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The Line between Ridiculous and Sensible | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| KayJane Newbie United States Joined 4518 days ago 21 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Persian | Message 1 of 9 13 July 2012 at 4:14am | IP Logged |
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There are discussions about a person's motivation to learn a specific language, but when does a perfectly sensible reason become a ridiculous one? I saw learning a language for job-purposes in two different light: Learning a language for a job can be sensible and being able to speak a business partner/client's language can have personal and practical merits, but I soon realized that one should not put a majority of one's effort into only one field (unless linguistics or anything related is that chosen field) since now a days, it almost feels as though one has to market oneself like a QVC product; it has become questionable how much a foreign language will personally benefit me in my future job search. These motivations aren't too extreme, but I've seen some, in my opinion, extreme ones (like going through FSI-type drills to flirt with boys).
So, where do you draw the line between ridiculous and sensible? (Obviously these are my opinions and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so it would be interesting to see any personal experiences where a sensible motivation became a ridiculous one, or vice-versa). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| NickJS Senior Member United Kingdom flickr.com/photos/sg Joined 4959 days ago 264 posts - 334 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 2 of 9 13 July 2012 at 6:11am | IP Logged |
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You have to make your own decision about what is ridiculous or sensible as there are bound to be people out there that consider your approach ridiculous but if it works for you why should it be considered ridculous.
One of the biggest mistakes I've ever made was to let others opinions control what I did because their opinions led me to believe that it was silly. So my own opinion here is to not draw a line at all and do your own thing when learning your language. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5783 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 3 of 9 13 July 2012 at 6:35am | IP Logged |
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Most people I know consider the fact that I read for pleasure ridiculous. For them
reading is a tool for a purpose (whether that be work, obtaining specific information or whatever). Both views are valid but the people who hold one view have no right to ridicule or belittle those who hold the other, as happens far too often. The same goes for language learning or any other learning: some see it as a pleasure; others as a tool for a purpose. I think NickJS gives very good advice here, but following it is often painful. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 9 13 July 2012 at 7:24am | IP Logged |
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In my book there is no such thing as a ridiculous reason, just more or less creative ones:-)
4 persons have voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 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 5 of 9 13 July 2012 at 10:03am | IP Logged |
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I do see some reasons for learning and some methods as ridicoulous (or maybe rather lamentable), but that judgement is my own and for others it may be wrong. For instance it is in principle ridiculous to learn a dozen languages because you could live happily with just one or two i Denmark (Danish and English). But in my book it is more ridiculuous to play football or participate in the political circus or spoil your economy by siring offspring. Everything is in principle ridiculous.
I have seen people here at HTLAL propose methods or learing strategies which I don't think would be effective, and then it can be seen as ridiculous (or lamentable) to do like that - but given that my own activities probably are seen as ridiculous by the majority of the Danish population I'm in the same boat. The point is that I don't care. As long as I can have a decent lifestyle with time to spare it is my own decision what that time is used for. And how. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5009 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 9 13 July 2012 at 10:33am | IP Logged |
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And what's so bad about being seen as ridiculous? Still much better than stupid :-)
Really, if learning languages (/reading for pleasure/doing non-profit activities/writing stories for yourself/making free pc games/growing your own vegetables/many other things people do for fun) are considered ridiculous, than this world needs much more ridiculous people :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5847 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 9 13 July 2012 at 12:09pm | IP Logged |
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Generally, it doesn't interest me, if other people find my hobbies - such as language learning and astronomy - ridiculous, because I am an adult and my life is MY LIFE. Unfortunately, my family sets me under pressure to give up language learning and other hobbies and financial means are used to enforce this pressure. And this makes it really problematic.
Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 13 July 2012 at 12:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lapislazuli Tetraglot Senior Member Austria Joined 7036 days ago 146 posts - 170 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, ItalianB1 Studies: French, Hungarian, Esperanto, Czech | Message 8 of 9 13 July 2012 at 2:45pm | IP Logged |
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There are no ridiculous reasons, as long as something motivates you to learn the language, what is wrong with it. And often it is not the reasonable things like: it is very useful for my job, that do the trick, but some rather irrational motivations (in some poeple's opinion), that keep you going. You can still think of a few unridiulous and more intelligent sounding reasons to tell, when asked by others.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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