to English, but I believe my knowledge of Russian only helped me to become a better speaker of English.</p>
<p>even though Japanese doesn't have a western style alphabet, many of their words also come from English and German, including but not limited to many words relating to technology and business type situations</p>
<p>True. Pretty much all technical terms in Japanese are katakana words, and are almost phonetically identical to their English equivalents.</p>
<p>*Latin sharpens your English skills beyond belief. It's the only preparation I've found I needed for AP English Exams, SAT II Literature, etc. </p>
<p>By the way, nice screen name, Icare*</p>
<p>why thank you :)</p>
<p>and you're totally right about the english skills - I learned more about English grammar and syntax, etc. in Latin than in my english classes lol.</p>
<p>I wholeheartedly WISHHHH that our school offered Latin.</p>
<p>But it DOESN'T <em>kicks school</em></p>
<p>SO I am in Spanish~ do you think its worth doing a Summer course in it to get up to Spanish 5 AP, or should I just do the regular 4 years like I planned originally? Will the language AP test matter incredibly much for colllege?</p>
<p>i don't think the language ap test will matter that much for college - but if you are really into the language, plan to continue it, or use it much in your life, then i would think you might want to advance your studies</p>
<p>Don't underestimate the usefulness of Russian. There is a HUGE population of Russian-speakers in the world, and Russia can only gain (again) in influence in coming years.</p>
<p>My vote goes to Spanish, Chinese or Japanese, and Arabic--for usefulness in US and some careers. Otherwise, read some of the lit in translation and then go with the language and culture that engages your imagination and makes you want to visit the country. Most educated Germans can communicate in English so, apart from a few expressions to be polite, it's not essential for American business people to speak German.</p>
<p>What are yall's thoughts on Ancient Greek?</p>
<p>Is is hard?</p>
<p>How hard?</p>
<p>Thanks ;-)</p>
<p>bump
bumpty
bump
bump</p>
<p>98% chance anyone doing [legal] business across national boarders will be speaking in English.</p>
<p>If you want to learn another... I recommend Mandarian or Spanish.</p>
<p>Remember that in Europe, kids start learning English in elementary school, and then in high school pick up a 3rd language.</p>
<p>Yeh I'd also like to know what everyone thinks of Greek and Latin? I plan to take them in college.</p>
<p>French is a pretty useless language...if u want useful languages - English/Spanish/Mandarin or Japanese if u so like. French isnt even in the top 10 most spoken languages in the world....more people speak Bengali!</p>
<p>That's simply not accurate, shrek, regarding French.</p>
<p>I found some relevant data here <a href="http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm</a></p>
<p>I know you guys keep saying French isn't important, but do you realize how many people in Africa and the Middle East speak French because of the era of imperialism? And since those areas are important in development and terrorism/conflict/etc, French is not useless yet at all.</p>
<p>I think China is going to be an every growing nation. They have hidden power. I think the economic torch will be passed on to them. They have a fool proof system.....in my opinion. They have a democratic economic system but politically they are still red. I think they have the capability of even surpassing America. But I don't think that Chinese is a crucial language to learn. I think English would be used when doing business deals with people in China. I'm not exactly sure about China but I know Asian countries make it mandatory for their students to learn English and English is highly regarded as the language for intellectuals. Spanish is the second most needed because of its wide spread use. Plus Spanish root words are mostly based on latin. And Latin is the root of French, Portuguese...and so on. Yeah....:P</p>
<p>"Though I've never personally translated Russian myself, my understanding is that the translator must transliterate first by sound, then make sense of it with English letters."</p>
<p>"Russian is a possibility but their alphabet seems so complicated and its takes 1 minute to say a small thing like thank you."</p>
<p>Huh. Am I the only one on this board who's taking Russian in college?! Let me deipher the myths for you all.</p>
<p>Once students know the Russian alphabet and know how to read and write the letters, everything else is much easier. I do find myself tongue twisted at times when I am reading dialogues aloud in class. Russian IS hard in the first year because of the logic and oral expression that it requires. It does not take one minute to say "thank you." In Russian it's spa-see-boh. Say it. </p>
<p>Children in Eastern Europe learn Russian in elementary school and pick up English much, much later because just as English is the business language in Western Europe and Asia, Russian is the business language of Eastern Europe. </p>
<p>I chose to take Russian because I am interested in Russian history and literature, I LOVE Russian literature! Also it's a very phonetical language so every letter is pronounced. So many words are borrowed from the French and English that people don't even think that Russian has it own words! It's a large mix of French, English, and some Greek roots. Things are pronounced a little differently because of the alphabet but for most part, students with strong background in English and French can do pretty well in Russian.</p>
<p>One more thing. The grammar system is ridiculously simple. There is only present tense, past tense, and future tense. There are no imperfects or perfects. For example:</p>
<p>The woman walks to the store.
The woman is walking to the store.</p>
<p>Only one Russian sentence is needed and it will mean in both ways. Same for the past tense- there are no helping verbs but they do have "I was at the store yesterday". But "I was talking on the phone" does not exist in Russian. It's simple as that: the action was done just now, in the past, or will happen. They don't need to know anything else. Therefore because of this system, by the end of the first year college Russian, students know at least 95% of the grammar system and proceeds to review everything in the second year with more oral translation and practice. Third year, students are ready to communicate in Russian fully for the whole class session.</p>
<p>There. That is my defense as a Russian student who plans to declare a major in Russian Language and Literature in the fall. :) Any more questions, just PM me!</p>
<p>I plan on getting back to Spanish sometimes :)</p>