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Feeling alone with your language passion? | ||
Tags: Surroundings | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4622 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 33 of 49 19 November 2012 at 2:23am | IP Logged | ||
That's true. There are plenty of evening classes available in the UK for the major European languages. Japanese and Mandarin are popular also. Despite the reputation we have for being useless at languages, a lot of Brits are curious about language learning and perhaps even a little embarrassed at our largely monolingual status. The trouble is, once people get to classes and realise the amount of work involved, or once they try to use a foreign language abroad and realise their 12 lessons at nightschool covered only the absolute basics, there is a tendency for folk to move away from languages because maybe they don't have the required "talent" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4828 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 34 of 49 19 November 2012 at 3:55am | IP Logged | ||
I counted up the number of languages on offer in my nearest city, and it was actually quite staggering. Admittedly, the more obscure ones don't seem to be offered at the highest level, and none of them is offered at a really high level, but even so. The potential interest must be there. What these classes don't seem all that good at is helping learners to help themselves. Cynics will say that that's because it's not in the interests of the professionals to help learners teach themselves, but I don't entirely agree, and I'm not sure if I agree at all. In a class, I may have limited speaking opportunity, but at least it is in calm, well ordered surroundings with a native speaker on hand to correct and advise and to model pronunciation upon, and the people there are well motivated. But while we sometimes watch a film, and we are currently reading a book together, the teacher has never once mentioned the possibility of using parallel texts, or finding a translation, or an audiobook. We are encouraged to use internet radio, TV and podcasts, but only in a vague way. No one suggests getting transcripts or anything like that. No one ever teaches ways to learn vocabulary. And not just this teacher (who is actually excellent) ... none of the language teachers I have experienced as an adult has really said much about this kind of self-learning. Maybe they assume we will just sort of pick it up naturally. I wonder sometimes if they are afraid to tell us how much work (outside the classroom) is really involved. The few "meetup" groups I've been to were in noisy pubs, and were mixed language situations where my TLs were very much in the minority, and I didn't enjoy the experience at all. I think (where I am) French and Spanish learners would get on OK ("Meetup"-wise), but others would have a lean time. I've heard others speak highly of meetup groups, but I think it depends a lot on where you are and what language you want to practice. (FWIW, I like a drink, and I like pubs, but I don't think they make the best environment for practicing languages, unless everyone in the pub is speaking the same language, as they would be if you were in the TL country... :-) ). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5959 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 35 of 49 19 November 2012 at 6:04am | IP Logged | ||
Do you have any hobbies that might have Mandarin language forums or email lists? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JohannaNYC Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4452 days ago 251 posts - 361 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, Italian Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 36 of 49 19 November 2012 at 6:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Although there's little interest to learn a 2nd or 3rd language amongst my friends and
family, I don't feel alone in my passion for learning languages. On the contrary, I've been lucky to meet a wonderful group of people through a language meetup. People that not only share my passion for languages, but are also interesting people in general. Like montmorency said, Spanish and French speakers/learners can always find someone to practice with at these types of meetups. But if you show up regularly and spread the word that you're learning a rare language someone might bring someone who knows your language. The first two times I went to the meetup I sat with the Spanish learners, just helping out as there was no one to practice my TLs with. I had a really good time helping and getting to know people with a similar hobby/passion. Then a Serbo-Croatian speaker showed up and we became good friends and now some Arabic speakers and learners have been showing up regularly. It helps that I always write on the RSVP box what languages I'm learning which motivates others to show up who might otherwise be on the fence. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4868 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 37 of 49 19 November 2012 at 10:51am | IP Logged | ||
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I haven't had those problems in regard to language learning, because I've surrounded myself with people who are interested in foreign cultures and usually study or have studied a foreign language or two. I have to add that I only talk about my own language learning outside of this forum very casually. But I have fun pointing people to resources and teaching. To me it doesn't really matter which language it is and why people are studying it, I just enjoy sharing the process with someone.
However, I have experienced intellectual loneliness, which seems very similar to what you described. As soon as you spend a lot of time thinking about a topic that you can't share with anyone you're bound to feel a little lonely. What about the people you study with at university? Sure, they may not be aspiring polyglots, but maybe you'll feel less lonely if you find people who are enthusiastic about one of your target languages. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| bela_lugosi Hexaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 6454 days ago 272 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English, Finnish*, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish Studies: Russian, Estonian, Sámi, Latin | Message 38 of 49 19 November 2012 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Same here. Most Finns know at least two languages and many of them study more languages in their free time. The languages everybody knows are Finnish and English. Many people also speak Swedish, German, Russian, Spanish, or French. We like to travel a lot, so it is quite common to be able to speak 3-4 languages but more than that IS a little unusual. That's why I usually don't talk about my passion for languages, unless I am explicitly asked to do so. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4622 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 39 of 49 19 November 2012 at 1:03pm | IP Logged | ||
I've often wondered about countries like Finland, where the vast majority of the population know at least 2 languages, often 3 or 4. Obviously there is a greater culture of language learning than in the larger countries with strong economies, where the people can rely more on their native tongue for professional purposes, but is there actually more language passion in Finland? In the UK, people view mathematics as a bedrock qualification and children are encouraged to take their maths as far as they can. Therefore many kids work hard at maths because they know it is an important thing to achieve, but they might not enjoy it, they might be good at it but it doesn't excite them, more a means to an end. I guess a typical Finnish kid will see the value in learning English, Swedish and Russian, and to a lesser extent German and French. Knowledge of these languages helps people get jobs and travel to neighbouring lands (where nobody speaks Finnish). But are there more instances of passion? Edited by beano on 19 November 2012 at 1:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hendrek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4882 days ago 152 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Persian | Message 40 of 49 21 November 2012 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | ||
Esperanto, from what I've heard. Folks who bother to learn that are probably quirky enough to be interested in language acquisition in general. They have international and local meetings and there's been a separate "couch-surfing-esque" program for decades now (I think). I don't yet know Esperanto, or have any experience with these conferences (alligator something or others... ), but it could be a good way to tap into this shared interest with other folks more easily. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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