If you take a glance at advertisements in New York or A-level options in Britain, an answer seems to leap out: Mandarin. Somewhere between the Daily Telegraph copytakers and the subs, “Catullan” was changed to “Catalan”. What can your students gain from the experience? While finding precise sales numbers for any given author is nearly impossible, the list is based on approximate numbers provided or repeated by reliable sources. The 10 Best Language Learning Books to Take on Your Linguistic Journey “How to Learn a Foreign Language” by Paul Pimsleur Ph.D. Let’s start off with the granddaddy of foreign language learning—Dr. But when I think of my sons, now ten and five, one day being able to write “fluent Brazilian Portuguese” on their CVs, I feel a little smug. Fiction or non-fiction books written in languages other than English. The burghers of Brussels were trying to build a superstate out of abstract nouns. Whatever you think of France, the language is much less limited than many people realise. Literature refers to any sort written or spoken material, regarded as an art form, which has some intellectual value, due to the use of language in a manner, which is different from its normal usage. It has native speakers in every region on earth. It was the world’s second-largest economy for decades (before falling to third, recently, behind China). for what purpose? Many investors in China have made fatally stupid decisions about companies they could not understand. Advocates of this model believe that the value of literature lies in its unique distillation of culture. To communicate effectively, it is not enough to have well organized ideas expressed in complete and coherent sentences and paragraphs. So is Japanese the world’s third-most useful language? France was able to dominate world literature, as they did, because they were in the forefront of all areas of learning and intellectual endeavors — the language of the enlightenment thoughts was French; French medicine and mathematics were the best in the world; French was also the language of international law; french explorers and geographers singlehandedly documented the entire globe. Which period(s) do you want? Best Traditional SAT Prep Books for Instruction, Strategy, and Practice Questions. I did not choose this language; it was thrust on me by the offer of a job in São Paulo. It is fascinating, and learnable—though Moser’s online essay, “Why Chinese is so damn hard,” might discourage the faint of heart and the short of time. Fluency may long elude you, but there will always be a fascination in picking your way through Arabic’s intricacies. I suppose you'd need to be specific on what kind of literature you want to read. So here we go. One not so distant from English that you give up. But “standard Chinese” (putonghua, aka “Mandarin”), or something close to it, is understood almost everywhere, as it is taught in schools. So if you are in business, into the arts or just want to join la conversación, the sheer size of Hispanidad is a powerful reason to learn Spanish. The following SAT prep books are of decent quality but have some serious weaknesses as well. If you were to learn ten languages ranked by general usefulness, Japanese would probably not make the list. First of all… why exactly should you teach literature? Hindi does not even unite India. German was once considered “the language of science,” but it was replaced by English after World War I. No mere French subjunctive or Russian instrumental can do that. Its population is nearly 500m, making it the world’s third most populous country, behind China and India. And certainly middle-ages/ecclesiastical Latin. But really, "Western literature" is still too vague. So although there are other great languages out there, don’t forget an easy, common one, with far fewer words to learn than English, that is almost certainly taught in your town. As a writer, it is important not only to think about what you say, but how you say it. Diplomacy, war-waging and intelligence work are all weakened by a lack of capable linguists. Nonetheless, compelling reasons remain for learning other languages. If ever there was a time to play the Latin card, this was it, so I described Sting’s wedding song as “Catullan”. And the key reason for Japanese’s limited spread will also put the brakes on Chinese. It probably served me right. So there is no need to agonise over which dialect to learn. That means choosing a language with plenty of native speakers. Each piece of the sentence has to slot in with the rest; every ending has to be the right one. Soon enough, someone will helpfully inform you that Latin is a dead language. Read the review A telling description of modern power … Learning German grammar can be difficult and a good textbook can help you with the fundamentals. You’ll be told “Your Portuguese is wonderful!” many times before it is true. When you understand how beautifully Arabic fits together – why the root meaning “west” leads to the words for “sunset” and “strange” – the sense of illumination is sublimely satisfying. In this model, the class reads fiction or poetry as part of th… With that ambition, why limit yourself to 5? The people are friendly, and shameless white liars. If you work with words, Latin is the Pilates session that stays with you for life: it strengthens the core. There are many such songs in Catullus, whose elegant poetry I had spent a whole term plodding through. It deters most foreigners from ever mastering the system—and increasingly trips up Chinese natives. Among these people, the number of native Spanish-speakers is rising towards 400m; as a mother tongue, only Mandarin Chinese is bigger. Not even close. Learn Spanish? When it refers to a specific collection of books, papers, etc., related to a given subject, it is often used as a countable noun, and you should say “the literature”, referring to the literature of the given field. This is not, in fact, rocket science, but economic and political common sense. English is not only the first language of the obvious countries, it is now the rest of the world’s second language: a Japanese tourist in Sweden or a Turk landing a plane in Spain will almost always speak English. Best of all, you’ll stand out. If you want six, I'd add Italian to the list. It’s never too late, but where to start? Nevertheless, German still has a rich history of scientific and academic literature, so it’s a great language to learn if those subjects are among your interests. It is home to the world’s largest standing forest, the Amazon. Horace can be a drag—like a bad weekend columnist, always wittering on about his garden and his cellar, except when coming out with quotable drivel about how sweet it is to die in battle. So which one should you, or your children, learn? One spoken by people worth talking to, in a place worth visiting. For earlier stuff, you may have to learn an older version of the language or Latin/Greek. No other country has flora and fauna more varied and beautiful. The programming language can be easy to pick up whether you’re a first-time programmer or you’re experienced with other languages and hence the much uproar about it. ), my answer would be French. But if I was asked what foreign language is the most useful, and given no more parameters (where? Hardly any of them are places where French is everyone’s native language. Latin may also be useful in the same regard for Latin phrases. (Or if the user types in wo shi zhongguo ren, “I am Chinese”, the software detects the meaning and picks the right characters.) China’s economy continues to grow at a pace that will make it bigger than America’s within two decades at most. Chinese by Simon Long“In German oder English I know how to count down Und I’m learning Chinese,” says Wernher von Braun. Latin offers no hiding place, no refuge for the woolly. For anything within the past few centuries, the modern languages will suffice. Score A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for … Which period(s) do you want? If China is the country of the future, is Chinese the language of the future? It may be classified according to a variety of systems, including language and genre. To learn Latin is to learn rigour. All of the foreign tongues listed here are vital. And if you stick at it you discover, after no more than eight or nine years, that this is a glorious language per se. The default option is 2018. Continue Reading. I think you already have the five. Instead, they write their language the same way we do—with a computer. Which 5 would you recommend? Not forgetting the United States, the country with the second-largest number of Spanish-speakers (about 50m and rising) after Mexico. We publish theoretical, empirical and experimental research that aims to make a contribution to our understanding of style and its effects on readers. If the point of a language is to be able to communicate with as many people as possible, there is no contest. All are welcome, whether beginner or polyglot. It covers a territory perhaps one-and-a-half times the size of China. Arabic’s three-letter root system for creating words – adding suffixes, prefixes, midfixes, to trilateral building blocks – will seem utterly alien. It teaches you grammar and syntax, better than your own language, whose structure you will have absorbed before you are capable of noticing it. With a hybrid poetic language creating the perfect spindle to weave their magic, from the modernists to the Angry Young Men, The Culture Trip London takes a look at some of the greats from over the last 100 years; writers whose output has assured them an everlasting place among the greatest of all time. Any visit there is greatly enhanced by some grasp of the language. Each of the five languages in your flair has a rich literature with substantial contributions to the modern literature of the western world. Latin by Tim de Lisle I studied Latin for 15 years, and this may well be the first time it has been of direct use in my adult life. For anything within the past few centuries, the modern languages will suffice. There was one moment, long ago, when it nearly came in handy. The author started out as the “poet laureate of Twitter”; her language is brilliant, and she has a completely original mind. Let's go over the pros and cons of each. The weather is great and so are the beaches. Hispanidad also has a rich literature, from Cervantes to Gabriel García Márquez, that is best enjoyed in the original. A literary language is the form of a language used in its literary writing.It can be either a non-standard dialect or standardized variety of the language. China’s political clout is growing accordingly. This article is more than 17 years old. The French especially have some beautiful literary idioms, especially in their 19th century classics. So it's an ambitious goal. Its businessmen are buying up everything from American brands to African minerals to Russian oil rights. Poetry and lyrics suffer particularly badly in translation. And I will consider Italian. 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