|
 |
What gives you satisfaction? | ||
Tags: Motivation | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 20 23 September 2013 at 10:15am | IP Logged |
|
In the past I have seen discussions as to what the "right approach" is to learning languages - one or two languages to fluency (yes, I said the f-word out loud, and I do not regret it :-) or several languages to A2 or B1.
Personally I find such discussions less than helpfull. It is like when in gardening I am told that when you plant tulips then 25% of them should be white, or if you have a modern house you need to plant modern roses and not historical ones. What do I care what other people say. I follow the rules that make me happy. The same goes for languages - I go for the combination of levels and languages that makes me personally happy and satisfied, and it is irrelevant to me what others hold as an ideal. I also equally respect the one who studies one language to C2 and the one who studies 10 languages to A2. The only thing that does not impress me is the one who does 10 languages to A0/A1 in two to six months and claims to be at a B2-C2. Claiming knowledge you do not have in any language does not appeal to me. What gives me satisfaction is a combination of progressing (albeit slowly) in one language, (Russian) to a level where I can start using it a little bit, and tasting umpteen other languages just for fun. Over the last three years I have played around with Greek, Turkish, Swahili, Chinese, Ukrainian, Icelandic, and Mongolian (played around with defined as doing anything between 2-50 hours, and generally with a result of absolutely zero.:-) but the process of doing it has given me the sense of a break from the other language, and the occasional sprint in another language gives me more stamina for the marathon of learning one language properly. And then of course we have the light jogging of keeping up or refreshing the languages I already know. What gives you satisfaction? 10 persons have voted this message useful | |
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4356 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 20 23 September 2013 at 10:59am | IP Logged |
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a7cHPy04s8
I enjoy learning new alphabets, starting to understand the words of a new language when it used to be only a continuous sound, reading about other cultures, and finally being able to actually communicate. Of course, fluency and proficiency and all those magnificent things are satisfying, but to me the beginning of understaning a new language is a magical thing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 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 3 of 20 23 September 2013 at 11:14am | IP Logged |
|
What's giving me satisfaction is the idea that I can use my capabilities to discover
something new, sometimes in a new language. But equally right now that my French is developing so well that I am making less and less gender mistakes. That I'm studying how to write proper texts in French, at a more formal level, understanding how those complicated things function in another language. Because sometimes, the colloquial language is good enough (I don't care about speaking elegant Romanian) but in some cases, the discovery that you can do something that you've been doing in Dutch and English all your life is a skill transferable to a language you've struggled with for a long time is very refreshing. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4620 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 4 of 20 23 September 2013 at 11:53am | IP Logged |
|
I get satisfaction from using my main foreign language (German) in real-life situations. I have several friendships in which only German has ever been spoken, which makes me feel like I'm living a little part of my life through a non-native language.
I also enjoy the fact that I learned my skills as an adult (I was monolingual until 32). I feel as if I have proved that success in foreign languages is not dependent upon staring as a child. Everyone has their own reasons for learning languages. Every language can potentially be described as "useful" and "useless" so I avoid these meaningless labels. Some folks specialise in one language, others go for a broader-brush approach. I salute them all. Edited by beano on 23 September 2013 at 11:56am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lorren Senior Member United States brookelorren.com/blo Joined 4249 days ago 286 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Danish, Irish Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 20 23 September 2013 at 12:23pm | IP Logged |
|
I love it when I can actually apply the skills that I've learned, whether it's reading a newspaper article in a foreign language, or even hearing someone on the street and being able to pick out a few words that they're saying. I also enjoy being able to go to a foreign country (which doesn't happen often anymore) and being able to speak to them in their language.
This year, I've learned that while I do want to do more than just "get by" in a language, I don't feel the need to stick to one language until I can speak and understand as well as a native. I'm pretty happy with being able to read the language and listen at an intermediate level, before being ready to move on. I'm okay with progressing at a slower rate at that point. I'm not just interested in learning one language, but I want to be able to do more than eat at a restaurant, go shopping, and ask directions to the bathroom. So getting to the point where I can use the language for what I'll normally be using it for (written communication) seems like a good goal for me, before I give myself permission to start working on another one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4857 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 6 of 20 23 September 2013 at 12:28pm | IP Logged |
|
Awesome question, Cristin. Personally, I can say that everything related to the languages gives me satisfaction :) But the greatest fun of all is to be able to talk with foreigners in their mother tongues, especially while hitch-hiking (you know, while hitch-hiking I look like a cool guy - brave, smart, knowing the languages and the culture of people who are "my" drivers - something that in most of cases I'm not :D ). Plus sudden understanding of the songs you've liked for years - such an amazing feeling!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Laurae Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5036 days ago 51 posts - 67 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Dutch | Message 7 of 20 23 September 2013 at 1:07pm | IP Logged |
|
I love it when I can 'suddenly' (in truth: many hours of toil and sweat are incolved:-) understand passages of text, podcasts and dialogue, which I know would have completely evaded understanding in the past. This year I've started reading novels in German for pleasure - I can scarcely believe I've come so far. It's also a pleasant shock to be able to understand movie dialogue (sometimes; it depends on the film) without subtitles.
Another point of satisfaction is realising that I haven't 'lost' as much of my school languages as I previously thought.My memory and recall are somewhat better than I believed.It's nice to be able to build on one's childhood knowledge many years later. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zimena Tetraglot Groupie Norway Joined 4590 days ago 75 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish Studies: Czech, Mandarin | Message 8 of 20 23 September 2013 at 6:16pm | IP Logged |
|
What a great question!
I guess what gives me the greatest satisfaction is when I realize that I'm able to communicate with people, get my point across and talk about a variety of topics. The less effort it takes me to get my thoughts out (as in, the less I need to google-check what I'm thinking if writing or the less I have to stop or and/or reword my thoughts if speaking), the more I feel that I'm improving. This feeling of improvement is something that makes me very happy. Also, I get a great joy out of realizing that I used a "good" phrase intuitively and naturally. You know how you might sometimes use a phrase that you thought you didn't know how to use, and yet when you use it you're sure that you did it correctly and you surprise yourself with being "good" enough to express just that in just that way? Yes, that feeling is what I mean. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
