Spanish...

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thebestofenergy
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Re: Spanish...

Post by thebestofenergy »

Cirion Spellbinder wrote:^
How do you know Red is from the USA?
I don't.
I was referring to EquALLity. However, isn't Red from the USA too? If I'm not wrong, he mentioned something about it some time ago.
But I could be mistaken, it's been a while since I've had conversations here.
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brimstoneSalad
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Re: Spanish...

Post by brimstoneSalad »

thebestofenergy wrote: Why... are you guys... doing this.
You'll regret not learning a more useful language in half the time.
I was wondering this myself.

English, Chinese, Spanish. Top three languages in the world today, and the most economically useful languages.

It can be useful to learn a few polite phrases in less common languages, like if you'll be doing business in Japan, learn a few dozen phrases in Japanese. But otherwise, pretty much everybody speaks English, AND will have an interpreter too.

Understanding the language can be useful if the interpreters mess something up (which can happen), and you look like a bad ass when you correct them, but that rarely happens.

AFAIK French is only useful for Africa today, but just barely, since there are so many English speakers there too.
thebestofenergy wrote: vi offrirò una mano volentieri.
Only knowing some Spanish myself, I can still read some Italian, though, and understand the gist of it. I assume that goes both ways. So it may not be totally useless if it helps you understand Spanish (at least written). :)
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Re: Spanish...

Post by inator »

Demand is important, but it's better to learn a language in high demand and short supply. Spanish study should have worse retuns in states with a larger share of native Spanish speakers.

Arabic seems to be in demand too, especially in the discourse on energy and security. But it's very difficult to learn...I could've probably picked up two other languages instead by now.
Last edited by inator on Mon Jan 04, 2016 7:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Spanish...

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thebestofenergy wrote: Why... are you guys... doing this.
You'll regret not learning a more useful language in half the time.
What if I told you I also speak greek and a little bit of german and spanish (only a little bit)?
Plus, I kinda have to, so..
thebestofenergy wrote:How does it even... what? Wait, since when are they teaching Italian in other countries? And in the US, in particular? :shock:
I can hardly believe this.
Since like what 2003?
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EquALLity
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Re: Spanish...

Post by EquALLity »

thebestofenergy wrote:
EquALLity wrote:I'm only learning Italian in school
RedAppleGP wrote:I am also taking Italian
Why... are you guys... doing this.
You'll regret not learning a more useful language in half the time.
How does it even... what? Wait, since when are they teaching Italian in other countries? And in the US, in particular? :shock:
I can hardly believe this.

Well, either way, if you ever need help with this horrible language, vi offrirò una mano volentieri.
:lol: I already do kind of regret it. ;P

Thanks for the offer, though that may not work because of different dialects.
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thebestofenergy
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Re: Spanish...

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brimstoneSalad wrote:Only knowing some Spanish myself, I can still read some Italian, though, and understand the gist of it. I assume that goes both ways. So it may not be totally useless if it helps you understand Spanish (at least written)
That's definitely true. I can understand some of the basic stuff, not having ever picked up a Spanish book.

http://www.langoblog.com/wp-content/upl ... proved.png
There are significant similarities among all of the languages under 'Italo-Western Romance', so I guess it'd be easy to pick any other of those languages up by knowing one of them - which is convenient.

However, no chance of me comprehending most of the articulate sentences.
Strangely enough, some of the sentences in Spanish are practically identical to the italian dialect spoken here - which I don't bother with either :D So, I guess my grandparents would understand Spanish more than I do.
RedAppleGP wrote:What if I told you I also speak greek and a little bit of german and spanish (only a little bit)?
I'd say it's rare to see that at your age.
Self-tought? I guess school wouldn't have tought you those many languages already.
RedAppleGP wrote:Since like what 2003?
I've never heard of anyone studying Italian overseas in obligatory school, so it definitely caught me by surprise.
EquALLity wrote:though that may not work because of different dialects
I don't know any Italian dialects (I can hardly understand them, and I can't speak them), so that wouldn't be an issue :D
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brimstoneSalad
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Re: Spanish...

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inator wrote:Demand is important, but it's better to learn a language in high demand and short supply. Spanish study should have worse retuns in states with a larger share of native Spanish speakers.
If you want to be a translator or something, definitely.

If we're just talking about having the ability, for general business purposes, you'll usually want the languages of economic powerhouses (like China) that you're most likely to do business in.

If were talking about a tick on your resume for retail or something, then you'd want the second or third languages most common where you're working, and those may or may not be Spanish or Chinese (or at least with Chinese in the states, it would probably be less useful than Spanish since native Chinese speakers who have immigrated are almost certainly going to be able to speak English well anyway).
inator wrote:Arabic seems to be in demand too, especially in the discourse on energy and security. But it's very difficult to learn...I could've probably picked up two other languages instead by now.
That's a big one if you want a job in Government, as I understand, particularly CIA etc.
If you were in oil or something along those lines, it might be a good language for business too.

Might also be a good language for a professional atheist with a specialization in Islam.
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Re: Spanish...

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thebestofenergy wrote: I'd say it's rare to see that at your age.
Self-tought? I guess school wouldn't have tought you those many languages already.
What if I told you.. I am greek!
*xfiles music*
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Re: Spanish...

Post by inator »

thebestofenergy wrote:http://www.langoblog.com/wp-content/upl ... proved.png
There are significant similarities among all of the languages under 'Italo-Western Romance', so I guess it'd be easy to pick any other of those languages up by knowing one of them - which is convenient.
I think you can say the same for all Continental Romance languages. It should be easier for Italian and Portugese people to understand Romanian than French if they've never studied either.

brimstoneSalad wrote:If we're just talking about having the ability, for general business purposes, you'll usually want the languages of economic powerhouses (like China) that you're most likely to do business in.

Yes. For example, Spanish speakers account for a bit more of world GDP than German speakers do, but an important factor is also economic openness. Germany is a trade powerhouse, so its language will be more economically valuable for an outsider than the language of a relatively more closed economy.

Mandarin seems to be the obvious choice, but it's one of the most difficult ones and everything has an opportunity cost.


brimstoneSalad wrote:If were talking about a tick on your resume for retail or something, then you'd want the second or third languages most common where you're working, and those may or may not be Spanish or Chinese (or at least with Chinese in the states, it would probably be less useful than Spanish since native Chinese speakers who have immigrated are almost certainly going to be able to speak English well anyway).

A non-native learner of Spanish will have a hard time competing with a fluent native bilingual for a job requiring both languages.
If you're from the States and you're learning a second or third language, it's probably safe to assume that you won't be competing for the same jobs as some Hispanics living there who haven't picked up English.


But I suppose education should do more than create GDP-producing machines.
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Re: Spanish...

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inator wrote: Mandarin seems to be the obvious choice, but it's one of the most difficult ones and everything has an opportunity cost.
This is true. You could probably pick up German from a Native English speaking position in less than half the time.
inator wrote:A non-native learner of Spanish will have a hard time competing with a fluent native bilingual for a job requiring both languages.
Assuming racism wasn't a factor, perhaps. But there are various levels to the notion of "requirement" too; most retail jobs with large Spanish speaking populations won't require perfect fluency, just basic ability to communicate and answer common questions.

Let's say you were working in a car dealership; you could brush up on the relevant vocabulary on horsepower and safety features in a single weekend pretty easily, plus basic small talk, it wouldn't be hard to fudge the rest and make a sale.

Not translator level jobs, but just basic sales pitch stuff where you just have to figure out that they're talking about their families and make some positive comments? Not too difficult.
And beyond the ability to grab a commission from sales, really you only need to convince the white non-Spanish speaker who is hiring you that you can speak enough Spanish to beat the other applicant.
inator wrote:If you're from the States and you're learning a second or third language, it's probably safe to assume that you won't be competing for the same jobs as some Hispanics living there who haven't picked up English.
Yes, but you still need to be able to sell them things. ;)
And if you're working as a manager somewhere, likely it will benefit you to be able to understand the Spanish speaking staff when they're talking about you in the same room, or communicate more clearly to those with poor English (again, then fluency still really doesn't matter).

In any job where these may be likely scenarios, it's going to be a positive mark on your resume to speak another useful language, even if not very fluently.
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