Gender and language obsession (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Gender and language obsession
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

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Serpent
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Message 57 of 62

07 November 2006 at 12:50pm | IP Logged

Hmm. The lyceum I go to belongs to Moscow State Linguistic University, and for instance in our class there are 20 girls and 4 boys, also at preparatory courses there are much more girls than boys. And most of my friends who are language-obsessed are female.
Perhaps the reason is that boys are generally not interested in studying anything :D
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OCCASVS
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Message 58 of 62

07 November 2006 at 3:09pm | IP Logged

easyboy82 wrote:

I agree.
At University of Pisa the 82% of the students of foreign languages are females.But the best and more passionate students are males.

This is true for younger Italian people, too.
Female adolescents are more likely to study languages, but few of them learn and use foreign languages outside school.

The problem that teaching programs are too much focused on teaching literature, so only a little time is left for the everyday language.
And male students are generally more passionate in studying languages, because they (we) have more motivation than girls.
For example, I think it's easier for a boy than for a girl to find interesting texts in foreign languages to read in the Internet.
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Andy_Liu
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Message 59 of 62

08 November 2006 at 9:32am | IP Logged

Interesting texts? I suppose they are about history, politics, religion, sports, cars, games and so on. "Motivation" has more to do with social behaviour of different genders.
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lady_skywalker
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Message 60 of 62

08 November 2006 at 9:53am | IP Logged

OCCASVS wrote:

This is true for younger Italian people, too.Female adolescents are more likely to study languages, but few of them learn and use foreign languages outside school.

The problem that teaching programs are too much focused on teaching literature, so only a little time is left for the everyday language.
And male students are generally more passionate in studying languages, because they (we) have more motivation than girls.
For example, I think it's easier for a boy than for a girl to find interesting texts in foreign languages to read in the Internet.

Do you have any statistics to support this? I think girls and women can find just as many interesting texts on the Internet as men. My partner is always reading about cars, bikes and video games in nothing but Dutch and English, while I read up on a wide variety of subjects in English and other foreign languages. Science, mythology, current affairs...those are just a few of my regular reads. The only languages my partner and his (male) friends are interested in are programming ones. :)

I wouldn't say that men are more motivated than women in learning foreign languages. Without sounding too sexist, women often have a lot more things to worry about, such as getting the housework done and looking after the kids (if they have any). In some cases men do help out around the house but this doesn't seem to be very common in a good many places.

Also, it is much more likely that men would be learning languages for work purposes than women. I don't have any figures to back it up but you do tend to see a lot more men attending language classes at institutes such as Berlitz language centres and they will invariably need the language they're learning for work purposes (this was certainly the case in the Berlitz branch in the Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan!).

To be honest, I don't think it's fair to say one sex is better at language learning or more motivated. Interest in foreign languages is a personal thing and everyone has different priorities. Just because a woman may not find the time to devote to language learning doesn't make her worse at language learning. It could be that she would rather dedicate her free time to spending time with friends or family. Likewise, not all men who study a language will end up fluent. From my own experience, they are likely to get language learning a shot but often give up when they discover it's not as easy as they originally thought. :)
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Chung
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Message 61 of 62

08 November 2006 at 10:25am | IP Logged

While females seem more likely to have an interest in languages then males, (which explains why males are usually outnumbered by females in language classes in academia), males seem more likely to develop obsessions about it (i.e. become geeks about it.). I think that those who becoming at least mildly obssessive about learning and acquiring new languages get more attention than those who keep a relatively low profile and just show an interest in languages and work at them gradually.

I have no statistics for this, but this has been my observation, so take it for what it's worth.

Edited by Chung on 08 November 2006 at 10:26am
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OCCASVS
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Message 62 of 62

08 November 2006 at 12:39pm | IP Logged

lady_skywalker wrote:

OCCASVS wrote:

This is true for younger Italian people, too.Female adolescents are more likely to study languages, but few of them learn and use foreign languages outside school.

The problem that teaching programs are too much focused on teaching literature, so only a little time is left for the everyday language.
And male students are generally more passionate in studying languages, because they (we) have more motivation than girls.
For example, I think it's easier for a boy than for a girl to find interesting texts in foreign languages to read in the Internet.

My opinion is derived from my personal experience, so no scientific statistics.
Male Internet users should be more than women, so this medium is male-oriented. But it doesn't mean that the Internet isn't for women :D

Quote:

I wouldn't say that men are more motivated than women in learning foreign languages. Without sounding too sexist, women often have a lot more things to worry about, such as getting the housework done and looking after the kids (if they have any). In some cases men do help out around the house but this doesn't seem to be very common in a good many places.

I understand your point of view. I was considering adolescent/young people, which have more spare time than older ones.

Quote:

Also, it is much more likely that men would be learning languages for work purposes than women. I don't have any figures to back it up but you do tend to see a lot more men attending language classes at institutes such as Berlitz language centres and they will invariably need the language they're learning for work purposes (this was certainly the case in the Berlitz branch in the Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan!).

That's another important factor to consider.
Men often learn new languages for practical purposes; women generally are more interested in cultural aspects of languages.
Of course, there are exceptions, too :)

Quote:

To be honest, I don't think it's fair to say one sex is better at language learning or more motivated. Interest in foreign languages is a personal thing and everyone has different priorities. Just because a woman may not find the time to devote to language learning doesn't make her worse at language learning. It could be that she would rather dedicate her free time to spending time with friends or family. Likewise, not all men who study a language will end up fluent. From my own experience, they are likely to get language learning a shot but often give up when they discover it's not as easy as they originally thought. :)

In fact, women are likely to remain determined to pursue their objectives in a long term.

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