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Would you learn a language only for Love? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| H.Computatralis Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6304 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes  Speaks: Polish*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Latin | Message 25 of 59 29 October 2011 at 8:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, it's not like we have an unbiased sample... ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| egill Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5696 days ago 418 posts - 791 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 26 of 59 29 October 2011 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
Of course I can't speak for everyone, but my hunch is that for many forum-goers it doesn't take much to spark an interest in a language, e.g. a vacation/restaurant visit/short video clip... Given such a practical reason and wonderful resource, why not? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kaibri Triglot Newbie China Joined 4813 days ago 12 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, German, Mandarin Studies: Indonesian, Portuguese | Message 27 of 59 30 October 2011 at 5:03am | IP Logged | |||||
Exactly. I would naturally be interested in the culture and language of someone I loved, and I enjoy learning languages anyway so it seems like an obvious choice. Plus, I've always been jealous of people whose spouses or significant others speak their target language natively. What a great way to learn! Also, I have often thought that if I eventually have kids with someone who has a different native language, I would want to raise those kids bilingually to speak both his language and mine, but I wouldn't want him and the kids to all speak a language I didn't understand! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Melisse Triglot Newbie Sweden Joined 4870 days ago 19 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English*, SwedishC1, French Studies: Dutch, Russian, Modern Hebrew | Message 28 of 59 30 October 2011 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It depends.
I would have to be interested in the language a little bit already or at least not dislike it, in order to dedicate myself to learning it. I guess you could say that I've learned Swedish "for love". I moved to Sweden to be with my fiance. I never had any real interest in it before and doubt I would have ever learned if not for him. Once I came to Sweden and started studying it though, I really began to like it and it's now an important part of my life and always will be. On the other hand, my fiance is not a native Swedish speaker, his native language is Farsi. After 5 years together, I can say some basic polite phrases and about a dozen other words, but that's it. I have no plans to really Farsi. There are 2 reasons for this. First, I'm just plain not drawn to it and I know that I won't make any progress unless I'm really into it. Second, I associate it with my in-laws, since they are my constant and only exposure to this language. We don't get along very well. Every time I hear Farsi I think of them and that doesn't really make me want to learn it. Plus, he speaks English and Swedish perfectly and we are both planning to learn another language together. He left his birth country over 30 years ago and we have no plans to travel there. So, I don't see any reason for me to learn it. Now, if he spoke a language that I was interested in, no matter how impractical, I would have started studying after the first date. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6437 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 29 of 59 30 October 2011 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I read somewhere that one's ability to learn a language is directly proportional to one's attraction to people who speak that language.
Seriously though, the love chemicals in your brain can be a powerful motivating force. I bet in the right circumstances it could greatly accelerate the learning process. It's basically the opposite of having to learn something that you have no interest in, which takes forever and has minimal retention. How much boring stuff were you forced to learn in school that you studied for hours and barely memorized in time for the test and then forgot it all the next day? Edited by IronFist on 30 October 2011 at 7:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PaulLambeth Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5373 days ago 244 posts - 315 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic, Hindi, Irish | Message 30 of 59 30 October 2011 at 11:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
I do believe you're right there. Just from experience, I've flirted with a couple of languages at the same time as flirting with a couple of girls. However, those haven't stuck (both the girl and language) and I'm learning my current languages for less ... masculine ... reasons. I don't really have any attraction to Spanish or any particular Spanish person in the past, yet because my girlfriend speaks some, I would be happier to learn it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kisfroccs Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5409 days ago 388 posts - 549 votes Speaks: French*, German*, EnglishC1, Swiss-German, Hungarian Studies: Italian, Serbo-Croatian | Message 31 of 59 31 October 2011 at 10:19am | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, and this is the main reason why I'm on this forum. I felt in love with an Hungarian guy, 3 years ago. When I visited him, and couldn't even remember how to say "thanks" or pronuncing "Budapest" right, I felt kind of ashamed and decided to learn Hungarian.
The relationship is over, but I've been drawn so deep in the Hungarian culture that I can't let it go :). I simply love the music, the literature, their culture... I've learned so much about Hungary, just in learning the language ! The first reason was because of love, then it was useful to communicate with my in-laws, but after half and a year, I noticed that I now learn it to be independant whenever I'm in the country. Also, it was benefical for my other languages. Being able to learn a bit Hungarian has motivated me to learn other languages like Croatian, Spanish etc. Of course, the motivation is not the same... but through Hungarian I discovered my love for languages in general :). Kisfröccs 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Alexander86 Tetraglot Senior Member United Kingdom alanguagediary.blogs Joined 4981 days ago 224 posts - 323 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, Catalan Studies: Swedish | Message 32 of 59 31 October 2011 at 7:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well I kinda did... =) Although falling in love with girl who speaks Spanish at home and Catalan with her friends
means you have to learn two! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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