Hey all, first and foremost, this community provides some awesome resources that I wish I'd discovered years ago!
I'm a native English speaker & speak German at B1 proficiency. I'd like to start learning a third language but am experiencing a bit of "analysis paralysis." I've read the FAQ guide and am hoping to make this a substantive enough discussion to avoid deletion because I'd really appreciate some external perspectives.
My ancestral heritage is entirely West Slavic; all eight of my great-Grandparents came to the U.S. from the lands that are now the modern nations of Poland and Slovakia; economic refugees from the famines that precedes World War I. They raised their children with their ancestral languages, but by the third generation of U.S.-born children (aka me), our family became completely Anglicized, save for a knowledge of a few random greetings, recipes, alcohol preferences, and holiday customs.
I'd like to learn one of my ancestral languages. Polish has an appeal because it's the second most widely-spoken Slavic language and has fantastic literary traditions, and Slovak seems interesting because I've heard that it's not only almost totally intelligible with Czech, but also at least somewhat intelligible with several Slavic languages.
That being said, the complex grammar rules of West Slavic languages intimidate me, and it doesn't help that I'd have very few native speakers to work with. I only have one remaining U.S. relative who still speaks fluent Polish, and there aren't many ethnic Slavs of any national origin in Arizona, where I live. There are, however, many Spanish speakers-- I know Spanish is considered a very attainable language for English speakers, and I'd have near daily opportunities to use the language to communicate with friends, neighbors, and people throughout my community. That being said, I lack the personal connection that might otherwise motivate me.
I know this ultimately boils down to one of the most generic questions in language learning: "should I go with the language I'm interested in, or the one that's useful?" But I've oscillated back and forth on this question for an embarrassingly long time-- I have a sense of personal indecision that's literally been described as pathological. It actually kind of helps in my career because my job involves risk mitigation (aka, anticipating any hypothetical problem before it happens), but debilitates me in every other aspect of life.
Rather than just asking which language is the "right" one to learn, I'm curious whether anyone here had to weigh similar issues when choosing a target language and would be willing to share how they made the decision, and what the results were. Would definitely also love to hear from and Polish, Slovak, and/or Spanish learners or speakers who might have any thoughts to share!
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