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Study languages you are bound to fail in | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4704 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 89 of 96 20 March 2014 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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But for some reason you don't strike me as the type who enjoys Japanese.
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| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6443 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 90 of 96 21 March 2014 at 2:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Replying specifically to the original post: yes, I do study languages that I'm bound to fail in. However, I tend to go into them with the mindset that I know I'm never going to be fluent, so I'm not
failing by not reaching fluency - so perhaps I don't study languages I'm bound to fail in. ;-) Bit of a catch 22, there. Perhaps some would see it as a form of cheating, but with some languages, I specifically set the bar quite low, because I have no intention of investing the time needed to reach fluency - too many fish in the linguistic sea to be fluent in all of them (at a C2 level, anyway - the whole "what is fluency" topic has been beaten to death so I won't bring it up here). So, some of my languages are best friends who I intend on learning for life, and incorporating them into my day as much as I can, living in a basically monolingual area. Others are basically passing acquaintances. Work through a course or two, read a bit here and there, and call it a day. I may return to them, I may not. By allowing myself to not shoot for fluency, I open up the option to explore languages that I would otherwise avoid, because if I were to take them on with an extremely high level of proficiency as the goal, it would simply become too burdensome. Languages are a hobby, not my life, and I don't have 12 hours a day to devote to mastering them. If I say "I'm going to take a look at Icelandic, but don't intend on being fluent, I just want to have a taste," it's doable and fun - no pressure. If I say "I'm going to take on Icelandic, and aim for a C1 or C2 level," it changes into a much more daunting (and time intensive) task, one which I'm most likely going to avoid, due to my plate already being mostly full. As an aside, Solfrid, I, too, am struggling a great deal with Russian. The words have no stickiness for me. I throw them at my memory, and they slide right off, and fall promptly back into oblivion. Edited by josht on 21 March 2014 at 2:20pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4665 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 91 of 96 23 March 2014 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||
''The time taken to reach a high level of proficiency can vary depending on the language learned. In the case of native English speakers, some estimates were provided by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the U.S. Department of State, which compiled approximate learning expectations for a number of languages for their professional staff (native English speakers who generally already know other languages). Of the 63 languages analyzed, the five most difficult languages to reach proficiency in speaking and reading, requiring 88 weeks (2200 class hours), are Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean. The Foreign Service Institute and the National Virtual Translation Center both note that Japanese is typically more difficult to learn than other languages in this group.''
 Edited by Medulin on 23 March 2014 at 9:09pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| aabram Pentaglot Senior Member Estonia Joined 5530 days ago 138 posts - 263 votes Speaks: Estonian*, English, Spanish, Russian, Finnish Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 92 of 96 27 March 2014 at 10:08am | IP Logged | ||
Do you realise what you just said there? Only few years? For a writing system? I highly recommend reading Hannas' "Asia's Orthographic Dilemma". Highly recommend. Edited by aabram on 27 March 2014 at 10:09am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Stolan Senior Member United States Joined 4029 days ago 274 posts - 368 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Thai, Lowland Scots Studies: Arabic (classical), Cantonese | Message 93 of 96 27 March 2014 at 12:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't plan on writing essays on the regional variations of Baijiu,
I am content with reading a menu and writing small posts. We have modern technology to give us an edge, we ought take advantage of it. But I agree it is a problem for native speakers who are expected to function every day in the business world and academic world using this 5,000 year old system. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Monox D. I-Fly Senior Member Indonesia monoxdifly.iopc.us Joined 5132 days ago 762 posts - 664 votes Speaks: Indonesian* | Message 94 of 96 10 April 2014 at 12:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I like to learn any language. I write in a textbook dedicated to them. There are some which may be useful other than English, Indonesia (my national language), Javanese (my mother language), and Arabic (my religious language); such as Japanese, Chinese, Latin, and Greek. However, I also attempt to take note about Hieroglyphs which is unlikely will be useful in advance. I also write down Morse code and sign language as well as stenography. I even write down programming language such as HTML and C++. To take it up to eleven, my note also contains both cats' and dogs' language! I must be crazy, right? Edited by Monox D. I-Fly on 10 April 2014 at 12:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4665 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 95 of 96 10 April 2014 at 6:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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You don't really ''fail'' in a language, unless you stop studying it.
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| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4441 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 96 of 96 24 April 2014 at 4:41am | IP Logged | ||
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Studying any language requires discipline. There are languages where you may not have much chance of
using it in everyday conversations but nonetheless the interest is there. I know a friend who studied ancient Greek & some Hebrew not for the purpose of speaking these languages but to help him study the Bible. He wanted to become a Protestant church minister and really enjoy these languages for the sake of understanding the Bible in its original context. It's like somebody gets into ancient Egyptian or the Mayan language because he / she likes archaeology or ancient cultures. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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