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How did you choose your target language? | ||
Tags: Choosing a Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 74 of 141 18 July 2009 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Reason for my target languages is a confused mix of logical and illogical reasons:
Russian: Always held a fascination for me, big, mysterious, sometimes scary, fascinating, supremely cool neighbouring country, that can only go UP from where they currently are. I've read that the govts in Sweden and Finland are trying EVERYTHING to get kids to learn Russian in school, because they know our countries need this for the future. But so far the success levels are low. Languages like French and Spanish are more popular despite being significantly less useful in Scandinavia. German: As above, but less extreme in all respects. Plus it is an easy language to learn for me. I have many other languages that I know a little or a lot in, but I am not currently trying to improve them; perhaps a mistake. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5909 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 75 of 141 18 July 2009 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Italian: I remember taking out an Italian course maybe 10 years ago, but it sucked and I was terribly disappointed and totally abandoned it, but I think I could call it my first love and it wouldn't be too far off. Then last year I knew I had to take a class just for credits at uni, so I looked at what they had available and decided Italian was the one that interested me most out of the ones I could take without ever going to class. (My medical school is indifferent to class times for your electives, even though you have to take them, so my entire year pretty much had to find something like this, except one class that was scheduled to suit 1st year medics.) So I signed up for Italian and ordered Italian With Ease while trying to get my uni to approve some extra Spanish credits I had lying around, which they refused, so out of spite I aced Spanish 1 instead and ditched the Italian class. Then, about 3 months ago, for no particular reason, after deciding to stop learning everything except one language until I get to fluency, I don't know exactly how it happened but I decided that language would be Italian, because I just adore it. I hadn't really studied it much before then, but it was the best decision I could've made, and I love it more the more I study it :-)
All the others I've studied... They've been pretty random. Hungarian cause it's cute, but I guess it all started from a song I liked. (I could say the same thing about Italian, I think.) Latin cause I thought it would come in handy for med school - which it would have, if I hadn't forgotten it all (FAIL). Hebrew cause I needed something I could take from out of town - same thing as with Italian, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did... Ancient Greek because by then I'd taken 3 out of 4 electives classes for my degree in ancient languages so anything else would just look dumb and I didn't want to take more Hebrew (oral exams in languages are a bad idea when you've never gone to class), and it looks somewhat well-rounded on paper now at least. Modern Greek cause I have Greek friends... Spanish and Catalan cause I was living in Catalonia at the time with a Catalan and needed to know them both. Hmm, I think that's about it. So stupid reasons mostly :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kyrie Senior Member United States clandestein.deviantaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5729 days ago 207 posts - 231 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese | Message 76 of 141 18 July 2009 at 10:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish: Since I'm from the southwestern US, Spanish is very important to know here. Not only do you have to know while going into Mexican markets and such, but also when getting a job that has to do with customer service. I remember going into the shoe store that my sister worked at one time and this over-the-border family was trying to buy shoes. My sister, nor her coworker knew how to communicate with the family. So I stepped up and asked them in Spanish what size they needed and the transaction was done in no time. I felt great about knowing Spanish then. (I would have gotten hired for the job if I wasn't only 15.)
Portuguese: three words: I love Brazil. Hebrew: I want to know the language of my ancestry. And I'm of Israeli descent. French: My boyfriend loves it when I speak in French. Italian: Competition. (See my Italian log for more details. :P) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Carisma Diglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 5622 days ago 104 posts - 161 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC1 Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 77 of 141 18 July 2009 at 10:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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My aunt lives in Germany and I think I may have the possibility of going there in the
future. When I was a kid I travelled there, too, and I loved the language. It's like German has always being there, nearby, waiting for me to explore it. It was just natural for me to choose it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5651 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 78 of 141 19 July 2009 at 12:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Persian--I met a charismatic teacher at my university, and the exotic factor of Persian for a boy from the Midwest in the USA was too much to resist. But, after some mediocre work over 35 years ago, I've devoted myself in the last four years in a big way to classical Persian in order to enjoy Hafez, Rumi, Nezami, and others--and my efforts have now paid off!
German--It was my primary university language, and I was really bad at it. But after gaining confidence from Persian, I took up German again this spring in order to read Goethe, lieder and opera lyrics, and such. I find myself reading novels by Hesse now and loving them. Arabic--1001 Nights! Enough said. Italian--Opera lyrics are the primary motivation, but I'm looking for an Italian writer whom I would really enjoy reading. Turkish--I've been attracted to it for a long time and have finally tackled it by reading Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red (a sentence at a time at this point). I like the way it looks, and the fact that it is non-Indo-European, but I'm also interested in seeing what's being done right now to create a new literature with a living language. Maybe I need something to balance all the time I spend in earlier centuries in the other languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5909 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 79 of 141 19 July 2009 at 1:27am | IP Logged | ||
If you find any really good ones, do share. I'm starting with the audiobooks at librivox.org just for listening practice, hopefully I'll like some of them, maybe you can start with those. I'm not much of a reader though, so it would have to be good, I need the practice of course but I reckon I'll probably start with non-fiction and only move to fiction books if I really have to - they seem like a waste of time to me. Anywho, not going to hijack this thread, just thought I'd suggest the above link as a possible starting point. Liz 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| xandreax Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5900 days ago 142 posts - 160 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 80 of 141 10 August 2009 at 5:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish --- Learning this got me into learning other languages. I started because my boyfriend's (he's also my best friend then and now) native language is Spanish. I enjoyed listening to him speak to his family over the phone but disliked not understanding any of it. I also wanted to be able to talk to, not just understand, his family.
Portuguese --- It's similar in many ways to Spanish and many of the awesome people I talk to who are from Brazil obviously speak the language and I'd love to understand at least 90% of what they say/write to each other. Right now they only speak to me in English and that's not as fun! French --- I "learned" some French in school years ago, but not really because I hated how it was taught. If I had realized that I disliked the learning environment, not the language, I would have tried to find another way to learn sooner. I live in Canada and learning French will allow me to understand and talk to more people here and open doors for job opportunities. Plus, once again, it has similarities to Spanish. Italian --- It's beautiful to me and very much like Spanish but unique in its own way. I'm actually more interested in it AFTER having studied for a few months than I was before knowing anything. I also love listening to and understanding music in all these languages. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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