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How many of you learn for fun? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Motivation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3912 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes  Speaks: French | Message 1 of 51 27 September 2014 at 6:00pm | IP Logged |
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How many of you learn, for the pure sake of learning a language?
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6581 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 2 of 51 27 September 2014 at 6:13pm | IP Logged |
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Me, for one. I have very little use for any of my languages. I've used my Mandarin and Cantonese a lot, but only because I was learning them, thus seeking out opportunities (such as living in China for a year). I don't think I've ever been in a situation that I didn't seek out, motivated by language learning, where any of my languages have been useful beyond being able to speak to a person with whom I'd be able to speak in a different language (Swedish or English) anyway.
To clarify: I went to China because I was learning Mandarin, I didn't learn Mandarin to go to China. That's always been the way for me. I guess I'll have use for my Portuguese when my family and I go to Cap Verde for a week in January. That was not my decision. Edited by Ari on 27 September 2014 at 6:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| guiguixx1 Octoglot Senior Member Belgium guillaumelp.wordpres Joined 4091 days ago 163 posts - 207 votes Speaks: French*, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Esperanto, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 3 of 51 27 September 2014 at 7:07pm | IP Logged |
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I also learn mainly for the fun of it, because I like to compare languages, to see
similaritiess (or differencies), and also to finally be able to understand what would be undecypherable (learning greec or russian because I can't read or understand it at first). This year I've decided to take an ancien greec course at the university, though in Dutch, during my erasmus, and all of my friend keep asking why I bother learning a language that isn't spoken anymore. And when I tell them that it would be funny to speak ancien greec or latin, they burst out laugher. Nevertheless, I also study other languages to be able to speak to the native speakers, to read things in the language,... although sometimes it's just for the beauty and melody of the language (Spanish and Italian). But my first reason is mostly that it's out of curiosity. I ALWAYS want to begin learning a language when I read something on the internet about it, or when I try to read it, or when I hear native speaking it (it happened to me for korean, portugese and esperanto this week), but I can't learn them all at the same time, because if I want to really improve, I must focus on one new language at a time, 2 max, which makes it frustrating. I was trying to work on 4 new languages last months, but as I realized I was forgetting everything, I thought it was useless. Therefore, I focus mainly on German for now, and Greec for my university course 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7204 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 4 of 51 27 September 2014 at 7:10pm | IP Logged |
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Like Linux Torvalds, this is Just for Fun.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| blonl Newbie Australia Joined 3711 days ago 6 posts - 14 votes | Message 5 of 51 27 September 2014 at 7:40pm | IP Logged |
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When I started to "learn" a language, it wasn't really "learning". I was simply enjoying
foreign entertainment such as music, anime, manga and TV shows. I didn't care to understand everything and I just wanted fun. Sometimes I would look up a word or two I am curious of. After this repeated exposure for some time, it just fell into place. I could understand everything. I believe that if you are not having fun learning a language, you are doomed to failure at some point and it will be rare for you to ever reach true proficiency. Because as long as we are not doing it for a living, it is a hobby at best. If we are painful when learning language, which in the end is only a hobby, we are never going to be able to continue. If we are not learning for fun, we are not going to continue for long. It should be a healthy lifestyle that enriches our lives. The fruit (proficiency) is just something that happens to come along with that lifestyle. Edited by blonl on 27 September 2014 at 7:40pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6581 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 6 of 51 27 September 2014 at 8:43pm | IP Logged |
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To go further, however, I think "fun" might not be the right word. Hanging out with your friends is fun. Playing a computer game is fun. But the gradual entrance into a different world, the breaking of a code, the aquisition of a new mode of transmitting human thought, the opening of a window into the soul of another people, that's not "fun". It's awe. It's mindblowing. It's why I do this. When I'm able to read a text and understand speech that was not intended for me, that was written by some Frenchman to be read by some other Frenchman, when I realize I can speak friggin Cantonese, "fun" is not the feeling that springs to mind. Edited by Ari on 27 September 2014 at 8:43pm 14 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4908 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 7 of 51 27 September 2014 at 9:37pm | IP Logged |
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Amen to what Ari said. It's not as much fun as a compulsion. I just like learning languages, something like the feeling of joining a secret club or something. The more you understand, the closer you get to the inner circle!
But to answer the question, I first started learning Hindi because I was living in India. But anyone who has lived in India could tell you, you can get by pretty well with English. But (secret society thing again) foreigners who could speak Hindi seemed to have a different level of experience with Indian people. But my motivation is entirely for myself: I'm still studying Hindi even though I left 9 years ago and may never go back. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 4172 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 8 of 51 27 September 2014 at 9:38pm | IP Logged |
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I learn Vietnamese because I live there. But I don't really like it or have an interest
in it beyond its immediate usefulness to me. I learn German because I enjoy it. No surprise I'm better at the latter, despite having more opportunties to use the former in real situations. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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