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How many of you learn for fun? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Motivation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 25 of 51 09 October 2014 at 4:56am | IP Logged | ||
Perhaps in a certain way this could describe why I went about learning Northern Saami, and dabbled in Inari Saami and Meadow Mari. I didn't learn any of the Saamic languages until after I had returned from Lapland with a small collection of learning material while Mari came about because of my longstanding interest in Uralic languages and the release of a beginner's textbook with audio. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4848 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 26 of 51 09 October 2014 at 7:58am | IP Logged | ||
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I've always struggled with combining the word "fun" with "language learning," and I've come to a conclusion (I think). Learning languages are anything but fun, but I get a sense of achievement at "cracking the code", as someone else said in this thread, and opening a window into a different world than my original English-speaking world.
Do I want to learn languages? Yes, of course. Do I enjoy using the words/phrases I've learned, whether it be when speaking to someone in that language, watching video or listening to radio, or reading something interesting? Yes, definitely. Is learning a language fun? Not at all. A lot of people say that you should do something you like doing in your target language, so that the language-learning process is fun for you, and you'll want to keep doing it. I tried that, but activities that are fun for me become significantly less fun when I'm doing it in my target language. For example, my favorite movie is "Back to the Future." I can watch it all day in English and enjoy it immensely. But if I switch on the Japanese dubs, I get tired of it after about 30 minutes. It's no fun to keep pausing the DVD, look up words, and resume, or rewind because I missed something the first time. I don't call that fun. That's not to say that I don't get anything out of doing such activities. I often read news articles in Japanese. Sometimes I'll take a news article, look up all the words, and then read it over again without the dictionary. I learn a lot of new words that way, and I feel good after I've done that. I get a sense of accomplishment. Wow, I just "cracked the code"! I just figured out this Japanese article! I'm awesome! Where's the next one? I have that good feeling of having done something amazing. But is it fun? No way. Let's call language learning what it is: a lot of hard work that requires a lot of one's time (but obviously with a HUGE payoff at the end). Riding a rollercoaster or swimming at the beach - now those are fun things, and they don't require a lot of hard work and time (unless you count the two-plus hours waiting in line to ride a rollercoaster). I've found that trying to make my language-learning "fun" has been a detriment to my learning. I rather focus on the things that I will be able to do once I am able to speak Japanese or Portuguese, like have intelligent conversations with people, enjoy TV and movies and understand everything doing it, and going to other countries and conversing and joking with the natives. That helps me to put my head down and get through the hard work I need to do to get to that point. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chiara-sai Triglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3709 days ago 54 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German, Japanese | Message 27 of 51 09 October 2014 at 8:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I only learn for fun, I don't really have any use for my language. The exeption is English, which in small part I
learnt because I had to (it was part of the school curriculum), but considering that everyone who went to high school with me is at B1 level at most (that's how awful language education is in Italy, people take 8 years to reach B1!) it looks like I learnt my English by using it on line, without even realising I was using it, so I guess I didn't learn it for fun nor for profit but I've learnt it by accident! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 28 of 51 09 October 2014 at 9:22am | IP Logged | ||
I honestly, truly enjoy studying languages. Yes, that includes pausing video, looking up definitions and working through an Anki deck for an hour a day. Using the languages, on the other hand, is less exciting. It can be fun, too, but it's not why I do this. Learning a foreign language is more fun than knowing a foreign language. I suspect that how much one is enjoying the study process is a pretty good predictor of how successful one will be as a language learner. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4848 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 29 of 51 10 October 2014 at 3:03am | IP Logged | ||
I don't disagree with that statement, but I do think that one can be successful without enjoying the process. I didn't particularly like all of my university courses, but I got my degree. I think motivation is the bigger key. Enjoying the study process could be one person's motivation, and another person might be looking at the end rather than the means, so that person's motivation is thinking of what he/she could do once he/she reaches some sort of fluency, and that gets them through the language-learning process. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4910 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 30 of 51 10 October 2014 at 8:17am | IP Logged | ||
I like swimming at the beach, but I get bored of it after a week. I like rollercoasters, but there's no way I could ride one every day. And guess what I'm doing while I'm waiting on line for 2 hours? Wishing I was reading or watching a film, while reviewing Anki. In fact, the last time I went to an amusement park, I sent my boys off and read a French book in the coffee shop for 2 hours. So I guess I must be finding language study "fun", because I can do it every day and I enjoy it most days. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 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 31 of 51 10 October 2014 at 11:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, I also honestly enjoy the process. Well, not this kind of intensive work with a movie, but I generally manage to make any necessary activity enjoyable for me. It does take tweaking and in the short-term it may even reduce the productivity. But this is what I need to keep going.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4254 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 32 of 51 10 October 2014 at 12:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm surprised that anyone could not find it great. I would go mad if I tried to learn without enjoying it.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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