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Languages: Difficult but Wonderful ! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5968 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 9 20 May 2013 at 4:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Most of us here already know, and probably agree with, the gist of this article. Language learning is not easy, it takes time and dedication, and is often full of frustrations. This essay is so very funny and I think a lot of us can relate to some of it, even if we don't study Japanese. The topic is relevant to all languages and learners, I think. Why You Shouldn't Learn Japanese And yes, despite everything, you SHOULD learn Japanese, or any other foreign language you like. It's worth it! Do it NOW . . . and forever! 14 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 2 of 9 20 May 2013 at 10:59am | IP Logged | ||
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My groupmate found free five-year courses of Japanese. I don't know how good she is now,
but she told us she reached a descent level. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| wv girl Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5240 days ago 174 posts - 330 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 9 20 May 2013 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Funny article! I've experienced most of those feelings myself. When I started learning French, I had NO IDEA how
long of a journey it would be! Just because you've finished with certain classes, that doesn't make you functional in a language. How many hours did I spend, and do I continue to spend, some 20 years later, reading, seeking out practice opportunities, listening to movies and podcasts, always trying to get better. Although much of my time now is spent trying to improve my Spanish. I have a friend who speaks several languages. He was a Russian translator with the Army. He gets up every morning and reads French, day after day, to maintain and improve his skills. When speaking honestly about what it takes to learn a language and why kids in the US don't manage it very well, he said, "If you tell them how much time it really takes to get good, how much time and effort, they wouldn't sign up for the class." So much time and effort, often on your own. It was good to see that someone else other than me had to do this to be good! Before I found this forum, I didn't know that my experiences with language learning were normal. But it's been well worth it to me, even though I know my "hobby" isn't for everyone. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4829 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 4 of 9 20 May 2013 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the interesting article Meramarina, although I found it more thoughtful than
funny, even if it is written in a humorous style. I'm still working my way through the comments. wv_girl's post inspires me to wonder (half-seriously) if one has to be an obsessive to be a dedicated language-learner. And my half-serious reply would be "yes", I think. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tanya b Senior Member United States Joined 4779 days ago 159 posts - 518 votes Speaks: Russian | Message 5 of 9 20 May 2013 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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A Japanese learner has the additional burden of learning an additional writing system/alphabet which can make it exponentially more difficult for some people. Right now I am beating my brains out to study Farsi to fluency, so I can see why the hassle of a new alphabet can deter some potential learners.
Right now I am concentrating on speaking complicated sentences in Farsi. The other day I repeated the same 19-word sentence for 15 minutes until I could say it perfectly 3 times in a row. If I crash during the sentence, I start all over again. The fact that this sentence is right out of Nerd Central and I may never use that exact sentence in an actual conversation is not important--I will certainly use parts of it if I'm going to describe a news event that I'm translating from a Russian or Armenian news program. For me it is more an obsession than a hobby. Today I closed my eyes and all I saw was thousands of tiny Farsi words, written in black on a yellow background. Do stamp collectors have this problem? 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 6041 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 6 of 9 01 June 2013 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | ||
Funnily enough my martial arts laoshi says the same thing about Taijiquan. He often gets inquiries from people expecting to master the Art after a year of only doing one hour classes a week. They are quite shocked when they haven't mastered it yet. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Duke100782 Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Philippines https://talktagalog.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4489 days ago 172 posts - 240 votes Speaks: English*, Tagalog* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 7 of 9 02 June 2013 at 9:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I loved reading that article Meramarina, thanks for posting it. I could relate so much to it - I'm studying,
Chinese on my own while working here in China! My spouse and all of my expat colleagues have already given learning Chinese up long ago. I continue to persevere. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| wber Groupie United States Joined 4302 days ago 45 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Vietnamese, French | Message 8 of 9 03 June 2013 at 1:08am | IP Logged | ||
This would make a really funny joke. In no way am I trying to be mean,it's that I just found a play on words. descent vs decent. get it? :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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