I was wondering what languages people would choose to learn just for the "fun factor" or for personal enrichment. I know many people want to learn something practical for their jobs (here's its almost always Spanish) or for frequent travel to an area that doesn't have a strong English language presence, but that's not the question here. If you had the time, resources and opportunity to learn a less practical language which one would it be?

I think mine choice would be Danish. I had a friend at work from Denmark and she was one of the nicest people I've ever met. She use to tell me Danish words for various things around the office and also told me about interesting places to visit in Denmark. Unfortunately she moved to another state so that source of language practice is gone. I also have met a couple of other Danes over the years living in Northern California - also very nice people. Kind of surprising, I've met a number of Danes, but no Norwegians or Swedes.

Anyway, I've heard all the warnings about the Danish language. Supposedly its the most frustrating Scandinavian language to learn - almost never is pronounced the way its written. Still, the Danes I've met have left me with such a good impression of their country I would really like to take a vacation there to see it for myself and to interact as best I can with the locals. Yes, I know almost all speak English, but I would think it would still impress them if someone took the time to get a working knowledge of their language. That said, I'm kind of at a loss for instruction resources. Berlitz? Rosetta Stone? Something else? There's a http://www.scandinavianschool.org/ in San Francisco with fairly reasonable classes, but that's a bit far for me.

I desperately feel the necessity to learning Spanish, but just out of interest, I'd like to learn German.

I'm a classicist, so I learn languages as my life's calling. But just for fun? Probably Huttish. That way I could get on Jobba's good side. :angel:

I have always wanted to learn German considering it makes up 70% of my heritage.

I'm learning Russian just for fun at the moment. Free course at uni', always liked the sound of it.

Esperanto because someone I know is fluent in it, and could help out a lot. But meh.

I'd learn them all if I could.

Veeno posted a language that sounded like nothing but clicks and random ass sounds.The name escapes me.

Hebrew, but only to read not to speak.

Japanese. Watch Ghost In The Shell and Cowboy Bebop with their original Japanese (good) voice-actors and no subtitles. That would be sweet.

This is probably the last language I would learn. I have an aversion to anything that attempts to place itself as an unnatural Lingua Latina. It will never become truly important, because languages become dominant through cultural and economic power. Until there's a world power behind it, it will remain only spoken by a handful (estimates are 10,000 to 2,000,000 worldwide) of people.

Estonian, but only because it's closely related to Finnish and has many words similiar to Finnish. Also, some of my family used to live in Estonia before WWII. And it's pretty interesting.

I think it is great that you want to learn Danish BUT has you say yourself it is a very difficult language to learn. I know a guy who have lived here for 25 years he still have MAJOR problems with the language.

You also got to be prepared to learn the alphabet from scratch.

So all i can say is :thumbsup: GOOD LUCK :thumbsup:

PS: i am starting learning Spanish next semester :rolleyes:

Russian sounds badass so that, I wouldnt mind visiting parts of scandinavia when im older so probablly Swedish because (dont crucify me if wrong) Sweden own Norway and Finland at one point ? I sssume they speak Swedish aswell as native languages so just seems more practical. Also Welsh, not practial at all. But I feel I need to because I am Welsh.

Sweden don't own Norway and Finland. Whilst to most there isn't much difference culture wise between Sweden and Norway (although it's still noticeable), there's a definite difference between them and Finland.

I was looking through book/CD Danish language guides on Amazon.com and one of them had this description:

"Modern spoken Danish has gained a reputation as being exceptional and difficult for foreigners to understand and master. The nine Danish vowels represent sixteen different sounds and most of the consonants are unvoiced. A unique feature is the 'stod', the glottal stop, used to distinguish between several homonyms and words. The Danes also tend to drop inflectional endings, and this perceived mumbling, even in formal standard Danish, may present problems to those learning the language."

Sounds like I going to have an interesting time trying to learn the basics! What got me interested in trying it was a movie I recently rented - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terribly_Happy. Despite being a very dark film it sparked my interest in Denmark again.

I am pretty sure at one point they did untilthey declared independance, I dont mean they currently own them just pretty sure they did.

I'm learning French just for fun.

You could say the same about America and Canada. We all know how well that would go down.

We did own them too at one point. I dont see an issue with ignoring the facts. And becuase of that they speak mostly English (or is Canada more French ?) Just assuming the same for Sweden/Norway/Finland and expect most speak Swedish.

German and Japanese for me. German because that's where my family originates from, and Japanese just because I enjoy the culture.

I said "Esperanto...."



This is the reason it seems fun and not serious. (I knew most of what you said). Pig Latin is fun also, but not a serious language....except in its original historical function; which origin is very interesting.

Finnish sounds interesting, but I am a "maalaisjuntti" or "maajussi"....so look out! (Thanks to whoever posted that a week ago or so. See, someone pays attention):tongue:

Sign language seems useful.

[edit] Ok....I Googled Wikipedia concerning Pig Latin and it says that the origin is not clear, but I have heard that it was used by American POW soldiers in WWII to obfuscate their communications when in fear of being heard by their Third Reich captors.

Concerning Esperanto, you may be familiar with a book in Morrowind called, "N'Gasta! Kvata! Kvakis". It is in Esperanto, and the story behind it is somewhat interesting. It seems one of the developers sought out a quick and dirty way of putting a strange sounding language in a book for the game....imo.

http://www.imperial-library.info/content/mystery-ngasta-kvata-kvakis

For fun? Russian. Such a unique language.

Easy. Finnish.

what language is the necronomicon written in.