<p>I've always been facinated by patterns in languages. I've absolutely loved learning Spanish. And I think that I would like to learn all of the Romance Languages.<br>
My Spanish teacher last year recommended I look into majoring in linguistics.
I think I should probably learn Latin (in college-- I'm a Junior in HS right now, taking AP Span Lang next year). But what in what order would it be best to learn the other Romance languages once I'm fluent in Spanish?
And any ideas as to careers I could go into (besides translator).
I'm also interested in sociology and traveling to Europe.<br>
But first things first: What order should I learn them in? And after that, would I be able to learn Germanic languages relatively easily?</p>
1 Like
<p>Hmm. Interesting question.</p>
<p>Definitely get Latin down pat first. Beyond that, though, I don't think the order would really matter.</p>
<p>Are you sure you want to learn all the Romance languages? They're a great group of languages, but very narrow in comparison to the rest of rich and interesting languages that the world offers. You might even get bored of learning them, as many of them have very similar grammar and, of course, vocabulary/roots. Here's a simplified tree of the Romance languages:</p>
1 Like
<p>Thanks for that... right now I want to learn them all. Perhaps not five years from now! But I don't know.
I'm kinda more concerned with what I could do with it... I know Arabic translators are in demand, but that's not something I'm interested in.
Are there interesting Romance language-related jobs?
And honestly, how many languages can the average brain keep track of? I've been pondering that for the past few hours...</p>
1 Like
<p>I'm not so sure about Romance language-related jobs, but you find plenty of books in foreign language careers that could probably help.</p>
<p>I think the average human brain can keep track of more than a few languages. For some, though, it's more difficult. Some have been known to know 50+ languages, but the definitions are fuzzy. The Wikipedia article on multilingualism is very informative (even discusses Romance languages):</p>
<p>Multilingualism</a> - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
1 Like
<p>Wow! That's very interesting.</p>
<p>Frankly, I see no reason to study Latin. If you want to study romance languages, study romance languages. The Classical Latin you study in college isn't really the direct source of the romance languages anyway. A semester of Latin or something might be entertaining, but it isn't going to do much to help you learning the modern languages. After all, native Spanish speakers don't study Latin before they study French, they just take French.</p>
<p>I would go French next, just because it is probably a little harder and will require a little more time to become proficient than Italian, then you can add Italian along the way. I don't think you need to master Spanish before starting French, once you learn to differentiate them in your mind, it shouldn't be much trouble to study both at once. You might want until you have excellent skills in those two before starting Italian.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The Classical Latin you study in college isn't really the direct source of the romance languages anyway.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Er, what? As far as I've seen, it's exactly the Latin from which the Romance languages are derived. And if anything, it'll help you in English (roots and the like).</p>
<p>This is a random two cents. I'm taking Arabic right now, and I love how many words have Spanish cognates. Azucar translates to sucar (of course pronounced a slightly differently).
So don't completely knock it because you'd have to learn a new alphabet. I actually find conjugating verb forms WAY easier than all the irregulars found in Spanish.</p>
<p>If you chose to stay on your Romantic path, I'd go for Italian first over French. But that's just me. :)
Have a great day!</p>
<p>^^ me too -- I like Italian more than French.</p>
<p>Vulgar</a> Latin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>
<p>I heard it described once that learning Latin to read Virgil is like learning English to read James Joyce.</p>
<p>Hmmm... all very intriguing ideas. I think I'll talk to my Spanish teacher sometime and get her $.02.<br>
I just have to figure out a fun career path to parallel this...</p>
<p>I share your passion for languages and I am going to transfer so I can double major in linguistic and another social science. Guys, how do you think I should list my languages knowledge so I don't seem like bragging. I am an international student, I grew up bilingual, French and Creole. I started learning Spanish since middle school but I could read it when I was 9 because my siblings were doing it in school. So I sneaked around and study in their books. My parents encouraged me and always brought me Spanish News paper to read for them.</p>
<p>I would like to be a court interpreter, or an economic policy maker, or get involve in international commerce. I am just so passionate about languages. It 's the easiest thing that I have done in school. My teacher always said that I have aptitude for languages. I would be the happiest person on earth If I could take 5 languages at once,instead of the other courses . My strength is in languages but I feel that colleges pay more attention to people who take natural sciences . Now I am fluent in French, English, Spanish and my other mother tongue. Good luck with your app and thanks for your insights!!!! </p>
<p>9 years of Spanish
3 years of Latin
4 years of Italian
9 years of English but I was able to attain fluency
2 semester of Arabic
1 year of Sign languages
I am auditing Greek this semester
Should I put them as EC?</p>
<p>To the OP, I don't think learning the Romance languages in any particular order will help you any more than learning them in a different order. Why would it? Sure learning Portuguese after learning Spanish might be easier than learning French because Spanish and Portuguese are more closely related, but you're still going to learn French and it'll be just as difficult as it would have been if you took it directly after Spanish. To tell you the truth I don't think learning Latin will be helpful enough in your quest to learn all the Romance Languages that it would be worth the time taking it. You'll pick up the Latin influences as you learn each of the languages. Each of the languages will have a different Latin flavor to it but there will also be consistencies. </p>
<p>As to the above poster, if you took classes for these languages then you don't need to list them at all, they will be on your transcript that you have to send to the school. If you are applying directly to a Linguistics Major then I really doubt they'd consider it bragging, they'd consider it an interest in foreign languages. Linguistics is more than foreign languages, Linguistics is the study of how language works. You need a very strong ability to comprehend abstract thought especially when you are studying generative syntax and phonology. Having experience with foreign languages surly helps however I think abstract thinking and logic are more useful in theoretical linguistics. You'll be looking at languages that you have no knowledge of and you'll have to figure out how they work.</p>
<p>Thank you for your deep reflection. I know what linguistic is. My Passion for languages li not limited only in learning them. I enjoy comparing them, their syntax, their root, to find similarities and difference. IN general, I am interested in how languages can be use as a tool because pof its structure and so on.</p>
<p>Latin will not really be helpful because a lot of the grammar is different- French/Spanish grammar is much simpler than that in Latin, and, as viscious said, you basically can see a common latinate influence in vocabulary in all three.</p>
<p>
[quote]
You must learn the grammar of a foreign language in order to learn it well. This is especially true of Latin because the word order won't help you. Latin is a highly inflected language--has lots of endings to learn--and can put words almost anywhere in the sentence. (Greek and Russian are also highly inflected.) What is the proper way to use "I" and "me" in English? How about "who" and "whom"? "We" and "us"? Latin will show you. What's a relative clause or pronoun? What is the subjunctive mood? Hey, what's a "mood" anyway? Imperative? Infinitive? Direct object? Indirect object? Participle? Gerund?</p>
<p>"I will say at once, quite firmly, that the best grounding for education is the Latin grammar. I say this, not because Latin is traditional and mediaeval, but simply because even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin cuts down the labor and pains of learning almost any other subject by at least 50 percent. It is the key to the vocabulary and structure of all Romance languages and to the structure of all Teutonic languages, as well as to the technical vocabulary of all the sciences and to the literature of the entire Mediterranean civilization, together with all its historical documents." Dorothy Sayers, from "The Lost Tools of Learning"
[/quote]
</p>
<p><a href="http://www.promotelatin.org/whylatin.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.promotelatin.org/whylatin.htm</a></p>
<p>I stand by what I said.</p>
<p>That quote seems like its from a 1950s prescriptive grammar lesson. Learning a language with free word order does not help with the romance languages which are mainly configurational. The vocabulary will carry over to a degree but I'm pretty sure that the OP doesn't want a grammar lesson, they want to learn languages. If they are already adept at learning the languages I'm pretty sure they are familiar with the basic grammatical terms mentioned. Even if they aren't all it takes is a quick look at wikipedia to find out. If they are going into Linguistics all of that will be covered in an Intro class. Learning a new language for that purpose seems quite over the top.</p>
<p>Most of those are terms that I remember from elementary school. I remember having workbooks where we had to conjugate (without knowing what conjugating even was, or that it existed) into a few different tenses. Any others are learned when acquiring any new foreign language.</p>
<p>Learning a language to get better at another language seems pretty pointless.</p>
<p>
[quote]
That quote seems like its from a 1950s prescriptive grammar lesson.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Funnily enough, language hasn't changed much.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The vocabulary will carry over to a degree but I'm pretty sure that the OP doesn't want a grammar lesson, they want to learn languages.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, because grammar is completely divorced from language, right?</p>
<p>
[quote]
If they are already adept at learning the languages I'm pretty sure they are familiar with the basic grammatical terms mentioned. Even if they aren't all it takes is a quick look at wikipedia to find out. If they are going into Linguistics all of that will be covered in an Intro class. Learning a new language for that purpose seems quite over the top.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>If you think that learning a language to help another is all about learning terms, well... I'm sorry. It's about seeing the structure of language -- seeing how it works, how you can manipulate it, etc. That is what the quote is saying: it gives you a strong sense of syntax.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Learning a language to get better at another language seems pretty pointless.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Seems, perhaps, but really isn't. Studies have shown that those who learn certain languages earlier on greatly help the learning of other languages. (I think some studies have gone extensively into Esperanto and Latin.)</p>
<p>As someone who's majoring in linguistics and who learns languages for fun, I can say definitely, knowledge of one language can greatly help learning another. This is further supported by the native-second language interface; for example, those who know Chinese first will usually find German harder than those who know English first. Not to mention it's a general rule of thumb that learning mother languages will help out in most of their sub-languages -- much like studying a mother to help understand her children.</p>
<p>Well, I would look at it this way. The best way to learn Spanish is to study Spanish. The best way to study French is to study French. The best way to study Italian is to study Italian. The best way to study English grammar is to study English grammar.</p>
<p>There are other things you could study that might help you with these things, but it is a roundabout way to do it, especially since each of us has limited time, money, and energy. So best to get right to the point and study efficiently towards each of our specific goals. </p>
<p>Not that I'm denigrating the study of Latin, or Sanskrit or Old English or whatever. But if you are interested in speaking, reading, and writing a modern language, your time is most efficiently spent speaking, reading, and writing that modern language.</p>