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Does language learning make you.. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 arashikat Diglot Pro Member United States Joined 4677 days ago 53 posts - 80 votes  Speaks: Tagalog*, English Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 25 of 37 11 February 2012 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I used to think, "If I can learn English in the Philippines, why can't they learn English, too? It's not like it's hard. If you're in America, you speak English." It was a pretty harsh and ignorant view of things.
However, when I moved to Korea for a year, and being at the mercy of the Koreans, I realized what it must have felt like for the immigrants in America who didn't speak English. My Korean was rudimentary, yet the people there were very patient with me. I never got past the basics of the language, but it sure taught me to be more patient and understanding of those whose don't speak my language. Now that I've been in their shoes, I realized that it's not that they don't want to learn the language, it's just that it's harder than they imagined, and/or they can't just devote their lives entirely to learning the language. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| jdmoncada Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5034 days ago 470 posts - 741 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Finnish Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 26 of 37 11 February 2012 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't think learning languages has made me more patient with other people. A few posts back someone mentioned frustration with Americans treating intelligent foreigners poorly because of a lack of new communication skills. I've tried to take people as they are. When someone is intelligent, even if the words are stumbling out, it's usually obvious.
But also, I can be impatient with people in any language. A Maltese friend of mine informs me that I have high standards for myself and expect the same of others. I think that was a flattering and polite way to frame what could be a negative trait. I just know how sometimes I think "If I can do this, why can't you? It's not that hard." But no one wants to admit that negative part, do they? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 27 of 37 11 February 2012 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I used to be forgiving from the start, but learning languages made me more patient and better at explaining.
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| wv girl Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5239 days ago 174 posts - 330 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish | Message 28 of 37 11 February 2012 at 8:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Not that I've frequently encountered people learning English in my area, but when I have, usually traveling
somewhere, I'm more understanding. I've been in that position, where if someone will just slow down a little bit, speak toward me, say it ONE MORE TIME, then I get it. I can certainly do this for someone else. I know what it feels like to have something to say but lack the vocabulary in another language. Kindness goes a long way. I also try to apply this patience with my very hard of hearing grandmother ... the number of times she THINKS she understands what is being said but is mistaken reminds me of someone learning another language. They're trying their best to participate, but often get it so wrong. Although I can end up practically yelling at her, which I would never do to a language learner .... louder is only better when you're near deaf! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6582 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 29 of 37 11 February 2012 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
One of the things that really annoy me is people treating unintelligent people poorly just because they're not born intelligent. But that's not a language thing. On the whole, I seem to have a talent for learning languages and that has made me needing to watch myself so that I don't confuse inability to learn with unwillingness, even though one of them tends to cause the other. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Northernlights Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4675 days ago 73 posts - 93 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 30 of 37 11 February 2012 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
I couldn't agree more. If someone genuinely tries, any level of fluency or intellectual sophistication is fine by me. I'm very patient and happy to take the time to communicate with a person, even when for whatever reason it's a slow process. Sometimes it's more rewarding than the quick conversations you otherwise have every day. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6552 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 31 of 37 12 February 2012 at 12:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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Learning languages does affect how I react to people who struggle with languages. But a little background, I'm the immigrant son of an immigrant son of an immigrant son of an immigrant son ... going back at least 6 generations and every generation spoke several languages more or less well and I'm passing the same condition to my children.
When I am in contact with people that are struggling with either learning a language or struggling with some of the issues that occur with certain bilingual environments I am extremely open and understanding and I try to be helpful. I'll gladly translate for anyone given the opportunity and have even made long term friends from those language challenges. I have a tendency to even make excuses for those that have been living as immigrants in a new country and have not learned the language (too busy, not focused on that, not living in immersion, finding it too hard ...) What I have relatively little patience for are those that give poor excuses for learning -- I'm bad at it, I don't have the genes for it, etc... or even worse, when one belittles my long effort by stating that "it just must be easy for you." C'mon just face the fact that you don't want to, it isn't a focus for you or whatever real reason for not spending a thousand hours acquiring a language. Or 3 hours even learning the minimum question of "excuse me, do you speak >my language<?" It's ok, but don't make false excuses. And I have absolutely no patience for and I WILL react aggressively when I see someone mistreating foreigners because of limited language skills. Somewhere along the way I learned that the only way to deal with rude shopkeepers when I see others getting this type of abuse (which I rarely get) was to escalate - my mother taught me to make a stink and ask for the manager/owner and this is certainly a torch I'll continue to carry. And I've lodged formal complaints against immigration officers in the US, France and Mexico (and Venezuela, at a distance via a letter - no way I was going to raise my point face to face there!) when I saw abuse of power when a tourist was yelled at for not understanding the local lingo. Funnily enough, in my job I've interviewed a lot of people and when a CV has language skills I'll try to switch to the languages listed, even if I just have a base in them to get an impression of the skills versus what is on the CV. Usually people overstate their skills, I certainly don't care much unless it is really a huge gap. Edited by zenmonkey on 12 February 2012 at 12:37am 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 32 of 37 13 February 2012 at 6:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The only thing I don't like is the typical American version of learning a language, i.e. not actually learning or studying, but just taking some class in school and knowing how to say the typical phrases. I know what it means to "actually" study a language now and will make it known that they aren't "actually" studying.
Other than that, I think I have a much bigger respect for people who've learned English (or anything else) to a functional level as an adult, because it takes a lot of effort. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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