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Benny Lewis | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4717 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 89 of 164 28 April 2012 at 1:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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Great new Benny's post about Chinese
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| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4673 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes Speaks: English* | Message 90 of 164 28 April 2012 at 7:44am | IP Logged | |||||
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Do beginners really get scared away from learning a language because they hear it's hard? I suppose some do. More
so for Chinese than other languages? I doubt it. Some general encouraging words regarding language learning is a good idea. So is useful how-to information. But I think most learners prefer facts. If they want an idea of how long it takes to learn a language, be truthful. This article isn't truthful. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4717 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 91 of 164 28 April 2012 at 8:08am | IP Logged | |||||
Well, in my case particularly I'd be MUCH more scared of Chinese than, say, Hungarian, Icelandic or Turkish. Mostly because of the writing system (the "kanji", I don't really know the name of it) and the tonal approach of the language, different than any language that I'm familiar with. Edited by fabriciocarraro on 28 April 2012 at 8:10am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4673 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes Speaks: English* | Message 92 of 164 28 April 2012 at 8:21am | IP Logged | |||||
So you would learn Hungarian, Icelandic or Turkish, but you wouldn't learn Chinese? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4717 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 93 of 164 28 April 2012 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hummm not exactly, if I really wanted I'd most certainly start learning any of them, but I'm sure that I'd be more scared of Chinese than of the others. Even though the grammar in Hungarian is much harder than in Chinese, the Chinese writing system and the tonal approach scare me more. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| nakrian keegiat Diglot Groupie Thailand Joined 4909 days ago 70 posts - 172 votes Speaks: English*, Thai Studies: Russian | Message 94 of 164 28 April 2012 at 7:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
I will admit that I do. I choose languages based on: 1) Opportunity to use the language where I live 2) Interest in the culture and media 3) Interest in traveling to the country Based on these criteria, Japanese would be near the top of my list for my next language to learn, but I'm not so motivated to learn it that I'm willing to invest the time to learn it compared to other languages which I'm slightly less attracted to but are much easier. I chose to learn two hard languages in Thai and Russian because my interest level was high enough to overcome my tendency to choose the easiest path. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6911 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 95 of 164 29 April 2012 at 12:24am | IP Logged | |||||
When I was in high school, there were more students in the Spanish classes than in all the other languages together (German, French, Russian) - many weren't even into languages and had chosen Spanish because it was said to be "easy". In case a student took two languages, Spanish was nearly always one of them. Those I know who deliberately avoided German stated the "difficult grammar" as the main reason. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6951 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 96 of 164 29 April 2012 at 7:57am | IP Logged | |||||
I was actually pretty surprised to read this. I think you might've been hanging out with too many language geeks on this forum, Wulfgar ;) Most people are definitely intimidated by languages they perceive as hard, and as far as the general population is concerned Chinese may well be THE top contender for the "you have to be a genius to learn it" crown.
I'd be interested to hear in what ways you found it to be untruthful. I found it to be honest (about his own level, the difficult points, etc.), well-reasoned, and accurate as far as I can confirm based on my limited experience with the language. In fact, I loved this article, and it's the same stuff I've been trying to tell people for years. (I wouldn't be surprised if I've made similar arguments on this forum, in fact!) I can't wait until he makes one for Japanese. Edited by Lucky Charms on 29 April 2012 at 8:01am 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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