With thousands of languages in this world, how do you choose a language to study? In this post, I’ll break down a couple ways of how I choose which languages to study.
Interest to you
Most importantly, the language you are choosing has to be of interest to you. Whether that be interest in a culture, media, or history, having this sense of genuine interest for the language will make learning so much more easier and enjoyable.
Relevance
There are some languages that have many speakers and some that don’t have too many. Depending on your goals, you may wish to choose a language with a large number of speakers to have the greatest opportunity to speak with someone in that language. You can also take a look at what languages are most commonly spoken in your local community.
Level of Difficulty
Some languages, may require more time and effort to learn than others. If your time allocated to learning languages is limited, it may be best to choose a language that is easier. Typically, languages that are similar to languages you speak will be easy. For English speakers, this includes languages such as Spanish and Italian.
Availability of Learning Resources
Depending on which resources you will be using, resources for certain languages are more easily found than other resources. Nonetheless, this is becoming less of an issue due to the growth of online resources and apps.
Key Takeaways
All languages are worth learning and are fun learning. Choose a language that stands out to you and see where the journey takes you. Remember, you are not limited to a single language!