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Excuses for not learning a language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5591 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes  Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 9 of 20 06 September 2012 at 3:14am | IP Logged | ||
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How about "I'm too old"? To me, if you can still talk, you can still learn.
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| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6125 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 10 of 20 06 September 2012 at 4:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Sounds like my grandparents, they lived in the USA for over 50 years and could not actually speak English. They could say "Eat, eat eat!" but that was all I ever heard out of them. I'm not sure if they had any excuses, as I couldn't really communicate with them.
So I don't know, I suspect they did have a hard life, and I'm not sure if they were so up for the effort of studying English vocabulary by the time I knew them, when they were already past their 60's. Language learning is such a massive effort, I can't really judge anyone for just ignoring the whole thing and living life for work, children and food instead. If other people want to learn language or don't want to, personally, I don't think I really care either way. Let them make their excuses, far as I'm concerned. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4772 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 11 of 20 06 September 2012 at 10:37am | IP Logged | ||
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| JiriT Triglot Groupie Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 60 posts - 95 votes Speaks: Czech*, English, German | Message 12 of 20 06 September 2012 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | ||
Old age is a problem, for more reasons. When one grows old thein memory becomes weaker. It is a normal process. A 50 years old language learner will not learn so easily as a teenager, a teenager must the language learn, whereas a 4 years old child learns and language by the mere exposing to the environment (I mean for instance small children in bilingual environment). An older person can learn with a better method. When a person is above 50, they usually do not learn a language as their first foreign language. And it is easier to learn the second language than the first one and the third one is even easier. To start the first foreign language at 60 is very unusual. And it would certainly cost more effort. And the effect would be lower. When someone learns a language until they are 20, they can use it for their all professional life. When you start at 60, you can reach a good level say at 64. Such knowledge is solely for personal benefits, and not for your career. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JiriT Triglot Groupie Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 60 posts - 95 votes Speaks: Czech*, English, German | Message 13 of 20 06 September 2012 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Old people have often problems with their memory. It is a normal process. For language learning it can be essential. Language learning is a memory job. On the other hand, such a memory skill can help someone to improve their memory.
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| JiriT Triglot Groupie Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 60 posts - 95 votes Speaks: Czech*, English, German | Message 14 of 20 06 September 2012 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | ||
I believe, your grandparents are and example of people, who could learn the language and in their case it would be maximally useful. When we speak about excuses, why people do not learn a foreign language, I do not know. For example, The Czech Republic is surrounded my a few states. But I do not want to learn Polish or Slovak or Hungarian. Why? If I learn in a border region where Polish is often spoken, then to learn Polish would be reasonable. Or if I were in close touch with Polish, living there, often travelling to Poland etc. But I live in Prague and I do not consider learning Polish as a good investment. The same is true for Hungarian. And I do not learn Slovak, I mean active speaking. Why? Because as a Czech I understand Slovak very well. If I lived in Slovakia, perhaps I would learn to speak Slovak. People would understand my Czech but it would be better to speak Slovak anyway. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4859 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 15 of 20 06 September 2012 at 2:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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That was a horrible kind of excuse, JiriT. I'd love to learn all of the languages of Polish neighbours, even if in the Ukraine, Slovakia and Czech I would cope without them fairly well. Probably in Belarus and Russia too. Edited by prz_ on 06 September 2012 at 2:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JiriT Triglot Groupie Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 60 posts - 95 votes Speaks: Czech*, English, German | Message 16 of 20 06 September 2012 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | ||
I totally disagree, prz. To learn a language well is a big investment (mainly of time, effort, partly of money). And I want to invest effectively. I could improve my English, but now I am not much motivated. I have some working knowledge and I can do with it. But I can image a longer stay in an English speaking country. My German needs to be improved. And I would like to learn Spanish (I am flirting with it now). That means, now I have 2 or 3 language I can work on. I will not work on another language until I reach a higher level in the above mentioned languages. And then? My personal choice would be Italian or Portugal, not Polish nor Hungarian. I do not have to excuse to myself, why I do not learn all the language of the world. If I learn a language, I learn it because I wanted to do so. Or because it was necessary and practical and I decided to learn it. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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