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Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

What language would you choose to speak fluently (other than your native tongue), if you had a speech talisman that gave you the ability to do so?

Asked by Hypocrisy_Central (26879points) August 2nd, 2014

You somehow discover the talisman you picked up at an antique store will give you the ability to speak another language fluently if you slept with it under your head for 5 straight days. What language would you choose, and what would be your 2nd and 3rd, (not that it would work for them, but it might)?

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38 Answers

dxs's avatar

Spanish, it’s so useful here.
Second, ASL. Another language I picked up but stopped using.
Third, Italian. My whole mom’s side speaks it.

talljasperman's avatar

Math, Sign language , Klingon, French.

gailcalled's avatar

French
Italian
Greek

With some effort, you could do it without the talisman. Ya sou.

Pachy's avatar

Hebrew.

talljasperman's avatar

Also C++ and Java.

SadieMartinPaul's avatar

French. There’s no language more beautiful.

majorrich's avatar

I would regain my Japanese, but would learn to read.

Mimishu1995's avatar

1. Facial language
2. French
3. Japanese

DrasticDreamer's avatar

Spanish
Italian
French

cookieman's avatar

Spanish
Italian
Chinese

gailcalled's avatar

^^ Joka tarvitsee taikakalu?

zenvelo's avatar

French, Italian. I agree with @SadieMartinPaul. Le français est la plus belle langue.

If I knew French, I could get by easily in Italy. And also in Spain.

AshlynM's avatar

Korean
Spanish
Japanese

anniereborn's avatar

sign language

pleiades's avatar

Japanese for sure, why? I have no clue.

ZEPHYRA's avatar

Esperanto

filmfann's avatar

“I am from the future and I am telling you to learn Chinese.”

The pious ass in me wishes I spoke French.

Haleth's avatar

French. Someday I’d love to get a job at a serious wine importer or a winery. It would be easier to head out to Napa, but California wine isn’t really my wheelhouse. France is where it’s at. They have a rainbow of different wines in every style you could possibly ever want, and they have a leanness or balance to them that’s really appetizing. The one common thread of French wine is that they are full of interesting flavors other than just fruit. (As opposed to new world wine, which is very often soft, plush, jammy, etc.) It’s the greatest hits of the wine world.

I’d learn Italian next, for a lot of the same reasons.

downtide's avatar

Spanish. I still have a dream of retiring to live in Spain.

2nd and 3rd choices: German and Welsh

ucme's avatar

Pitmatic

LostInParadise's avatar

First choice would be Spanish for practical reasons. Second choice would be Italian. I love the way it sounds, more so than French. For example, the greeting buon giorno is one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard, blows bon jour out of the water.

hearkat's avatar

German, because it is the root of the language spoken by my mother’s family, and is the root of many other languages.

Chinese, as an up-and-coming force in the economy and so I could read the specials menu at the restaurants we go to where we’re usually the only non-Chinese people there.

Spanish is very useful in many parts of the USA, and has many of the same Latin roots as French and Italian, so I think one could extrapolate what is being said in those languages.

Berserker's avatar

Norwegian. Then Japanese. And then Dwarven. I wish Tolkien would have created a whole Dwarven language like he did for elves.

cazzie's avatar

I speak English and Norwegian, but if I ever left Norway, knowing how to speak Norwegian would be completely useless… and it would end up being just a quaint party trick.

I think I would pick Chinese and then perhaps French. Living in Europe, having only two languages is like a handicap.

Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

Could be my imagination, but is seems Spanish, Chinese, and French are leading the pack.

talljasperman's avatar

Animal speech and baby speech.

flutherother's avatar

Mandarin
German
Italian.

talljasperman's avatar

East coast Canadian dialect.

zenvelo's avatar

Not a single mention of Esperanto. Remember in the 60’s when everyone was going to learn a universal language?

gailcalled's avatar

^^ Kaj pro bona kialo.

dxs's avatar

@zenvelo I once considered Esperanto, but I’d rather spend my time with a language that’s widely known in my area.

DaphneT's avatar

I would pick French, then Spanish, then Russian, then Polish, then Chinese, then…

Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

@zenvelo Remember in the 60’s when everyone was going to learn a universal language?
They have, it is called money.

shego's avatar

Mandarin
Hindi
Arabic

shpadoinklesue's avatar

Most of my faking swearing sounds Russian anyway, so I’d go with that.

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