|
 |
Made more common | ||
Tags: Choosing a Language | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| zerrubabbel Senior Member United States Joined 4600 days ago 232 posts - 287 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 1 of 15 09 January 2013 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||
|
its a thought that came about after watching moses's question of the week videos, and It goes something like this
what is a language you would like to see more people learn, as in a language you would like more people to be able to communicate in as a second language... perhaps one you might recommend to someone who just wants to learn a language, but just can not pick one :D for me I think I would answer Mandarin but thats mostly based off things ive heard about it, like no conjugation simple grammar, one might argue the characters, but Im in favor of them because as long as you know the character, ... well... I guess its hard to misspell something when its all represented by meaning... and the little bit of mandarin I know leads me to think that tones arent such a thing that needs to be worried about. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 2 of 15 10 January 2013 at 12:31am | IP Logged | ||
Inari Saami. Next question. (This is only partially tongue-in-cheek. I wouldn't expect to recommend it as a second language to a monoglot of a non-Saamic language, but it would be something for me to see two non-Saami communicate with each other in it.) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4444 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 3 of 15 15 January 2013 at 11:02am | IP Logged | ||
|
Moses has a good way of learning languages by being systematic. Don't forget the classroom learning part
is just the beginning. In order to be fluent in any language, you have to find native speakers around willing to communicate in their language for practice. Moses mentioned in his videos that he is married to a Chinese person so naturally he would find native Mandarin and even a few Cantonese speakers among his in-laws and associates. Learning Mandarin isn't as difficult as it sounds. The 1 thing that throws people off is writing the characters. Personally I can read up to 80% of a newspaper. I don't remember how to write many of the characters off my head but can recognize it on paper. I rely on online dictionaries to look up words & phrases all the time. Once you learn to pronounce words & phrases using the Pinyin phonetics system, you can look up practically any word or phrase by the closest phonetics or meaning in English. Besides Mandarin, the most common languages are Spanish & English by number of speakers... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 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 4 of 15 15 January 2013 at 1:46pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I think I would like to see people broaden their horizons using any kind of language more
than them learning any particular language. But one thing that falls in this category is that I want to see local authorities protecting some endangered languages better. Breton is a good example because that is the one *I* am trying to learn, but it goes for all Celtic languages, and a lot of indigenous languages in other parts of the world. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mezzofanti Octoglot Senior Member Australia mezzoguild.com Joined 4748 days ago 51 posts - 112 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Arabic (classical), Arabic (Egyptian), Irish, Arabic (Levantine) Studies: Korean, Georgian, French | Message 5 of 15 15 January 2013 at 1:53pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Endangered languages.
There are a lot of obvious reasons why this would be good but the main one in my opinion is that young people will be more inclined to learn and maintain their endangered, native language if outsiders are learning and becoming fluent in it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 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 6 of 15 15 January 2013 at 2:01pm | IP Logged | ||
Well spoken. I am learning Breton for that very reason - if a Dutch person with no relation to Brittany can learn Breton, why can't the people who live there do it? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mezzofanti Octoglot Senior Member Australia mezzoguild.com Joined 4748 days ago 51 posts - 112 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Arabic (classical), Arabic (Egyptian), Irish, Arabic (Levantine) Studies: Korean, Georgian, French | Message 7 of 15 15 January 2013 at 3:22pm | IP Logged | ||
|
That's commendable.
Good on you for doing that. I wish more people had the same attitude. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 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 8 of 15 15 January 2013 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Well, you can make the argument for any endangered language. This one is simply one of
the closest to home (I do not think Frisian, the native language of some of my northern countrymen, counts as endangered. It's officially recognised and people speak it afaik). It is also important to choose something that is close to you and close to your interests. I chose Breton because I always wanted to know more about Celtic languages, and everyone else seemed to be doing Irish, so I went for Breton instead (I knew it was endangered). But there are endangered languages close to home in almost every country. For example, one of my favourite bands is a Swiss metal band that uses a lot of traditional folk elements in their music, as well as traditional Celtic instruments. They base their songs around the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe in ancient Switzerland. They use old inscriptions from Old Gaulish in their text and sing those (they work with Celticists for the pronunciation). Their main composer is really into folk music from those countries. The music (apart from the one acoustic album they did) isn't for everyone, but I find it good that a band from that kind of musical background does something outside of the box. It makes things ten times more interesting. And this sort of interest reflects in the music you make - but for me it reflects in the language I want to learn. Furthermore I had already heard stories about Breton from a friend and I am interested in finding out more about a culture that sadly got washed over by the waves of time. Even though I come from Germanic stock (and I have no interest in Celtic religion) I decided it would be good to broaden that side of my horizon and develop an ability in a Celtic language. But I understand not many people have an interest in doing this. I can talk for a long time about why I think France should recognise Breton as an official language of the country(as London has done with Cornish), but I do not think that is productive. The only way to protect a language is by showing it is a living, useful entity you can communicate and do things in. Therefore I am learning Breton to speak it, not to read literature in it. But everyone has a language like this close to them. If you are from the US, why not embrace your Cherokee heritage? If you are from Peru, why not learn Quechua? etc. Edited by tarvos on 15 January 2013 at 4:06pm 1 person has 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. |
