I can't decide which language to learn. Chinese, Japanese or Korean. How can I decide?
Right now I am learning Chinese. I explored Korean first but decided to learn Chinese instead because the grammar is much simpler and Korean grammar is very confusing. The Korean alphabet is pretty easy to learn though. I have heard that Japanese has similar sentence structure to Korean, so if you want something with easier sentence structure, try Chinese. Also, you do not even need to learn how to write the characters because you can use the pinyin keyboard to type Chinese using the Roman alphabet and you just have to recognize the right character for the word you type.
How do I decide which language to learn?
I would start saving not only energy, but also time.It is a precious resource, often overlooked in language learning.If your goal is to communicate with people fluently, there is basically only way to do it - communicating with people.Learning a language (as a set of rules and a vocabulary list) does not help you get closer to communicating with others. I know people who are learning language for years without using it. They think they already learned a lot. But the first real-life conversation helps them understand that, in fact, they did not learn much. And even things they "learned" sound completely different when you start using it in real-life conversation.It took me a few years to re-learn the phrases I was "learning" in my English classes at school and start using the language people actually use every day.If you want to save your time, try to avoid constant learning, forgetting and re-learning. Start with using the language and communicating with people about things you like. You might discover through your own experience that the beauty of the language is in using it for something that is real and interesting to you.Learning a language as a subject is often the main obstacle to this discovery.It is hard to make friends when you know only a few simple greetings and produce one textbook phrase at a time. Ignoring the fact that people actually don't use many of these phrases in real-life conversations.But it becomes a lot easier if you focus on speaking, understanding and writing the language the same way native speakers are doing it themselves.
I want to learn foreign languages, but I can't decide which should I prefer?
Hello, If you want to learn a foreign language, my first preference would be GERMAN and second would be JAPANESE. As German will start to dominate English in the near future:)
I can't learn a second language?
My parents said its required for me to learn a second language for school(I'm homeschooled, working hard to go into 10th grade). But, I have sucked at learning a second language. The beginning of last year, I tried spanish, then toward the middle my mom decided I should learn latin, but at the end of the year we just stopped. I practiced every day, but now, I remember nothing about both languages. When I was learning, I tried talking in spanish, but couldn't keep up with other people, for latin, I just didn't get anything I learned. But I remember I tried ASL when I was like 6, and I can still spell my name and remember some other basic stuff(like introducing myself, "I love you" and other things). I think because it was a visual language, and not how other languages are, like I can actually see what I'm saying I guess. Also the old music director of the church I used to go to, she knew ASL, and wanted all the kids to use it during songs, like each day at vbs, we would learn part of the song in ASL, or at Sunday school we would learn parts of bible verses and stuff. I was thinking about norwegian since it sounds amazing, but I learned that people use english more, I was looking at french, but eh... when am I going to use that. I also just have problems pronouncing certain sounds(like R's in english, R's and RR's in spanish). I really can't decide on a language. I would like to try ASL again since I'm very interested in deafness and deaf culture(also thinking about becoming an ENT since I'm also interested in medical stuff). What do you think would be good? My guitar teacher also said I'm a visual learner, whatever that means.
Which language should I learn to speak first? I can't really decide…
You have embarked on a lifetime of joy and of study. There is nothing like language study.One concerning thing is when you say that you “have tried many languages, but few interest me.” A polyglot will speak several languages (by definition) but if few languages interest you, then becoming a polyglot is decidedly much more difficult.Some polyglots will study dozens upon dozens of languages - though if you speak three or four languages you are considered a polyglot.Grammar is certainly hard, in every language. Some have a much more difficult grammar than others - Russian grammar has been described as quite difficult, and Dutch on the other hand is supposed to be very easy. (However… your experiences may be different.)Perhaps the most important thing you have stated is this:I want to learn languages so I can learn about different cultures, history, and how languages work.Thus, you should focus on languages that address these goals. Choose a culture that fascinates you, a history that you are passionate about, and select a language based on that.Your last item is very interesting - you want to learn how languages work. This opens up planned languages like Esperanto, and linguist-created languages like Klingon, Elvish, Dwarvish, and others. It sounds to me as if you would enjoy studying the linguistic work of J.R.R. Tolkein (who was a linguist - the Lord of the Rings was designed as a fictional vehicle for the languages it contains, all created by Tolkein).You might also like to study languages from different language families. Instead of studying French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian - all Romance - why not study French (Romance), Russian (Slavic), Greek, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese? (Not all at once!)Also don’t rule out the more mundane reasons for learning a language - you might want to learn one because the cute gal down the street is from another country, or because the folks in your favorite bookstore all seem to speak another language, or your favorite television show (anime!) is produced originally in a different language.Good luck!
I can't decide if I want to learn web or other programming, so can't I do both?
Er, yes and no? Many web programming platforms can also be used to build other types of applications, and are designed to be so you can integrate applications with your web page. So yes you can learn both by building applications for the web, unless that falls under "web programming" for you. This is kind of a weird question because the line of demarcation between web programming and "other" programming can be kind of unclear. If we define it as simply web programming encompasses all web app, web platforms, etc. then you have standalone application programming, which if you've learned both like myself you realize there isn't a huge difference in the concepts being applied. Web development simply adds a framework around your application to make it accessible through the internet, by definition. To cut it short, yes you can do both if you learn web development and carry over many of the design concepts into standalone application programming. Standalone application programming will not, however, teach you the skills to build a web framework around it, which honestly isn't that hard. So really it boils down to what do you want to make? What requirements do you have? Do you want other people to easily be able to use it? That's how you should decide what you need to learn, decide what you want to make first.
How can I decide which programming language to learn?
Figure out which language(s) for which you have friends who are experts. Start with those: a knowledgeable friend is the best resource. If you have no such friends, continue reading.If you want to become marketable as a programmer as quickly as possible, you should learn some kind of web programming. Python and Ruby are popular choices, as well as associated web frameworks like Django/Flask and Ruby on Rails. You'll probably also have to learn a little bit of SQL for playing around with databases.If you want to learn the foundations of functional programming, learn Scheme, and untyped functional language. In most cases, types just get in the way of understanding. (For more reasons see my answer to What are the best languages for getting into functional programming, and why? I’m looking for a language with clear syntax, active community involvement, and good documentation.)If you like math and want to reason about functions in terms of their types, learn a statically typed functional language like OCaml or Haskell. If you are friends with French programmers or want to work at Jane Street Capital, OCaml is the way to go. If you want to be a real hipster programmer and do everything in a Really Principled Way, Haskell is the more appropriate choice. If you want to learn a statically typed functional language but will probably work for a company that will never use OCaml or Haskell, learn Scala.If you want to write fast code, learn C. If you want to write fast code collaboratively with other people, learn C++ and make sure you have some other code readability standards. If you want to really understand how computers work, learn assembly.If you want to learn a trippy language, learn Prolog. You can just write declarations of facts and the runtime figures out all the missing values. You can write a grammar that acts as both a parser and a sentence generator. You'll think about programming differently forevermore.If you want to write the program equivalents of legal speak, learn Java. But it's just going to teach you to be unnecessarily verbose and frustrated, so I wouldn't recommend starting with it. (If you are still interested in writing in OO or functional style on the JVM or need access to Java libraries, you might want to look into Scala.)
How should you choose a new language to learn?
This answer really depends on 3 things. How much time and effort you want to put forth learning, how fluent you want to become, and what your mother tongue is. Not all languages are equally hard to learn, some are harder. Learning any language is hard and takes time though. If you can't see yourself wanting to keep studying a year from now, save yourself the time and energy and don't even start; That's your first test. Here's the thing; most people say, "I want to become fluent so I can communicate and talk with other people." In one sentence they just contradicted themselves. To be fluent, and to be able to have a conversation are two very different things. As an example the Japanese proficiency test is graded on 5 levels, 1 being completely fluent, and 5 being very very basic. Most people just want to just speak with Japanese people, which is considered level 3 (conversational level) yet they say "I need to be level 1 to be able to communicate." Don't overestimate your goal, and set something realistic. Also pinned to this section, is how useful it's going to be. If you have no plans to use this language, other than an occasional trip every few years or something similar, don't start. All the time and money you'll sink into it is definitely better spent elsewhere. Use should dictate to a large degree your commitment level.Finally, depending on your mother tongue, some languages will be more difficult. Japanese people have a much easier time learning mandarin or Korean because of the similar root. Same with Spanish speakers learning ItGerman speakers learning English. As soon as you start crossing over into languages with different roots, the difficulty ramps up quickly. This is why it's hard for English speaking Americans to learn Japanese and Vice-versa. Learn whatever language suits your fancy, but please consider the three points above before you start.