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The last language you would want to learn | ||
Tags: Usefulness | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6440 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 17 of 346 07 July 2007 at 12:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
For the sake of the argument, assume that a person can learn 100 languages to a decent level. This is probably too optimistic of a number. There are thousands of languages. To pick one, or even a group, to 'learn last' requires selecting between languages you don't have time to learn. Merely 'not having time to learn them' would lead to an extremely long list, which suggests that people either give arbitrary answers, or are using criteria to pick a language that they dislike or are prejudiced towards. You can't derive pleasure from most of the languages of the world - due to a sheer lack of time. Likewise, most languages aren't useful to most people. Trying to pick a small number of languages out of this as the ones you want to learn least strikes me as a dubious pastime. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lloydkirk Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6414 days ago 429 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 18 of 346 07 July 2007 at 12:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Reineke: Am I not allowed to state my opinion? In case you didn't notice two other people stated Mandarin too. Did what they say piss you off? You get offended far too easily and if you have nothing positive to contribute to the thread perhaps you shouldn't post. Since you seem so set on defending asian languages I'll list another language in addition to Mandarin. Croatian. I can't stand listening to it and it's usefulness, well...isn't exactly bountiful.
6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 19 of 346 07 July 2007 at 12:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It's not so much a dubious pastime as something to think about for a bit. Unless you were compelled to learn something, you would want to learn something that you want, correct? This also precludes someone from being able to learn something else because of his/her time is already occupied.
Just as there are languages that someone wants to learn very much, there must be languages that someone wants to learn least. There's no shame in saying that unless the reasons are sinister. Of course the answers are arbitrary, and aren't much different from people who say that they want to learn x because it's "sexy", "sophisticated", "cultured" or useful. (Useful to whom? Maybe it's useful for one person, but not for another.). They're just opinions, and as long as we're not linking refusal to learn something because of open hatred of other people, what's the harm? 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6440 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 20 of 346 07 July 2007 at 12:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
I personally don't have languages that I want to learn -least-. There are ones I would learn if I had more time, and ones which I like more or less to some degree. I find it useful to think about the ones I'd like to learn. I don't find it particularly useful to rank the ones that I don't plan to learn; there are too many of them, out of sheer necessity. If there -were- a language I would want to learn least, statistically, it would be in the set of minor languages, as there are many more of them. Statistically, it would also be in the set of languages which I currently know nothing about.
I'm not sure whether it's worse to proclaim a language one that you -least- want to learn because of a topical feature, or because of a prejudice about the language. I have no problem with people saying that they don't plan to learn any given language; there need to be many languages in this category for everyone. I do find the idea of having a language which one wants to learn 'least' offputting. It's not the mirror of having a language one wants to learn most - one is not planning to put time and effort into it, and it's in a large pool of languages which, other than this particular classification, will be treated exactly the same way (not learned). 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 21 of 346 07 July 2007 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Perhaps it's the difference between "hating the game" and "hating the player." In my opinion, the second case is more ominous since it becomes personal.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cage Diglot aka a.ardaschira, Athena, Michael Thomas Senior Member United States Joined 6625 days ago 382 posts - 393 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Portuguese | Message 22 of 346 07 July 2007 at 3:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Geesh! I am sorry I started this thread now. Methinks that perhaps a certain individual or two needs to calm down and not take the honest opinions of others so personally. To the cop outs....we each will make the time to learn any language that we truly want to learn. We will not make the time for the ones that do not interest us to begin with. So come on guys lets keep this thing civil. Someone asked me how I would answer this question. I see no point in me learning esperanto or anything else artificial. I apologize if this offends anyone. The languages that really interest me are all Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and Arabic...anyway to each their own. Edited by Cage on 07 July 2007 at 3:33pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6660 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 23 of 346 07 July 2007 at 3:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I can think of a few characteristics that would apply to that language.
1. Dead language 2. Language that had very few speakers when it was alive. 3. Language that had no written form, so there is no literature to read in that language. I'm sure that there have been quite a few such languages in existence. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| reltuk Groupie United States Joined 6817 days ago 75 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 24 of 346 07 July 2007 at 4:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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While we're in the process of telling people not to get offended when
their language is listed in this thread, let's keep two things in mind: 1) Many people, in many cases rightfully, consider their cultural identify closely linked to their linguistic identity. 2) The following two things are very different: 1) an individual not trying to learn a particular language 2) an individual specifically saying that learning a particular language actively repulses them and that they would prefer to never do it, under any conditions. I realize that the prompt of the thread is "What's the last language you would want to learn", and so the responses to the prompt are slightly less derogatory than the statement in #2.2. Still, a response to this thread is, in many cases, a strong statement of the rejection of a very significant part of a particular culture. With that being said, it's also important to realize the highly personal nature of the responses, and to approach them for what they are: a preference being stated, as opposed to a normative statement regarding the worth of the mentioned language or resulting culture. At the end of the day, the languages that we choose to study are a result of a complex number of factors, many of them conditioned by our own cultures, experiences and opportunities. Most of the reasons given for languages being listed in this thread are highly personal preferences or the result of the prior linguistic conditions of the poster, such as not liking the sound of a language or thinking the grammar would be too hard. Given that highly personal nature, it would be wrong, at least in most cases in this thread, to perceive the responses as indicating any kind of value judgement on the mentioned language or the related culture. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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