Reading Ideas

Would you rather know one very useful language or thirty useless ones?

I would pick 30 useless ones because they would expand my mind. I don't believe there is such a thing as a totally useless language. There has to be some purpose, or mabye I'm wrong. Consider the thirty useless languages as alien languages that have no relation to our languages on earth and are undeciperable. All one would have is the spoken language. I remain in my same stance. I will find a purpose for the languages or die trying. Nobody can tell me what to think, and if I think the languages are useful, then so be it.

It is better to be pissed off than pissed on.

Well if I had the capacity to learn 30 languages, I'd learn them, no matter if they're useful at all :) E.g. I think it would be interesting to learn elbic (did I spell it the right way?) :)

But I can hardly speak one useful language :P

"Sie wollen nichts anderes. Sie wollen kämpfen! Sie sind Soldaten! Fucking Wahnsinnige!" - Noel G.

I'd honestly go with a lot of languages. I've got a book by John McWhorter that talks about languages like Occitan (some provincial language in France) being one of the best derivatives of Latin out there, or some of the Swiss mountain languages (which he either describes as, names, or categorizes as "Romansch" or something like that). I think it would be great to speak some of the dying languages of the world, just for the sake of preserving them for later times (Provençal, Gaelige and Gaelic, Ainu, Gothic, Manx, Frisian, etc., etc.) But then, I couldn't honestly consider any remaining language to be "useless"

Thbbbbt

...which he either describes as, names, or categorizes as "Romansch" or something like that...

This is one of Switzerland's four official languages (besides swiss german, italian and french) and is called "Rätoromanisch" or "Rumantsch".
It's deriving from latin; however, probably no italian would understand a single word of it.
Funny enough, portuguese people seem to understand it quite well.

That makes me a sa-a-a-a-a-ad Panda...

I'd learn some Asian Languages, Occitan would be great too (I'm reading the Book "Timeline" from Michael Crichton, most of it takes place in the 14th century and u see som examples of Occitan and Old English) Old English is also a good Language, i don't know why, but I like it more than the today english.
I like old, dead languages, you can see how languages change over time.

http://www.ancientscripts.com/ a page about ancient Languages, if you want to elarn them , i think this is a good page for you

so it would be the 30 Useless languages for me

Cya Magic

P.s. First learn the swearingwords, they are the most inportant part of a language, if this language is still used, You can find friends everywhere using swearing words and you'll never be in a situation where you don't know what to say (Also See Monty Phyton - Usage of Fuck ;) )

MILTON! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

"The wise have always said the same things, and fools have always done the opposite"-Schopenhauer

I would prefer to know one useful language vs. 30 useless ones.
A useful language can be equated to a person who might have
a wonderful gift in music, dance, or business. With a "useful
gift" one can make a living, enrich the world, and best of yet,
impress people whom aren't worth impressing in the first place.
I hope this has shed light on the worth or being the best in
one thing vs. being mediocre in many things.
doginreverse

John McWhorter's The Power of Babel is a great, layman's description of language, and the development of "languages" (one of his arguments is that there is no supreme language that is penultimate, but all languages are dialects of something else {pidgin languages, American/Scottish/English/Irish English, Parisian/Quebecois/Provençal, etc.)

Thbbbbt