94 messages over 12 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 10 ... 11 12 Next >>
Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 5976 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds
| Message 73 of 94 03 July 2009 at 6:40pm | IP Logged |
RBenham wrote:
Generally, in Australia, where there is a strong migrant presence, speaking non-English languages in public often arouses hostility. There is an anecdote involivng Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, a television personality, who grew up speaking several languages due to his background. As a teenager, he was speaking one of them (I think Polish) to his mother in a shop, and some kid said something like "Stop talking that language, you wog!" The result was, according to him, that he never spoke any language other than English again. |
|
|
That's horrible, loosing your L1 is a sad thing. I'm lucky that my parents pester me on the phone every other day. If it was not for them, I might as well forget how to speak properly. I know some people who've acquired a strange accent or use odd expressions in their L1 after only a year abroad. Such individuals are often ridiculed and even despised by some.
Unfortunately, keeping your L1 in good shape is somewhat contradictory to the goals of immersion. I guess total immersion is good on the short term but you need a well balanced 'language mix' if you are to become multilingual and not just acquire one language and lose another.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Alvinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 6176 days ago 828 posts - 832 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish
| Message 74 of 94 03 July 2009 at 10:09pm | IP Logged |
Poliglotery sounds horrible only to dumbs...
1 person has voted this message useful
| kerateo Triglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5588 days ago 112 posts - 180 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English, French Studies: Italian
| Message 75 of 94 12 July 2009 at 8:35am | IP Logged |
I hate when i know how to say something in English but not in Spanish which is my native language..
2 persons have voted this message useful
| zooplah Diglot Senior Member United States zooplah.farvista.net Joined 6310 days ago 100 posts - 116 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: German
| Message 76 of 94 09 September 2009 at 7:27am | IP Logged |
nhk9 wrote:
3) If you can speak 10 languages at native levels and is applying for a job that requires foreign language skills (but not necessarily all 10), would you think that it is better to just list the ones ONLY that directly has something to do with your job? Listing all 10 may give the impression that you CAN speak to a certain level all 10 languages (or that you are just boasting), but not really the fact that you can ACTUALLY be fluent in all 10. Many employers probably wouldn't think that a person can speak all 10 languages anyway, since they would have no realistic method of testing one's ability of say, German, arabic, or other exotic languages that they have absolutely no clue about.
|
|
|
Personally, I wouldn't say that I could speak a language unless I was actually fluent in it.
1 person has voted this message useful
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5527 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French
| Message 77 of 94 09 September 2009 at 5:36pm | IP Logged |
justinwilliams wrote:
Where I'm from it is seen by many as a treason to learn English further than 'Hi'.
I guess it fits in reason 2) though. |
|
|
I can understand that, many people in America don't learn French because they believe that the French or French speakers are very arrogant.
I've met many French speakers, and the majority of them were not very kind. I'm not sure why, I like the language and the way it sounds. I'm learning French just because I want to have a mastery of all the major European languages.
A lot of people think I'm very weird, many kids my age play video games or party continuously, I have a dictionary in my pocket and a ton of foreign friends. lol
I love people that speak another language, and when I can speak with them it makes me feel good that their language isn't forgotten around the world.
:)
Edited by datsunking1 on 09 September 2009 at 5:39pm
1 person has voted this message useful
| elbereth Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5430 days ago 22 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Latin
| Message 78 of 94 26 December 2009 at 9:20pm | IP Logged |
I do wonder whether people have a point about it being a waste of time.I refer toliving languages in this.I have decide to keep up the French and German A-level and keep with them.From them I learnt things I liked about the countries.From this point I cannot seem to pick it up as easy,where do I go from there? I then took up Spanish but found though I liked certain phonological parts that I didn't like any of the poetry and really don't want to go to Spain at all,so think I will give it up.I have only been to France and Germany a little.It is not so hard with Latin,Ag and OE.
They are dead languages and I can just read historical things with them.I wonder whether to do AG and OE though,since Latin has so much more.I have picked the latter up easily and it is like a great source language:) I also thought of Dutch being close to German and West Germanic that it would be fun and sounds good on this branch of the Germanic tree,rather than Northern.Finnish purely for sounds has caught me.Do some not think that speaking too many for the sake of it damages other areas of life?
It's why I am thinking of maybe cutting out a few other languages and do not want to now do a mad thing like do all the Scandinavian languages,but stick with Dutch which I feel I would really like.Holland's Medieval history,the little I've heard intrigues me. Is my point valid do people think? I am fluent in none of the languages here and wonder at too much dabbling;whether it is healthy.
1 person has voted this message useful
| elbereth Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5430 days ago 22 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Latin
| Message 79 of 94 26 December 2009 at 9:25pm | IP Logged |
I do like datsunking's last line,though perhaps it can go too far? I am not trying to stir up trouble,I just fear this point;especially when people say I shouldn't have switched to BA English,they cannot understand foreign language study done independently/without travel-not going or a dead language and not always wanting to speak the language for whatever reason,lol.
1 person has voted this message useful
| sei Diglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5883 days ago 178 posts - 191 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese
| Message 80 of 94 27 December 2009 at 12:44am | IP Logged |
The negative aspects that I've experienced the most, and that annoy me the most, are the Trained Monkey Effect, which happens EVERY time I mention I am learning a language. And also, like mentioned before as well, people assuming I am fluent when I have just told them I have just started learning a language, or have been learning only for a couple of months. This all mostly happens with Japanese, which is the strangest and most fascinating one for every person I have encountered.
This happens a lot with a couple of my classmates. They consider themselves very intelligent, and were all over me when I happened to bring my textbook to school to study on free periods and people found out. Since then, they ask me on a weekly basis "How is the studying going?", expecting me to say something in the language for them and expecting me to be fluent in it... It is pretty annoying, specially as I have tried over and over to explain you don't learn it in a week, not even in a year, so no, I am not fluent, I only know a few words and phrases...
Happens with family too actually. My parents are very proud to announce to others that their daughter studies Japanese (which often leads to the monkey thing...), but on private, my mom has more than once told me (when I said I was going to study or such) that she didn't think I studied at all, as I never spoke to her in the language anymore. It's the same, she expects me to be fluent from night to day... Of course, this doesn't stop them from still bragging about me, like I was some sort of genius, which I'm not (I guess this is also a downside, like people mentioned). But I'm going to guess I'm not alone in this. ^^
2 persons have voted this message useful
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum
This page was generated in 0.7031 seconds.
DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
|