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Characteristics of language learners

 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots Post Reply
18 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
Bao
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5
Joined 5765 days ago

2256 posts - 4046 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 17 of 18
02 February 2013 at 11:11pm | IP Logged 
Did you start learning languages (for pleasure) before or after you became an adult?
Before, but it took me several years and many attempts to become somewhat efficient at it.

Do you have a set routine for studying, or are a "learn-as-you-go" learner?
Learn-as-you-go. I made the experience that given enough exposure and motivation, any kind of study material will work, as long as it is varied, dense in information, and I can make it transparent enough to see the patterns.

Did you have motivation or a reason to start learning languages, or started doing it as an extracurricular activity?
I don't see the yes/no question there. For one, knowing several European languages seemed to be the natural thing to do for adults in my social circle, so to me it never was a question if, only when and how; and which ones. To me, learning in general is something I can't do when I'm not interested, so studying languages is intertwined with other leisure activities, and often done at the same time; which doesn't mean that I don't have long term goals involving my language proficiency.

Do you like reading?
Yes. I love finding the red threads of genre conventions, figure out when they are breached and what the author tried to express with it; and whether they were successful or not. I love the challenge of figuring out the common ground knowledge an author from a specific period and area assumes the readership to have, and whether that information is common ground knowledge in my own social environment.

Do you consider yourself "passionate" about learning your chosen language (or, if you've stopped studying actively, were you passionate about it at the time)?
Yes. I wouldn't exactly call myself passionate, but I get rather animated when talking or thinking about my languages, the cultures of those languages, as well as languages and language study in general.


Edited by Bao on 02 February 2013 at 11:25pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6596 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 18 of 18
08 February 2013 at 10:02am | IP Logged 
Did you start learning languages (for pleasure) before or after you became an adult?
Before.

Do you have a set routine for studying, or are a "learn-as-you-go" learner?
Learn-as-you-go I guess. I mostly set specific goals for the challenges, otherwise I like it random:)

Did you have motivation or a reason to start learning languages, or started doing it as an extracurricular activity?
Um, who starts extracurricular activities without a reason/motivation? :/ The reasons are important for me. I generally do best in languages for which I have the most reasons listed at HTLAL :)

Do you like reading?
Well, yes, but this comes and goes. I usually forget to mention it when asked about my hobbies, as it's part of my interest in languages rather than something separate. When I had only my native language "available", I definitely could never be considered a voracious reader, bookworm etc.
I suppose I'm addicted to the feeling I have when reading in a not so fluent language...

Do you consider yourself "passionate" about learning your chosen language (or, if you've stopped studying actively, were you passionate about it at the time)?
Yes. I think my passion is the real difference from most learners, even many members here. I have the same passion for many languages as most people have only for one or two. When being "done" with your first foreign language, or the first one after English, it's very common to just want to "learn one more language". But if the passion is not the same anymore, many give up.
My general rule is not to start learning a language until I can't live without it. Or in some cases without encountering it (Spanish, Swedish is knocking on the door too)
1 person has voted this message useful



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