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Are we all a bunch of wusses? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6951 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 89 of 151 21 December 2008 at 6:09pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Reading in translation may be an easy enough way, except one still has to be interested enough to even want to try. There are some cultures one gets exposed to just by reading newspapers, and at times what one gleans is enough either for a yawn or for wishing them well at a distance.
Not really. You are required to feel good about other cultures, but a serious study of them is too strenuous and not really cool - the actual study was much more competently done by the British colonial officers of the days of yore. Edited by frenkeld on 22 December 2008 at 9:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6455 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German | Message 90 of 151 21 December 2008 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
But I thought translation does not let you fully experience these cultures, and most translations are in boring European languages anyway. I believe I am required to tolerate – appreciation would help. This should come from the heart. I do get the impression however that I am required to feel good about a lot of things. The “exotic” does have the advantage of offering a very different point of view. That point of view may not correspond to any truth but it may still prove interesting. Learning a language is only a small fraction of the work required to reach a deep understanding of a particular culture. The work is immense. If you simply want to sample, get a satellite dish and flip through some channels. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| TDC Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6929 days ago 261 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, French Studies: Esperanto, Ukrainian, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Persian | Message 91 of 151 21 December 2008 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'm going to have to read through this thread cos it seems very interesting.
But I just thought I'd say I('ve) study(ied): French, Italian, Spanish, German Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, Persian Esperanto and some Latin So, partially familiar European languages, and a couple of exotics. I have plans to add these exotics: Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi along with the more familiar: Portuguese, Romanian, Polish, Serbian, Swedish, Dutch...I could go on... ;) Not to mention I'd love to learn Cherokee b/c I'm like 1/16th Cherokee. But all I know so far is Osiyo. Edited by TDC on 21 December 2008 at 9:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6951 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 92 of 151 21 December 2008 at 10:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
There's a difference between "exploring" and "fully experiencing".
If you don't know the language of the channel, you will only sample clothing styles, so this doesn't sound like a promising technique. The point behind my last post was that nowadays it seems to be in vogue to associate a high-quality multicultural perspective with a near-disdain for one's own culture. British colonial officers had no doubt that their culture was overall superior, but were still keen on learning about other cultures and in some cases truly knowledgeable about them. I doubt, however, that in so doing they would poo-poo the study of major European languages. Edited by frenkeld on 21 December 2008 at 10:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6280 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 93 of 151 26 December 2008 at 8:58am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Sacrilege. You do realise that Buffy The Vampire Slayer is all that saves Western civilisation from the Hellmouth? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7384 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 94 of 151 08 December 2009 at 10:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think this is a really interesting discussion and confess I've been leaning myself towards Indo European languages - easier to learn for me, cultures are more accessible geographically and many speakers. But I do respect those of us who go for languages that are totally unrelated to their own to open foreign cultures to their intellect.
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| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5593 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 95 of 151 08 December 2009 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I study languages based on use.
I've met many more people that speak Spanish, German, and Italian as compared to French. I play on learning Russian eventually, I base my language learning off of stuff that I enjoy to learn. I love German music and literature, I'm addicted to the language. same for Spanish and portguese. I love cyrillic writing, so I decided to take up Russian :D any language can work, regardless of the "difficulty" if it works for someone else, it can easily work for you. :) - Jordan 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5711 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 96 of 151 08 December 2009 at 6:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Personally I do study and plan to study a variety of languages, all for a legitimate if selfish reason.
My main languages that I want to learn in my life are Spanish and Arabic, but I also would like to study French, Italian and German over the next few years because there are courses offered in these languages at my local community college. I'd like to study Mandarin, Japanese and Arabic during my years in University and Law School. If you look at my "Hitlist" of languages you'll see they cover a wide scope, from IE languages, to Asian, Semitic, Japanese, and even an unpopular (in the US) African language, Wolof. I dont count myself any "languagey-er" than my language learning peers becuase I am interested in more languages or because my language choices are more "exotic" than my typical US-youth who may or may not believe that Spanish is the only language worth learning, if that. Personally I wouldn't ever learn a language strictly for Business/Monetary purposes. I happen to have a lot of "Main" languages on my hit list but I also have Esperanto, Wolof and ASL on my list, languages I would learn just for personal gratification. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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