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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 41 of 65 05 May 2010 at 5:38pm | IP Logged | ||
Somehow I'm left with the feeling that we have let you down, and not given you the support and encouragement we should have. It is actually a wonderful thing, to have someone so young be so interested in languages. I do not know whether you will reach 40 languages, but I am sure that you will do wonderful things. Best of luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5340 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 42 of 65 05 May 2010 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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You are so sweet and supportive, Cristin :)
Akao: I hope too that I didn't sound too harsh, because it's really inspiring to see someone so young already so interested/passionate with languages :) Continue to learn as many languages as you like, as long as you are happy, that's what counts!!! :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5336 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 43 of 65 05 May 2010 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Oh, and just to clear things up I'm already dating someone, and we see each other often.
:D Edited by Akao on 05 May 2010 at 11:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5385 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 44 of 65 05 May 2010 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well yes, I didn't at all mean to instruct you in how to live your life.
But what I mean to say is that you should give yourself room to breathe and grow and really figure out your interests over the next few years. And I would hate for you to throw yourself into languages only to get burned out at 17 years old! One thing you can do, though, is try to make use of your special window for learning and mimicking accents. After your teenage years, your ability to adopt native accents and hear unfamiliar sounds tends to naturally decrease. Now might be the time to only learn one or two languages seriously, but EXPOSE your ears and tongue to a wide variety of different sounds. Check out Dr. Arguelles's thread in "Lessons on Polyglottery" where he links to his Language Museum--the New Testament recorded in literally hundreds of different languages. If you spend a lot of time listening to different languages and their variant sounds (and trying to mimic the languages you are interested in learning) you might be able to expand your natural ability to perceive different sounds from other languages. Not a scientific suggestion, but it may be useful. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| apatch3 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6185 days ago 80 posts - 99 votes Speaks: Pashto, English* Studies: Japanese, FrenchA2 | Message 45 of 65 13 May 2010 at 11:14am | IP Logged | ||
I don't think so. Lets get down to the nitty gritty. 1) Why do languages exist Ans : In order for humans to communicate with each other effectively they were devised over the years by a series of coincidences. 2) Why does a person decide to learn a language? -- The obvious answer is in order to get closer to people who speak it, to be able to understand them better and hence to gain the ability to be absorbed into another world of media/literature/arts etc Learning a language properly is so much more than a new way to communicate. If your answer to number 2 is "uhh I want to learn more languages than mezzofanti" then I guarantee you will fail ..simple as that 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Keilan Senior Member Canada Joined 5086 days ago 125 posts - 241 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 46 of 65 28 March 2011 at 2:27am | IP Logged | ||
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May I kindly ask you to aim MUCH lower? Especially if you plan to pursue normal things like a relationship or a band. I am a university student in a relationship and studying two languages is quite a burden. To pass Mezzofanti, you would need to give everything else up.
If you find a language you are passionate about, pursue it. Worry about your second language before you worry about your fortieth, I promise you that one is hard enough. Edited by Keilan on 28 March 2011 at 2:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 47 of 65 28 March 2011 at 2:40am | IP Logged | ||
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It's great to have goals from such a young age, and it's great to find support in
others, but it's healthy to have people around you who will question your objectives and even tell you it's not possible. You have to have something to prove to push your limits. Most great achievements come at a cost. Extreme academic achievements often come with an impoverished social life. If you are in a relationship (at 13?) and you are starting a band, you are obviously the kind of kid who enjoys social stimulus. That may be just what will help you learn languages, but it will probably also be what will prevent from beating a record. And if you disagree, then I hope my healthy criticism pushes you above your capabilities. However, 13 is a little young to be setting life goals. Ask the people around you what they wanted to do when they were 13 and what they are doing now. Good luck in finding a single person whose aspirations match their current life. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5273 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 48 of 65 28 March 2011 at 4:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I do not consider knowing a vast array of languages to be an achievement in and of itself. It only becomes an
achievement when it has a particular utility. For instance: a traveling physician who administers healthcare throughout a broad area that requires him to know multiple dialects or even languages; a professor of history who takes advantage of his language knowledge to process primary sources; a missionary who translates the Bible into the many different languages he knows which don't already have a translation; a linguist who can take advantage of his intimate knowledge of many languages to arrive at some novel concept about languages in general; a spy, who easily weaves between various languages in the service of his boss/country. I have still not come upon any case in which polyglottery is synergistic, where knowing multiple languages gives someone a new skill or knowledge that transcends the skill and knowledge they are imparted by each individual language. Perhaps I am wrong about that. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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