Ask Lemmy

Would probably go for Japanese since I watch too much anime and Japanese media so learning Japanese would be super useful.

But then most anime and tons of Japanese media is translated anyway, except for music, but in that case I listen to a lot more of German music than I do Japanese, so maybe I would learn German instead.

But then, I can probably learn German much easier the traditional way that I can an Asian language, so maybe I should use the cheat to learn the language that would be harder for me to learn traditionally than just German. (Even though I've watched so much anime by now that I effectively can understand Japanese much better than I do German.)

Cobol.

Malay probably

Probably one of the nordic languages as everyone from my country is going there for work.

latin. old english

Chinese so I can flex being fluent in one of the most difficult languages

language that nobody speaks in your region

I realize this is a bit pedantic, but if you live in a city, there aren't really languages that aren't spoken in your region.

But for my choice, definitely Aztec. There's nothing more fun to say than Aztec words. Tlachtli. Quetzalcoatl. Axolotl. Tlapalpoyactic.

(That last one is the word for the color "orange")

Ithkuil! For the sheer information density and the bragging rights of being fluent in a language not even its creator can speak

Hmm spanish or chinese would be most helpful statistically, but French or German would be best for understanding things i want to read + watch.

Also knowing latin or ancient greek is great for showing off.. lots of buildings around here that have latin on themand it hurts me when i don't know 100% what they say.

Russian or Estonian, both of which are because I frequently listen to lots of music t

Me too!

Pictish.

It is a lost language from the British Isles and from one of the coolest populations in the area. They would paint patterns on their skin in blue then charge into battle naked. I reckon their insults and swearing would be absolutely raucous.

JAPANESE

I wanna watch Anime without needing subtitles...

Also sometimes meaning get lose in translation...

I'd love to rewatch Steins;Gate with proficiency in Japanese.

Oh btw, I have never met a Japanese person (I mean maybe I could've had walked passed by an ethnic Japanese that have been too Americanized for me to know their ethnicity... cuz then they're just "Asian American" to me, and it'd be hard to tell) and never heard anyone IRL actually speaking Japanese fluently...

So yea knowledge of Japanese can impress a lot of Western weebs.

I could even pretend to be Japanese for the lulz... since I'm ethnic Chinese and I doubt most Americans would even be able to tell the difference xD (I mean I probably can't tell apart East Asian ethnicities either, despite me being East Asian myself)

Define "nobody", because there are over 100 languages spoken at fluent level or above by at least a few ppl where I live

If we ignore the technicalities... Polish. Spoken by a lot of people, quite difficult to learn & would be a good priority target for magically learning it, and hopefully a good gateway to the rest of the Slavic languages

If we're talking city wide, then I doubt there are many fluent French speakers. So I'd Probably choose French just to not use it.

Probably either Latin or Gaelic. Both just sound neat.

Japanese, for the media. But really…

Loxian. The language was created by Enya’s songwriter, Roma Ryan, and the two of them are the only users of Loxian. Ryan’s husband Nicky (Enya’s producer) passed way last year, and his wife is probably not far behind. She’s in her 80s (Enya is in her mid-60s herself).

It is a real language and it exists in exactly five songs by Enya. The best one IMO being The Loxian Gate. The only reason we have translations is because Roma herself has written them, and we have to take her at her word that they are accurate, because it’s her language.

If you don’t want to look up any songs and hear it, it sounds like Gaelic (traditional Irish language) with some Elvish (like from Lord of the Rings, which Enya did the song May it Be from, and sang part of it in Elvish) mixed in.

"Region" would have to be extremely small around here to not include someone who speaks almost any (natural) language a typical person could think of.

I'll just go ahead and answer a different question: If I could instantly learn any language and my SO could instantly learn it also, I'd pick ASL, because it would be very nice to have a way to communicate that works where talking either doesn't work (loud places, for example) or would disturb others, or just across a large room.

Nahuatl. It's one of the indigenous languages of Mexico. It's what the people of Tenochtitlan and several other cities spoke.

When people think "Aztec" it's that language.

Latin. For no specific reason, it would just be cool

Whatever language the Voynich manuscript is written in.

Mandarin. It'd be useful for me to learn because of my job, and I've been meaning to learn it for quite a while. I just can't seem to find a decent source for learning that doesn't focus on the written language; I only need spoken Mandarin.

Dog.

My son-in-law is learning Finnish. That's on top of the English and German (Army brat) he already knows. As for me, I know Spanish and some German, and while Finnish would certainly qualify as a "nobody speaks" candidate, I'd go for Dutch. I've been to the Netherlands a couple of times, and it seems like a fun one to learn. There's no Dutch community locally that I'm aware of.

Whatever the Voynich manuscript is written in.

Chinese

I'd travel out of Germany then choose German then travel back.

I live in a large city, I reckon most languages must be spoken by at least a few people around me. Not even considering so-called dead languages.

That being said, I would love to learn Chinese. I think I'll see next year if I can enroll in one of the few courses available in said large city (Paris). I've just started learning Russian something which, I imagine in our so incredibly nuanced times, coupled with me also wanting to learn Chinese, will make me quite suspicious. That's fine ;)

Lakota:

• Help preserve an endangered language

• I've always wanted to learn it

• Useful when I go back home

• and frankly, it's probably the only language I'd want to learn without a community of native speakers in Chicago

Norwegian. I'm already working on it, but magic would be nice

Tokein's elvish, or other language I think he constructed several unique languages just for his backstory.

His cousin and him made their own language growing up they used to talk to each other, so it didn't start with his books.

I have spent a few years learning Spanish, and that's something I use pretty much every day. I can understand it almost as well as English, but my speaking lags much further behind.

I would like to learn Mandarin, but unlike Spanish there is pretty much absolutely zero relation between English and Mandarin. And because I wouldn't use it nearly as much unless I forced it, I'm sure I could spend over a decade studying it as hard as I have Spanish and be worse at it. So Mandarin is my answer.

Lojban

Lojban!

If someone else turned out to understand me after all, we'd be immediate besties

Well I probably can't say Klingon, too many goddamn nerds around here. How about Welsh? It'd be fun to go gargle at the locals in Cardiff about Doctor Who filming if I ever visit the UK.

Hungarian, so I could have a good conversation with my lovely stepfather, whose English isn't great.

Cantonese and/or Mandarin for chat with Chinese friends and relatives.

What I really want though is a babel fish - you put it in your ear and it acts as a universal translator. Any language, Earth or alien.