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It hurt me being multi-lingual | ||
Tags: Native Language | Difficulty | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Old Chemist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5173 days ago 227 posts - 285 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 41 of 49 04 October 2010 at 8:48am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it is sad to value one language above another for its supposed expressive power, particularly when it is at the expense of one's own language. I can never understand people who say Ancient Greek is the best language for saying anything. I don't know much Ancient Greek, but it appears to be an extremely complex language, certainly as regards grammar, of course. Yet it was the lingua franca of its day, spoken by a vast number of people, as English is now. The only special thing about a language is its "position" in terms of geography, history and how much it gets used by chance. All languages have their faults and clumsy ways of expressing thoughts, but all have their value, too.
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| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6125 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 42 of 49 04 October 2010 at 9:55am | IP Logged | ||
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It is possible to have your native language regress, while never developing native fluency in your new language. I had relatives, exactly like this. I think the moral of the story here, is that when you move a child from one language to another, maybe they should continue to receive education in their original native language. Otherwise they might end up with educated but non-native level in the second language, and native but uneducated abilities in the first language.
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| Lucas Pentaglot Groupie Switzerland Joined 5167 days ago 85 posts - 130 votes Speaks: French*, English, German, Italian, Russian Studies: Mandarin | Message 43 of 49 04 October 2010 at 10:21am | IP Logged | ||
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If you truly were motivated by reading poetry in English, you would have taken a
dictionnary a began to read poetry a long time ago. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6125 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 44 of 49 04 October 2010 at 10:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I think the poetry issue is a little more interesting. Is it possible that I may never feel poetry in a second language, the way I do in my native language. For me, I don't have any problem memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary. I do have this nagging concern that maybe Japanese doesn't really trigger any emotional feelings in me. It's still a little like eating frozen food, or like a giant collection of words and rules. So far, I attribute this to abilities that are continuing to develop -- I assume this gets better with time? Maybe. I guess.
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| Old Chemist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5173 days ago 227 posts - 285 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 45 of 49 04 October 2010 at 8:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think some things have a particular beauty - things said in a foreign language, which have no exact equivalent in English, this can be anything from a short quotation to a whole genre, such as French short stories. I think this is why I try to learn languages, to experience some of this feeling.
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| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6538 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 46 of 49 05 October 2010 at 8:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Clearly a person who has a doctorate in nuclear physics is on another level than a person with a PhD in languages. Learning a foreign language that would take away time from family or important work could very well be a bad thing. There has to be some pleasure in learning a foreign language, otherwise one would be better off doing something important like nuclear physics.
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| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 47 of 49 05 October 2010 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
It does get better with time (and, perhaps more importantly, exposure). The language needs to sink deeper into you, for lack of a better description. I find some Esperanto poetry quite evocative at this point. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6472 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 48 of 49 07 October 2010 at 12:26am | IP Logged | ||
I said a real mouseover dictionary. Google Translate is not a real dictionary; if you want one, there are generally better things to use. Edited by furrykef on 07 October 2010 at 12:26am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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