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Why learn a dead/artificial language? | ||
Tags: Dead Languages | Reasons for study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5769 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 25 of 70 12 April 2015 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
And why do you assume that other people might not find studying dead languages just as stimulating? That's the whole issue there, other people don't necessarily experience the same things as enriching and valuable as you do. The only reason why one would be stuck feeling "I don't understand why they would enjoy it because I wouldn't enjoy it" is that one doesn't accept that their experience is as valid as one's own. As long as you approach the topic thinking like that you will never understand, no matter how much people try to explain it to you. Yet, if you change you attitude to "I don't currently understand why they do that, but they are doing it so they must have a reason for it" you will find such reasons, maybe even without having to ask somebody else for an explanation. 9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| i_forget Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5200 days ago 35 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Greek*, English, Spanish | Message 26 of 70 12 April 2015 at 6:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yeah we moved from that and pretty much agreed that they do it just because they like it,
for whatever reason. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Paco Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 4280 days ago 145 posts - 251 votes Speaks: Cantonese* | Message 27 of 70 12 April 2015 at 8:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I spend time on living languages to hear the heart of living people; on dead languages, to
mine the minds of dead people; on an artificial language, to create a cult. Elen silë omentiemman. Edited by Paco on 12 April 2015 at 8:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 28 of 70 12 April 2015 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
No, some actually need it. Plenty of future lawyers, doctors etc hate Latin but have to learn it anyway. It can also be a requirement for linguistics/philology, though this depends on the country. In Russia this is still very common, partly because in the USSR there was less need/acceptance for modern languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| i_forget Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5200 days ago 35 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Greek*, English, Spanish | Message 29 of 70 12 April 2015 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes but this thread refers to the people who willfully decide to study the ancient version of the language instead of the modern. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4293 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 30 of 70 12 April 2015 at 10:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I note that you live in the UK, not only an Anglophone country but a major power, and
Anglophone countries, the others being the USA, Australia, NZ, and parts of Canada would probably tell you lots of BS about how English is all you need, and that other (living) languages are just there for no reason. Dead languages have an even lower reputation in Anglophone countries, but why listen to them? In bookstores I have looked at some English translations of Isabel Allende's books just to see what it looks like. It is simply not the same as the Spanish version, despite Spanish being accessible due to its being a living language. Likewise I read the stories about the Greek gods like Έρμῆς and Ζεύς, but in English, because it was required reading in primary and secondary school. Somehow it always never seemed right because it never captured the real feeling of how it was were I to read it in ancient Greek. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4102 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 31 of 70 12 April 2015 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
So, now it's a matter of not being "good" at it if you don't enjoy it? In your last post you said doing something for a reason other than enjoyment was "not too bright" and "bound to fail", which makes it sound like you haven't met a student in a very very very long time (just one of the many types of people who frequently don't fail things they hate doing because their goal-setting and prioritising don't work the way you've outlined). 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5133 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 32 of 70 12 April 2015 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
You might be interested in reading what Isabel Allende thinks of her English translators, past and present: http://www.isabelallende.com/en/interview She seems quite happy with them. R. == 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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