Choosing a Foreign Language to StudyIt is not easy to choose a foreign language

Choosing a Foreign Language to Study
Good morning, everyone. Welcome all of you to the lecture "series of languages orientation". The fact that you are sitting here means that you are interested in learning a foreign language. Out of the thousands of languages in the world, how do you choose which one is the best for you to study? It depends on many things, including your reasons for study and your own language background among others. Now I am going to offer some questions you should ask yourself that will help you narrow down your options and choose the ideal foreign language for you.
The first question: What are your reasons for embarking on foreign language study? There are many reasons why people choose to study foreign languages. Think about your own motivations and know what you want to accomplish by undertaking this task. Doing so will guide you toward the best language for you to start with.[1]For instance, some people who are of a certain ethnic background are motivated to learn the language of their ancestors. Some people want to study a language simply because they think it’s pretty or interesting, and[2]others want to study a foreign language in order to increase their job prospects.[3]If you want to increase your job prospects, for example, and you live in the United States, Spanish would be an excellent choice. Mandarin Chinese is good if you want to go into international business, and[4]Arabic is ideal for people who want to go into international relations or have any type of career in the military. These are just a couple of examples, however. It depends on which country you live in and what your choice of career is.
[5]The second question is: what is your own linguistic background? Are you a native monolingual English speaker who has never studied another language before?[6]If so, your attempt to learn Spanish will be harder than it would be for someone who has studied Italian or Portuguese or who is bilingual in these languages, since Spanish is similar in grammatical structure and vocabulary to both Italian and Portuguese.
Thirdly, you should ask yourself: how much time do you have to study it? No matter which language you choose, you will have to put time aside every day to study it, at least half an hour to an hour’s time. But some languages will understandably take longer for you to learn than others. For example, if you want to learn to speak Russian in six months, and you only have an English-speaking background, this would be very, very difficult unless you have tons of free time throughout the day.[7]Getting to an intermediate level of conversation in Norwegian in that amount of time at an hour a day, on the other hand, with an English-only background, is much more realistic, due to Norwegian’s relative similarity to English compared to Russian.
Fourthly, how much access do you have to native speakers with whom you can practice? This is important. Whether the native speakers are in your family, in your community, or online in another country doesn’t matter.[8]As long as you can reach them on a regular basis to have conversations with them, they can help you improve your fluency. Remember in order to speak a foreign language, you need to speak it![9]The native speakers can help you with your pronunciation and vocabulary. Try to tell them in your new language that you are just learning and would like to talk with them in their native tongue.[10]You can ask for feedback from them in the foreign language as well; don’t be shy about it. Doing this will help you feel more comfortable in the language. The point is,[11]you should choose a foreign language that you can speak with others on a regular basis. Do you live in a community with a lot of Spanish speakers with whom you can easily converse, or do you have a couple of friends who are native Hindi speakers, for instance?[11]Assess your surroundings to see which language you can most easily be exposed to.
Fifthly, how much access do you have to study materials? With the advent of the Internet, there are now thousands of resources for many different languages, both in print and audio form.[12]There is a lot of beginner-level material out there for languages,[13]but you will need the entire spectrum of study materials, from beginner to advanced. If you want to reach an advanced level in the language, you will want advanced-level study materials.[14]You will need access to audio in order to hear the language, so choose a language for which there are a lot of audio options, including advanced levels. Make sure you can locate enough study materials to support your eventual progress in the language.
Finally,[15]do you want to go beyond just speaking the language to reading and writing? Some people just are satisfied being able to converse in a foreign language; others want to be able to read and write. If you choose a language like French, which is written in the same alphabet as English, the learning curve will not be as high as it would be if you decide to start learning Japanese, for example. Bear this in mind when you make your decision.
Whether you are a language hobbyist, a high school or college student looking to complete some elective courses, a job seeker wanting to expand your skill set, or just someone who wants a new challenge, choosing the right foreign language to study is crucial. Apply these questions to your own situation, and soon you will find the foreign language that suits your needs.