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Do you always love your 1st? | ||
Tags: First Learned Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5259 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 17 of 24 04 April 2014 at 11:39pm | IP Logged |
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I don't learn a language I don't like. That pretty much eliminates not liking a language I had to learn. I like what a language does for me, the worlds that it opens up for me. Spanish is a language I use every day, at work and at play , both traveling and at home. Without Spanish, I wouldn't know Pablo Neruda, Gabo, Rubén Blades, La Tremenda Corte, tostones, arroz y habichuelas negras, sofrito or Almodóvar.
Portuguese opened another world for me that stretches across the Southern hemisphere and in a lovely corner of Europe as well. What would my life be like without Mia Couto, Carlos Drummond Andrade, Machado de Asis, Rubem Fonseca, Jorge Amado, feijoada, suco de cajú, pão de queixo, Bacalhau à Brás, Tom Jobim, Elis Regina and Caetano Veloso. Haitian Creole has made me more of a complete citizen of my home in the Caribbean. It's also opened up a window to the English-speaking Caribbean as I see similar patterns replicated in Caribbean English. I love Haitian music and Haitian people. I just wish they had a more vibrant literary/film scene. Ladino, so similar to Spanish but at the same time distinct, is a language that has opened yet another world I never knew existed before. The strength and resilience of the Sephardim in the face of so many obstacles and so much adversity is quite inspiring. So, Bolio, to me it's about what a language does for me, but yeah, I'll always have a soft spot for Spanish- and so will you. It was the first second language I learned. Keep up the good work with your Spanish and keep enjoying the journey. Edited by iguanamon on 05 April 2014 at 12:36am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4366 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 18 of 24 04 April 2014 at 11:48pm | IP Logged |
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I think I'll probably always have hold German in a special place, but I do enjoy all of my languages. Probably the only one that I'm learning just out of desire to know the language is Afrikaans; there's something particular about this one that makes me want to eventually learn it even if it takes a long time to do so.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4655 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 24 05 April 2014 at 12:18am | IP Logged |
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This is very interesting and quite encouraging! Thank you to all of you that have responded. I have only one regret and it is that I did not start sooner.
All the best. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7143 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 20 of 24 22 April 2014 at 5:11am | IP Logged |
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French was my first foreign language. I got the girls next door to teach me before I started school. I couldn't wait to start French formally in high school. It has always been my favourite language. I love the sound of the language more than anything.
I also love Russian and German, my second and third languages. I found Russian to be difficult but, again, I love the sound of "Moscow" Russian. I don't love the sound of German but I love the grammatical nuances and playing with the verbs. So, French is my favourite language but I don't know that it is my favourite because it is my first; I think I would love it anyway. In Australia, we have had a continuing love story in a series of ads for car insurance. The romance has been between an Australian woman (Rhonda) and an Indonesian man (Ketut). In the latest ads they both say, "Saya cinta kamu." (I love you.) Learning Indonesian gives an inside track as to what is happening. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6700 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 21 of 24 22 April 2014 at 12:18pm | IP Logged |
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Like Iguanamon I don't learn languages I don't like. The problem is that I like too many languages, and that I don't want to point one out as my personal favorite. Of course I use English more than for instance Catalan, but as long as I can spend time in the company of the fair lady Català I don't value Mistress English higher just because she is knocking on my door all the time and has some interesting things to tell. I even visit old acquaintances like Fru Platt once in a while, even though it is hard to find her at home and she mostly speaks about life in the countryside in the good old days. Edited by Iversen on 15 May 2014 at 11:08pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4096 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 22 of 24 22 April 2014 at 1:00pm | IP Logged |
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English was my first, but I don't think that it holds any special place in my heart. It'd be easy to say that I appreciate the nuances of English much more than any language I have studied since, but that's rather unfair because I haven't learned any other language to a comparable level yet.
Speaking just about emotional attachment, though: English (1st) - Low. It used to be very high, back when high or native level fluency set me apart from my peers and made me special. French (2nd) - Moderate. It was very high when I first took a weekend French class for children at age 11, but by the time I was 13 and had taken French in school for a year I had lost all love for it. It's just now coming back. Scots Gaelic (3rd) - Very low. I wanted to learn it for a long time, but not for love. Classical Greek (4th) - Low. It was a career-track language. I still think it's cool, but I don't love it. Breton (5th) - Quite high. I think I love it, and not just because it's "new" to me. It's a complicated question, though, because I also have emotional attachments to languages that I haven't studied... Georgian - Moderate. I don't love the language, but it evokes wonderful memories from my first ever field season. Levantine Arabic - Moderate. This is a language that at the same time evokes great field season memories, but also an abusive situation with an ex who spoke that particular dialect. I think I may love the language, and decide to learn it, but I'm also wary (and waiting to start learning the language until I figure this out) that I might just love the idea of it because every single time I've spoken (terrible) Arabic or shown knowledge of Arabic culture (ancient or popular) native speakers fawn over me like I'm a goddess. Scandinavian- Moderate. I dabbled in Old Norse for a year, and I read and listen to both Danish and Norwegian regularly. I love these languages as an extension of my own Scandinavian identity, not for themselves. TL;DR: No, I don't particularly love my 1st, and I don't still love every language I started learning for, what appeared to be, love (i.e. French). I also might love languages I haven't yet learned, or don't intend to learn (because I love how I feel about them more than I love the languages themselves). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5006 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 23 of 24 22 April 2014 at 2:02pm | IP Logged |
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YES!!!
Even though I had a few English "courses" during the childhood before French, it wasn't much of a serious learning and there wasn't much of a personal attachment. I chose French when I was 9 and, luckily, I went to school where it was taught even though I had to catch up nearly a year of French to get to my classmates' level. I did it through self study and was disappointed they were progressing so slow after I joined them. I had a few stops and repeats in the official French classes at school and I was forced to learn English instead (with a teacher I hated). But fortunately, I am quite stubborn. Despite everything, I've never stopped loving French. Following iversen's metaphor (and trashy historical fiction), English is the husband chosen for me by society and its prejudices. I had to marry English and live with it, it has been providing for me well, we get along, we know each other closely and found a way to appreciate each other's company after a few years of hate and struggles. But French is my first lover whom I loved before seriously meeting English and to whom I return and whom I miss when we don't meet much for a longer period of time. Of course French makes me sad and angry at times (such as when meeting some kinds of the natives) but I always forgive him. I've had other lovers as well, now I'm spending time with charming Spanish while handsome Swedish and intelectual German are a bit cast aside, but I keep seeing French as well. P.S. no, I am not like that with men ;-) 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| zografialep Hexaglot Groupie GreeceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4136 days ago 41 posts - 71 votes Speaks: Ancient Greek, Greek*, EnglishC2, GermanB2, Spanish, Latin Studies: Russian | Message 24 of 24 01 May 2014 at 11:03am | IP Logged |
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My first foreign language was English and while I'm happy I learned it because it's
useful, I don't particularly like it and when I have the chance I switch to another language. I think it's natural to hate your first language though- after all, it's most likely a language that you never chose to learn but you were forced to because of school or parents or circumstances. Also, it is the first foreign language, which makes it even harder- it's not easy to get out of the logic of your mothertongue, at most times it's a struggle. For me it was torture, and I had a series of truly awful English teachers that made me hate this language even more. Thank god in the end I found a good one, and with the combined help of her lessons, the internet and movies I managed to reach fluency. Later, I tried learning another language, German. I was interested in Germany, in the german culture and the people, so you can say I was in love with the language before I even started understanding it :P .Now I'm fluent and it's my favourite, along with russian for similar reasons (although I'm not fluent in that one- and I had my ups and downs and hate with German. But anyway.) I think it all comes down to whether you wanted to learn the language or not or you had someone to inspire you so that you love it (e.g. charismatic teachers or billingual parents) .Perhaps if I hadn't learned English this way, I would see it differently now and would apreciate it more. Edited by zografialep on 05 May 2014 at 2:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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