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Language Envy | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Piotr1981 Diglot Newbie Poland Joined 5233 days ago 26 posts - 27 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishC2 Studies: Spanish, Italian | Message 17 of 19 30 July 2010 at 10:20am | IP Logged | ||
So do I. I think it really gives such a person more possibilities from the start. Yet, I also agree with the other part of your post. The fact that there are people older than me who still succeed in mastering new languages shows that you can do it at any age if you put mind to it. Edited by Piotr1981 on 30 July 2010 at 10:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5327 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 18 of 19 31 July 2010 at 5:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Sometimes I do wish I had grown up bilingually (I don't even care which language), just because English gets boring. It's not a big deal, I don't "envy" them in the sense that all I do and sit around and wish I was bilingual.
It's not the hand that you're dealt but how you play your cards. I'll be bilingual eventually :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5207 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 19 of 19 27 August 2010 at 12:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I respect anyone who can speak multiple languages just because I now know how much effort it takes to learn a language! Some examples:
- my Dad, who's Greek but speaks English like a native. He learnt by moving to Australia as a teenager and being thrown in in the deep end. - A Pakistani friend who speaks 4 languages fluently, and speaks English better than most native speakers: very creative with word choice etc. - Several Italian people I know who can speak English, French, German, and Spanish fairly well. In fact, almost everyone I've met in mainland Europe has impressed me! I was at music festivals in France and Slovenia this summer, and almost everyone I met spoke enough English to have a good conversation and even understand my Scottish accent. The Slovenians in particular were very proficient in English, but even the French impressed me a lot considering the bad reputation they seem to have. Their English was generally far better than my French, despite the fact that I've supposedly been learning French since age 10. It just seems that in Europe there's a lot of importance placed on learning English in particular and kids are taught it from a very young age, plus it has a certain "cool" factor because of popular music, Hollywood films, etc.. Whereas in English speaking countries all we have is half-arsed high school language courses that teach grammar but not conversation, and foreign cinema is seen as posh and arty-farty... Edited by garyb on 27 August 2010 at 12:24am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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