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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes  Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 129 of 346 06 September 2006 at 10:06am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, I'm like a half empty/half full glass: I'm optimist (or crazy) enough to believe that I can learn the Romance and Germanic languages if I stick to them, but I'm too pessimist to try to add the languages in the second list, - the last straw was the one that broke the camel's neck. We all have to judge how much we can achieve in one lifetime. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 130 of 346 06 September 2006 at 11:34am | IP Logged | |||||
I understand your pessimism, it happens to all of us. However, consider the following scenario for a twenty year-old monolingual English speaker: Assume that it takes approximately 600 hours to become fluent in Spanish, studying one hour every night for two years. Therefore, in ten years you could easily learn five Romance languages, although it would actually take less time since the 600 hours per language would be reduced as you learned similar languages. Continuing on from this, you could treat the Germanic languages in a similar way (lets say 800 hours per language, though) and still have about four languages after ten years. Then, for your third decade, you could concentrate on just two languages (say Mandarin and Arabic) and study them for five years each. So, add them all up and you end up speaking twelve languages when you're fifty, studying only one hour a day, which is better than vegetating in front of the TV, in my opinion. Doesn't look so bad, does it? The trouble is that you've got to remain committed to studying an hour a night for thirty years of your life. That's the really hard part. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 131 of 346 06 September 2006 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You should add the time it takes to keep those languages alive, including the time you spend searching for sufficiently interesting study material. Well it may be feasible, but it would take more than one hour per night.
But thanks for trying to convince the pessimistic half of me. Edited by Iversen on 06 September 2006 at 1:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 132 of 346 06 September 2006 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
I know, but I was trying to be conservative.
I think that I was also trying to convice my own pessimistic half, but you're welcome anyway :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7105 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 133 of 346 06 September 2006 at 4:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
Part of that can be vegging in front on the telly in your target language. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6685 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 134 of 346 06 September 2006 at 5:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As for the issue of whether or not we can do the things we'd like to do, it is simply a matter of doing them. Some people dream of all the languages they'd like to learn. Others go about learning them. I plan to spend my time in the second category. :^)
Edited by lengua on 06 September 2006 at 6:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6944 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 135 of 346 06 September 2006 at 5:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
My problem with long lists, and this whole thread, is that long lists are liable to take all spontaneity out of life. When a few days ago I was sitting in a restaurant in Northern Arizona and ovehearing throughout the whole dinner a young couple at the next table, who were speaking what my best guess is was Navajo, it struck me that instead of planning one's linguistic life far in advance, it may be better to take it one or two languages at a time and not worry about what comes next until one is ready to choose again. This way one may learn fewer languages in one's lifetime, but they will all be guaranteed to be truly worth it. And one also needs time to enjoy the languages one already knows, not just to keep learning new ones. Edited by frenkeld on 06 September 2006 at 5:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6685 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 136 of 346 06 September 2006 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
Brilliantly said. Despite the list I worked up above your post (which, upon reflection, means little to me, and has now been erased), I really don't know which language I'm going to study beyond the one or two I'm currently working on. Planning 20 or 30 languages ahead of time might be fun, but it can also make the whole endeavor seem like a chore. Personally, I'm more likely to learn a random language if I suddenly realize a need/desire for it. If I got into a serious relationship with a Maori girl, for example, whatever I was studying would have to make way, and all my resources would be speared toward learning Maori - even if, until that month, it had never been a language of consideration. Life is relative; unpredictable. As you noted, I would rather learn a handful of languages because my heart was into them during every second I learned each of them, than achieve some level of proficiency in dozens of languages I trudged through simply because I told myself I would learn them. I don't think I could chart out the next five years of my life in any way - much less in terms of which languages I plan to learn. But one step at a time will get you wherever you want to go. Edited by lengua on 06 September 2006 at 6:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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