# How to choose a language to learn in 2026!

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** Lindie Botes
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLqHME98uFQ
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/40684

## Транскрипт

### Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) []

As somebody who's been learning languages for over a decade and as a language coach, one of the things I get asked really often is, "How do I choose a language to learn? Should I learn Korean or Japanese? Should I do them both at the same time? " So, let's dive into figuring out how you can make that decision. Hi everybody, happy new year. In this video, I'm going to share a few things to ask yourself so that you can choose which language to learn. One of the points is a little controversial, so stick to the end for that one. First of all, I'm still recovering from surgery. I sound weird. I'm all swollen. Please bear with me. And I really want to film a few videos. So, sorry. The first thing you want to consider is, do you have any experience learning a language? And no, it's not a requirement. The only reason you should ask yourself that is because some languages are similar to other ones in terms of vocabulary, sentence structure, etc. Korean and Japanese are not exactly they're not related at all. They don't stem from the same family, but the grammar structures and uh sentence order and some vocabulary are quite similar. So, it was quite easy for me to pick up Japanese after learning Korean for 5, six, seven years. If for example, you learned French at school and you're not so interested in French now, you've forgotten a bit, but you're really interested in Spanish, that could be great because it's going to be a lot easier for you to pick it up because Spanish is also a romance language. The next thing you want to ask yourself is quite important. Do I have access to resources in the language I want to learn? In the year we are living in, you are very likely to find the resources even for a bit lesser learned languages. Even for Hungarian, there are a lot less resources than popular languages like French or Mandarin. But I am managing to find and there are content creators who make videos. There are podcasts that I transcribe and translate. Another aspect to consider in terms of resources is are there native speakers near you? You can certainly find people online. There are language exchange apps like Tandem, Hello Talk, High Native, and of course, you can talk to an AI tutor, or you can get a tutor on websites like italkie. If you're interested in getting a language tutor for the new year, you have a free $10 credit on italkie after you book your first lesson. Link is in the description. But if it's your first time learning a language or if you're just starting out with a new one, it is crucial that you find somebody to practice with, whether in real life or online, because you want to start using the language as soon as possible. Another thing I want you to consider is imagine that all of your life circumstances changed. You might have a different job, different financial situation. You might even live in a different country. Uh imagine a completely different life. And then ask yourself, would I still want to learn this language? That means if you suddenly move to Italy and you want to learn Korean, is your passion and interest in Korean still going to be there? It's a bit of a strange question, but I want you to imagine all as we say in UX design, all edge cases. We don't know what's going to happen in the new year. try and pin down is my curiosity and passion for this language enough that if everything changes, I'm still going to continue with it. You can research how difficult the language is. Everyone has their different uh frameworks of measuring how challenging a language is. People say, "Oh my goodness, Mandarin Chinese is one of the hardest languages ever. " It is challenging if you haven't learned a language that doesn't have a syllibary that just works with like hans characters, but I do find Chinese grammar extremely simple. It is the tones which are challenging and maybe if you're not so visually inclined or if you don't practice a lot the characters. The reason you should check on how difficult this language is if you don't have experience learning any language before, you might be better off starting with a bit of an easier one relative to your native language. For example, uh Norwegian is a bit easier for English speakers because it is also a Germanic language. My native language is Africans and therefore Dutch is so easy for me to understand without even needing to study it. But when I started Korean 15 years ago, it was hard. I was like, "What is this grammar? Why do we have that in English or Africans? " But after I learned Korean for a number of years, when I started with Japanese, it was so much easier cuz instead of being like, "How do I think of this grammar pattern in English? We don't have that. " I was like, "Oh, this thing they use in Japanese is very similar to Korean. I get it. " Now, since it's the beginning of the year, if you are setting language learning goals, if you decided this is the language I want to learn, and you

### Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) [5:00]

want to create a good framework of setting good milestones and goals for the year, do check out my puzzle piece method workbook. You can find it on my Buy Me a Coffee store. And if you're watching this video, you can get a 20% discount using the code book 20. What you'll find in the workbook are a bunch of templates that help you set goals, the entire explanation of what my puzzle piece method is, and guidance on how to choose resources, how to schedule your time, goals and milestones, as well as daily, weekly, or monthly schedules. So, check out that workbook and remember to use the discount code. Last thing to consider, pretty obvious, is am I interested in the culture? Language and culture go hand in hand. There are some beautiful connections between idioms, expressions, uh, sayings that connect directly to the culture of that language. You cannot learn a language to its full extent and all the nuances if you don't understand, appreciate, and enjoy the culture. If you would never travel somewhere, if you really don't enjoy movies or series from that country, maybe that's not a good language to learn. Let me give you an example. I have dabbled in Thai a few times. I started getting interested in Thai when I went to Thailand on a school trip in like 2008. And I remember everyone was out like um eating and hanging out. And I would sit at the lodge with somebody working. I'm like, "Please, can you write my name and tie for me? teach me how to write it. I was really interested in Thai and I went to Thailand I think three years ago now three I don't know uh to see one of my favorite bands in concert and I prepared a lot before I went there. I had this motivation and this need to learn Thai so that once I got to Thailand I could order food, help myself get to train stations, uh have conversations with people. So, I really intensively learned. I took lessons on italki. I got a textbook. I made flashcards. But I am so sorry. I did not enjoy Thai. And I'll put a clip in here of my friend Grace and I in Bangkok uh speaking Thai. Now, this is after two or three months of intensive learning. So, I managed with very basic conversation. Here's the video. Ah park grace — grace. Grace teach as you can see two three months I got to a good enough level for very basic things. But as soon as I went home back to South Africa, I was like, I didn't really enjoy it. The tones in Thai are so hard. I still struggle to read and write. And yes, it is important to have push to keep doing something. I just didn't have that with Thai. And I am still happy that I learned it because I had a very important reason. Ask yourself, what is the real reason I am learning this? what benefit will it bring to my life? So, Thai was a short-term project for me. The reason I learned it was for travel. It brought me the benefit of making friends, having a little bit of more of a comfortable time there. But apart from that, I really don't have a reason to continue learning Thai. It's fascinating. It's interesting. But I'm moving to Hungary next year. I really want to keep my Japanese and Korean up. I'm taking French lessons again. I'm really focusing on my Spanish. and I want to restart Mandarin Chinese. Realistically, there's no time or reason or motivation that I have to continue with Thai. Same for Tagalog. I have a few of you still asking, "Hey, whatever happened to Tagalog? " I have a video explaining why I stopped learning Tagalog. No hard feelings. Still love it, but just not worth it for me now at this point in my life. Super simple way to decide which language you learn. Is it interesting for you? Do you enjoy the content, the series? Do you maybe have friends in that language? Would you see yourself living there? What is your core reason of being curious? If you love anime and

### Segment 3 (10:00 - 15:00) [10:00]

you want to watch if anime without subtitles, valid reason to learn Japanese because chances are if you've left anime this long, you're going to continue. When it comes to learning for the sake of learning, not for a job or anything, be sure that you enjoy the culture and content and media from that country. It could be that you're reconnecting with your heritage. If it's like my case of just learning Thai for a holiday, it kind of fell off after the holiday. You might not have the opportunity to move to a country where they speak a lesser learned language. That doesn't mean it's impossible to learn it. But if you're never going to use it outside of personal curiosity, instead of looking at as I want to learn this language to fluency, it's okay to try it out. See it as a little project. Give yourself three months and see how much can I learn in Japanese. How about I try and learn a 100 most common Chinese characters and then see do I enjoy it? Do I want to continue? Have I started making friends, finding content that I enjoy? There's no shame in trying out a language for fun to see if you are likely to continue. While you're learning a language, you will discover new reasons to learn it. I started Hungarian because I met a Hungarian friend and I was like, "This language is so weird. I've never heard anything like it. I want to try. " When I tried, I was like, "Whoa, this is challenging. " But that challenge motivated me. This is so hard. Can I prove to myself that I can do it? And then I moved to Singapore and I didn't really touch Hungarian because Mandarin Chinese was more important to me. And I took the Topic Korean test and the JPT. So, I was really focused on uh Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. When I moved back here, I was like, I really want to visit Hungary. So, let me prepare for my trip. And then I got a job in Hungary a few months ago. I haven't moved yet, waiting for my visa. But now, I have a very serious reason to learn. When I started learning Hungarian, I didn't go into this thinking I'm going to live in Hungary one day. As you learn, new opportunities and reasons will pop up. Another interesting way to pick a language is which one do you like the sound of? I really love how Turkish, Vietnamese, and Italian sound. And Brazilian people, you are going to hate me. I am so sorry, but I've never really thought Brazilian Portuguese sounds particularly beautiful to me. I am so sorry. Brazilian people are amazing. I love watching Brazilian TV. It just sounds so unnatural for me when I try to speak Brazilian Portuguese. Don't know if I'll be able to continue with it because I just don't there are other languages that I like the sound of more. The last thing I want to remind you of is very important. Start treating the language you're learning like a hobby. Hobbies, you don't have to be amazing at it. I mean, some hobbies are more useful than others, but if it brings you joy, don't worry about what other people say, what other people say. Choose the language that tugs at your heartstrings, and you'll be better at that cuz you'll like it more, and you'll be more likely to study. It is totally okay to take a language for a spin and see if you enjoy it. It is not a waste. If you start learning Turkish because it's cool and interesting and you love Turkish dramas, but after three weeks you decide this, I just don't enjoy it. That is not time wasted. That is you doing an experiment and getting a result. Now, here's the one people argue about. Here's the little bit of controversial one. Is it useful? People love telling me, "Why are you learning Hungarian? So few people speak it. It's the hardest language in the world. It's so weird. Hungarians can speak English. So what? Right. It is useful for me because I am first of all moving to Hungary. I've been on Hungarian TV. That was a exciting life-changing moment for me. It is rewarding. I get to understand music, movies, books. Even though my Hungarian is not super fluent, I can read books about something I'm interested in. It opens up such a big new world of content, media, friendships, experiences, even a job for me. If I had never started learning Hungarian, I would never have gotten this job. So, it's useful for me. Doesn't matter what someone else says of that is so useless. Why are you wasting your time on Hungarian? You should be focusing more on improving your Spanish. Don't listen to those people. You do you. If you're interested in it, that is reason enough to start, but you need motivation. Why do you need motivation to continue? Inevitably, the language is going to get hard. As a beginner, everything is new to you, and you'll memorize and learn super easy. It's also the basics you're learning. It's going to be pretty easy. But when you reach intermediate, you get to the intermediate plateau, you're

### Segment 4 (15:00 - 16:00) [15:00]

like, why am I not improving? I keep using the same grammar, the same basic words. That's when it gets really hard and you need a motivation to push through. You might get to a point where you're like, I mean, I could always watch anime with subtitles still. I want to give up. Don't give up. Find a language that you will push through with until the end. Honestly, usefulness over language is so overrated. Do it because it's fun for you or because there's a need for you. Remember, language learning requires time and effort. Think of your future. If you're studying international relations or politics, if you dream of working in the UN, knowing languages that you're likely to use there is going to be very useful. Then look at your current situation. I have many videos on my channel about how to balance multiple languages. So, check those out if you're interested. Remember to check out my puzzle piece goal setting method to set the perfect language learning goals for 2026. I'm so sorry for sounding so bad, for looking terrible. I just really want to make videos and I'm going to ask that you bear with me. Also, if you've been following my surgery progress on Instagram or here, please can I ask that you pray for me? My teeth still aren't aligning. And what if my teeth came loose? It is the worst excruciating pain I have had in a long time, and I'm really paranoid that my teeth are just going to fall out. So, just please pray that won't happen. and then I can just calm down. All right, happy new year and see you in the next video.