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Which is a greater source of motivation? | ||
Tags: Poll | Reasons for study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Darklight1216 Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5103 days ago 411 posts - 639 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: German | Message 9 of 23 08 March 2013 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not sure whether the sheer beauty of a language falls under "culture" or "linguistic interest."
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| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6553 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 10 of 23 08 March 2013 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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That depends - which one does sex fall under?
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| Phantom Kat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5066 days ago 160 posts - 253 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Finnish | Message 11 of 23 08 March 2013 at 7:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Man, that's a tough choice. One of the reasons I love Finnish so much is because its
grammar is so intricate and its pronunciation is so smooth and rhythmic. Then again, the more I find out about Finland the more I yearn to go there one day. I finally put "cultural interest" because if Finnish, for example, was a dead or artificial language, my motivation wouldn't last a year. - Kat 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7159 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 12 of 23 08 March 2013 at 7:34pm | IP Logged | ||
I need both (at the least) to get going, but the degree of importance tied to each depends. In addition having contact or positive association with the speech community is sometimes even more important, and this isn't necessarily a cultural factor for me. I have a couple of close Polish friends and while I derive great pleasure in learning more about their culture and native language, I admire them so much that if they were speakers of some language other than Polish, I'd probably start to learn that language instead just so that I could communicate with them in a medium in which they're most comfortable (as opposed to making them use their non-native English in my presence). This also means that a love interest who's a native speaker of the target language is a variation of this last point on a positive association with the speech community. If I take a few examples from my target languages, here's what I can state in brief: - Finnish: I feel that the motivation to keep going is about 30% linguistic interest (Uralic languages are fц¢ќiп' awesome, get with the program! ;-)), 20% cultural interest and 50% because of my Finnish friends and all of the good times we've had. - Northern Saami I feel that the motivation to keep going is about 40% linguistic interest and 60% cultural interest (I've had only brief contact with native speakers, but visiting Sápmi and the time spent there learning more about the culture boosted my motivation substantially after a chance encounter with the language in Kukushka more than it being Uralic but doing some things that make it stand out technically from the Uralic languages in which I'm more invested.) - Turkish: I feel that the motivation to keep going is about 75% linguistic and 25% cultural. Unfortunately I know no native speakers of the language, and Turkish culture which is primarily a secular Middle Eastern one nowadays doesn't interest me that much. The language's characteristics are more interesting to me though, coming from a certain background in Uralic languages, and having been made aware of the Turkic connection (real and imagined) with Hungarian which is my favourite language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 6043 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 13 of 23 08 March 2013 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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It has to be a cultural interest particularly from a music and literature perspective.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 14 of 23 08 March 2013 at 10:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm pretty much like Chung, both are a must.
Linguistic motivation doesn't have to be so strong if the language is *everywhere* like Spanish. As for your original question, I don't see why you can't learn both eventually. It seems like for Russian you have a stronger motivation for actually learning, whereas for now you can simply read *about* Korean. In fact the problem with linguistic motivation is that you may not be as excited when you actually get around to learning. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mahasiswa Pentaglot Groupie Canada Joined 4435 days ago 91 posts - 142 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, German, Malay Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Persian, Russian, Turkish, Mandarin, Hindi | Message 15 of 23 08 March 2013 at 11:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I voted linguistic. I don't understand how philosophical interests could motivate anyone to learn a
language. Perhaps you mean the way Borges taught himself to read German so he could read Schopenhauer? My reasoning for my decision is based on experience. I would love to highlight some of my background which would explain why I've had the experience I did. Firstly, I'm a linguistics major. This week, for example, I'm fascinated by the phonology of Khoekhoe, last fall I surrounded myself with books on Swahili in order to gain an insight on its rather clear morphology, as well as to see how Arabic words helped me understand a Bantu language. There are some languages interesting enough to me from a linguistic point of view that I would rather learn about the culture secondarily by studying the language. Every textbook I've ever used involves cultural components, because the language and its culture are inseparable. I began studying Mandarin last month and I had no prior interest in Asian cultures, besides that of Malaysia, which, I must say, is a little divorced from the non-Indo-European Asian cultures. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 16 of 23 09 March 2013 at 12:26am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, languages are very different. The best examples are conlangs, one may like the idea of Esperanto or toki pona. To some extent this is what made me interested in Indonesian. A new language is a new way of thinking.
learning anything to read the philosophical works in it counts as cultural, imo. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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