It's not that I am ambivalent towards French, German, or Hitler; I heart all three, especially Hadolf Itler (Bizaro World). Language... who decided 'what' is what and language is language? There is surely a PIE (Proto-Indo-European) derivative language that we all can enjoy: Assyrian, Greek, Indo-Iranian, ALL Romance Languages, Celtic, Germanic, Armenian, Turkic, Albanian (Spanish, English, Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, German, Marathi, French, Italian, Punjabi and Urdu). So what should be your third or fourth or more language?... Never mind most us Americans who struggle to know just one and one quarter. How close do we want to be to our neighbors? We redefined pizza, General Tzo's chicken, and even the sand(which) we stole from England and the Jews. Screwing pun, I move on to the modern day of Spanglish, broken eyetalian, and the-lets-not-go-there Apu Nahasapeemapetilon 7-11 accent. Flattery is THE best form of imitation. So let's learn a language or two.
Before buying Rosetta Stone or searching AltaVista, why do we borrow from other languages, look up foreign words, or learn complex verb conjugations? It might be to impress our friends, our significant others, or we seek another challenge in life. Regardless, that is the first step. The United States really does not have an 'official language,' an 'accomplishment' few other countries possess. If you live in a big city, there is no doubt you have come across an accent, language barrier, or stereotype. The beauty is that you can walk down most streets and markets and hear something you do not understand. That is what makes me curious. I don't blame myself; The fortunate dichotomy is that when both young and now, I expect everywhere I go to have English somewhere, somehow. I wish the best for you in your travels. But good luck truly appreciating the culture, especially when you really don't take in the language.
My point is... Figure out where you want to go most often, where you business assists lie, and where you can meet the most friends. My dream is all three, but that is not all. I dream of Italian, Russian, and Chinese before I die. I rank them in order of difficulty and curiosity. It is a hobby taken seriously like a stain on the clothin'. I don't have but only mention the mental release, stress satisfactoring, cultural expanding you will do by just observing another culture and its language. And don't count past language influences unless you know the place, words, and culture!
-DC
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