Second language studies

[Alfred Moir]

Hi there everyone. I’m Richard from Italy. I’m writing to you because I’ll have to choose which university to go to in a few months and I’m thinking to study Foreign Languages. Back in high school I was lucky enough to study such authors as Shakespeare, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Percy Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, Tennyson, the Bronte Sisters, Lawrence, Hardy, Joyce and many others. The problem is that I studied nothing but English literature. I'm planning to study Portuguese, Spanish and French on my own, but for now I need to study a second language beside English with a good literature. Would you suggest me a particular language to study since I’m a native Italian speaker? :)

[ClaesGefvenberg]

Would you suggest me a particular language to study since I’m a native Italian speaker? :)Chiao Richard, :wave:

I don't have a solution, but I admire your problem. It would seem that you have interesting times ahead no matter how you choose, so let's reason about it. Do you have any particular objective or idea as to the end result of your studies?

/Claes

[LostPrincess13]

Hello! I've read somewhere that based on grammar structure, French is the closest to Italian. But in terms of phonetics, Spanish. It's easier to learn a language that uses somewhat similar vocabulary. I go with French on this one. :D

[Calidore]

France has a huge amount of literature. Furthermore, some authors, like Alexandre Dumas and Eugene Sue, wrote many of their works as newspaper serials for the entertainment of the masses, which I would expect means they'd be good material for language learners.

[Alfred Moir]

Well, unfortunately the end result should be finding a decent job. Ahah I still don’t know which job I’m suited for but language is the basis of all written and spoken communication. I’m confident that after I graduate I’ll make up my mind what to do. Since I need to find an employment I need to be selective though; but I’m genuinely curious. “There are those who seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge; that is Curiosity”, Bernard of Clairvaux. :p

[Sara Izzie]

Hello Richard! I'm italian as well :) And I'm planning on studying foreign languages too (well actually that's the plan if I don't get into Interpreting and Translation). Either way, I'm going to study English and Russian, which I find really fascinating. I am also interested in Portuguese, which shouldn't be too hard to learn for us. If you want to stick to a more "common" language I would suggest French! I studied it a few years ago and it's not too complicated. Besides, French literature is great! :) Good luck!

[russianmonk]

I would go with Spanish, there are a ton of great literature from South/Central America as well as Spain so your pool of study is much larger than learning French in my opinion.

[JBI]

Study Arabic. Big body of literature, and very few Western specialists in the field.