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Are we all a bunch of wusses? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 6002 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 9 of 151 16 December 2008 at 2:49am | IP Logged | ||
S/He, sums it up nicely 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| charlmartell Super Polyglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6252 days ago 286 posts - 298 votes Speaks: French, English, German, Luxembourgish*, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 10 of 151 16 December 2008 at 3:45am | IP Logged | ||
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I had no idea what a wuss was, so I looked it up in my Concise Oxford dictionary; it wasn't there. I then used my Russian lingvo and was given the explanation, in Russian. And the nice lingvo also gave the following entry from the Oxford Dictionary: wuss [wʊs] a weak or ineffectual person (often used as a general term of abuse) Derivatives: wussy (wussies) & Origin: 1980s (originally North American slang): of unknown origin.
Definitely not the word I would have used for people learning languages. Anyone actually learning another language, for whatever reason, is most certainly not a wuss. Anyway, what's wrong with learning related languages? Look at that stupid list appearing at the left of my postings. I never decided to become a polyglot, it just happened because I travelled a bit and wasn't going to look an idiot like my parents did in Lugano (Switzerland). Communication problems: people spoke Italian and nothing but Italian, so my mother gesticulated and my father was red in the face, bright red too, with embarrassment. God, was I "mortified" (aged 12). So, before going anywhere, I previously learn survival whatever, look at my list and you'll know where I've been. Not Russia, Russian is for love, not survival. And now, aged 70, obviously none of them are for future economic reasons. Nor glory. So there! Don't anybody ever dare call me a wuss! P.S. I might even still learn some Arabic or Swahili one day, but first I'm going to tie up a few loose ends in my existing languages. In the TAC 2009. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6038 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 11 of 151 16 December 2008 at 4:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I am studying Hebrew, soon Spanish, Dutch and Yiddish.
After a year break after those I will move onto another bunch of languages. Turkish, Portuguese, German and finish off my Yiddish. Then it could be anything at all. Hindi is on my list as are chinese Mandarin and Cantonese, Lithuanian, Japanese, Thai, Hungarian, Estonian, Finnish, Swahili, Hausa, Arabic, Aramic, Russian, Bengali, Marathi, Sanskrit, pali, latin, Greek of all forms, Farsi, French, Indonesian...... I hope I'm not a wuss! Still...I am definitely crazy :D Shalom, Yehoshua. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6873 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 12 of 151 16 December 2008 at 4:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think its a question of being timid. I think that people have personal reasons for not being exotic. There is nothing to stop me learning Zulu, but it is a better use of my time to learn French and Dutch as I live in a bilingual French/Dutch city. Learning languages, like anything, is a case of cost-benefit ratio. 200 hours spent learning French is a better investment in a city where French is spoken that 200 hours spent learning Zulu. You could reverse that situation if you were living in KwaZulu Natal, where the opposite applies.
There is also the issue that most (?) of the users on here have a European language as their first language, so will find these languages easier. Also, many language teachers urge you to learn an "easy" language first, so you know your learning style and what works. Many of us have ambitions to move onto Korean, Russia etc but need to master our "easy language" first. I am fascinated by how there always seems to be more you can learn. Edited by FuroraCeltica on 16 December 2008 at 5:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6951 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 13 of 151 16 December 2008 at 10:27am | IP Logged | ||
If you pour over the list of target languages by native language, you will see that not only the Westerners, but others as well make their top selections from among the major West European languages, Russian, Japanese, and Mandarin. As just two examples, the native English speakers have the same top 4 choices as the speakers of Mandarin (excluding English), and the native Russian speakers do not sport a single Slavic language among their top 7 choices. Japanese is the 4th most popular language in the forum. Clearly, the ease of learning plays a role, but I get the impression that, hard or easy, most people tend to choose only from among the languages they perceive to be especially useful to them, be it for entertainment or professional reasons. Edited by frenkeld on 16 December 2008 at 10:32am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6454 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 14 of 151 16 December 2008 at 10:52am | IP Logged | ||
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I've never really chosen a language based on how glorious it would make me look. I chose German because I liked the sound of it and the culture; I chose to (re)learn French because I had taken it in high school and forgotten most of what I'd learned; I chose Russian because I'm interested in Russian history, and I find Russian culture to be fascinating.
Sure, if I were just looking for the language that would make others go "wow, look, he's learning that!", I'd go for something exotic, or extremely difficult. But I don't particularly care what others think, so I've gone for what I like. If I liked how Mandarin sounded (I don't), or if I was in love with Asian culture, I'd go after an Asian language. But that's not the case for me. Personally, I think if you're concerned about appearing "wussy" based on what languages you're learning, you're learning languages for the wrong reasons. :-) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6095 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 15 of 151 16 December 2008 at 11:52am | IP Logged | ||
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I would assume that most people here, like myself, study what interests them and what is of the most use to them.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| maya_star17 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5923 days ago 269 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 16 of 151 16 December 2008 at 4:09pm | IP Logged | ||
Which is why, given the choice, I would choose Arabic or Hindi over Swedish or Italian any day. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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