decision-making tool: which language(s) should I learn?
One thing I enjoy doing is creating decision-making tools.
One such project has been itching in my mind for the past few months: a language-learning decision-maker: which language should I learn next?
Given a language L and a person P, we want to calculate P's costs and benefits in learning L.
Costs:
Effort: how much work is this language for P? (P's talent, linguistic flexibility, knowledge of related languages)
Money: how much money would P spend in learning this language?
(different combinations of effort and money may work, but it will be a trade-off in any case)
Time: P's opportunity cost: what is the cost of not doing other things he could be doing?
Benefits:
Economic: how much does knowing L improve P's job prospects? How much more business can P do by learning L? (what is P's area? what kind of person is P? where does P live? where does P intend to live?)
Social: would P make more friends by learning L? (where does P live? where does P intend to live?) be more attractive to the opposite sex? appease his partner's parents?
Entertainment: would P enjoy learning L? Would P enjoy the consequences of knowing L?
Are there any common reasons for learning a language that I am not covering here?
Here's a slightly bullshitty, yet comprehensive coverage of the whys and hows of learning a language. Here is a guide to the difficulty of learning a language for a native English speaker (measured in hours required to achieve proficiency).
Here is the ACTFL proficiency scale, a simple self-assessment guide. I am an "Advanced" in Dutch, in English and Portuguese I am "Superior" or "S-4" depending on my mood, and somewhere between "Intermediate High" and "Advanced" in French. I don't claim consistent S-4 level in any language, since there are times when I can't express myself very well at all.
In any case, it seems clear that I should learn Chinese. But first German, since I'm already halfway there. Having said that, it would only take me a couple of months to learn Spanish properly, so that might be the most sensible thing to do.
Here are the world's most important languages, as measured by GDP:
Languages on the Internet may be a better measure of how many highly-educated people a language has, so you might prefer this measure:
More measures...
http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/internetLanguages.htm
English 35.2%
Chinese 13.7%
Spanish 9%
Japanese 8.4%
German 6.9%
French 4.2%
Korean 3.9%
Italian 3.8%
Portuguese 3.1%
Dutch 1.7%
An interesting tangent, is that the BRIC4 countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are predicted to economically surpass the G6 (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, USA) before 2050.
One such project has been itching in my mind for the past few months: a language-learning decision-maker: which language should I learn next?
Given a language L and a person P, we want to calculate P's costs and benefits in learning L.
Costs:
Effort: how much work is this language for P? (P's talent, linguistic flexibility, knowledge of related languages)
Money: how much money would P spend in learning this language?
(different combinations of effort and money may work, but it will be a trade-off in any case)
Time: P's opportunity cost: what is the cost of not doing other things he could be doing?
Benefits:
Economic: how much does knowing L improve P's job prospects? How much more business can P do by learning L? (what is P's area? what kind of person is P? where does P live? where does P intend to live?)
Social: would P make more friends by learning L? (where does P live? where does P intend to live?) be more attractive to the opposite sex? appease his partner's parents?
Entertainment: would P enjoy learning L? Would P enjoy the consequences of knowing L?
Are there any common reasons for learning a language that I am not covering here?
Here's a slightly bullshitty, yet comprehensive coverage of the whys and hows of learning a language. Here is a guide to the difficulty of learning a language for a native English speaker (measured in hours required to achieve proficiency).
Here is the ACTFL proficiency scale, a simple self-assessment guide. I am an "Advanced" in Dutch, in English and Portuguese I am "Superior" or "S-4" depending on my mood, and somewhere between "Intermediate High" and "Advanced" in French. I don't claim consistent S-4 level in any language, since there are times when I can't express myself very well at all.
In any case, it seems clear that I should learn Chinese. But first German, since I'm already halfway there. Having said that, it would only take me a couple of months to learn Spanish properly, so that might be the most sensible thing to do.
Here are the world's most important languages, as measured by GDP:
Languages on the Internet may be a better measure of how many highly-educated people a language has, so you might prefer this measure:
More measures...
http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/internetLanguages.htm
English 35.2%
Chinese 13.7%
Spanish 9%
Japanese 8.4%
German 6.9%
French 4.2%
Korean 3.9%
Italian 3.8%
Portuguese 3.1%
Dutch 1.7%
An interesting tangent, is that the BRIC4 countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) are predicted to economically surpass the G6 (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, USA) before 2050.