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For a BASE jumper looking to spend a significant amount of time living and traveling in Europe (mostly in areas with tall cliffs), which of the above languages (or others if I missed any big ones) would be the most helpful for that jumper to learn?

I understand that English alone can get you pretty far over there, but I want to learn a new language anyway.

Also, If I spend the next few months learning German, will the Swiss accent throw me off entirely, or will I end up speaking it and ruin my 'normal' German speech? Or neither?

Thanks for your help

what part of Europe?

there is a big difference between the similar languages of French, Spanish, Italian compared to the Norwegian language. And German stands on its own compared to those.

I understand that there won't be a single language that will work everywhere. I already speak decent spanish, a little italian, and can read french and portuguese with about 50% accuracy. I'm looking to pick up a language from a different family, like German.

I'll be spending the majority of my time in Switzerland, with occasional side trips to Italy, Norway, France, and any other BASE destinations, as well as some other places for sightseeing etc. I'm leaning towards German, but I've heard that Swiss German is quite different. Also, I've heard that lots of Swiss speak French, but I guess it all depends on where you are.

Just thought I'd get some opinions from jumpers in the know, so to speak.

Thanks for your reply

I don't know the answer to your question, but I can teach you German.

You'll get away with only English in 90% of the times everywhere in Europe.

Even though I would love Norwegian to prevail as the new international language, I don't really think you need to learn it unless you plan to settle down here as "everyone" in Norway speaks English.

I would go for Italian or German. The Swiss are better English speakers than the Italians, but it's more fun mountains in Switzerland than Italy. I don't think the "Swiss German" vs "German German" is going to be an issue unless you are planing on becoming a famous author in one of the languages.

Well, you can get by with German in Austria, Germany, parts of Switzerland, and in some parts of northern Italy (ITW territory; although not everyone will speak German there). You don't have to worry about Swiss German as they would understand proper (or High) German and you might have a difficult time finding someone to teach you that anyway.

Hope that helps

Based upon the poll right now, it appears you should be learning Southern Eskimo. How, pray tell, do you plan to go about doing that? Is there a Rosetta Stone for that one? Maybe Calvin, in his infinite wisdom, can teach you that language.

and just for clarification:
Swiss German is a language and German is just a dialekt of the Swiss German.

 
Finnish - no question about it, the most valuable language to know.

/A

Oh really? Then why the unnecessary adjective in front of 'German'?

As for Southern Eskimo, I believe I've found a tutor for that, about 6 hours southeast...

For all the places you'll be visiting (big cliffs in Europe), the only language you need is English. If you want to pick up a second, German will be the most useful (followed probably by French), but you won't need it. Most everyone knows English.

Interestingly, it seems like all the countries where English isn't widely known speak Russian fluently. If you're looking for urban BASE in Europe, I can't think of a better language than Russian. And you will use it!!! In most of the former Soviet bloc countries, English won't get you far.

Just my $0.02. If all you want to do is jump big walls, go with English and possibly German. But if you want to pick up a language that is understood in dozens of countries where English isn't widespread, choose Russian.

I can imagine if you ever wanted to do substantial BASE in Africa that French would come in handy, along with Chinese if you were ever trekking across Asia or Spanish in South/Central America. But from Eastern Europe to Eastern Russia, and all the way from Murmansk down to much of the Middle East, Russian is king.

Hmm.... Interesting point. Since I hang around a lot of russian jumpers anyway, it would be fairly easy to practice too... but then I have to learn a whole new alphabet too

The best part about Russian is that both the verbs and the nouns conjugate. Then you can more or less put the words in any order you want, and it will still mean about the same thing.

Really. Are there verb cases too, like for male/female etc?

Sounds like a clusterfuck... just like German

Yup. There are male/female/neutral endings of verbs, but I guess that's pretty straightforward. The noun cases are great, though... they depend on the noun itself, on the verb, and on the semantic relation between that noun and that verb. So for most sentences, you get quite a bit of information from the endings, and word order itself doesn't matter.

The alphabet is sweet, too. Two of the letters aren't pronounced at all, and third one is so ridiculous to pronounce that no word ever starts with it, and hence there is no uppercase version of this letter .

I'm sure Paul could teach you...

Yea, I started downloading the Rosetta Stone for Russian last year and he just told me not to waste my time... but I still managed to pick up "The cat jumps" and "You're all faggots" (thanks Yuri)... I just don't know how to spell them here

Ah - I'm glad you memorized the most useful phrases. No need to bother with memorizing, "Can you tell me how to get to...," or words like "food."

Core Russian:

Hello = zda-RO-vo
How are you? = chu-VAK, kak dee-LA?
I am fine. = e-SHO ne ro-dee-LA.
Where are you from? = Tee ot-KU-da?
I'm from Egypt = ot ver-BLU-da
Fuck the Finns = Fuck the Finns
Can I please have something to drink = DE-vu-shka, e-SHO ad-NA VOD-ka
Can you hold my beer (said to a man)? = mu-DAK, der-ZHI ma-YO PEE-vo po-KA ya so-blaz-NU TVO-yu DEV-ku.
Can you hold my beer (said to a woman)? = chu-VEE-kha, der-ZHI ma-YO PEE-vo po-KA ya so-blaz-NU TVO-e-vo pa-tsa-NA.
Where is the toilet? = g-DE zdes ble-VAT?
You're cute. = u te-BYA KLAS-na-ya PO-pa.
Do you want to fight? = GRU-zee-ya fo-REV-er

*Emphasis is on the capitalized syllables.

The rest of the language can be ignored if you just memorize these key phrases.

I have Russian friends here who insist that beer is pronounced PEE-vah. Every Russian BASE jumper I've met pronounces it PEE-vo.

What's up with that? I thought it was a Russian/Ukranian difference. Maybe it's a Siberia/Moscow thing?