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Dating a Language | ||
Tags: Dabbling | Wanderlust | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| iluvrobot Newbie United States twitter.com/toryjwal Joined 5411 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 9 of 28 27 January 2010 at 5:48am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm happy to hear that I am not the only one who frequently flirts with different languages. I always thought of it as a bad trait and I would frequently become disappointed with my gains in my main language. My favorite language to "flirt" with is definitely Mandarin. I often start up the Mandarin Pimsleur course when I want a break from other languages.
I've found that I cannot keep interest in two languages at once, so when I "flirt" with a language, my main language has to take the backseat until I am done. This results in a lot of review work when I do decide to return to my main language again. I'm trying to keep the flirting to a minimum for now. I don't want to make my French too jealous. (; 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6695 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 10 of 28 27 January 2010 at 10:03am | IP Logged | ||
My criterion is that I don't intend to learn to speak or write the language, and mostly I just study it for a limited time and concentrate on some aspects of it, typically its grammar. Such languages never make it beyond the low end of 'beginner' (Tagalog, Georgian, Swahili). However in some cases I may become quite good at reading it through the intermediary of other languages (Old Occitan, New Norwegian). In this case it isn't dabbling any more, but just a language that remains passive. Dabbling or dating is different from spending time now and then on a language or dialect which I can't expect to learn to speak soon, though armed with a bit of patience and a dictionary I may be able to learn to write in it within a reasonable time. Such languages may become 'intermediate' fairly quickly, but pushing them up to 'basic fluency' is a longterm project and it may never happen (Platt, Scots, Esperanto). And then there are those languages which I intend to learn well enough to think, speak and write them on the fly - even though there may not be anyone around to speak to (Latin! ... and hopefully also Irish Gaelic and Afrikaans). Edited by Iversen on 27 January 2010 at 10:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6308 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 11 of 28 28 January 2010 at 3:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Interestingly, I deliberately avoid doing this, because I like looking forward to a complete surprise when I go to study a language intesively. For example, I know absolutely nothing about Arabic in practical terms, the only knowledge at all I have of it is that it uses some system of tri-consonants and a different script which is written right to left. Until I start studying it, I will avoid reading anything about it (same goes for Russian and Vietnamese) so that when I commit to it, everything will be brand new and exciting. I don't really have "compatibility issues", so such ignorance of a language isn't a problem for me, quite the contrary.
Sounds silly, but it's what I do! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| elindberg Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5546 days ago 6 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, French Studies: Mandarin, Japanese | Message 12 of 28 17 February 2010 at 11:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I definitely do this, particularly with languages related to ones I already know. Sometimes it's because I want to consider studying a language, and defer it. Other times, I never had any intention of learning more than a few words and the general sentence structure.
I'm not sure I want to continue the metaphor with that. Should I say I've had a one-night-stand with Ukrainian? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5545 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 13 of 28 17 February 2010 at 11:28pm | IP Logged | ||
That's such a cute way to put it! :D I'd say Finnish and I are still dating. I know I want to spend the rest of my life with this lass, but we haven't quite tied the knot yet. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5327 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 14 of 28 18 May 2010 at 2:22am | IP Logged | ||
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In terms of romance:
English is my childhood best friend. I've been married to him for donkey's years. French is my high school sweetheart but we only just tied the knot a couple of months ago. With German I have a complicated love-hate relationship à la Pride and Prejudice. I used to be intrigued by Latin and dated him for a while but I grew bored with him and after six years I showed him the door. Ancient Greek was even more intriguing than Latin but he turned out to be too much of a complicated person to handle so I let that go after only two years. Papiamentu is my fancy man whom I meet up with around once every month for a little tête-à-tête. Italian and I had a short summer fling but that's all it was. I have a thing for Greek but try to refrain from flirting because I already have enough difficulty dividing my attention equally between my two husbands and lovers. I think I feel a little slip coming up though. Edited by ReneeMona on 18 May 2010 at 2:30am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| AlissaBlue Triglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 5297 days ago 11 posts - 20 votes Speaks: Papiamento, Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 15 of 28 18 May 2010 at 2:48am | IP Logged | ||
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My language dating history:
Dutch is my back-up guy, the one I've known my entire life and the one I'll be with for the rest of my life. The one who will always be there for me and the one I’ll always come back to. English is my soul mate. My buddy, my best friend, who understands me better than anyone else. It’s layered and awesome and it’s the peanut butter to my jelly. Papiamentu is the one that exposes my commitment issues. I’ve known Papiamentu my entire life and we’ve dated on several occasions, but I’ve never been able to tie the knot. Spanish is my summer fling. We always meet up in the summer, but our flings end in autumn. Luckily, summer is only about a month away and I can’t wait to see Spanish again. I dated Latin, Ancient Greek and French for six years. I just couldn’t choose between the three of them, so I strung them along. Now Latin and Greek are dead and buried, but I still think about French (fries) every now and then. I also dated German for a while, but German felt like I didn’t spend enough time with him, to really commit. So after three years, I had to end our tumultuous relationship. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| aabram Pentaglot Senior Member Estonia Joined 5525 days ago 138 posts - 263 votes Speaks: Estonian*, English, Spanish, Russian, Finnish Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 16 of 28 18 May 2010 at 3:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm guilty as well when it comes to one night stands with languages. I have always at
least one extra-L1 affair going on. Some seduce me with their scripts, some with their sounds, some with just one or two peculiar words. What fun it is to look up everything about my newest crush on the internet! Her history, her parents, her current family, her quirks and eccentricities! Some are believed to be real mean with wicked ways, but turn out pleasant and nice. And some, generally held to be beautiful, turn out ugly when I look closer. I mean, how can I stop dating them when they're out there readily available waiting for another curious adventurer? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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