|
 |
Is where you live "multicultural"? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| cmmah Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 4531 days ago 52 posts - 110 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Irish | Message 1 of 37 01 September 2012 at 10:48pm | IP Logged |
|
We all know that you can pick up a language quicker in a country where it's natively spoken, but how does the
environment in your native country affect your learning? If someone lives in a multicultural city like London or New York, and gets the chance to communicate with native TL immigrants, would that give them an advantage? I think that for people learning multiple languages, it would be best to live a multicultural city, rather than being in a place where ONE of the TLs is spoken, but not much else? Does anyone here feel that living in a multicultural city has helped their learning? Unfortunately for me, where I live is pretty homogenous. I maybe know about 20 foreigners, and about 5 of them are Aussies/English, so they don't help me much. There's a Pole, a Colombian and a Spaniard in my year, and four or five foreign teachers in my school, but that's not much considering the size of the city. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ZombieKing Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4527 days ago 247 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* | Message 2 of 37 01 September 2012 at 11:36pm | IP Logged |
|
Where I live, white people are almost a minority... Which is kind of crazy if you think about it. Half the people here are Asian, either mainland Chinese, Cantonese (from Hong Kong), or Korean. The rest are white or Persian. If you go into a neighbouring city, Surrey, then there's a lot of Indians. So Vancouver is a pretty multicultural place. I think the big metropolitan cities in Canada are all this way, except maybe Quebec city? I'm not sure about that.
I think it's really great. Not only for language learning, but for learning to be a more open minded person. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4665 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 37 01 September 2012 at 11:47pm | IP Logged |
|
Not at all, unfortunately. I hope I can move back to a large city in a couple of years. Small town America is not for me...
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Saim Pentaglot Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5083 days ago 124 posts - 215 votes Speaks: Serbo-Croatian, English*, Catalan, Spanish, Polish Studies: Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Occitan, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic (Maghribi), French, Modern Hebrew, Ukrainian, Slovenian | Message 4 of 37 02 September 2012 at 12:15am | IP Logged |
|
I moved to Barcelona for that very reason. I hear lots of Punjabi, Dutch, French and
Arabic on the streets, all languages I'm either learning or will start in the fairly near future. I've even heard Serbo-Croatian a few times, and of course I'm constantly hearing Spanish, Catalan (well Catalan not so much in the centre of the city, but when you talk to locals it's different) and English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4703 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 5 of 37 02 September 2012 at 1:04am | IP Logged |
|
Providence, Rhode Island (where I live now) is about as white-bread and homogeneous as
they come. Unfortunately for my language studies, it is also the wrong flavor of white bread. I'm at peace with it. There are some expats who never really learn the language of their new country, despite being fully immersed; conversely, many languages are learned very well outside their countries of origin. I can't practice Dutch on the street corner but I can work on my reading, listening, and writing here almost the same way I would in the Netherlands. ETA: Italian might actually be a good choice for Providence due to its large Mafia presence. Edited by Hekje on 02 September 2012 at 1:04am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5567 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 6 of 37 02 September 2012 at 1:59am | IP Logged |
|
I live in a rural town which, in the relative scheme of things, is not multicultural. According to the most recent census figures, it's 97% white. The vast majority of people around here are monolingual English speakers. But that doesn't mean you can't find speakers of other languages; you just have to know who they are. I know the owner of the Italian restaurant down the road from me is from Italy. There is a family of Bosnian immigrants in the city, and a family of Bengali immigrants. Tourists from Quebec are everywhere. The local Indian reservation has Mohawk speakers. And of course, we have Chinese restaurants with Chinese speakers, which can be found in just about any town in America.
The town where I work, that's another story. It twice hosted the Winter Olympics, and its facilities still attract athletes from all over the world. Edited by Levi on 02 September 2012 at 2:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jamesleecoleman Newbie United States Joined 4487 days ago 38 posts - 52 votes Studies: Russian, Persian | Message 7 of 37 02 September 2012 at 8:02am | IP Logged |
|
My city isn't really multicultural. We have a large group of Bosnians, Vietnamese, and Hispanic/Latinos. I have to go to Kalamazoo, Detroit, or Ann Arbor in order to see a greater multicultural group. I hope that make sense to who is reading.
I tell people that we need more people from different countries here. Like Levi was saying, I just have to know where to find people who speak my target language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5207 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 37 02 September 2012 at 5:59pm | IP Logged |
|
Very. Lots of immigrants and foreign students from very much all over the world. In
particular, from Asia, Poland, and mainland Europe, particularly Spain. Despite this, finding people to practice my languages with is still quite a struggle; I feel sorry for people who don't live in an environment like this! 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. |
