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When is it worth the time? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5246 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 1 of 30 22 September 2014 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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When is it worth for you to learn another language? When is it not worth it?
I used to imagine myself as a polyglot. But after spending three years on Mandarin Chinese, it's hard for me to imagine climb another mountain like this again, (and I'm still years from reaching anything near the top of this one, too). Sometimes I spend 30 hours in a week on Mandarin, and I don't think I could do that without an expectation that I will be going back to China and that it will have an impact on my life. I definitely couldn't do it just for the novelty and chic points. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5531 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 30 22 September 2014 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm deeply impressed by people like Iversen, who have several very good languages and a large collection of weaker ones (which are nonetheless suitable for tourist work and deciphering interesting texts). But personally? I have no intention of ever duplicating what I've done with French. The road from B2 to "being able to take native university classes, work in an office, and talk about fun intellectual subjects with friends" is just too long for me to be able to justify the effort again without a real payoff. But that's a very personal decision based on my life and where I live. The only countries I'd ever move to at this point in my life are anglophone and francophone ones. I could totally imagine learning B1 tourist Spanish some day, if I had a good opportunity. And it's entirely possible that if I made it to B1, I might fall in love with a few TV series or go on a reading binge, in which case I might improve my passive skills further. But B2+ active skills? I'd personally need a social circle that used the language regularly. 10 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4532 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 3 of 30 22 September 2014 at 9:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm with EMK, in that all I can see myself learning for the moment is one language well. I need it for work/pleasure, and it's just too time consuming to imagine doing this again anytime soon.
However, I have to say if you shouldn't under estimate that you'll need to spend about 4x as long learning Chinese, as me German. So perhaps you'd find a Germanic or Romance language a fun break after all your study. I have lots of respect for polyglots, but rather than spending this much time on a second language, I would probably prefer to spend it on some other activity like photography and really up my level in that. If I were to learn a third language it would probably be Spanish, simply because it's my favorite country to visit in Europe and think the culture would be very interesting to learn. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5246 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 4 of 30 22 September 2014 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm right there with you guys. A high-level in one language is really what I can imagine for myself. The only other enticing idea is to go from Mandarin to Cantonese because I really loved the Guangdong and Hong Kong area, and am considering applying to go to school there. And this is apparently a way smaller leap than from English to Mandarin.
Patrick, I think you are right about the Germanic/Romance thing compared to Mandarin. I actually started German a month ago because I'll be visiting my friend and his family there next year. So far it has felt like a much more relaxed process thanks to cognates and an overall "English-y" feel compared to Mandarin. But also, I have a lot of motivation to learn it. First, as long as my friends live there I'll always be making trips to go visit. Second, not everyone in the family speaks English. Third, there is a faint possibility of me going there to work or for grad school. It basically meets my criteria of being relevant. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3906 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 5 of 30 22 September 2014 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Keep in mind that this whole time you haven't just been learning Mandarin, but learning how to learn another language. The next time you go to learn another language (if you do) you will know what books to get, what programs, what approaches, what to do when you hit a plateau, etc. You have also wired and trained your brain from your extensive studying of Mandarin in ways that would help you if you took up 3rd language: you'll find your listening is much more focused and attentive, you're more used to making sounds with your mouth that don't exist in your native tongue (at least this is what I have found). Also keep in mind that you are learning Mandarin, which has a reputation for being one of the toughest languages to learn, so all of the strengths and discipline you have gained from that will make it much easier if you learn, say, a European language which is much closer to your native language.
I do agree with you 100% though. At least for me, there are a few factors that have to be there before I decide to commit 100% to another language: having an interest in the culture and people, availability of use, hoping to one day live in the country (even if it is only a dream). After the honeymoon phase, you will need something to keep you going. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4582 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian | Message 6 of 30 23 September 2014 at 12:02am | IP Logged | ||
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I can only learn a language if I've got a strong personal motivation. On paper there
are lots of really good reasons why I should learn French and, if I had spent all the time I've dedicated to Croatian over the past two years on French instead, I think I would speak French to a higher level than my current level in Croatian. However I have tried to learn French twice as an adult and failed, because I'm just not interested enough in it to devote the necessary time. So I think it's not worth spending the time if you're learning a language because you (or someone else) think you "should" learn it rather than that you want to. I also identify with what patrickwilken said about having other hobbies. I only really have enough spare time to pursue one hobby at a time and I designated 2014 as being the year I would focus on Croatian (with the aim that in 2015 I would focus on a non- language related hobby which is also important to me). I hadn't reckoned with the fact that posting on this forum would present me with so much temptation to study extra languages! Now I'm thinking I'll probably devote most of next year to Macedonian, and my other hobby may have to wait :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| holly heels Groupie United States Joined 3885 days ago 47 posts - 107 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 7 of 30 23 September 2014 at 12:45am | IP Logged | ||
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The reality is that language is like currency, and if you are are a native English speaker, you already speak a language that is a currency that is accepted almost everywhere, so learning any other language may not be "worth it".
But if you live outside the English-speaking world and/or really have to hustle to get ahead, learning 2 or 3 major languages can really enhance your marketability. For me there are 2 main reasons why it's "worth it" to me to learn Mandarin to fluency (on a good day, I am a weak B2). The first is practical--it's world status and economic importance. The second is counterintuitive--it's notorious difficulty for many native English speakers like me. I am by nature a lazy procrastinator and easily frustrated but those 2 reasons have kept me focused these last 4 years and if I and others weren't seeing weekly progress, I would have thrown in the towel long ago. And as much as the polyglots are the celebrities on this forum and deservedly so, I have to decide to whether it's "worth it" to devote all my heart and soul only to Mandarin or divide it between a bunch of "easier" languages or other hobbies that are less demanding, and at the moment I don't regret my decision. And every day the English speaking media vindicates my decision. The other day I was reading an article in a magazine and an American woman was described as "speaking 5 languages, including Chinese", so whatever her other languages were, the writer of the article didn't bother mentioning them. So at least in the English speaking world, Mandarin and a few other languages are considered important enough to study, so I am reluctant to abandon it so quickly, but I can certainly understand why many others do. And there are many examples of non Asians on TV who are now fluent and now have plenty of time for hobbies. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4333 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 8 of 30 23 September 2014 at 2:46am | IP Logged | ||
You know, I'd never thought of a language as being worth it or not worth it, but rather as interesting or not. For me, learning languages is an omnipresent hobby, the thing I do outside the scope of my job's linguistic needs. If a language sounds great or has interesting features, I'll start studying it regardless of the effort I perceive to be required--if not, I won't, and that's that. Of course this doesn't mean I haven't seen "the mountain" in front of me, and furthermore, having been pretty close to the top as to what regards Japanese, I remember very well the great feeling I got when I realized "well lookie here, I actually took this thing somewhere". However, I also feel that since I never rushed up the mountain (it took me six years to reach a wobbly C1), I never felt any real exhaustion or the need to evaluate whether this activity was worth my time. I kept ploughing at a comfortable pace and by the time I noticed I'd gotten to a place with a great view and felt no further need to keep going. The same is happening with my active languages, too. I've been studying Italian for a year now, with no plans to go to Italy or have it affect my life in any major way; however, I'm still interested in the language itself, so I'm taking it a step at a time and only seeing results every so often, but at a satisfying pace. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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