Anyone thinking of learning a new language?

[Lugubert]

But I think you missed a few difficult bits:

- numerous homophones' date='

- sounds that aren't found in european languages (AFAIK)

- switching from conjugated verbs to aspect

- deducing which part of speech a word is being used as without an inflection to guide you.[/quote']

1. Indeed! Have you read (or tried reading...) the Stone Lion story by Chao Yuen Ren?

2. Not much of a problem for a Swede. We have lots of retroflex consonants. Swedish has far more problems for almost everybody else, especially in the vowel department.

3. I just say 'le'. Nobody can fully describe how to use it; it is said that full day conferences are arranged now and then to discuss it.

4. That's a real beast. English is bad enough in that respect.

[Strawberries513]

I am always wanting to start a new language, but I am forcing myself to work only on Chinese

But... I would LOVE to learn Korean. Here is my reasons why:

1. I love k-pop and korean films, and the pop culture in general

2. I love the sound of spoken Korean

3. I really like the Hangeul and can already read and write it

4. It is an east-asian language

but I probably wont get too far in Korean... Its too hard. In my opinion, the hardest spoken language there is.

I also am thinking about starting Swedish. I started learning it a few years ago but I learned it all wrong and was only able to read. It is very easy for a native english speaker to learn, and it sounds cool when spoken, so I might start it soon.

overall, I am always getting random urges to try new languages (wanderlust) and hopefully when I reach a high level in mandarin i can finally start something new

[atitarev]

I can't help think that Chinese grammar or rather trying to make sense of very long sentences is harder than that of Japanese for the same reasons Onebir mentioned - ("deducing which part of speech a word is being used as without an inflection to guide you").

Languages with inflections are a bit harder at the very beginning stages but then the endings are a blessing because they have a concrete meaning and they help you to identify the meaning.