What do I Do?

[trux]

You have a big choice: Albanian, Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Catalan, Corse, Croatian, French, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Maltese, Serbian, Sicilian, Sloven, Spanish, Turkish,...

Well, most of them are quite regional and not very useful as universal language. More interesting can be Arab, French, Spanish and maybe Italian.

French is widely used and understood also in most of Northern Africa and Near Orient (i.e. Lebanon), and also in parts of Caribbean, Pacific, and Far Orient. In European Med, it is less accepted today than it was earlier - you will find people speaking French in Spain and Italy, and on some islands, but otherwise it is not very popular. I'd also not suggest learning French as your first foreign language - it is rather difficult and unlike with other languages you'll need to know much more before being able to communicate. The advantage though is that it is a Latin language (like Spanish, Catalan, Italian) and once you learn it, you can also more or less understand other Latin languages, or learn them easier.

Italian is much easier to learn, also because Italians are much more tolerant, and will manage to communicate with you even if you know just few words. Knowing Italian can greatly help you in Spain, and even in France, because of its Latin origin. It is also spoken a lot along the Adriatic sea, especially in Slovenia.

Spanish is another Latin language, easy to learn, and its big advantage is its use also in Caribbean, Central and Southern America and some other countries around the world.

Arab is another language that is spoken in many countries, although the local dialects widely vary. There are Arab minorities in many countries around the Med, so it can be useful also in Europe.

Personally, I'd probably recommend Spanish for the beginning.

However, if you plan traveling in a lot of different countries and do often research remote and non-touristic places, then in most countries you'll often have problems to use any other than the local language anyway. I'd suggest always learning 20-100 basic words of the respective language and some polite idioms - usually it is quite sufficient for the basic communication. When people see your effort, they appreciate it, and are usually much more helpful than if you started to speak to them directly in any foreign language.

[spaghetti]

I'm with Trux: french and spanish are spoken in half of the world (but spanish is easier to learn), while all the other mediterranean languages are too much specific. (but arab has an interesting potential too).

Or...Uh, idea: LATIN! I mean ancient latin, for enlightened theological conversations with catholic priests all over the world!

[Oldsarge]

Or fascinating, in depth studies of ancient scrolls pertaining to the sea and the life therein. Yes, by all means, Latin! And while you're at it, Attic Greek has great value as well, . . . though it may restrict the kind of girl you'd catch. : :

[spaghetti]

Originally Posted by Oldsarge

Or fascinating, in depth studies of ancient scrolls pertaining to the sea and the life therein. Yes, by all means, Latin! And while you're at it, Attic Greek has great value as well, . . . though it may restrict the kind of girl you'd catch. : :

So that's why every nun loves a sailor!

[jimdoe2you]

I just caught wind of this thread and I agree basically with everyone, but I personally would lean more toward learning spanish than french. Take into consideration that most of south america and central america (which includes Walter's neck of the woods ) are spanish as well.

My personal experience is that spanish was very easy for me to learn having grown up in Miami which has a very strong cuban culture. When I tried to learn some basic french before my Paris vacation two years ago, I was amazed at how difficult it was even just trying to pronunciate many french words.

Just my 2 cents .

[Oldsarge]

True. Really, guys, look a old globe with all the colonial territories on it. With English you get North America, some bits in the Caribbean, India/Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, and Southern Africa. Spanish will get you Central and South America, a bit of North Africa and Spain/Portugal. French will carry you down the West Coast of Africa, into Southeast Asia and across the South Pacific. See? Three languages and you can sail the world. www.rosettastone.com awaits. (and they teach Latin and Greek, too!)

[land shark]

Mandarine Chinese??

[Oldsarge]

Actually, I'm trying to get that started in our elementary school. I figure that if we take our native Spanish speakers, teach them English during the regular day then add Mandarin after school, the Pacific Rim is their oyster. Let there be trade. Let the money flow . . . in!

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by island_sands

Spanish! you can get by in portugal, andorra and italy if you know spanish

...Or Italian? Several Italian-American colleagues got by remarkably well in Spain, with no prior knowledge of Spanish (at least that's what they told me), on a trip a few years ago. The Spanish made a point of correcting Mexican-Spanish pronounciation though (the Spanish lisp some sounds while the Mexicans apparently don't, somebody reckon it dates back to a Spanish King that lisped). All Latin-based I suppose.

Originally Posted by jimdoe2you

... I was amazed at how difficult it was even just trying to pronunciate many french words....

...or understand them when the French pronounce them. The way they drop the first letter tends to screw me up ('otels & so on) -- as I tend to use the start of the word to figure out what the word might be.

Mandarin takes the biscuit though (can X billion people be wrong?...yes!), on the radio this week a Chinese teacher explain how the same word had 5 different meanings (mother, cow, disagreement,...) at 5 different pitches & went on to illustrate the use of all 5 in a single sentence. Because meaning is tone-dependent, apparently Madarin speakers have perfect pitch. Their pronounciation is accurate to within a half tone. I know a guy who learnt to speak fluent Cantonese but writing Chinese presents a lot of ... "opportunities".

(How about Cornish? The last native speaker died a several years ago ... but it is making a big comeback on signs & tourist souveniers.)

[spaghetti]

My vote still goes to spanish (Mr.X, I'm glad that you love Italy, but leave Italian where it is, it's a useless language, we italians don't understand it ourselves: I don't even understand what my wife says to me when she stresses words with her native inland tuscan accent. This happens when she's angry). More seriously, the real issue is spoken english, especially american english: when I watch Cnn news I don't understand ANYTHING of what they say, especialy from female newscasters: they speak so drolled!. While british BBC accents sound much more clear to me. Maybe it's because Cnn newscasters are all angry wives...
Latin and ancient Greek, seriously, are a strong starting point to learn easily every modern euro language. They are so complex, so structured and so perfect, that after learning them any other euro language is fresh air really.
(I had to study Latin and Greek at the high school for 5 intense years: what a kick in the groin! ...yet more useful than one could think).

[violaspearo]

I basically agree about the usefullness of Spanish, but you have to be careful about regional variations, because you can be perceived as arrogant/condescending sometimes. It requires more work, but if you're going to spend any amount of time in a given area, it's worth it.
By the way, Jim, if you had trouble understanding people in France, GOOD LUCK if you visit Québec! I lived there eight years and still lose bits of conversation!
And Spaghetti, in heated discussions with the spouse, a bit of incomprehension is normal - and perhaps useful ("Ma "he" "hosa" stai dicendo - non ho capito un cazzo....) Well, maybe you should just think that... In doing my grad shcool thesis I had to deal with BYZANTINE Greek - talk about at kink in crotch.... Ah, well, I guess it builds character.

JD

[Oldsarge]

Or how about someone who wants to be a serious Bible scholar & has to deal with Kinoic Greek? Sheesh!

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by spaghetti

...Maybe it's because Cnn newscasters are all angry wives....

You're a brave man Spaghetti! I wouldn't even dare think it

Most of the BBC TV presenters for the last decade or so have had strong regional accents rather than using the traditional Received Prounciation vanilla/posh-accent. Childrens TV presenters perhaps most of all. Fine for local programs I suppose but I'd much rather listen to RP or a softened accent than, say, scouse on national TV & radio - it's clearer and sounds more professional (John Humphreys springs to mind). I think it is a trend that may be coming to an end though, apparently the public don't like it.

I heard that people generally found American-English easier to understand & pronounce than English, so interested to hear that is not always the case; perhaps it depends on where you live (America or not-America) and how you learnt the language.

Sounds like Spanish might be a good starting point for the NW Med. Which med. countries would Arabic be useful in?

[island_sands]

Just saw this..
I learned Spanish when i was 17, must say that it has been the most useful language I know. Everywhere i have been i have been able to use it to my advantage. (especially in Miami

[Oldsarge]

For me, too, Spanish has been useful . . . but it's not what I really wanted! My father was adamant about my learning that language and I did, rather well, according to my teachers, but it's not what I wanted. If I had it to do all over again . . .

(I must be dreaming of that nun or something! )