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The joy of studying of one language. | ||
Tags: Wanderlust | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7052 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 1 of 27 22 October 2006 at 1:52am | IP Logged | ||
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I am as guilty of wanderlust as the next guy, but as someone who has
always been a fast learner and have frequently moved onto the next, once i get the "gist" of something, i just want to reaffirm for anyone reading out there, the sheer joy and fulfillment one will indeed reap from pursuing a single task to a point much further planned than initially intended. As cool as it is to be be able to switch from one language to the next, to have a truly deep intimate connection with a single language is really something special. I wonder if this newfound linguistic monogamy will transfer over into other areas of my life.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6695 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 2 of 27 22 October 2006 at 2:22am | IP Logged | ||
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How goes the Mandarin study, solidsnake? What parts of the language have you been targeting lately?
Edited by lengua on 22 October 2006 at 5:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6713 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 3 of 27 22 October 2006 at 2:37am | IP Logged | ||
I went through a similar experience when I came over to Taiwan to study Chinese. At the time, I didn't study anything else, and it was amazing to watch how my Chinese developed. Within six months, I was holding decent if not completely intelligent conversations.
From experience, i would say not really! Even with languages, I find that I've gone back to quickly changing between different goals, only those goals are more complex and difficult to attain. In my case, though, Chinese was the first language that I 'conquered,' and it's given me perspective on what it takes for me to really learn a language, especially one as different from English as Chinese. Now when I work on all my other languages, it feels much more effective, so it's less like flirting with them, and more like learning, no matter how many I'm shifting between. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6901 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 4 of 27 22 October 2006 at 5:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I find 'linguistic monogamy' far too boring! I need a bit of variety in my language studies or I'd just get fed up with the language being studied. This happened when I was studying Mandarin at university. For 4 years, I spent virtually every day working on the language and speaking it in class and I ended up detesting the sound of it. Mandarin no longer has any interest for me and I've decided to just set it aside and never bother with it again (unless job reasons demand it).
In my present situation, 'linguistic monogamy' would kill any interest I had in language learning as I would no doubt have to choose Dutch as my one and only language (you can't avoid it if you live in the Netherlands). I can think of few things worse than having to spend all my language learning time on nothing but Dutch. It's a language I don't particularly like (everyone has their own taste) and, linguistically speaking, it has little of interest to me. I'd rather study a more exotic language with a different culture to my own. Western European languages are just a bit to close to home for me. :) Since I never really set out to attain near-native fluency in any one language, I'd rather continue working on several languages at my own pace and leisure, particularly as I don't really need most of them for everyday life and work. To me, language learning is a hobby and something I enjoy doing so if I end up fluent or not at the end of it is not a big concern for me. I'd rather know a few languages to a good level than one or two to perfection. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| neo Diglot Groupie IndiaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6817 days ago 81 posts - 83 votes Speaks: Hindi*, English Studies: German, Italian | Message 5 of 27 22 October 2006 at 8:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I remember reading ne of ardaschir's old posts here...he detested the idea of "just one",saying that it would be a very terrible reality to face.
But I guess,your point is about pursuing something (here,a language) to a sufficiently advance level and becoming a "specialist"...but I think those who are members at this forum,myself included,would have a tough time making such a commitment in the field of languages :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Andy_Liu Triglot Senior Member Hong Kong leibby.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6797 days ago 255 posts - 257 votes Speaks: Mandarin, Cantonese*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 6 of 27 22 October 2006 at 9:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm perhaps encountering the same problems. German sounds nice, but its grammar "sehr schwer" (very difficult). One way out is to either take one more language or glance at another language without actually learning it. Paradoxically, it was my German course that makes me speak and read a bit of German - without that, I simply would have no idea about how it sounds, but the course also lets me have a better view of what I'm doing.
I'm still optimistic. I still hope to read history, linguistics and Goethe in German. One step to be taken is to watch films. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6629 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 7 of 27 23 October 2006 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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At one time I wanted to learn far more languages than I have, but then I discovered how much more rewarding it was to be able to function in a language at a near-native level. I also realized how much contact with a language it took to achieve that level. I already spoke French, and I was especially interested in Romance languages, so I decided to concentrate on those. Since I had achieved near-native fluency in Norwegian and understood Swedish and Danish, I decided to learn German and Dutch also. I had already learned Modern Greek to tourist level, and I had studied Latin and Ancient Greek at university, but I decided to limit myself to the Romance and Germanic languages, since this would allow me to reach the advanced level I aimed for in these languages. Edited by Linguamor on 23 October 2006 at 1:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6713 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 8 of 27 23 October 2006 at 7:09pm | IP Logged | ||
Why paradoxically? One of the main reasons I focused on Chinese in college was that it was so different from anything that I'd studied before that I knew I had to have formal contact with it, and the classroom is one way of getting that contact. I always felt that I could teach myself things like French, Spanish or German because they were more closely related to my native language, and I had been hearing the sounds of those languages all my life. I had never really heard Mandarin before I went to college. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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