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Life as a monolingual

  Tags: Monolingual
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
49 messages over 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7  Next >>
Akao
aka FailArtist
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5336 days ago
315 posts - 347 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona

 
 Message 1 of 49
30 April 2010 at 7:39am | IP Logged 
Remember when you were monolingual, or at least never started learning languages?

How has your life changed since, and what are some major pros/cons to becoming
multilingual?

Not for personal judgement, I just am hoping to see some interesting answers. :)
1 person has voted this message useful



Smart
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5339 days ago
352 posts - 398 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French
Studies: German

 
 Message 2 of 49
30 April 2010 at 9:16am | IP Logged 
Well I used to be in diapers and now I wear boxers.

LOL.

well, life has changed internet-wise, being able to go on multiple sites for information for science or other subjects in school helps.

Also, in that rare occasion where you meet a Spanish-only person online in a video game, you can speak to him/her.

*was that inappropriate?*

Edited by Smart on 30 April 2010 at 9:20am
1 person has 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 3 of 49
30 April 2010 at 9:18am | IP Logged 
I stopped being monolingual at the age of 10. I could not imagine speaking just one language, since I would like to be able to communicate with people from the whole wide world, and I cant't do that with just Norwegian.

The fact that I speak several languages has landed me a good job with a lot of travelling, it gives me the possibility to go on vacation and being understood through most of Western Europe and the American continent, and it has given me close friends from a wide variety of countries.

It has given me the opportunity
- to spend Christmas with Catholic friends in Naples
- to spend Passover in an Israeli family outside Jerusalem,
- to spend Greek Orthodox Easter with close friends in Ukraine,
- to go to Eastern Germany before it was reunited, and stay in a German family and listen to their worries and experiences
- to live in France and Spain, and become a virtual family member in those families,
- to travel to New York to meet good friends there for New Year's eve,
- to have people from more that 40 different nationalities as guests in my home.

But more than anything, it has given me the possibility to communicate with people all over the world who are monolingual and with whom I could not have talked had I not been able to speak different languages.

A Catalan woman on a train in Spain - she did not speak Spanish (Castellano) and I did not speak Catalan, but as the languages are close we could still communicate. I was the first foreigner she has ever spoken to. An Italian woman in the south of Italy who was intimidated by foreigners, but still ventured to speak to me, and even with my few Russian words and heaps of body language - talking and singing Beatles with an Ukrainian in his 70ies, who was overjoyed to find someone who he could sing and play the guitar with. People who might seem insignificant to some, but who once you talk to them you realize that they are a treasure box of life lived. Speaking languages changes your life from black and white to coulours. And who wants to see black and white TV once you've seen it in colours?

Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 30 April 2010 at 9:21am
21 persons have voted this message useful



Smart
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5339 days ago
352 posts - 398 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French
Studies: German

 
 Message 4 of 49
30 April 2010 at 9:22am | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
I stopped being monolingual at the age of 10. I could not imagine speaking just one language, since I would like to be able to communicate with people from the whole wide world, and I cant't do that with just Norwegian.

The fact that I speak several languages has landed me a good job with a lot of travelling, it gives me the possibility to go on vacation and being understood through most of Western Europe and the American continent, and it has given me close friends from a wide variety of countries.

It has given me the opportunity
- to spend Christmas with Catholic friends in Naples
- to spend Passover in an Israeli family outside Jerusalem,
- to spend Greek Orthodox Easter with close friends in Ukraine,
- to go to Eastern Germany before it was reunited, and stay in a German family and listen to their worries and experiences
- to live in France and Spain, and become a virtual family member in those families,
- to travel to New York to meet good friends there for New Year's eve,
- to have people from more that 40 different nationalities as guests in my home.

But more than anything, it has given me the possibility to communicate with people all over the world who are monolingual and with whom I could not have talked had I not been able to speak different languages.

A Catalan woman on a train in Spain - she did not speak Spanish (Castellano) and I did not speak Catalan, but as the languages are close we could still communicate. I was the first foreigner she has ever spoken to. An Italian woman in the south of Italy who was intimidated by foreigners, but still ventured to speak to me, and even with my few Russian words and heaps of body language - talking and singing Beatles with an Ukrainian in his 70ies, who was overjoyed to find someone who he could sing and play the guitar with. People who might seem insignificant to some, but who once you talk to them you realize that they are a treasure box of life lived. Speaking languages changes your life from black and white to coulours. And who wants to see black and white TV once you've seen it in colours?


Wow. Now that is a testimony. Amazing !!!
Pesach with an Israeli family? my dream! :P

Edited by Smart on 30 April 2010 at 9:22am
1 person has voted this message useful



Delodephius
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Yugoslavia
Joined 5403 days ago
342 posts - 501 votes 
Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, EnglishC1, Czech
Studies: Russian, Japanese

 
 Message 5 of 49
30 April 2010 at 11:01am | IP Logged 
I was an infant so I don't recall. X-)
1 person has 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 6 of 49
30 April 2010 at 12:45pm | IP Logged 
Smart wrote:
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
I stopped being monolingual at the age of 10. I could not imagine speaking just one language, since I would like to be able to communicate with people from the whole wide world, and I cant't do that with just Norwegian.

The fact that I speak several languages has landed me a good job with a lot of travelling, it gives me the possibility to go on vacation and being understood through most of Western Europe and the American continent, and it has given me close friends from a wide variety of countries.

It has given me the opportunity
- to spend Christmas with Catholic friends in Naples
- to spend Passover in an Israeli family outside Jerusalem,
- to spend Greek Orthodox Easter with close friends in Ukraine,
- to go to Eastern Germany before it was reunited, and stay in a German family and listen to their worries and experiences
- to live in France and Spain, and become a virtual family member in those families,
- to travel to New York to meet good friends there for New Year's eve,
- to have people from more that 40 different nationalities as guests in my home.

But more than anything, it has given me the possibility to communicate with people all over the world who are monolingual and with whom I could not have talked had I not been able to speak different languages.

A Catalan woman on a train in Spain - she did not speak Spanish (Castellano) and I did not speak Catalan, but as the languages are close we could still communicate. I was the first foreigner she has ever spoken to. An Italian woman in the south of Italy who was intimidated by foreigners, but still ventured to speak to me, and even with my few Russian words and heaps of body language - talking and singing Beatles with an Ukrainian in his 70ies, who was overjoyed to find someone who he could sing and play the guitar with. People who might seem insignificant to some, but who once you talk to them you realize that they are a treasure box of life lived. Speaking languages changes your life from black and white to coulours. And who wants to see black and white TV once you've seen it in colours?


Wow. Now that is a testimony. Amazing !!!
Pesach with an Israeli family? my dream! :P


That was the experience of a lifetime. I remember with particular joy, reading the Haggadah, where I was allowed to read my part in French, due to my incredibly lousy Hebrew - I basically only understood Elohim now and then!
1 person has voted this message useful



ReneeMona
Diglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 5335 days ago
864 posts - 1274 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2
Studies: French

 
 Message 7 of 49
30 April 2010 at 5:05pm | IP Logged 
I think the pros of being multilingual have all been mentioned so I just wanted to add some of the cons that I've experienced to the conversation. For clarity's sake, none of these have ever made me regret being multilingual for split second.

My cons are actually all manifestations of the same con which is that I find it hard to balance the two languages I know. I speak, read, write and think in English so often that I'm sometimes afraid that I'm slowly losing my Dutch. For instance, sometimes when I'm speaking Dutch and I want to say something only the English word for it will pop up in my head and I have to dig really deep to find the Dutch word it. Because of this, I've noticed that I am actually less articulate in Dutch than I used to be back when I was monolingual and I also had much more time to read. I've also lost many less commonly expressions and ways of saying things, my spelling has gotten worse and I sometimes say things that are basically Dutchified versions of English words (like flattant, which my mother corrected into flatteus a couple of days ago). I'm also a little afraid of this now that I'm learning French. Will learning a new language further erode my Dutch? Will it affect my English? etc. I'd be interested to know how people who speak many more languages than I manage to balance all of them in their daily lives.

Like I said earlier, this has never made me regret learning English for a second. Speaking English has opened doors for me that would have stayed closed to a Dutch-only speaker for ever and I'm confident that I'll never lose my Dutch because I've taken up reading a bit more high-brow texts (Like Diary of a Young Girl) to try and bring back those expressions and uncommon words.

Edited by ReneeMona on 13 May 2010 at 9:43pm
4 persons have voted this message useful



datsunking1
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5585 days ago
1014 posts - 1533 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French

 
 Message 8 of 49
30 April 2010 at 5:15pm | IP Logged 
I've made a ton of friends, knowing another language has literally changed my life.

I can read news, books, and listen to music. I find myself helping people all the time, giving translations, directions, and meeting new people all the time.

Since I've learned one (and I'm still not perfect) I'll never go back. All I want to do now is learn more and more.

My goal is to be able to communicate with more than 1 billion people :)

So I've chosen to study German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, and maybe Japanese.

One from each family or so (minus the romance languages :D)

Before I learned Spanish, I didn't think other languages would work. I didn't know "I walk" could be "yo ando" or "yo paseo" in Spanish. I didn't know you could crack jokes, be understood, and know everythting that I did in another language.

I've gained an appreciation for not only other cultures, but for other languages and people in general.

So what if your English isn't great. I'll do my best to try and help you, and try to learn some of your language to make you feel welcome :)

I'm ALWAYS open-minded when it comes to languages. The sky is the limit.

The most important thing I've learned through languages is that FRIENDS EXIST ALL OVER THE WORLD no matter what native language they speak. Languages should never create a barrier for friends :)


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