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Do you have a good reason? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Choosing a Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4585 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian | Message 1 of 45 16 September 2014 at 5:44pm | IP Logged |
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Having just got back from holiday in Serbia, where I was asked several times a day "Why are you learning Serbian?", I have realised that I don't have a good answer to this question.
Admittedly, my situation is complicated by the fact that I'm technically learning Croatian, but I didn't want to offend anyone in Serbia by saying that. Even if I had been in Croatia, however, I would have struggled to come up with a snappy and convincing answer. I'm learning Croatian because I woke up one morning and wanted to, but that doesn't seem to be an answer which satisfies many people. Sometimes I wish I had a 'good' answer to people's "whys" which would give them a reason they could identify with and which would not provoke further questions if I didn't feel like justifying all my life choices to them right now. A 'good' convincing reason I guess would be something like 'I need it for my job' or 'I have family members from Croatia'. When people asked me why I was learning German, I used to say it was because I have relatives in Germany (that is factually accurate, although totally unrelated to why I learned German) and when people ask me why I speak Esperanto I say that I met my boyfriend through it (again, factually accurate, but not the reason I learned the language). I have found that both these answers satisfy people and (at least in the case of German) stop them looking at me like I am completely mad. Once people know you speak Esperanto there isn't generally a lot you can do to stop them thinking you're mad :) So, I am curious to know - are you learning your languages for 'good' reasons or just because you want to? How do you explain it to other people (both native speakers of your target language and your acquaintances in your own country) when they ask you about it? Or do you ever get asked about it at all? When I was learning French, for example, I found that my colleagues seemed to regard it as an entirely socially acceptable hobby and didn't want to question me about it at all. However if I had a pound for every funny look I'd had when I've mentioned learning Croatian, I could probably afford to relocate and buy a house over there :D 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5238 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 2 of 45 16 September 2014 at 6:22pm | IP Logged |
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Interesting question. I have easy answers for 2 out of 3 ...
I began learning Italian because I went to Italy for my anniversary and I tried to by train tickets. I kept holding larger and larger amounts of lira out to the guy but he just kept talking at me and getting angrier and angrier. Eventually he snatched a bill, walked over to one of his colleagues, got a load of smaller bills, took one and gave me the rest. I finally twigged that he was telling me that he didn't have change for such a large note. It was then I decided I was going to learn this language and not embarrass myself. (Side note: My last trip to Italy I successfully managed to purchase tickets for for a very complex journey for an American student who didn't speak Italian.) I started working for a French company, decided I wanted to understand what these people were all saying. Mandarin - It was there just lying around. Besides... how hard can it be if like a billion people learned it? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 5061 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 45 16 September 2014 at 6:22pm | IP Logged |
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I have a "normal" reason (relatives, large community in my country, school) for about five of my languages, which
surely helped my decision to learn them, but since those are all major world languages I'm sure I would have been learning them anyway by now. The ones I struggle to answer are because the real answer is, "Well, I don't really have any particular reason to study Korean- in fact, it's not even in my top 10, but I love learning languages, and it's a reasonably important language. At this point, there are only a few popular major world languages left, and some of those I'm avoiding for linguistic reasons (e.g. I don't want to start Arabic until my Hebrew is decent). So at some point Korean becomes an obvious choice over another European language I have no personal connection to (Romanian? Czech?)" But of course you can't tell people that you treat their language as "just another language, maybe my #14." The problem is that there may be no "normal" reason that would make a typical English speaker learn Croatian outside of family, work, or migration. Therefore, you will have to lie about your family or work, make up a past study abroad, or admit to being a weirdo who studies language as a hobby. I find the last option will confuse a lot of people and give you a weird reputation, but at least it also helps you meet some cool people. The best option is instead to come up with an answer that's funny but obviously a joke. This will establish that you're funny, ward off any future questions, and not be a lie. Edited by robarb on 16 September 2014 at 6:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5209 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 45 16 September 2014 at 6:29pm | IP Logged |
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I get it a lot, as most of us do I'm sure. Often it's just a way of making conversation when you meet a native speaker and they find out that you know or are learning the language, but many Italians in particular tend to see their language as useless and be genuinely confused as to why a foreigner would put in all the effort to learn it.
I find that giving a list of several "small" reasons usually works well in the absence of one sufficiently "big" reason (family, partner, living in country). One of them alone generally doesn't satisfy the asker, but the combination of them all together does. For me these include: - Having visited the country and liked it a lot. - Native speaker friends. - Interest in the culture. - Interest in languages in general, and similar languages. I think it creates a sort of reasoning "synergy" (management BS term but it seems very appropriate here!) that helps convince them. Each of the motivations I've listed on its own seems like a bit of an extreme justification for all the time and effort required to learn a language, but with all of them together it starts to look more reasonable. The last one in particular can help convince a hesitant Italian: if I'm already interested in the "more useful" languages of French and Spanish, and I happen to have some Italian friends and like the country and culture, then I "might as well learn Italian while I'm at it" (quotes to highlight what I imagine to be their reasoning). This of course is quite specific to my situation. I suppose another option is to emphasise your "passion" and talk about how you've "fallen in love" with the country and culture and it's become "a part of your life". Personally I tend to avoid language like that out of fear of coming across as weird and obsessive, but maybe that's unfounded and in small doses it could put across my enthusiasm well. Edited by garyb on 16 September 2014 at 7:09pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 5 of 45 16 September 2014 at 6:57pm | IP Logged |
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I've had Germans ask me why I want to learn German. They seem to not think it's worth
the effort and are incredulous when I tell them I actually like the language. I've even had German friends try to dissuade me from learning their language, which I find a bit strange. I also recently met a French speaker from the Caribbean who was shocked to find that I just started learning French because I wanted to. She doesn't like French, so that was probably part of the reason why she was shocked. People tend to find my main reason for learning French - because my mother learnt it - acceptable. I think it's strange that people question the idea that someone is learning a language just because they want to. I have acceptable 'reasons' to give people about why I should learn new languages, but the fact is that I don't need to, and I wouldn't be studying any of them if I didn't love doing it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 45 16 September 2014 at 7:02pm | IP Logged |
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I had been fighting like that for years, since my childhood until not that long ago. Everyone kept telling me "why are you learning French, it is useless, you should learn German!". And I kept trying to find satisfactory reasons for them. Waste of time. Of course my choice had been right from the beginning and they were all wrong. French has been a useful tool, a source of pleasure (not only of course), a gateway to so many parts, smaller or bigger, of my life. I grew to like German as well, eventually, and I am learning it now. But not for the reasons everyone thinks. Or rather, their "normal" reasons aren't the most important ones for me. I don't believe my life would be the same had I surrendered. I could have learnt some German but I couldn't have been forced to love it and/or languages in general. My life would have been poorer without French. My first language love at first sight.
So, if you want my piece of advice, just give them your answer and insist it is a completely satisfactory one. Ignore the horrified faces, you are not crazy, you just see the matter differently. Continue the conversation as if you had given a "correct" answer and life goes on. Try to look like a completely sane person apart of that topic ;-) My favourite reasons: -Because I really like it. -I've always wanted to learn it. -I want to prove myself I can do it. -It's useful during my travels. No, not everyone speaks English. -Can you imagine how huge their bookmarket is? -There is an awesome research at one of their universities and the papers are published in their language first. -I plan to learn Polish/Russian for their awesome fantasy/sci-fi authors. -I first thought of learning Swedish while listening to Abba in original. And there is more, especially when it comes to metal! -It makes me imagine whole new universe of options for my future. -My favourite book character speaks it. -They have great resources for my planned L7 and L8! -The wanderlust bug bites me again. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4101 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 7 of 45 16 September 2014 at 7:02pm | IP Logged |
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I have pretty widely "acceptable" reasons for my languages, I think. That doesn't mean that everyone I encounter have found those reasons equally acceptable, though.
English is a given. It's a necessity when you're from Sweden. I started learning French at age 10 because I liked it, and because we used to holiday in France. I continued with French in school from age 12 because it was either that or Spanish or German. I picked it back up because I was moving to France and I intend to integrate and hopefully one day become a citizen. People find this a perfectly acceptable reason. I started learning [Scots] Gaelic at university. I was a Celtic Civilisation major, a regionalist since birth, and at the time I intended to stay in Scotland. I also studied Gaelic for a reason I don't publicise much, but that one shouldn't have affected perceptions. Outside of the Celtic department, people thought I was pretty nuts to be learning Gaelic. It was seen as one of my "weird hobbies" and a waste of time, not a real endeavour. When I moved back to Sweden I took Classical Greek at university. I had to switch majors when moving, and being a Classical Archaeology major one or two of the classical languages are expected. People found this an acceptable reason. Now I'm studying Breton. I have settled down to spend the rest of my life in a village where it's the native language of most of the population. I'm still a regionalist. I want to assimilate and to understand the place I call home. Responses vary from accepting to accepting but still thinking I'm a little bit mad because French is enough. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5768 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 8 of 45 16 September 2014 at 8:26pm | IP Logged |
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"I thought it was a good idea, and when I realized it wasn't it was too late to stop."
"I wanted to rebel against somebody who tried to tell me the country and the language sucked, and so I got interested, and one thing came after the other." "It seemed like a challenge. Little did I know." (I think 'reasons' like these work frequently for me because they are obviously not the (full) truth, but at least funny enough so that I'm not expected to give a better explanation when there is none. I also try to go along with people who make up their own explanations, unless those are really outlandish. Apparently it's easier to believe that I'd learn a cat 4 language for a relationship than out of personal interest ...) Edited by Bao on 16 September 2014 at 9:05pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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