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Life as a monolingual | ||
Tags: Monolingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 17 of 49 01 May 2010 at 4:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Becoming multilingual changed my life, but it is the person, not the language, that strives toward self-perfection and actualization. I have met many multilingual people who lack curiosity and openness, and simply know their language through circumstances, not inner drive.
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| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5353 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 18 of 49 01 May 2010 at 4:28am | IP Logged | ||
I have experienced this same problem after I started to learn German, although it increased dramatically after I studied in Germany for a few months. I am sometimes left grasping for a word in English, and I can only think of the German word. My spelling has also deteriorated, though it may be because of technology. I was monolingual until I was about 20, I guess, and I really did not think about it that much since I live in a small area of mostly English speakers, with a growing Spanish-speaking minority. Since I really didn't have a need to speak with this population, it didn't matter that I was monolingual, and since most of my friends were as well, it did not seem to be abnormal. A few experiences I had, which made me realize how important it is to be multilingual, however: 1) One day while driving, a hispanic woman rear-ended my brother's vehical, while I was driving it. She claimed that she did not speak English, and I did not speak Spanish, so I called the police and left them sort things out, despite the fact that there was not really much (any?) damage to my brother's car. I just needed her insurance information, should there be a problem, but we didn't speak a common tongue so we had to get a third party involved. My Ukrainian friend was along, as well as my brother, so there were five tongues that the four of us knew (English, German, Russian, Hebrew, and Spanish), but not a common tongue between the Spanish woman and anyone from my party. 2) When in Europe, I got lost hiking in the mountains in Luxembourg. What I thought would be a short hike from my hostel into the mountains, and back down to my hostel took a turn for the worse when I got off the path, due to some poorly marked trails. I was unprepared to spend more than a day hiking, did not have provisions, was tired for walking at a fast pace for many hours, and it was getting dark. Finally, I managed to find my way out of the mountains, and made my way into a field, where I ran into an old woman who was tending to some business outside. I shouted to her, to get her attention, and when I approached, I told her in German that I had been hiking, was lost, and that I needed to find my way back to the little town where I was staying. It turned out that I was only a few miles away from where I needed to be, and she gave me directions, and I made it back to my hostel as the sun set. As the woman was older, I very much doubt that she spoke English, and I feel that being able to speak German literally saved me from some terrible fate out in the woods that time. On a side note, in that same town, there was only one restaurant, which was an Italian restaraunt, and there was not a grocery store. The people who owned the restaurant only spoke French, so I spoke to them in English and German, but it felt weird, since I knew that they did not understand me, no matter which tongue I spoke. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5337 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 19 of 49 01 May 2010 at 4:39am | IP Logged | ||
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Look at that, languages save lives. :D
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| niemia Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 5682 days ago 19 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Polish, Georgian, Welsh, Arabic (Written), Japanese, Finnish | Message 20 of 49 01 May 2010 at 6:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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This may sound odd, but now that I've learned a few languages, I feel a bit trapped whenever I'm speaking just one.
Since each language has its own set of idiomatic expressions and structures, I find that my brain tends to want to use whichever expression fits the situation best, regardless of whether or not it is in the same language as the one I'm writing or speaking at the moment. Luckily, where I'm living currently most of my friends are bilingual in French and English, so we all switch back and forth as the situation dictates and generally have more expressions to choose from. When I talk to my monolingual friends however, I often find myself searching for equivalent expressions that don't exist (and this happens with English, my native language, almost as much as it does in any of the other languages I speak). I love being multilingual and wouldn't change it for the world, but this is a phenomenon that I've found to be a bit frustrating at times. Perhaps I just need to work more on separating languages in my head... 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BartoG Diglot Senior Member United States confession Joined 5448 days ago 292 posts - 818 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek | Message 21 of 49 01 May 2010 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's hard for me to remember being monolingual. I remember the first time I learned a few words of French and of Spanish, and the idea that there were other ways to say things. But I can hardly fathom the experience of being monolingual anymore. I have the good fortune to have a partner, friends and co-workers who make it possible for me to speak in multiple languages on any given day. (Yesterday, I spoke with people in six... three of them rather poorly.) The closest I can come to imagine being monolingual today is listening to music or watching a movie in a language I don't know. But even there, the experience is not the same - somewhere at the back of your brain, you find yourself trying to decipher and to see if there's any similarity between what's going on in the language and one of the languages you already know. This comes through especially clearly when, for example, an actor ad libs some nonsense sounds to represent speaking in an obscure language, but you can tell somehow that there's no language structure under there. Edited by BartoG on 01 May 2010 at 9:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| guesto Groupie Australia Joined 5742 days ago 76 posts - 118 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 22 of 49 02 May 2010 at 3:40am | IP Logged | ||
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Learning languages has opened (or closed, depending on how you look at it) my mind, but more in a "back to reality" sense. No more naive illusions about mysterious, exotic foreign cultures. It turns out it's the same everywhere. People are people, no more, no less, and the different language is really a triviality.
I'm no longer very interested in foreign things. I've had my share. It was OK. Time to move on. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Tally Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Israel Joined 5609 days ago 135 posts - 176 votes Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew* Studies: French | Message 23 of 49 02 May 2010 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | ||
It is the other way for me. The more I learn, I just get more interested in the world, in the people that live in it, and all the fascinating cultures and things that come with it. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5337 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 24 of 49 03 May 2010 at 8:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Really I don't think that getting interested in a language based on culture is that good
of an idea... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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