athena's gift

[Charlie Brown]

Imagine if you do a favour for the goddess Athena, and as a reward, she gives you a gift of five languages. You can learn to speak, read and write any five languages instantly, with proficiency equalling your current first language, and it doesn't take away from your current language skills in any way. What five languages would you pick?

 

[Yue Han]

I'd use one slot to make my Mandarin fluent/native level and for the other 4: Arabic, Spanish, Japanese and German.

Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic for the sheer amount of native speakers/usefulness for each of those languages. Japanese and German because they're the most attractive sounding languages to my ears.

 

[moon]

Mandarin and Spanish for sure. Maybe Farsi for usefulness, Japanese for lulz and Klingon because KAHLESS

German sounds really pointy in my ears, and while it would be quite useful, I think I could just learn it myself the hard way if I really wanted to.

edit: screw japanese, throw in elvish instead

 

[Fairy]

Mandarin, French, Arabic, Dovahzul, and Mando'a. Because I'm a turbo nerd.

Edit: actually on the fence for Mando'a. High Valyrian Would be cool af to learn. :)

 

[Tsutarja]

Spanish, German, Arabic, Italian, and Japanese

The first one especially because it's like the second language of Florida

 

[Noblejanobii]

Since I already know Spanish to some degree I'd probably go with Mandarin, Thai, Arabic, Latin, and Farsi.

 

[simone1234]

I would want Japanse as the first one because there are some stuff that i can't watch without Subtitles, if i learn Jp i can just skip the wait. For the 4 left i would choose /Spanish/Cina/ Turkish/(3 random) and French because i will have to go somewhere this year where people may speak in French language. (Belg)

 

[gimmepie]

Tagalog, Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin and German. I've been trying to learn a bit of the first anyway since it's pretty likely I'll end up in the Philippines at least once but Chura's been skimping on my lessons lol. The others just seem useful/interesting.

 

[XNaut]

Definitely Polish and Spanish since my family speak those languages and I'm the only one in the family who doesn't speak those languages. The other three languages I would learn are French, Italian, and Russian.

 

[alisaie]

Spanish (in the way where i am completely fluent/native), Japanese, French, Latin, and Mandarin would most likely be my choices? Mostly because i find all of them pleasant to hear (beyond the first one for a dif reason lmao.)

 

[Sheep]

this is an awesome thread!

french, japanese, german, polish, and korean probably. french is such a beautiful language especially and i'd love to be fluent. wish i had the time, motivation, and especially proper immersion to learn it myself.

 

[Brendino]

While Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, and French would be the most functional ones, the only two of those I'd really be interested in are Mandarin and Spanish. I wouldn't say French too, but because I already know enough of it to get by, I feel I'd be wasting a pick if I chose it.

So, if Mandarin and Spanish are my first two picks, Japanese and Russian would be my next two. #5 is tough, but I'd probably go with Norwegian, based on my heritage. German, Swedish, and Korean would be my other considerations, plus maybe one of the local Coast Salish languages like Sḵwx̱wú7mesh.

 

[Starlight]

Japanese, Italian, German, French and Classical Chinese since then I wouldn't need to rely on dodgy translations of old texts.

 

[Her]

- mandarin for general purpose uses, particularly because of china's growing cultural influence
- korean bc it would be another way to connect with my boyfriend
- maori since i'm a new zealander and i think it's incredibly important to keep in touch with the country's history that way
- arabic for general purpose knowledge
- toss up between the language of my parents and extended family (french) or a choice between sanskrit and hebrew for knowledge purposes, particularly when it comes to understanding the religions attached to those languages, which are of deep interest to me

in terms of fictional languages:

- the quarian language of mass effect would be something i'd be genuinely happy to use
- al bhed speak!
- huttese would be fucking wonderful
- a way to read the language of the jak & daxter universe would be pretty interesting
- i suppose dovahzul for the sake of it lmao

 

[Charlie Brown]

My choices would be:

- Sinhala, to be able to communicate with relatives in Sri Lanka who don't speak English
- Mandarin, immensely useful language to learn
- Arabic, again quite heavily spoken around the world and also pretty intriguing
- German, again v practical
- Auslan (Australian sign language), so my communication can be more accessible

 

[Homeskulled Kid]

English would be a good start. I seem to speak the language of every mentally incapacitated kid on TV - mumbled, congested, nonsensical and whiny. Tinted with British, of course. Maybe a sliver of Huttese. Ho, ho, ho.

So Russian, German, French, Irish and Geonosian. All of that tongue clicking is just... ah. I love it. I know that a ton of African languages incorporate clicking, but c'mon! Everyone is going to put all the most standard things on their resumé, and then there'll be me - boasting fluency in Geonosian and foot calluses that a bullet couldn't dent.

I really want to connect with my Irish blood and learn traditional dancing and singing. But there is such joy in diverse heritage, because you feel as though the world really is your oyster - you can go anywhere and have a place there, a connection, and point at laugh at all the tourists because hah! They're never belong! Never!

I have problems.

 

[gimmepie]

Auslan (Australian sign language), so my communication can be more accessible

I wish I'd thought of this

 

[Sorvete]

English, Polish, Spanish, Japanese and... German, maybe? First four are quite present in my everyday life but German seems cool enough.

 

[Nah]

5 is in some ways a lot, but at the same time it'd be hard for me to pick just 5. Like, a full list list for what I'd pick would be like:
-Spanish
-German
-Japanese
-Chinese
-Russian
-Polish
-an African language
-Farsi
-Arabic
-Italian

which is obviously more than 5

Though at the very least, Spanish and Chinese would be on any list that allows for 2+ languages.

But alas, there is no Athena for me to do favors for to gain linguistic powers

 

[bobandbill]

Polish ( I know it, but I could be way better at it haha), Japanese, and... less sure about the other three. Spanish perhaps? Afrikaans or the like would be useful for here I suppose... or Dutch. Perhaps Russian for the last one, I could see some use there. :V