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Looking to take up another language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| MBrecht92 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4007 days ago 12 posts - 12 votes Speaks: French, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German | Message 9 of 15 21 January 2014 at 12:48am | IP Logged | |||||
I would love to move to Europe, particularly since there is much more linguistic diversity there than in the US, and thus (I imagine) greater demand for interpreters.
Such has been my course of action so far, though in my case "trying out" languages generally amounts to scanning a few web pages and watching one or two Youtube clips. In other words, I usually don't spend enough time getting acquainted with the language in order to make an informed decision. A lot of times I end up worrying about losing my Spanish and ashamedly give up after just a few minutes. In other words, my methods could use a bit of streamlining ;) Edited by MBrecht92 on 21 January 2014 at 12:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4904 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 10 of 15 21 January 2014 at 8:27am | IP Logged | |||||
haha, yes! Toto Cutugno, Adriano Celentano, and Dalida are still household names here in Russia (though Dalida is more famous for her French songs, I believe). Both my parents and my grandparents love them. I'm really not a fan of Italian pop music, but I do love this song by Stefania Rotolo: Cocktail d'amore I also like Mexican music that was influenced by Italian pop from the 70s/80s. =)) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4386 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 11 of 15 21 January 2014 at 8:57am | IP Logged | |||||
In my experience it's pretty rare to find Germans that want to speak English for any extended period of time. Many (most?) can speak/read English (though if they grew up in the DDR learnt Russian not English at school). Most people don't consume English to any great degree, and the average speaking level is significantly poorer than say the Dutch or Scandinavians. Cinemas showing English films in English are relatively rare, and likewise if you want to buy English books the selection is mostly limited to a few shelves of bestsellers at a big bookstore. I used to work for a graduate program at Humboldt University. The program was in English - it was an 'international' program - however, all the German students would naturally switch to German as soon as they could, even though they *really* needed practice their English skills for professional reasons. Native English speakers are valued jobwise, but only if they can also speak reasonable German as well. One exception is the start-up scene which is in English, but job opportunities there are pretty limited. There is of course a large expat scene and while there are lots of non-English speakers in that group (the language classes I have been to seem full with young Spanish people) English is the overall lingua franca. For most basic professional interactions (banks, doctors, accountants, visas etc) you need German.
Thanks! :) Edited by patrickwilken on 21 January 2014 at 9:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5762 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 12 of 15 21 January 2014 at 10:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
You're a native English speaker so you can be useful anywhere if you speak their language as well. I think all the languages you mentioned have a good enough demand for someone else to do the English bit for them... It's possible you might also be able to carve out a niche in the other direction - translating content from your L2 for English speakers who are interested. Not sure who that would be though ;-) I'm done torpedoing my own argument now. But you never know. Anyway I'm sure lots of people have moved to Europe for whatever reason and are now working in some field where they're using their language skills, so maybe look for blogs or whatever? That might give you an idea about the market and what you would actually be doing, and whether you'd hate it or like it. Culture would be a big deal for me if I was deciding about something I might make a career out of. I know what you mean about trying out languages that way! That's why I have so many barely used language books on my shelves... Portuguese anyone? Hindi? Chinese? ;-) I just end up buying books cause it seems like a good idea at the time, I like the language so why not? A week later... You know. Anyway it might work better for you if you take some time to focus on each one. Maybe narrow it down a bit, give them two months each, then in a few short months you'll probably have a clearer idea of what you want to do - plus you'll know the basics of several languages as a bonus :-) Edited by Lizzern on 21 January 2014 at 10:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5762 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 13 of 15 21 January 2014 at 10:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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(Accidentally hit quote instead of edit, sorry. Ignore this.) Edited by Lizzern on 21 January 2014 at 10:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4143 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 14 of 15 21 January 2014 at 11:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
When I was in the USA, true, that monolingual Anglophonism was almost uniform in many places. Certainly not like in Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium. Whilst Spanish was present sometimes, it is not like in Europe, or even the UK, that I can go to university, a club, a bookstore, etc. and hear Dutch, Polish, Swedish, French, Norwegian, Italian, or Lithuanian on a regular basis. Right now I could probably go to Waterstones and hear at least three thereof, usually from immigration or students. Consider university in Europe. I had classmates whose courses were totally unrelated to languages, but knew four or five languages easily. Not much here in the UK compared to the Continent, but still more than the USA. To have a real mixture of languages, Switzerland and Belgium are probably quite good for the great diversity of European languages due to their stati as polylingual. If you want a comparison, five years ago as an undergraduate, I was seated randomly next to a 3rd year student at a Christmas dinner. She told me that she was from Gent, and knew English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian, and some Swedish from living there for a while. Her course was chemistry. Edited by 1e4e6 on 22 January 2014 at 8:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gunshy Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3970 days ago 28 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French | Message 15 of 15 22 January 2014 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think the multilingual abilities of the average mainland European is quite exaggerated. I find most only have a strong command of English (which is a given), and little of anything else (besides a passive understanding of languages close to their native tongue, or other languages with official status in their respective countries). I'm always disappointed to hear a Central or Eastern European disregarding the need to speak German due to English, but I guess that's just how it is. There's no need for more than one lingua franca... Edited by Gunshy on 22 January 2014 at 3:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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