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Languages few learn, but deserve a chance | ||
Tags: Foreign Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 1 of 26 14 October 2006 at 7:53am | IP Logged | ||
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For Western polyglots ands and polyglots-to-be, there's a large basket of languages that are popular from every corner of the world, and we discuss them every day here.
However, there are a lot of languages no one is talking about that I think would be worth one's time; these languages have a plentitude of speakers, vibrant cultures, and often a rich literary history. Many of these aren't even available in this site's language selection list, however. 1. Bengali — 171 million speakers; spoken in India, Bangladesh, and numerous communities in the Persian Gulf area. Has an interesting syllabary for a writing system and a literary tradition spanning the last two centuries. 2. Kannada — 50 million speakers, gorgeous exotic script, literary tradition dating back to 700 AD. 3. Amharic — important East African language and member of the Semitic family. 4. Azeri — official in Azerbaijan, widely spoken in Iran and elsewhere; very close to Turkish. 5. Hausa — a trade and cultural lingua franca in Niger and Nigeria. 6. Karen — a tribal language spoken by as many as 14 million people in Thailand and Burma. Sometimes called the "French of Asia" because it sounds so nice. Edited by Captain Haddock on 14 October 2006 at 7:53am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6890 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 2 of 26 14 October 2006 at 8:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I was wondering only last night about this same thing. I was having a look at a list of world languages according to number of speakers and saw that Bengali is fairly high up on that list. Despite there being so many native speakers, very few outside of Bangladesh and India ever bother learning the language. I have a friend from Bangladesh and I've been wondering whether I should badger her into teaching me a bit about her language. :)
It's true that we tend to overlook certain languages, probably due to a lack of resources or simply because we find we have no immediate practical use in learning them. I'm sure many of us have thought about learning something really different, something few people ever think about learning. I've certainly had moments like that (only yesterday was I wondering whether dabbling with Georgian would be something worth doing) but the lack of available resources does put me off. How else would I go about learning the language? Who would I practice with if I don't know of any native speakers who could give me a helping hand? Not to mention there are practical concerns. How would knowing Georgian or Tibetan or Zulu benefit me in my everyday life, especially when I have limited free time to dedicate to language learning? Would I be willing to sacrifice time spent on learning something more relevant to my daily life in favour of an 'exotic' language I may never get to use? So many reasons in favour and against learning these less-commonly learnt languages. I honestly wish I had all the time in the world to learn something 'unusual' but, realistically, the thought is an idealistic one more than anything else. Still, I'll be gathering up what resources I can for Georgian and other obscure languages in case I should find the time to learn a little about them. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Clintaroo Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6871 days ago 189 posts - 201 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Tagalog, Indonesian | Message 3 of 26 14 October 2006 at 8:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the insight Captain Haddock. The only languages which I've heard of out of those you listed are Bengali and Azeri.
Must admit that it's bad enough finding resources for Tagalog. I couldn't imagine the frustration for a learner of Bengali or Azeri! I guess the best thing is to get yourself on the next flight to Dhaka or Baku hehe. If I was going to tackle one of the more 'obscure' languages, I wouldn't mind studying Nepali or one of the South-East Asian mainland languages such as Khmer and Lao. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6659 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 4 of 26 14 October 2006 at 10:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I have to agree with Lady Skywalker. The lack of resources for learning a language and the relative lack of available native speakers has got to reduce the number of people who are going to make an effort to learn it.
Many of these languages are so different from English (or from many of the other languages spoken by people who post here) that these languages require more work and offer less of an immediate payoff than others. I don't doubt that Bengali (like other languages Captian Haddock mentioned) has its attractions. A number of years ago there were a few students from Bangladesh at the university where I was a graduate student. I would have been happy to learn Bengali, but it took more of a time commitment than I was able to give it. Besides, they wanted to practice their English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bak Triglot Senior Member Senegal Joined 6644 days ago 31 posts - 36 votes Speaks: Spanish, French*, English Studies: German | Message 5 of 26 14 October 2006 at 10:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Nice post indeed Captain Haddock.My wife is ethiopian and spokes amharic.I should be the one promoting it !shame on me...
For the record there's plenty of internet ressources for that language (among them a strong FSI course..).This is probably due to the large ethiopian community in the US...and the strategic importance of the horn of Africa. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6684 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 6 of 26 14 October 2006 at 10:31am | IP Logged | ||
I do think the language sel. list could use an upgrade. I imagine if certain hyperpolyglots visited this site, there's a good chance they would be able to list half of the languages they knew. And for those of us who aren't hypers but choose to study very uncommon languages, it offers a tiny bit of validation to see what you're studying listed, instead of 'other', haha. But in terms of uncommon languages, someday I intend to bring my Yoruba out of hibernation. My family spent some time in West Africa when I was a tot, so I can understand the language perfectly, but since they only spoke to each other in it, and not to me, I can't speak it myself. I figure it wouldn't take much to turn the passive knowledge into an active one, so perhaps in the future I'll give that a stab. I also want to learn a bit of Finnish - at least a Pimsleur 1 level - because one of my favorite bands sings in the language, and I'd like to start picking up what they're talking about. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| buzzell Newbie United States Joined 6641 days ago 14 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Russian, Latin | Message 7 of 26 14 October 2006 at 11:28am | IP Logged | ||
Is there a Pimsleur language program for Finnish. I've looked and I've never been able to find any level of program from Pimsleur, even on Simon & Schuster's website. I would also love to learn Finnish. After all, J.R.R. Tolkien described his finding of the Finnish language, saying “It was like discovering a complete wine-filled cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavor never tasted before. It quite intoxicated me. . .” 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bak Triglot Senior Member Senegal Joined 6644 days ago 31 posts - 36 votes Speaks: Spanish, French*, English Studies: German | Message 8 of 26 14 October 2006 at 12:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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There's an Assimil course on finnish.It's a french edition
1 person has voted this message useful |
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