Do you have a good reason? (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Do you have a good reason?
Tags: Reasons for study \| Choosing a Language
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

45 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next >>

Mooby
Senior Member
Scotland
Joined 6107 days ago
707 posts - 1220 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Polish

Message 25 of 45

17 September 2014 at 8:04pm | IP Logged

horshod wrote:

I always tell people I am learning language X because I enjoy learning languages in general. That seems to be pretty
convincing to most people and is often followed by something like, "Oh that's interesting. So what other languages
do you speak?", which is straight forward to answer.

Great!
With this approach, I might just convince myself to start another language - if only because it provides a tactical answer to enquiries about my L1. :)
Any excuse will do for wanderlust.
2 persons have voted this message useful

horshod
Pentaglot
Groupie
India
Joined 5772 days ago
74 posts - 107 votes

Speaks: Hindi, Marathi*, Bengali, Gujarati, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Turkish

Message 26 of 45

17 September 2014 at 8:38pm | IP Logged

vonPeterhof wrote:

horshod wrote:

I always tell people I am learning language X because I enjoy learning
languages in general. That seems to be pretty
convincing to most people and is often followed by something like, "Oh that's interesting. So what other languages
do you speak?", which is straight forward to answer.

Same here. In reality I usually have at least one
additional reason for all my languages, but I don't recall ever having talked to anyone for whom the first answer
wasn't sufficient.

I don't think the second question is all that straightforward though. Responding with something along the lines of
"Well, it all depends on how one defines "to speak"..." makes me feel like a huge phoney, so I usually start by talking
about how many languages I've attempted to study seriously, and if that doesn't suffice I talk about which ones of
them I feel more or less comfortable in.

Very true! I don't know what I was thinking when I said it is straightforward. And yes, I do the same - tell people how
many languages I have tried to study seriously.
1 person has voted this message useful

Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5336 days ago
4143 posts - 8864 votes

Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

Message 27 of 45

17 September 2014 at 10:42pm | IP Logged

I am such an official language nerd, and have such main stream languages, that people more often question
the quantity than the actual language. It is more my dabbling languages they question, if anything. Even my
daughters roll their eyes when they hear Ukrainian, Polish, Japanese, Greek or Swahili on the CD-player.
Particularly because I just listen to it for a few days and then I forget all about it.

But I usually do have some sort of reason for learning the ones I can.
- English: Compulsory, and necessary
- French: Because I had a huge crush on my French teacher (I was 12, he never found out :-)
- German: Because I felt every Norwegian should learn it, being the biggest language in Western Europe
- Spanish: Because my mum sent me to live there
- Italian: Because I felt it was a language it would be easy to learn, and I liked the culture, and the people
- Russian: Because I have friends who speak Russian, but none of the other languages I speak, and because
it is useful for my work.

But like some of the others have pointed out, you never ask people why the like football or opera. Why should
they ask us why we enjoy our hobby ?
1 person has voted this message useful

Darklight1216
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5102 days ago
411 posts - 639 votes

Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German

Message 28 of 45

17 September 2014 at 11:17pm | IP Logged

At this point its because its easier to just give in to my language lust than to try to fight
it. Resistance is futile. When I talk to non language nerds I say that I always loved French
and when I found out that adults can learn foreign languages without teachers, there was no
stopping me.
2 persons have voted this message useful

beano
Diglot
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4624 days ago
1049 posts - 2152 votes

Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian

Message 29 of 45

18 September 2014 at 10:22am | IP Logged

I married a native German speaker and didn't want to be in the position of not knowing what was going on around me when we were visiting her friends and family in Germany.

Yet I personally know several international couples where the husband doesn't know the wife's language (or vice versa) and they do go to visit relatives who have a very poor grasp of the other language. So you obviously get people who would willingly be in a state of incommunicado, rather than learning a language.
1 person has voted this message useful

Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4846 days ago
2266 posts - 3992 votes

Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

Message 30 of 45

18 September 2014 at 1:22pm | IP Logged

Do I have a good reason for studying the languages I speak? For some I do, for others I frankly don't except that I love foreign languages.

When people hear that I'm studying languages on my own, a typical question is "Why?". They don't see any use in speaking a foreign language except if you have lived in the country where it's spoken. Even one of my best friends called me crazy when she learned that I was studying Russian, Japanese, and Irish - at the same time!

So, this is what I usually say in order to defend myself:

English: Compulsory subject in school for 9 years; I have been to the USA; I love watching American series and movies in the original language and need to be able to read English books and articles.

Latin: Compulsory subject in school for 5 years; I needed it to be admitted to university; still need it for my research today.

French: Voluntary subject in school for 4.5 years; I have been to France; comes in handy when there are no translations available for important research articles.

Italian: I love the sound of the language and think it's beautiful; it became useful when I started studying music, because a lot of pieces and theoretical literature is in Italian; I have been to Italy twice; my roommate is Italian.

Swedish: I love the sound of the language; I took two semesters of Scandinavian studies at university; I want to visit Stockholm.

Russian: I have always wanted to know it, because it's an important language and Russian culture fascinates me; I love Russian literature and would like to be able to read it in the original; I want to visit Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Japanese: I have always been fascinated by the cultures of East Asia, especially by traditional Japanese culture; kanji are a pain in the neck, but absolutely beautiful to look at; I want to go to Japan some day by all means!

Irish: Again, fascination for the traditional culture related to this language; I have been to Ireland and fell in love with the country; I love traditional Irish music, which is mostly sung in Irish.

Everything else I have ever studied was because of pure wanderlust and curiosity, maybe with the exception of Icelandic. I started studying it for linguistic curiosity first, but later discovered that I was able to read Old Norse sagas in the original, which sparked my cultural interest.

Edited by Josquin on 18 September 2014 at 1:35pm
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Ari
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 6584 days ago
2314 posts - 5695 votes

Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese
Studies: Czech, Latin, German

Message 31 of 45

18 September 2014 at 9:28pm | IP Logged

Josquin wrote:

Everything else I have ever studied was because of pure wanderlust and curiosity, maybe with the exception of Icelandic. I started studying it for linguistic curiosity first, but later discovered that I was able to read Old Norse sagas in the original, which sparked my cultural interest.

For me, it almost always starts like that. I like a language, and because of the language I get interested in the culture, people and places. I don't think I've ever started to learn a language because I was interested in the culture. That sounds backwards to me. :)
2 persons have voted this message useful

Darklight1216
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5102 days ago
411 posts - 639 votes

Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German

Message 32 of 45

19 September 2014 at 12:55am | IP Logged

beano wrote:

Yet I personally know several international couples where the husband doesn't know the
wife's language (or vice versa) and they do go to visit relatives who have a very poor
grasp of the other language. So you obviously get people who would willingly be in a
state of incommunicado, rather than learning a language.

I know of one family like that. The husband not only did not learn the language, but
actually forbid his wife from speaking it to the children.

Ari wrote:

For me, it almost always starts like that. I like a language, and because of the
language I get interested in the culture, people and places. I don't think I've ever
started to learn a language because I was interested in the culture. That sounds
backwards to me. :)

Same here. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

1 person has voted this message useful

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