|
 |
Why not Spanish as essential? | ||
Tags: Polyglot Academy | Language Importance | L3 via L2 | Polyglottery | Alexander Arguelles | Choosing a Language | German | French | Spanish | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| jpmtl Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 4002 days ago 44 posts - 115 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 49 of 115 08 March 2014 at 3:32am | IP Logged | ||
I'm almost sure that in the context of a 'Polyglot Institute' discussion, it was mentioned that starting with French and German was partly motivated with the idea that some people would not complete the program. Anyway, back on topic, I cannot see why it's relevant that there is more high-quality language learning materials in French and German than Spanish, when there is so much quality material available for all 3 languages anyway. Surely there are many more important factors to consider, both from a personal point of view, and from the point of view of wanting to become a polyglot. The material published by the RAE alone is of high quality and extremely comprehensive (the nueva gramatica alone is more than 4000 pages...), how much learning material do you really need for Spanish, when you can quickly move on to newspaper articles, fiction, movies, etc. Edited by jpmtl on 08 March 2014 at 3:34am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5262 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 50 of 115 08 March 2014 at 3:40am | IP Logged | ||
|
One of the textbooks I use for Ladino is Manual of Judeo-Spanish- an English translation of a French base. I would have had no problem using the French original if it weren't four times more expensive! I also have a slew of bilingual Ladino-French texts and a corpus with a French base- and I don't speak French! I do however speak two Romance languages and am intermediate in Haitian Creole and of course, I'm a native English-speaker. I can get by reading French. I searched for materials to learn Ladino with a Spanish base but there aren't any as far as I know. I do have a bilingual Ladino-Spanish dictionary from ladinokomunita that I find quite useful in my studies.
We are all different. We all learn differently. We all have different goals with our languages. Some yearn to do as well as they can in a specific language. Some want to learn them all. Some want to learn a bunch to intermediate level. Some, like me, want to learn languages because of the new worlds they open for you. Others don't care about that aspect at all. Some just want to talk about language-learning. Some people think I'm a nut for using twitter and native materials from almost the beginning. There is just no specific way to learn a language. The op's question was answered on the first page. As much as I love Spanish, there are simply more resources available for learning more languages in French and German, if your goal is to become a polyglot. It's a shame this topic got derailed because it would be very useful for those who have that goal. As far as having a second-language as a base goes, which as second-language speakers we have an imperfect knowledge, that's not an issue. It's about the target not the base. I wouldn't hesitate to use an Assimil French base course if it weren't for the fact that I just don't like the unnaturally slow/clear audio and the skimpy grammar explanations. I prefer monolingual courses, dictionaries, grammars and materials wherever possible. My Portuguese tutor can't speak English but she does speak Spanish. That being said, we never spoke Spanish in our classes, just Portuguese. Something about having to speak a language helps me to get much better at speaking it. Edited by iguanamon on 08 March 2014 at 3:43am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 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 51 of 115 08 March 2014 at 3:41am | IP Logged | ||
|
The material published by the RAE is useful for Spanish, though. I listed earlier in this thread which other languages can be learned best via Spanish. Now look at what Assimil offers...
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 52 of 115 08 March 2014 at 3:43am | IP Logged | ||
There's far more than enough material to learn any of French, German, or Spanish. If Spanish has an equivalent of Assimil, or of the German resources that range from the Reclam parallel texts through Persian readers and Georgian textbooks, I'm unaware of it: Spanish is a useful bridge language, but French and German both have more breadth as bridges. They also have more "Great Books", which appear to be the Professor's core interest. Is Spanish useful? Absolutely - Professor Arguelles speaks it, and his favourite Assimil course is the Catalan one, which has a Spanish base. Someone on this forum's favourite resource for Icelandic is in Italian, and I'm partial to a Japanese grammar in Polish, and Chung has mentioned needing to use Finnish as a bridge. Are any of these *as* useful as a bridge language as French or German, for as wide a variety of languages? No - though Spanish still highly useful, and some smaller languages only have significant learning material available in one language. Are there other important factors? Yes. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4622 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 53 of 115 08 March 2014 at 10:19am | IP Logged | ||
|
There must be a surfeit of learning materials for Spanish. It is by far the most widely studied language in the
United States. That alone will ensure a steady flow of new materials. As for "great books", how many people actually learn a language in order to read classic literature? We must be talking about a small minority. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 54 of 115 08 March 2014 at 11:03am | IP Logged | ||
|
Beano: this thread is about Professor Arguelles' recommendations for would-be polyglots. No one denies that there is more than enough material to learn Spanish (though most of the world's language learning occurs outside of the US); the point is that there is less material *in Spanish* for learning further languages than there is in French and German.
Do most people learn languages to read classical literature? No, but he does, and his ideas for an academy revolve around it, so it figures into many of his thoughts and default recommendations - like most polyglots, to the extent he gives general advice, it's for people somewhat like him. What else can one reasonably do? 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 55 of 115 08 March 2014 at 12:36pm | IP Logged | ||
ah yes look at me my standards are higher than yours! You must use my standards because mine are better!!! Here's a hint. We're not trying to impress trolls like you on the internet with our levels of languages. If we get our certificates, then it's because we want those certificates to prove something to a prospective employer (namely, that we can do X job in that language), or because we like doing tests (I had a Dutch student who told me this). I don't need to impress you with my English - hell, if you think it's that bad, be my guest! You're not my employer or my co-worker or my performance coach. Nor with my French. Or Spanish. Or Russian. Or.... This thread is about people who do want to become polylgots - unlike you, who is not impressed by anything but himself - and about the world's most famous and well-known polyglot's advice to those people. And he's made some reasonable default advice that will apply to most polyglots (incidentally not to me because I'm not a fan of classic literature) but is quite sound in all respects. It would do you a world of good to read what people are writing, what the topic of the thread is and to show some humility towards others. Your responses have shown nothing but disregard for that - nothing but not understanding and beating a hobby horse to death. We all know it takes effort. I think the person whose advice we are discussing will be the first to agree with you on that, given that he lived a monastic lifestyle for years focusing on language learning. If there is anyone who knows how to apply himself it is Mr Arguelles. If you want to make a thread about what impresses you (or should impress) in language learning, it can be done, but here is not its place. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 56 of 115 08 March 2014 at 12:43pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I think he's left already, tarvos.
1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
