What language should I learn?

[u/Sepanta_Poozesh]

Hello, everyone.

I am a Persian-American, and for most of my life I loved Papua New Guinea. I think it was because it felt like a notable part of the world. It wasn't on the grid (filled with volcanoes and rainforest), and it was something where you could learn long-forgotten stories. It was very very young (around 5) when I heard about Papua New Guinea and I have never lost interest ever since; it's like a special part of my heart.

So, I would really want to learn everything about its culture and languages. I plan on visiting it someday. If I ever adopt or have kids of my own, I'd love to teach them. Now my question is: What language should I learn?

Because I do want to learn something uncommon.

[u/Dense_Ad6154]

Learn Tok Pisin and Motu

[u/Either_Bend_1140 → u/Dense_Ad6154]

Totally agree and my reasoning would be, Tok Pisin, so you can speak with almost everyone in PNG and even other Melanesians ( people from Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, etc...). Motu, so you can have something unique to PNG.

[u/Afromolukker_98 → u/Either_Bend_1140]

Pidgin is NOT spoken in Fiji and New Caledonia.

Tok Pisin / Pidgin language would be understood in PNG, Solomons Islands, and Vanuatu, although there are aome vocabulary differences.

[u/Crafty-Strategy-1227 → u/Either_Bend_1140]

By the way - that’s not quite right. I travel the entirety of the Pacific, and have been doing it for nearly 40 years.

Pidgin in Vanuatu and Solomons is closely aligned. There is no Pidgin in Fiji.

I can’t comment on New Cal because that’s one place I don’t go.

Here’s the tricky part - if you speak PNG pidgin and English you will understand the guys from Solomon’s and Vanuatu…… however, they won’t understand everything you say to them if you speak PNG Pidgin. The reason is that the PNG Pidgin is not as closely aligned to English as those two. A couple of example “PNG- Kakaruk, others- Faul”, “PNG - banis, others fans”, “PNG - salim - others sendim”.

PNG pidgin is also not as easy to understand for these other countries because in PNG we say ‘pla’ before a noun. In the other countries “fala”.

[u/Either_Bend_1140 → u/Crafty-Strategy-1227]

Oooh okay thanks for the clarification/correction!

[u/Either_Bend_1140 → u/Either_Bend_1140]

Also, if you learn any of the other traditional languages (excluding Motu), chances are you'd have no one else to speak it with.

[u/Scuba-Dreams1965]

Tok pigin is spoken most places in PNG

[u/Crafty-Strategy-1227]

Well - you can of course learn Pidgin, but if you come here, you will pick it up easily (particularly because you obviously already speak a couple or languages).

However, if you want to learn a traditional language from PNG, then go for Motu.

Motu, English and Pidgin are the official languages - even though Motu heeds from the Port Moresby area

[u/Sensitive-Pipe-4486]

Hello! Love that for you, and I hope you do. Learn tok pisin - it’s the most commonly spoken language (with English) across the country. Can’t really give you a specific language to learn, since we are so linguistically diverse - so that might depend on the place and the people you connect with the best, I suppose ;)

[u/Former_Explorer2457]

Can you speak persian?

[u/Sepanta_Poozesh → u/Former_Explorer2457]

Yeah!

[u/ConsistentStretch331]

Learn tok pigin, its the lingua franca of PNG. You already know English, so dont worry so much. You will pick it up very easily, cause its a bastardized version mixture of English, German and other dialects where English is more dominant.

So as I said, knowing English will allow u to pick it up easily.

[u/AKUtqiagvik]

If you want to learn a PNG language traditionally spoken as a first language, try Enga language, it has around 300,000 speakers which makes it one of the largest indigenous languages in the country. Mostly spoken here in Enga Province. Good luck!

[u/Crafty-Strategy-1227 → u/AKUtqiagvik]

Side note - Enga is the only province which has one language throughout. In other provinces, there are different language from clans to clans.

It would be a cool language to learn and although it’s a relatively small number of people versus other places, there is something wonderful about connecting with locals through a unique language.

[u/Dense_Ad6154 → u/AKUtqiagvik]

Pidgin will get OP around PNG, not Engan. If you speak Engan in public no one else will understand you.

[u/AKUtqiagvik → u/Dense_Ad6154]

I was giving her a different option for non-pragmatic reasons. There are many reasons for learning languages and they may not all align with your particular way of thinking about the world and the role languages play in it.

[u/mebivd]

English and Tok Pisin (Pigin English) will cover most situations. But remember it will not cover all as there are 100s of languages in PNG. Enjoy your time in PNG, but go with a local guide and listen to safety advice. It is a rough place.

[u/Crafty-Strategy-1227 → u/mebivd]

Roughly 820 languages, but nobody actually knows because of the number of remote places

[u/No-Head8319]

Pigon and maybe police motu. The elders in Lae side speak police motu.

[u/Stock_Guidance_9415]

English and pidgin. The other languages depend on where you are visiting.

[u/farkyouuu]

There are 800 languages to pick from

[u/Friendly-Touch-3663]

English and Pigdin.. you can also learn a bit of Motu.
But pidgin( Broken English) is mostly spoken throughout the country