If you could learn 1 language what would it be?

Mandarin, but it’s infinitely more complicated than Russian.

What about simplified Chinese? Still very complicated.

If you study any of the above, make sure emphasis is on TALKING. 80% minimum of instruction needs to be you actually TALKING.

The grammar – formula approach in these takes forever and slows down the capability to talk – too many thought processes.

Learn the way it comes naturally to humans – by talking. That’s how kids learn and it’s a lot faster. Grammar details and formulas are for AFTER you can talk. First learn the what, later the why.

I’ll let one of our chinese members handle the chinese question.

Those things are useful, but to be truly effective you need to repeat out loud and if possible, record what you said. Then compare it to what the instructor said – very carefully. Otherwise you may learn incorrect pronounciation.

Incorrect pronounciation may end up not letting anyone understand what you are saying, even though you know the words.

It’s really actually easy and fun to teach yourself that way, all it takes is your time.

These audio courses do work quite well, given you make very sure you are pronouncing correctly.

You’d be surprised how much you can learn, and anyone can do it.

US schools are about the most abominable places to encounter one’s first contact with a foreign language. 90+% of all people who try to learn there come away thinking they are not able to. Nuts!

For affiliate positions I will say Russian since a lot of super-affs are native russian speakers

For marketing, management executive positions and mainly in the betting industry I will say Chinese.

I recommend Latin! :thumbsup:

Just got back from Italy and I liked the language so much that I bought different types of books, cd’s etc to try and learn.

Now I just bought Rosseta Stone, this one seems the best, but I gtuess like my website, I’ll get out what I put in.

By the way, the history on the real Rosetta Stone is awesome.

Buddy

im learning japanese right now with audio books ,I speak arabic and english because that is what i was exposed to growing up.

When I was 9 years old I learnt Italian for 3 years and could speak it better than English (English is my first language).. After getting to high school and started learning French, I lost the Italian (or spoke mixed Italian and French) but eventually lost it completely because I had noone Italian to speak to.

I then learnt French for 3 years at high school, did it for my HSC (top 10% mark in the state) and then left school and did not speak French for 6 years. I chatted in French on msn with a couple of people but not much at all.. I went to France last year and picked it up again pretty easily..

I also learnt Greek over the last 4 years just listening at home and went to Greek school for 6 months…when I went to Greece last year I picked up about 90% more of the language by listening and using it every day than I did in 4 years at home.

I would recommend that if you’re going to learn a language, to ensure you have someone there to speak to constantly, or you will lose it. I learnt Italian the best of the 3 but since I didn’t have anyone to speak to I lost it. Can remember small parts now but not enough to get me by.

I guess the best advice would be to learn with someone else so you can practise together. It makes a huge difference.

Good luck!