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Useful language vs. language you like | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Usefulness | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| RogueMD Senior Member United States Joined 5022 days ago 72 posts - 82 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 41 of 69 02 May 2013 at 1:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think that as an English speaker I am very lucky in that I already possess a "useful" language by birthright. I now
have the luxury of choice. For me the answer therefore is very easy; I study languages that I find interesting with little concern for the usefulness of the language. I am studying Hungarian, a fascinating language important to me for personal reasons, but hardly a "useful" language in the grand scheme. 2cents … Michael 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4624 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 42 of 69 02 May 2013 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | ||
It depends on your personal circumstances. If you have relatives in Hungary, enjoy visiting this country or plan upon working there, Hungarian would be an extremely useful language to know. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| RogueMD Senior Member United States Joined 5022 days ago 72 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English* | Message 43 of 69 02 May 2013 at 4:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Great point , Beano. Personal circumstances absolutely dictate necessity. My point related to the overall "grand scheme of things" usefulness of a language (ie. Hungarian). Other things being equal, choosing a language which is "interesting" beats choosing a language which is "useful". But as I mentioned, I already speak a "useful" language by simple luck.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| breakfastfox Newbie United States Joined 4940 days ago 6 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* | Message 44 of 69 09 May 2013 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | ||
That's fascinating! Speaking from the perspective of a native English speaker in the medical field (although I am not a doctor): since we already speak English, our focus is on Greek and Latin (not for fluency, but as part of our technical jargon). Did you incorporate those languages into your training as well? Now to answer the op - I'd much rather learn the language I'm interested in (Japanese). However, I'm actually finding more and more motivation to learn my useful language (Spanish) as I go along. With the sheer exposure I get to Spanish speakers, I often run into situations where I think "jeez, I should know how to respond to this", and end up pouring more time into my studies. Edited by breakfastfox on 09 May 2013 at 6:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 45 of 69 09 May 2013 at 6:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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In the Czech Republic, Latin terminology with pieces of Greek is taught earlier than the English one because
it is used as our terminology, whle the English one is still foreign, no matter how useful. Do you, in Croatia, use the Latin terminology as your medical L1 or do you just use the English version? From what I understood from your other posts, you basically study in English. Is Croatian used in the medical field for anything? Is the patient documentation in Croatian/Latin or in English (as it is for example on Taiwan)? Breakfastfox, do you as well study Latin grammar or just the word roots which you use in the English terminology? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lykeio Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4246 days ago 120 posts - 357 votes | Message 46 of 69 09 May 2013 at 6:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Usefulness is, as many have pointed out, always relative. I quite a few languages besides
English almost daily yet none of these would be "useful" for most people. Also, its hard to overestimate the value of interest in language learning. French and German are both important to me for academic reasons (accessing articles and so on). I can read articles etc in both, but I much prefer French and tend to read it outside of academia, I watch French films and so on. Both are important and necessary, but interest has caused them to become a little lopsided. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5102 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 47 of 69 09 May 2013 at 9:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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For me it's all about interest. My philosophy is that usefullness will come along for the ride.
Any living language will not hurt my employment prospects even if only a small number of people speak it (and I'm not actually likely to learn one like that anyway). Even if my language is unpopular, that just means that I'll stick out because I won't be another "studying Spanish" applicant. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4624 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 48 of 69 09 May 2013 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | ||
But you couldn't work as a doctor in Germany or Italy if you didn't know German or Italian. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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