If you could trade away the language of your home country/ where you live...

[spademan]

If you could give up the language of your home country/ where you live in exchange for the ability to fully comprehend/speak/write  three other languages would you do it? By giving up your knowledge of the language where you reside, you would now be unable to comprehend that language at all, except for the most minuscule and simple terms and this would essentially last you until the day you die. Also, although you will be able to fully comprehend and write three other languages of your choosing, you aren't getting any free money so if you don't have enough cash to move countries and you take up this deal, well GL. For more exciting purposes, let's add that you are only presented this question one time, and you must answer on the spot knowing you will never have this same opportunity again. 

Personally living in america, I'd take this deal. Giving up my knowledge of english, I'd take spanish, dutch and (of course) japanese. No idea what I'll do about my job, but seen plenty of people that get buy without knowing any english so hopefully I'd make it.

[Arcadeotic]

Taking a look at how much I despise and frown upon my native country, I'd take the deal lightning-fast

I wouldn't need Finnish for anything, and instead would probably take French, Russian and Japanese, so that I'd get by splendidly almost anywhere and because these languages interest me

[Chronopolis]

No. English. No......... If I had no choice, I'd pick...Japanese (even though I know it decently, being able to speak and write fully would save so much time). Then Chinese (vital), and then Korean I guess...? It'd be such a shock adjusting.

[Darklord Rooke]

55 minutes ago, spademan said:

If you could give up the language of your home country/ where you live in exchange for the ability to fully comprehend/speak/write  three other languages would you do it?

No.

[Yuuko]

Well Swedish is an official language in Finland so bye bye Swedish  

Knowing already 4 languages though so not really interested in the deal.

[LiquidShu]

Nope. I rather keep my heritage and learn the three other languages through hard work. 

[babiker]

Well, the first part of the deal is a bit extreme. Not many people can even imagine giving up their own language and cultural identity, you're basically giving up a big part of who you are. As for my top 3 languages to learn, Japanese is a no-brainier, second I'd go with Urdu and then probably Turkish. I do meet a lot of Indian/Pakistani people on a daily basis, and they're kinda everywhere in the world lel, so learning Urdu definitely sounds like the best idea. I'm also really interested in Turkish culture and the history of the Ottoman empire and that kinda stuff, so I'd probably learn Turkish despite how unpopular the language is w

[LiquidShu]

6 minutes ago, babiker said:

Well, the first part of the deal is a bit extreme. Not many people can even imagine giving up their own language and cultural identity, you're basically giving up a big part of who you are. As for my top 3 languages to learn, Japanese is a no-brainier, second I'd go with Urdu and then probably Turkish. I do meet a lot of Indian/Pakistani people on a daily basis, and they're kinda everywhere in the world lel, so learning Urdu definitely sounds like the best idea. I'm also really interested in Turkish culture and the history of the Ottoman empire and that kinda stuff, so I'd probably learn Turkish despite how unpopular the language is w

^ If we're just talking three languages, Japanese, Thai (my dad's side), and then I would be stuck between Chinese and Korean.

German or Swedish would be cool too. 

[OriginalRen]

Giving up English and my American heritage would be too difficult. If I were younger, maybe, but I am turning 26 in a month and since school is finished for me, I don't see a reason to give up my native language. Not only that, but as a teacher who knows that after the age of 5 learning a language is never quite the same, I wouldn't risk it.

As an English speaker, I can teach anywhere in the world at all sorts of levels (elementary, middle, and high school + college) and learn the language while living in a new country. As a non-native speaker, it will be a lot more challenging to find a country that needs me to teach that language.

[ittaku]

Nope. I'd regret it forever that I didn't know English. English is a stupid language that can never be mastered except for by native speakers such as myself and it's still the most important language to know on the world scene.

[Asonn]

2 hours ago, spademan said:

Personally living in america, I'd take this deal. Giving up my knowledge of english, I'd take spanish, dutch and (of course) japanese. No idea what I'll do about my job, but seen plenty of people that get buy without knowing any english so hopefully I'd make it.

DUTCH... Dutch..... why would you want to learn such an useless langue?? 

I would give up my native(dutch) langue for English, Japanese and Russian, so I can kurwa all the way. 

[Dergonu]

Yes, fuck Norwegian. 

I'd probably grab German, Russian and Chinese. 

[Deep Blue]

Yes, spanish sucks ass.

I'd pick japanese, chinese and english.

[Aizen-Sama]

Well, even though I don't hate Spanish, I would consider it a lot.

Japanese, Russian and Chinese would be my three choices.

 

[Dark Ariel7]

I feel like you can't make up for english. I mean, I could give up spanish (my first language) but I dont think I could give up english. Too many good books too many opportunities. I already have 3 languages anyways (spanish english and japanese). I wouldn't get enough out of it so no.

[Kelebek1]

I wouldn't take it either. English is too useful. I couldn't give up the world's lingua franca. Any other language and you're screwed if you want to travel or consume most media, as the first language someone would translate to would be English.

[Scorp]

I would not give up my native language and obv English is the most useful language of the world.

So this remains only one and I will pick chinese.

[Nosebleed]

With Portuguese i can already speak to not only other Portuguese but quite a lot of Spanish speakers as well, and with English I can pretty much go anywhere in the world and be understood. The only language I think would be nice to learn is Chinese, but I wouldn't trade my native languages for it, I'd rather learn it myself.

[Mugi]

I'm going to go ahead and say no. You're losing the language most prominent where you are, and most won't be able to move to accommodate the language change, so that sounds like a big problem. Also, why do that when I can become fluent in three languages while retaining the knowledge of my native language just by spending time studying them? Sure, you'd instantly be fluent in the languages, but I think it's more worth it in the long run to just spend the time learning, it also feels more fulfilling that way.

[AaronIsCrunchy]

No way.

• My native language being English, to lose that would be a shit to say the least.
• I enjoy learning language, and learning it comes with finding out all the quirks it may have. Part of this is an appreciation of the language itself, and part of this goes some way to helping myself learn other languages within that language group.
• If I accepted, I'd probably go for Finnish, Hungarian and Mongolian without really thinking, and then be thinking 'aaaaah shit' for the rest of my life.

[Arcadeotic]

43 minutes ago, AaronIsCrunchy said:

No way.

• My native language being English, to lose that would be a shit to say the least.
• I enjoy learning language, and learning it comes with finding out all the quirks it may have. Part of this is an appreciation of the language itself, and part of this goes some way to helping myself learn other languages within that language group.
• If I accepted, I'd probably go for Finnish, Hungarian and Mongolian without really thinking, and then be thinking 'aaaaah shit' for the rest of my life.

4

You must have something wrong in yer head to be willing to learn Finnish without being a native

My condolences

But seriously speaking, don't

[littleshogun]

I think will not give up my own Indonesian language skill, although if I given a chance to master another language, my first choice would be Japan (As long as I didn't need to sacrifice my Indonesian language skill). But I think I'm not really need this as of now, although mastering another language sounds nice though.

[TexasDice]

Yes. Fuck german and fuck germany.

[Nebjula]

I would totally give up danish, not out of contempt, mind you. I still have some national pride left.

The languages I would choose would probably be german (Duel me to the death, Texas), Italian (Beacuse why not?) and english. It would be easy to continue living in Denmark and generally Europe, since english is basically the lingua franca of Europe.

[john 'mr. customer' smith]

8 hours ago, Asonn said:

DUTCH... Dutch..... why would you want to learn such a useless language?? 

My thoughts exactly.

 

The second part makes me lean towards no, because who knows what kind of immediate problems would accompany it

 

I do think it's very human to think of your own language as boring and useless, but as @babiker said, your own language (and culture) is a HUGE part of who you are and how you think and act