Which language would be most useful to learn in middle age?

[chillinchill]

What would be a great and useful lanagueg to learn?
Am middle aged and am not terrible at learning languages.
No particular interest in any specific country or culture open to all.
If you have a suggestion thats not on the poll, please share!

Any that belongs to a country you visit regularly, or think you might like to visit

Oh no, the title is AI generated, it sounds too stupid.

Anyhow not that relevant that i'm middle aged I suppose other than that I feel it 😂

I have no particular interest in any specific country or culture, I'm open to all.

Probably Arabic, but you’d find Italian fairly easy if you’ve done any other Romance languages (and it’s beautiful!)

I hope latin doesn't sound too random, I have always had an interest in it.

Middle aged is very old isn't it? Probably Latin then.

🤪

Latin can be useful if you are keen on gardening or natural history / wildlife.

Spanish is easy.

Also, hot men.

Mandarin. Language, script and history all in one.

If it is just as an enjoyable interest, how about Egyptian hieroglyphics?

Sign language

What's with the random choices in the poll? And useful in what sense? From a brain health and neuroplasticity perspective, any language will do you good. In terms of (relative) ease for a native speaker, and usability in a large nber of cou tries, Spanish is an obvious choice. And opportunities to practice are more accessible than further flung places. Also you would then have an advantage in learning Italian, Portuguese and Romanian as they have a degree of closeness. In terms of cultural interest and motivation - if you don't have any particular tie or interest in a language then how do you expect to be successful? Languages require a bit of grit and sticking power which is hard if you don't have any real interest.

Not sure why but I think I slightly prefer Italian over Spanish. It sounds beautiful.

I also have school French and lived in France for 6 months decades ago my French is very rusty but I could focus on brushing it up I guess?

Why do you want to learn a language? You say "most useful", but it's becoming much harder to make a career out of language skills, so it's hard to say. The languages in your list vary significantly in their difficulty for English speakers.

Egyptian Arabic or Mandarin if you want to advance your career.
Italian if you want to enjoy Tuscan holidays (and opera) more.
Latin for clarity of thought and to understand the etymology of many English words. And to read amazing literature in its original form.

I know nothing about Greek or Hindi.

Another to add to the list is Japanese. I learned a little and loved it. It is completely differently structured from English and it made me think in a different way. I believe Mandarin has a similar effect.

True but I didn't say I don't have any interest, on the contrary, I am excited to learn any language. Just need to decide.

Love this too.

A friend of mine conducts research into linguistics and the neuroprotective qualities of language learning later in life, complex languages like Chinese or Arabic are the most helpful in that aspect.

If you're happy to learn any language in your list, then I'd choose Italian. It's one of the easiest for an English-speaker to learn and Italy is a beautiful and fascinating country to visit that's not too far away. Great food as well.

How does one best go about learning BSL?

I don't really know what you mean by useful. I guess it depends on your life and what you want to use the language for. Useful for travel? Useful as foundation for learning other languages? Useful for your job?
I would go for whichever appeals to you the most.

Esperanto? Apparently there is a large, online community across the world.
I agree that British sign language would good (assuming you are in Britain?) and I think its the same signing used in Australia.

What area do you work in? If a medical role, gardening etc then Latin might be most useful.
If you are just choosing any random language for non travel, non work, no interest in the country/culture, no particular reason whatsoever, then maybe try each one for a month and see which one you enjoy the most. 🤷‍♀️

Arabic is hard.

i started learning it a few years ago. Firstly it is not so much a language as a group of languages. The advice is generally to start by learning MSA - Modern Standard Arabic which basically nobody actually speaks as their mother tongue. Once you’ve got to grips with MSA you can learn one of the dialects that people actually speak. Gulf Arabic is closest to MSA.

MSA is basically what is taught in schools in most Arabic countries and it’s kind of a pure, formal version of Arabic. There’s a lot of learning material for it because most kids who speak eg Egyptian or Moroccan Arabic at home also learn MSA.

apps for learning it are tricky. Duolingo has a (very limited) course or you need specialist apps.

i finished Duolingo and then found it hard to access more material.

I just mean that without some kind of language/culture specific motivation it could be quite hard to stick with. Honestly maybe listen to some of the languages you've mentioned and try pronouncing a few words, see which ones make you feel excited. . Personally I have always struggled more with 'softer' sounding languages like French, i find the vowels really tricky. Whereas German, Korean, Japanese, I find really satisfying to pronounce. Also think about food you like, TV you like etc - things that will enable you to 'lock in' better

I knew a woman who got to know her husband because they both spoke Esperanto, even though they didn't have any other languages in common.

They could only talk to each other, like. But it's a nice story isn't it.