the great east-vs-west language challenge

So a few days back this subject popped up, whether it'd be easier to pick up Asian languages (character based) or the European languages (semantic based).

Also, would it be easier to do the similar ones one after the other (practice effects) or if it would be better to do them with dissimilar ones in between (interference reduction).

Hence, A Modest Proposal: THE GREAT EAST-VS-WEST LANGUAGE CHALLENGE, I CHALLENGE YOU

Participants will pick one side, Eastern vs. Western. From the pool of languages available, they will pick one language to learn. Examples -

Eastern:
Chinese//Japanese//Korean//Filipino//Thai//Vietnamese//Sanskrit

Western:
Latin//French//German//Spanish//Esperanto//Russian//Icelandic

Over the course of a year, participants in this challenge will attempt to reach a certain level of aptitude in their language of choice. To that extent, at the end of the year, they must have:

a) Transcribe a song written in that language
b) Write a series of blog entries in that language
c) Translate an academic essay in that language
d) Contribute a wikipedia entry in that language
e) Sustain an actual conversation with a speaker of that language.

The winner for that year is the one who successfully manages to do the above without using Google Translate or any other internet translation tool, mangling the grammar and subtext etc.

Loser treats the winner to a meal where the loser will have spend the entire day speaking in that particular language.

Participants are encouraged to borrow textbooks and not encouraged to sign up for courses. It's basically self-learning. 'Cause courses are expensive. =(

Don't cheat and take languages you already know!


It makes kitteh sad.