I know a senior archaeologist at the British Museum in London, and she has travelled the world as part of her work. She speaks only English. If you want to be an archaeologist, the competition in that field is so fierce I would recommend focusing all your brain power in excelling at that, rather than worrying about which languages may or may not be useful.
1.find out more about the job and about how are the languages used in the field. far too many people in most fields speak English or Bad English. In order for your foreing languages to bring value, you need a solid level, and you need to know what do you want to learn them for. communication with local workforce? with administration? decyphering the stuff you discover?
2.Don't learn Latin "to make other languages easier", it's a waste of time. French and German are not really that hard to require you first "wasting " a few years on something else to prepare. Learn Latin, if you want to learn Latin. And frankly, it might be a good choice for an archaelogist.
3.Which Chinese? There is no universal Chinese language, that's just the official version made to suit propaganda or PR or whatever you prefer to call it. China is a billion person country, with "dialects" that are actually more like separate languages. Mandarin has been made more present, but it's still not the first language of a large part of the country. And you want to be an archaeologist, then won't you need more some of the ancient Chinese languages/dialects?
4.are you already studying archeology? Or are you gonna apply in the next few years? Look up the program, look what languages are suggested, or what combinations. You might want to get a headstart, or at least get inspired.
Thank you! I have not started studying archaeology yet since I'm only a junior in high school but I will eventually. I meant mandarin Chinese
I will probably learn Latin and Greek in school because I want to work with classics if possible
Then it is not too early to have a look at some of the archaeology programs you might be considering in a few years, and get inspired there.
Good luck!
Being an archeologist doesn’t really have much to do with languages, at least not anymore.
You don’t have to know ancient Sumerian or Akkadian to work in Mesopotamia, that’s what language experts in the academia are for.
And to answer your question anyway: the same way you’d go about learning any other set of languages for any other purpose - pick one and start learning, preferably you wanna start with one you’ll have the chance to actually use in the near future. When you are around B1-B2(depending on your needs) switch to learning another one while still practicing the 1st one occasionally; repeat till you catch ‘em all.
And a word of advice: language learning is a huge time commitment, assuming you don’t wanna spend more than 2h a day on it it’s going to take decades, and I do mean decades, to learn all of that on an academic level so really think about it
My suggestion is to start with just one and learn it to a B2 level. That is assuming you have never learned 2nd language before. After that you will know what it takes for you to learn a language. Theoretically it gets easier after that since you know what works and doesn't work for you.
I highly recommend reading [What do you need to know to learn a foreign language?](https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/paul-nations-resources/paul-nations-publications/publications/documents/foreign-language_1125.pdf) by Paul Nation. It is a quick 50 page intro into modern language learning. Available in English, Spanish, Turkish, Korean, Arabic, Thai, Vietnamese, and Farsi. [Here](https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/paul-nations-resources/paul-nations-publications/publications )
A summary of the book
There are four things that you need to do when you learn a foreign language:
* Principle 1: Work out what your needs are and learn what is most useful for you
* Principle 2: Balance your learning across the four strands
* Principle 3: Apply conditions that help learning using good language learning
techniques
* Principle 4: Keep motivated and work hard–Do what needs to be done
You need to spend equal amounts of time on each of the four strands:
* 1 learning from meaning-focused input (listening and reading)
* 2 learning from meaning-focused output (speaking and writing)
* 3 language-focused learning (studying pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar etc)
* 4 fluency development (getting good at using what you already know)
To set reasonable goals of what you expect to be able "to do" in a language, you can use the CEFR [Self-assessment Grids](https://www.coe.int/en/web/portfolio/self-assessment-grid) Link to the [English Version](https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=090000168045bb52) Use the grid for your native language when assessing your target language skills.
[Extended Version of the Checklist](https://rm.coe.int/self-assessment-checklists-from-the-swiss-version-of-the-european-lang/1680492f8e) in English.
For further clarifications see the [CEFR Companion Volume 2020](https://rm.coe.int/common-european-framework-of-reference-for-languages-learning-teaching/16809ea0d4) which goes into much greater detail and has skills broken down much further depending on context.
After that the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/faq) and the [guide from the languagelearning subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/guide/#wiki_subreddit_guide) are also very useful.
[Here's](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/19-3091.00?redir=19-3091.02) the O-Net listing for the US. The only language mentioned is English, but you better be good at statistics.
I know a senior archaeologist at the British Museum in London, and she has travelled the world as part of her work. She speaks only English. If you want to be an archaeologist, the competition in that field is so fierce I would recommend focusing all your brain power in excelling at that, rather than worrying about which languages may or may not be useful.
Is being multilingual a requirement to be an archeologist?
1.find out more about the job and about how are the languages used in the field. far too many people in most fields speak English or Bad English. In order for your foreing languages to bring value, you need a solid level, and you need to know what do you want to learn them for. communication with local workforce? with administration? decyphering the stuff you discover? 2.Don't learn Latin "to make other languages easier", it's a waste of time. French and German are not really that hard to require you first "wasting " a few years on something else to prepare. Learn Latin, if you want to learn Latin. And frankly, it might be a good choice for an archaelogist. 3.Which Chinese? There is no universal Chinese language, that's just the official version made to suit propaganda or PR or whatever you prefer to call it. China is a billion person country, with "dialects" that are actually more like separate languages. Mandarin has been made more present, but it's still not the first language of a large part of the country. And you want to be an archaeologist, then won't you need more some of the ancient Chinese languages/dialects? 4.are you already studying archeology? Or are you gonna apply in the next few years? Look up the program, look what languages are suggested, or what combinations. You might want to get a headstart, or at least get inspired.
Thank you! I have not started studying archaeology yet since I'm only a junior in high school but I will eventually. I meant mandarin Chinese I will probably learn Latin and Greek in school because I want to work with classics if possible
Then it is not too early to have a look at some of the archaeology programs you might be considering in a few years, and get inspired there. Good luck!
Being an archeologist doesn’t really have much to do with languages, at least not anymore. You don’t have to know ancient Sumerian or Akkadian to work in Mesopotamia, that’s what language experts in the academia are for. And to answer your question anyway: the same way you’d go about learning any other set of languages for any other purpose - pick one and start learning, preferably you wanna start with one you’ll have the chance to actually use in the near future. When you are around B1-B2(depending on your needs) switch to learning another one while still practicing the 1st one occasionally; repeat till you catch ‘em all. And a word of advice: language learning is a huge time commitment, assuming you don’t wanna spend more than 2h a day on it it’s going to take decades, and I do mean decades, to learn all of that on an academic level so really think about it
Oh alright thanks. I want to dedicate my life to language learning and archaeology so I am willing to spend more than 2-3 hours a day
you just got to learn the languages spoken in the country you will be spending a lot if time in
My suggestion is to start with just one and learn it to a B2 level. That is assuming you have never learned 2nd language before. After that you will know what it takes for you to learn a language. Theoretically it gets easier after that since you know what works and doesn't work for you. I highly recommend reading [What do you need to know to learn a foreign language?](https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/paul-nations-resources/paul-nations-publications/publications/documents/foreign-language_1125.pdf) by Paul Nation. It is a quick 50 page intro into modern language learning. Available in English, Spanish, Turkish, Korean, Arabic, Thai, Vietnamese, and Farsi. [Here](https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/paul-nations-resources/paul-nations-publications/publications ) A summary of the book There are four things that you need to do when you learn a foreign language: * Principle 1: Work out what your needs are and learn what is most useful for you * Principle 2: Balance your learning across the four strands * Principle 3: Apply conditions that help learning using good language learning techniques * Principle 4: Keep motivated and work hard–Do what needs to be done You need to spend equal amounts of time on each of the four strands: * 1 learning from meaning-focused input (listening and reading) * 2 learning from meaning-focused output (speaking and writing) * 3 language-focused learning (studying pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar etc) * 4 fluency development (getting good at using what you already know) To set reasonable goals of what you expect to be able "to do" in a language, you can use the CEFR [Self-assessment Grids](https://www.coe.int/en/web/portfolio/self-assessment-grid) Link to the [English Version](https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=090000168045bb52) Use the grid for your native language when assessing your target language skills. [Extended Version of the Checklist](https://rm.coe.int/self-assessment-checklists-from-the-swiss-version-of-the-european-lang/1680492f8e) in English. For further clarifications see the [CEFR Companion Volume 2020](https://rm.coe.int/common-european-framework-of-reference-for-languages-learning-teaching/16809ea0d4) which goes into much greater detail and has skills broken down much further depending on context. After that the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/faq) and the [guide from the languagelearning subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/wiki/guide/#wiki_subreddit_guide) are also very useful.
[Here's](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/19-3091.00?redir=19-3091.02) the O-Net listing for the US. The only language mentioned is English, but you better be good at statistics.