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Pros and cons of learning many languages | ||
Tags: Multilingual | Learning Strategy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| caam_imt Triglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 4797 days ago 232 posts - 357 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, Finnish Studies: German, Swedish | Message 1 of 8 03 August 2011 at 12:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Greetings language lovers,
This is my first post on this forum and hopefully not the last! Anyway, I am here to ask you people what do you think of my situation, but first a little background info: I am Mexican engineering student in Finland, about to complete my master's degree. Needless to say, my mother tongue is Spanish, and to be admitted to study in Finland, I had to show proficiency in English. After two years of being here, I have tried my best to learn Finnish, and even though the university offers only 3 basic short courses, I managed to progress significantly by means of self study and interaction with locals. Before coming to Finland, I studied around 2 years of German, as one of my early goals was to study there. My foremost priority (not so long term)is to reach a decent level of fluency in both Finnish and German (without mastering them), for job purposes. The issue comes here: the university is now offering courses in French and Russian, free of charge. I consider myself to have a somewhat intermediate level in both Finnish and German, and it seems not so hard to try more languages at this stage. I have a couple of Russian friends and in this region of Finland there is a quite big chance of meeting Russians (I am near the east border), but the language seems quite hard and different from anything I know. French, on the other hand, seems quite easy at a first glance, and it might be a more realistic option for job purposes (I don't want to do anything else in Russia other than travel around). On the other hand, IMO Russian has a more mysterious and appealing charm than French (which I think is overrated and not THAT beautiful). Now, onto the question: Since I have a life (at least I try :P) and my master studies are definitely very important, do you think is wise at all to try to meddle with these languages? or only one of them? my common sense says no, but I cannot take the idea of knowing some Russian and/or French off my head. I hope this was not too long to read Cheers! Antonio 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6638 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 2 of 8 03 August 2011 at 1:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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I followed courses in other languages while I studied French at the university (long ago), and I have never regretted it. If you feel that you have time for those other languages and that your main languages are sufficiently 'wellestablished' then I would say: go for it.
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| arturs Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 5206 days ago 278 posts - 408 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English | Message 3 of 8 03 August 2011 at 2:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is from my own experience about the issue of learning many languages:
Pros: -It is worth to get even a basic level of the language so that you’re familiar what this language sounds like; -You never know when one of the many languages can become useful; -Your brain works more and more effectively by getting all this information when you learn more languages; Cons: -Takes time; -Wanting to learn a certain language more intense, and after a while wanting to do it with another language, leaving the previous; 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5946 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 4 of 8 03 August 2011 at 7:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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It may seem a bit of a selfish attitude, but remember: you can always drop out later if it gets too much (although it probably won't because your classmates will spend all term trying to get their heads round noun declensions etc, which you'll already be comfortable with).
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| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5065 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 5 of 8 03 August 2011 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Unless the course(s) are conversation and therefore a bit more advanced, my experience with college language courses is that they're quite guided and don't progress all that fast.
Go ahead and try one, see if you like it and can handle it, I say. If you don't like one, you can always try the other. You'll lose nothing, and will gain at least some precursory knowledge of the courses offered. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6060 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 6 of 8 04 August 2011 at 8:11am | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't understimate the competition -- these Finnish guys seem to be really good at learning languages. I'm frequently amazed at the ability of Finnish speakers to absorb new languages. Just saying, don't be too surprised if you end up humbled.
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| caam_imt Triglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 4797 days ago 232 posts - 357 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, Finnish Studies: German, Swedish | Message 7 of 8 04 August 2011 at 10:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the replies, I guess I will give it a try and see if I can adjust my time schedules, without sacrificing my other target languages. At least French seems to be not too much of a problem at this early stage. We'll see about Russian :)
@cathrynm: Of course, one of the things that amazed me when coming to Finland for the first time was their good English, and knowledge of Swedish and perhaps more languages. In Mexico we don't have such a multilingual culture as a norm, and my guess is that in the USA it is not that different. But there are always exceptions to the rule, and not all Finns are language adepts, specially in the case of Swedish. And usually I don't underestimate them :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| petteri Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4867 days ago 117 posts - 208 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: German, Spanish | Message 8 of 8 05 August 2011 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | ||
One comment. In my opinion if you want to live in Finland permanently, you should learn the language to advanced fluency. Finland is a challenging environment to learn the local language. Educated Finns in general hate to hear bad Finnish and switch language immediately to English if foreign Finnish speaker has difficulties. Also diglossia, difference in casual and "official" language, gives a learner of Finnish extra challenges. In general Finnish should not be much more difficult to master than Russian. But Russian is really easier learn if you live in Russia as there is just two options, learn Russian to advanced degree or leave the country. In Finland for foreigner it is pretty easy to never to learn Finnish properly, but it is also a choice to stay as foreigner forever. In my opinion being just decently fluent in Finnish is really bad choice. In order to be accepted as a speaker of Finnish in work environment you really have know Finnish at least as well as your colleagues know English. Improving pronunciation could also help you to interact in Finnish, pronunciation which is accepted by locals is not really difficult for speakers of Spanish but there are some adjustments which are needed. If you are already at intermediate level in Finnish , six months of self-study on average three hours a day should take your Finnish to C1 level. If you are planning to move out of Finland it is a different story. FSI Finnish course is in my mind the best resource available. It is not really casual spoken language, but "official" spoken language and some of the course is bit oldfashioned, but it offers change to get the language to the level where locals should accept your speaking skills. Just think about it. :) Edited by petteri on 05 August 2011 at 4:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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