Ever Wanted to Learn a "Niche" Language?

Leyawiin

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2008
3,204
52
91
I'm talking about a relatively small language primarily spoken in one or two countries. I've always wanted to learn Afrikaans:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans

Have an interest in South Africa - seems like a really interesting place from a human history perspective plus it looks to be very beautiful. I've read that Afrikaans is probably the easiest language for an English speaker to learn as well.

Runner up would be one of the Scandinavian languages like Danish or Norwegian.
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
22,066
883
126
I'm talking about a relatively small language primarily spoken in one or two countries. I've always wanted to learn Afrikaans:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans

Have an interest in South Africa - seems like a really interesting place from a human history perspective plus it looks to be very beautiful. I've read that Afrikaans is probably the easiest language for an English speaker to learn as well.

Runner up would be one of the Scandinavian languages like Danish or Norwegian.

This has got to be one of the worst guttural languages ever. Why would anyone want to speak this.
 

rga

Senior member
Nov 9, 2011
640
2
81
I almost went to university to learn (among other things) latin. That's considered a niche language now, isn't it? Ultimately I got recalled from lay-off, and never learned anything at university.
 

Newbian

Lifer
Aug 24, 2008
24,779
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511GfGkByDL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
 

MongGrel

Lifer
Dec 3, 2013
38,466
3,067
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Not really.

I imagine I could pop back into Hawaii and still understand local pidgin there, but I'd be rusty I imagine.

Most people would have no idea half of what they are saying.

Took me awhile to even speak with my father-in-law there at the time, but I learned.

Was a cool guy, too bad his step daughter was such a screw up :p
 
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AznAnarchy99

Lifer
Dec 6, 2004
14,695
117
106
Italian. There's pretty much no use for it outside of Italy.

French too unless I go to Quebec or Haiti.

I love the languages but damn I could have spent 6 years in Spanish instead.
 

pete6032

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2010
8,146
3,584
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I'm talking about a relatively small language primarily spoken in one or two countries. I've always wanted to learn Afrikaans:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans

Have an interest in South Africa - seems like a really interesting place from a human history perspective plus it looks to be very beautiful. I've read that Afrikaans is probably the easiest language for an English speaker to learn as well.

Runner up would be one of the Scandinavian languages like Danish or Norwegian.

Afrikaans has a stigma to it associated with former slavers and current hillbillies. And yes, SA is beautiful.

If you ever have a chance to go, you should check out the Afrikaans language monument
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans_Language_Monument
 
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zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,860
31,346
146
Italian. There's pretty much no use for it outside of Italy.

French too unless I go to Quebec or Haiti.

I love the languages but damn I could have spent 6 years in Spanish instead.

Oh shit, I actually forgot that I could speak Italian for ~1 year. :D
 

glenn1

Lifer
Sep 6, 2000
25,383
1,013
126
Hungarian seems like it would be cool to learn - it's like they're trolling Europe by using a non Indo-European language family.
 

AznAnarchy99

Lifer
Dec 6, 2004
14,695
117
106
Oh shit, I actually forgot that I could speak Italian for ~1 year. :D

Yeah I lived in Italy for about a year and was relatively fluent by the end. Then came back to US and forgot all of it. Can barely put together a sentence now.

Same with French. Studied it for 5 years, was fluent when I was staying in Paris, now I don't remember a thing.
 

Leyawiin

Diamond Member
Nov 11, 2008
3,204
52
91
Afrikaans has a stigma to it associated with former slavers and current hillbillies. And yes, SA is beautiful.

If you ever have a chance to go, you should check out the Afrikaans language monument
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans_Language_Monument

Yeah, I can understand that. My pharmacist is a really nice lady from Cape Town. She and her husband have that accent like from District 9. Knowing them is probably what sparked my interest.