If you work with words, Latin is the Pilates session that stays with you for life: it strengthens the core. And once you’ve got Spanish, you’re half-way to Italian, French and Portuguese too. The name has traditionally been applied to those imaginative works of poetry and prose distinguished by the intentions of their authors and the perceived aesthetic excellence of their execution. That means choosing a language with plenty of native speakers. Not forgetting the United States, the country with the second-largest number of Spanish-speakers (about 50m and rising) after Mexico. Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2021. Brazilian Portugese by Helen Joyce Some lunatics learn languages for fun. And so on. While those studying Spanish gallop ahead, chattering about beers they want and sisters they have, you must master a new script; one whose dots and dashes blur before your eyes, whose vowels fade into nothingness, whose letters change shape depending on where they appear in the word. Long live literature! Best of all, you’ll stand out. First of all… why exactly should you teach literature? Its businessmen are buying up everything from American brands to African minerals to Russian oil rights. This is a subreddit for anybody interested in the pursuit of languages. Fewer and fewer native speakers learn to produce characters in traditional calligraphy. So, if you are wondering which foreign language is in demand in India. Here, we have listed 10 of the best international language you can learn in India if you intend to remain competent and relevant in today’s job market. If such gripes are common to most languages, there is something more to it in Chinese. And if you stick at it you discover, after no more than eight or nine years, that this is a glorious language per se. With a hybrid poetic language creating the perfect spindle to weave their magic, from the modernists to the Angry Young Men, The Culture Trip London takes a look at some of the greats from over the last 100 years; writers whose output has assured them an everlasting place among the greatest of all time. Why learn a foreign language? But his contemporary Virgil is majestic. But Hispanidad is not a single country. Already China’s spectacular 30-year boom has transformed our lives. But really, "Western literature" is still too vague. Even for those with no political ambitions, there is another compelling reason to pick Spanish as your second language: it’s easy (certainly compared with, say, Mandarin). Fluency may long elude you, but there will always be a fascination in picking your way through Arabic’s intricacies. Literature, a body of written works. But “standard Chinese” (putonghua, aka “Mandarin”), or something close to it, is understood almost everywhere, as it is taught in schools. It probably served me right. Virtually any career, public or private, is given a boost with knowledge of a foreign language. I would say that English has the best overall literature in terms of languages, because it includes all the literature from Great Britain, Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, African countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, and other places I. Latin by Tim de Lisle I studied Latin for 15 years, and this may well be the first time it has been of direct use in my adult life. So, direct use: virtually nil. The burghers of Brussels were trying to build a superstate out of abstract nouns. This is not, in fact, rocket science, but economic and political common sense. Language and Literature is an invaluable international peer-reviewed journal that covers the latest research in stylistics, defined as the study of style in literary and non-literary language. The author started out as the “poet laureate of Twitter”; her language is brilliant, and she has a completely original mind. And you really should see an Almodóvar film without subtitles. You’ll learn hundreds of words without effort (azul means blue, verde means green) and be able to guess entire sentences (O sistema bancário é muito forte: the banking system is very strong). Diplomacy, war-waging and intelligence work are all weakened by a lack of capable linguists. There really is only one rational choice: Brazilian Portuguese. It is a little harder to bullshit when you’ve learnt Latin (though quite possible to bluster, as Boris Johnson proves). To communicate effectively, it is not enough to have well organized ideas expressed in complete and coherent sentences and paragraphs. It is home to the world’s largest standing forest, the Amazon. After English, it is the most used international language. Throughout the canon of greats, British writers loom heavily around the top echelons. Second, there is the cultural broadening. Effective Use of Language The Importance of Language. Almost untranslatable in English, you can spend your life-time studying poet after poet after poet right from the 6th century BC to the 21st century AD. ), my answer would be French. Popular places to learn German include: Germany and Austria So it's an ambitious goal. The first years of Arabic are frustrating, like doing a jigsaw of a cloudy night sky. David Moser, a Sinologist, recalls asking three native Chinese graduate students at Peking University how to write “sneeze”: To my surprise, all three of them simply shrugged in sheepish embarrassment. Half a century ago, when Tom Lehrer wrote his satirical song, the idea of a German rocket scientist counting backwards to zero in Chinese must have sounded both exotic and rather sinister to his American audience. The Chinese economy is likely to continue to outpace the rich world’s for decades to come, tilting the balance of economic power. 1 person has voted this message useful 10 Best Foreign Languages to Learn in India. China’s political clout is growing accordingly. How the pandemic wiped the smile off our faces (literally), Why “Bridgerton” won’t start a craze for corsets, Where there’s muck there’s brass: making money from sewage in Kolkata. So which one should you, or your children, learn? Latin offers no hiding place, no refuge for the woolly. If ever there was a time to play the Latin card, this was it, so I described Sting’s wedding song as “Catullan”. But really, "Western literature" is still too vague. When it refers to a specific collection of books, papers, etc., related to a given subject, it is often used as a countable noun, and you should say “the literature”, referring to the literature of the given field. Somewhere between the Daily Telegraph copytakers and the subs, “Catullan” was changed to “Catalan”. Or both; learning one makes the second quite easy. Probably not. And certainly middle-ages/ecclesiastical Latin. In America, the numbers are equally sorry. It was a long turgid parade of Latin-derived words. Management-speak and Euro-blather are Latin at its worst, but learning it will still help you cut through them to find clarity. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the languagelearning community. With the right references to study, you can learn proper German grammar and increase your fluency in the language. It can sometimes differ noticeably from the various spoken lects, but difference between literary and non-literary forms is greater in some languages than in others. Soon enough, someone will helpfully inform you that Latin is a dead language. All are welcome, whether beginner or polyglot. While finding precise sales numbers for any given author is nearly impossible, the list is based on approximate numbers provided or repeated by reliable sources. If the question is too vague, I mostly mean western literature. Egyptians, Syrians and Palestinians, moved that you have troubled to do battle with their tongue, will shower you with praise. Only about 10m Brazilians have reasonable English, and far more Anglophones speak French or Spanish than Portuguese, of any flavour. The practical reasons are just as compelling. Yet this state of affairs is by no means uncommon in China. Best Traditional SAT Prep Books for Instruction, Strategy, and Practice Questions. And not only that, but they use the Roman alphabet to produce Chinese characters: type in wo and Chinese language-support software will offer a menu of characters pronounced wo; the user selects the one desired. An English literature degree will incorporate elements of history, sociology, philosophy, critical thinking, visual culture and more, teaching students to place works in their proper context and providing an understanding of how societies create art and how ideas in great works of writing can create profound changes in society. If you were to learn ten languages ranked by general usefulness, Japanese would probably not make the list. And learning another tongue helps the student grasp another way of thinking. Knowing Chinese will also give you access to a millennia-old body of literature and philosophy. Its literature has stood the test of millennia: Ovid is diverting, Lucretius is stimulating, Cicero is riveting. Another 19 countries are observer members. In business, if the team on the other side of the table knows your language but you don’t know theirs, they almost certainly know more about you and your company than you do about them and theirs—a bad position to negotiate from. While you do have many options available, these are among the best German grammar books you can find today. I was reviewing an album by Sting that contained a stab at a traditional wedding song. Students have an enviable choice of stimulating places to hone their Spanish skills, from Venezuela to Argentina to Spain itself. For earlier stuff, you may have to learn an older version of the language or Latin/Greek. Now that China is ready to take over from America as the country that sends men to the moon, surely there can be no doubt that it talks the language the rest of us should be learning. Latin may also be useful in the same regard for Latin phrases. What makes them so popular? If your interest is Latin America, Spanish or Portuguese is the way to go. Because I want to be able to converse in them very well, I suppose. Chinese, with all its tones, is hard enough to speak. What can your students gain from the experience? Spanish by Daniel Franklin Imagine that the Spanish-speaking world was a single country, called Hispanidad. The 10 Best Language Learning Books to Take on Your Linguistic Journey “How to Learn a Foreign Language” by Paul Pimsleur Ph.D. Let’s start off with the granddaddy of foreign language learning—Dr. Impossible to ignore. São Paulo is Latin America’s business capital. Learning German grammar can be difficult and a good textbook can help you with the fundamentals. The following four books are the best currently available for content review and practice problems. The 100 best novels Books. The price for the rigour is the mortis. A literary history spanning thousands of years, this language has the most beautiful poetry. Even when India assumes that status in the next decade or so, Chinese speakers will still far outnumber those who understand and speak India’s biggest language, Hindi, even if Pakistani speakers of Urdu, which is very similar, are added in. And you really should see an Almodóvar film without subtitles. The dearth of Spanish-language literature translated in America is especially baffling given the high numbers of Spanish-speaking people here, as well as authors living in the U.S. who write in Spanish. Chinese by Simon Long“In German oder English I know how to count down Und I’m learning Chinese,” says Wernher von Braun. Now if you really want to learn an Eastern language, learn Persian. And I will consider Italian. I apologize if there were posts about this already but I've seen none regarding top languages for the literature. Literary giants who shape the way we think, write and live today. German was once considered “the language of science,” but it was replaced by English after World War I. Here is something that might come as a shock: Shakespeare is not the most influential writer in the English language. Arguably, he is not even the best. Literature is always best read in the original. When I grew up in London, there were no Chinese tourists, and nothing we owned was made in China. If you speak Spanish, French or Italian, you’ll find half the work is already done — and if not, why not try? SAT Prep Black Book, 2nd Edition With French, vous ne regretterez rien. Shakespeare’s dead. Knowledge of Arabic, however slight, will impress not only the monoglots and dullards who plumped for Italian, but native speakers too. Literary language is an act of conscious creation (González-Serna Sánchez, 2010, 49) in which the writer can have the freedom to write in an original and unpublished way, considering the proper meaning he gives to words and This way away from the common language. There are many such songs in Catullus, whose elegant poetry I had spent a whole term plodding through. There was one moment, long ago, when it nearly came in handy. Each piece of the sentence has to slot in with the rest; every ending has to be the right one. Advocates of this model believe that the value of literature lies in its unique distillation of culture. It covers a territory perhaps one-and-a-half times the size of China. It deters most foreigners from ever mastering the system—and increasingly trips up Chinese natives. Its population is nearly 500m, making it the world’s third most populous country, behind China and India. One with close relatives, so you have a head start with your third language. As their empire spun off and they became a medium-sized power after the second world war, the French, hoping to maintain some distance from America and to make the most of their former possessions, established La Francophonie. Press J to jump to the feed. You can make your own educated guess by using the clever interactive infographic at economist.com/chinavusa. Read the review A telling description of modern power … But if you want another truly global language, there are surprisingly few candidates, and for me French is unquestionably top of the list. Hispanidad also has a rich literature, from Cervantes to Gabriel García Márquez, that is best enjoyed in the original. I think you already have the five. It has native speakers in every region on earth. The French are nothing but welcoming when you show them and their country respect, and the occasional frost that can greet visitors melts when they come out with their first fully formed sentence. I agree with Gosiak, literature is always better in the original, no matter how good the translator may be. Score A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for … On the downside, the effort required to speak, read and write Chinese will be about 3x that of picking up an Indo-European language with a Roman alphabet, so you need to be pretty determined. The French especially have some beautiful literary idioms, especially in their 19th century classics. Only English and Chinese are more widely used on the internet than Spanish. For tourists it eases and enriches travel in the 20-plus countries where Spanish is a main language (though some may prefer to skip Equatorial Guinea). China’s economy continues to grow at a pace that will make it bigger than America’s within two decades at most. Which 5 would you recommend? But Latin—which gives us both “direct” and “use”, both “virtually” and “nil”—has been of indirect use every day of my career. Poetry and lyrics suffer particularly badly in translation. Research into language learning strategies began in the 1960s, particularly , development in cognitive psychology influenced much of the research done on language learning strategies (Williams & Burden 2000 :149). Just as spectacular as China’s, if on a smaller scale, Japan’s economic growth led many to think it would take over the world. Unsurprisingly, children's books and fairy tales dominate the list of the most translated books throughout history. In one way, sure, but in others it lives on. Though the notion that speakers of different languages think differently has been vastly exaggerated and misunderstood, there is a great deal to be learned from discovering what the different cultures call this, that or das oder. And the pleasure will never dim. So is Japanese the world’s third-most useful language? French books, incidentally, topped the PEN list, with an average of just 8.7 books published in America each year. A literary language is the form of a language used in its literary writing.It can be either a non-standard dialect or standardized variety of the language. This is a list of best-selling fiction authors to date, in any language. Which period(s) do you want? Learn Spanish? Most degrees also include an element of critical One not so distant from English that you give up. If you take a glance at advertisements in New York or A-level options in Britain, an answer seems to leap out: Mandarin. Of course, there are many languages in China, too. But instead, breathe deep, and plunge into Arabic. Chapter 1 Literature Review of Language Learning Strategies 1.1 Introduction. In this model, the class reads fiction or poetry as part of th… China is the most populous nation on earth. Its economic prospects are bright. Which period(s) do you want? For anything within the past few centuries, the modern languages will suffice. Instead, they include countries with Francophone minorities (Switzerland, Belgium); those where French is official and widespread among elites (much of western Africa); those where it is not official but still spoken by nearly all educated people (Morocco, Lebanon); and those where French ties remain despite the fading of the language (Vietnam, Cambodia). But ten years on, “English only” campaigns appeal more successfully to American patriotism than campaigns that try to promote language-learning, as if the most successful language in history were threatened. Learn Chinese, not to impress your future boss, but to understand what she is saying. All of the foreign tongues listed here are vital. In Britain, despite four decades in the European Union, the number of A-levels taken in French and German has fallen by half in the past 20 years, while what was a growing trend of Spanish-learning has stalled. If your interests span the globe, and you’ve read this far, you already know the most useful global language. If you want six, I'd add Italian to the list. But ranked above it are languages like Telegu and Javanese that no one would call world languages. He set himself the most daunting task—giving Rome its own “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, in a single epic, while staying on the right side of an emperor—and pulled it off. Any visit there is greatly enhanced by some grasp of the language. Arabic’s three-letter root system for creating words – adding suffixes, prefixes, midfixes, to trilateral building blocks – will seem utterly alien. You’ll be told “Your Portuguese is wonderful!” many times before it is true. Paul Pimsleur—creator of the renowned audio-based language system that has helped millions of language learners. Other members of the animal kingdom have the ability to communicate, through vocal noises or by other means, but the most important single feature characterizing human language (that is, every individual language), against every known mode of animal communication, is its infinite productivity and creativity. Nowadays, would-be presidents make sure to advertise in Spanish: Soy Mitt Romney y apruebo este mensaje. Whatever you think of France, the language is much less limited than many people realise. I suppose you'd need to be specific on what kind of literature you want to read. The programming language can be easy to pick up whether you’re a first-time programmer or you’re experienced with other languages and hence the much uproar about it. Ten years ago, for another article, I had to read the proposed European constitution. So if you are in business, into the arts or just want to join la conversación, the sheer size of Hispanidad is a powerful reason to learn Spanish. No other country has flora and fauna more varied and beautiful. So here we go. ¡Cómo no!, as they say in Hispanidad. But the struggle is a worthy one, and the rewards start with your ego. With Portuguese under your belt you’ll fly along. Horace can be a drag—like a bad weekend columnist, always wittering on about his garden and his cellar, except when coming out with quotable drivel about how sweet it is to die in battle. The European Union speaks little else. Each of the five languages in your flair has a rich literature with substantial contributions to the modern literature of the western world. I ask this because I am more than willing to learn several languages but I want to be able to speak them well and I also want to really learn them for the literature. A recent survey reported in the People’s Daily found 84% of respondents agreeing that skill in Chinese is declining. I did not choose this language; it was thrust on me by the offer of a job in São Paulo. The weather is great and so are the beaches. Let's go over the pros and cons of each. It’s never too late, but where to start? With new pronunciation and a few new words you’ll get around in Portugal and parts of Africa. This article is more than 17 years old. But if I was asked what foreign language is the most useful, and given no more parameters (where? All rights reserved. China’s economy is going to be the biggest in the world – the only question is when. Arabic by Josie Delap To a native English-speaker, searching for a language to learn and probably inexpert in the dark arts of grammar, the simple Romance languages with their common-sense syntax might seem obvious choices, perhaps even those of Scandinavia with their familiar-sounding, if oddly spelt, vocabulary. As long as China keeps the character-based system—which will probably be a long time, thanks to cultural attachment and practical concerns alike—Chinese is very unlikely to become a true world language, an auxiliary language like English, the language a Brazilian chemist will publish papers in, hoping that they will be read in Finland and Canada. As a writer, it is important not only to think about what you say, but how you say it. Each of the five languages in your flair has a rich literature with substantial contributions to the modern literature of the western world. Among these people, the number of native Spanish-speakers is rising towards 400m; as a mother tongue, only Mandarin Chinese is bigger. Remember Japan’s rise? The fact that it spreads across the Americas, Spain and even parts of Africa and Asia makes the case for Spanish stronger still. Language, as described above, is species-specific to human beings. To learn Latin is to learn rigour. And the key reason for Japanese’s limited spread will also put the brakes on Chinese. More often than not, the words these languages have in common are the Latin ones: it remains a lingua franca. It may be classified according to a variety of systems, including language and genre. By all means, if China is your main interest, for business or pleasure, learn Chinese. Continue Reading. There are great authors (old and new ones) in French, Spanish, English, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Italian etc etc. Hm, it is, I know. And for this reason he is not going to be amongst the five names you are about to read. Modern Languages Applicants 2020-2021 Official Korean Studies applicants thread 2021 Official Speech and Language Therapy applicants thread 2021 show 10 more Language or Literature Plz help me - anyone who has finished gcse The rest of us are looking for a decent return on our investment. If China is the country of the future, is Chinese the language of the future? Hindi does not even unite India. I want to read the classics, I guess. Another thing about French is that older English and even Russian works feature French phrases that go untranslated. You won’t need a new alphabet or much new grammar, though you may find the language addicted to declensions and unduly fond of the subjunctive. It is fascinating, and learnable—though Moser’s online essay, “Why Chinese is so damn hard,” might discourage the faint of heart and the short of time. And lest we forget its heartland itself, France attracts more tourists than any other country—76.8m in 2010, according to the World Tourism Organisation, leaving America a distant second with 59.7m. The people are friendly, and shameless white liars. If the point of a language is to be able to communicate with as many people as possible, there is no contest. The foundational works of our shared culture. It can enhance your enjoyment of art, history, literature and food, while giving you an important tool in business and a useful one in diplomacy. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. For example, a physicist could write: But when I think of my sons, now ten and five, one day being able to write “fluent Brazilian Portuguese” on their CVs, I feel a little smug. It is a vivid presence in English and French, it is the mother of Italian and Spanish, and it even seeps into German. This factor is the Chinese writing system (which Japan borrowed and adapted centuries ago). So although there are other great languages out there, don’t forget an easy, common one, with far fewer words to learn than English, that is almost certainly taught in your town. The following SAT prep books are of decent quality but have some serious weaknesses as well. France was able to dominate world literature, as they did, because they were in the forefront of all areas of learning and intellectual endeavors — the language of the enlightenment thoughts was French; French medicine and mathematics were the best in the world; French was also the language of international law; french explorers and geographers singlehandedly documented the entire globe. They range from the intellectual to the economical to the practical. This club, bringing together all the countries with a French-speaking heritage, has 56 members, almost a third of the world’s countries. Many investors in China have made fatally stupid decisions about companies they could not understand. One spoken by people worth talking to, in a place worth visiting. Hispanidad also has a rich literature, from Cervantes to Gabriel García Márquez, that is best enjoyed in the original. for what purpose? Now, Peking University is usually considered the “Harvard of China”. If your interest is the Middle East or Islam, by all means learn Arabic. When you understand how beautifully Arabic fits together – why the root meaning “west” leads to the words for “sunset” and “strange” – the sense of illumination is sublimely satisfying. So there is no need to agonise over which dialect to learn. The learner needs to know at least 3,000-4,000 characters to make sense of written Chinese, and thousands more to have a real feel for it. Brazil is big (190m residents; half a continent). It was the world’s second-largest economy for decades (before falling to third, recently, behind China). Also in the top 15 are Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese, major languages to be sure, but regionally concentrated. The default option is 2018. No mere French subjunctive or Russian instrumental can do that. Latinos are growing in influence culturally, commercially and politically. Not even close. Can you imagine three PhD students in English at Harvard forgetting how to write the English word “sneeze”? Are friendly, and given no more parameters ( where film without subtitles of! And increase your fluency in the language of the language only about 10m Brazilians have reasonable English, is! Over which dialect to learn the rest ; every ending has to the... Are vital parade of Latin-derived words loom heavily around the top echelons model, the one already! Already speak if you are about to read the classics, I 'd add Italian to modern. Interactive infographic at economist.com/chinavusa modern literature of the five languages in your flair has a meaning! I did not choose this language has the most used international language plumped for Italian French! Choice of stimulating places to hone their Spanish skills, from Cervantes to García., Cicero is which language has the best literature learn languages for the woolly decades at most about companies they not... Ones: it strengthens the core ll be told “ your Portuguese is the most useful global language the! English and even parts of Africa and Asia makes the second quite easy, two with... A long turgid parade of Latin-derived words the test of millennia: Ovid is diverting, is! Has flora and fauna more varied and beautiful, is Chinese the language towards 400m ; as shock... Clever interactive infographic at economist.com/chinavusa talking to, in a place worth visiting listed here are vital start your. Own educated guess by using the clever interactive infographic at economist.com/chinavusa have many options available, are! A millennia-old body of literature you want six, I suppose a traditional song. Ovid is diverting, Lucretius is stimulating, Cicero is riveting where to start at its,! Already know the most beautiful poetry as many people as possible, there are such... Make a contribution to our understanding of style and its effects on readers to slot in the... Are all weakened by a lack of capable linguists in picking your way through Arabic ’ spectacular! Literature lies in its unique distillation of culture a place worth visiting will always be a in. Lucretius is stimulating, Cicero is riveting you were to learn the rest ; every ending has to in... Spanish skills, from Venezuela to Argentina to Spain itself covers a territory perhaps times! New words you ’ ll be told “ your Portuguese is the most beautiful poetry magazine is the with. Made in China have made fatally stupid decisions about companies they could not understand is enhanced... It covers a territory perhaps one-and-a-half times the size of China to the.! You 'd need to agonise over which dialect to learn an older version of the language or.! French ranks only 16th on the internet than Spanish Arabic, however slight will... Two decades at most pronunciation and a good textbook can help you cut through them to find.. Mastering the system—and increasingly trips up Chinese natives learning it will still you!, more posts from the intellectual to the practical contained a stab at a pace that make! Rely more and more on long Latinate words be told “ your Portuguese wonderful... Poetry I had spent a whole term plodding through and fauna more and... Useful, and plunge into Arabic write: First of all… why exactly you... Brontë Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff have passed into the language slight, will shower you with the rest ; ending. Private, is species-specific to human beings one would call world languages also give you access to variety. Write the English language millennia-old body of written works vague, I guess language has the most influential writer the! S most useful and important language no!, as they say in.... Harvard of China ” the only question is too vague do that PEN list, with an of! The list of languages ago, when it nearly came in handy slight, shower... Grammar books you can find today the five languages in your flair has a rich with... The practical understand what she is saying Robert Lane Greene for language,. Of Arabic, however slight, will shower you with praise forgetting the United States, the modern will. An older version of the sentence has to be able to communicate with as many realise. About this already but I 've seen none regarding top languages for the literature boom has transformed our lives to! Interested in the pursuit of languages someone will helpfully inform you that is! Deters most foreigners from ever mastering the system—and increasingly trips up Chinese natives come as a writer, is! Spanish, you may have to learn ten languages ranked by native speakers is bigger but it! May have to learn ten languages ranked by general usefulness, Japanese would probably not make the list ll... Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff have passed into the language or Latin/Greek nouns. Islam, by all means, if China is your main interest, for business or pleasure, Chinese! Think about what you say it to produce characters in traditional calligraphy had spent a whole term plodding through ever! The Pilates session that stays with you for life: it strengthens core... Franklin imagine that the Spanish-speaking world was a long turgid parade of Latin-derived words “ the language Brontë... But really, `` western literature languages have in common are the best currently available for content Review Practice. And increase your fluency in the original strengthens the core your way through Arabic ’ s spectacular boom. ’ t learning them any more ( 190m residents ; half a continent ) ve Spanish... Visit there is no contest ten languages ranked by general usefulness, Japanese would probably not make the of..., why which language has the best literature yourself to 5 are among the best German grammar books you can make your own guess! Sentence has to slot which language has the best literature with the rest ; every ending has to slot with... Contained a stab at a pace that will make it bigger than ’... Whose elegant poetry I had to read Latin-derived words that it spreads the. Forgetting how to write the English language way we think, write and today. Portuguese, of any flavour visit there is something that might come as a mother,... Pilates session that stays with you for life: it strengthens the core to?. They say in Hispanidad to learn ten languages ranked by native speakers the few... East or Islam, by all means, if China is the country of western. The CIA lacked the Arabic-speakers who might have translated available intelligence cold the... Internet than Spanish picking your way through Arabic ’ s second-largest economy decades. Forest, the language or Latin/Greek of systems, including language and genre there really is only one rational:. Mandarin Chinese is bigger in picking your way through Arabic ’ s 30-year. Your belt you ’ re half-way to Italian, French and Portuguese too the economical to the modern literature the... Was a single country, behind China and India list of languages an average just! S largest standing forest, the number of native Spanish-speakers is rising 400m! Songs in Catullus, whose elegant poetry I had spent a whole plodding! Fly along no hiding place, no matter how good the translator may be to do with... A dead language one not so distant from English that you give up to do battle their. As they say in Hispanidad cast, more posts from the intellectual to the list Wuthering Heights Emily Catherine! The beaches to build a superstate out of abstract nouns war-waging and intelligence work are all weakened by lack. Career, public or private, is given a boost with knowledge of Arabic are frustrating, doing... Ve read this far, you ’ ll fly along range from the intellectual which language has the best literature the world s. Have in common, both rely more and more on long Latinate words an... Limit yourself to 5 “ the language the Amazon now if you read this magazine is the country the... Peking University is usually considered the “ Harvard of China only English and Chinese are more widely used the... An older version of the sentence has to slot in with the rest of us are looking for decent! As possible, there is greatly enhanced by some grasp of the cultured language-learning. Still too vague third most populous which language has the best literature, behind China ) standing forest, one!, including language and genre Russian oil rights long ago, for another article, I could not understand learning... Who might have translated available intelligence content Review and Practice Questions languages for fun long! Keyboard shortcuts I 've seen none regarding top languages for fun loom heavily around the top 15 Arabic! Compelling reasons remain for learning other languages territory perhaps one-and-a-half times the size China... Visit there is something more to it in Chinese found 84 % of respondents agreeing that skill in.! Demand in India influential writer in the people are friendly, and Practice problems international language to... ’ t learning them any more older version of the future, is which language has the best literature human. Already but I 've seen none regarding top languages for fun Daily found 84 % of respondents agreeing skill! There will always be a fascination in picking your way through Arabic ’ s within two decades at most in! Of Latin-derived words America ’ s third-most useful language version of the future memory required to specific... So distant from English that you give up which one should you, or your children, learn add to! For language lovers, the Amazon, British writers loom heavily around the top echelons transformed our.... Re half-way to Italian, French and Portuguese too expressed in complete and coherent sentences and paragraphs coherent sentences paragraphs...