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When someone insults your language. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5386 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 57 of 76 06 January 2011 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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When someone says something negative about a language that goes beyond "I'm personally
not attracted to it" it really just flagrantly displays their ignorance. I try not to get offended by the words of ignorant people, because life is too short. Regarding English in particular, it does get a bit old to hear the many complaints. I can completely understand the frustration with having to learn a tricky language in order to get ahead in life, and as a native speaker I know that I'll never truly "get it" so I can't judge people who complain about it. That said, there isn't some sort of secret conspiracy or cabal to make everyone learn English, and if there is I'm certainly not part of it. So the handful of times I've had people take out their frustrations regarding English *on me* I've gotten irritated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Impiegato Triglot Senior Member Sweden bsntranslation. Joined 5434 days ago 100 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Italian Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 58 of 76 06 January 2011 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't like when people say that Swedish is an easy language. The reason is obvious: claiming that a language is easy is similar to claiming that you can express only simple thoughts in that language.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5101 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 59 of 76 06 January 2011 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can't say that I've really encountered this yet. The closet thing I've experienced would be Americans complaining about English spelling.
Maybe my hatred of Spanish counts? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Naomi Chambers Newbie United States thepolyglotexperienc Joined 5072 days ago 23 posts - 30 votes Speaks: Spanish Studies: FrenchC1, Swedish | Message 60 of 76 07 January 2011 at 2:47am | IP Logged | ||
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I think that everyone is entitled to their own opinions about languages. Some people think German is ugly. Some think Arabic is harsh and gutteral.
Just as we have the right to say some languages are beautiful, we also have the right to say some languages are ugly. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Naomi Chambers Newbie United States thepolyglotexperienc Joined 5072 days ago 23 posts - 30 votes Speaks: Spanish Studies: FrenchC1, Swedish | Message 61 of 76 07 January 2011 at 2:59am | IP Logged | ||
swedish is the hardest language i have ever studied 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5386 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 62 of 76 08 January 2011 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | ||
There's a difference between "I find this language unattractive" and "This language is ugly." It might just be a pet peeve of mine, but I think that framing your subjective opinion as an objective statement is kind of silly, and can be taken as rude. If someone says "I don't care for the sound of English and I think it's becoming too dominant in the world" then I might agree on some points. If someone says "English sounds like snakes hissing and it's taking over the world" then I'm going to get irritated. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kmart Senior Member Australia Joined 6125 days ago 194 posts - 400 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 63 of 76 08 January 2011 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | ||
Perhaps it means that the language has been better-developed, in order to render it so logical and easy to learn, and is actually a compliment to the language. And in any case, ease of learning is often proportional to the relationship of the target language to the native one eg Italian is very easy to learn for a Spanish speaker, that says nothing about the complexity of Italian. Tonal languages are usually very difficult for Western tongues to master, it doesn't follow that those language express more complex thoughts. Don't be offended that people think your language is easy, be proud that your ancestors had the superior intelligence to develop a coherent and logical language structure. ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5274 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 64 of 76 08 January 2011 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I find no correlation between language difficulty and civilizational level. We often find that more primitive peoples,
such as hunter gathering tribes, have vastly more complex languages than those of more advanced peoples, such as industrial societies. And the complexity is not due to randomness, but is systematic and coherent. I don't think this inherent complexity necessarily makes expression more or less difficult than in "easy" languages. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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