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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 >>
unityandoutside
Diglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 6014 days ago
94 posts - 149 votes 
Speaks: English*, Russian
Studies: Latin, Mandarin

 
 Message 25 of 49
03 May 2010 at 8:37am | IP Logged 
Akao wrote:
Really I don't think that getting interested in a language based on culture is that good
of an idea...

May I ask what precisely is bad about it?
1 person has voted this message useful



Akao
aka FailArtist
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5336 days ago
315 posts - 347 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona

 
 Message 26 of 49
03 May 2010 at 8:40am | IP Logged 
Not exactly bad, but often if you learn a language just because you like the culture,
especially on hype of the culture, you may be disappointed and not like the language.

In my opinion the best way to choose a language is if you fall in love with the language.
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 27 of 49
03 May 2010 at 9:14am | IP Logged 
guesto wrote:
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.


How interesting that people react so differently to things. To me realizing that "people are people" make me want to know them all. You have this notion about people from foreign cultures being so different, but aside from some details, you can have just as close and fruitful a relationship (in all senses of the word) with someone from the other side of the planet. I am sad to hear that your reaction is to be "no longer very interested in foreign things". The more I learn of languages and culture the more interested I get. But that's just me...
3 persons have 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 28 of 49
03 May 2010 at 9:18am | IP Logged 
Akao wrote:
Not exactly bad, but often if you learn a language just because you like the culture,
especially on hype of the culture, you may be disappointed and not like the language.

In my opinion the best way to choose a language is if you fall in love with the language.


Hm. In my book there are no wrong reasons to learn a language. You fell in love with a Chinese guy? Great reason to learn Chinese. You like Ibsen? Fantastic reason to learn Norwegian. You like Italian music, food, mentality, people, architecture, history? The best reasons to learn a language. In fact any reason to learn a language is great as far as I am concerned. :-)

Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 04 May 2010 at 1:49pm
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Akao
aka FailArtist
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5336 days ago
315 posts - 347 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona

 
 Message 29 of 49
03 May 2010 at 9:36am | IP Logged 
True, I could have worded it better. :P

What I was trying to say is that if you blindly choose a language that you know nothing
about based on hype then you will often be disappointed.
1 person has voted this message useful



Tally
Bilingual Diglot
Senior Member
Israel
Joined 5608 days ago
135 posts - 176 votes 
Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew*
Studies: French

 
 Message 30 of 49
03 May 2010 at 9:58am | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:


How interesting that people react so differently to things. To me realizing that "people
are people" make me want to know them all. You have this notion about people from foreign
cultures being so different, but aside from some details, you can have just as close and
fruitful a relationship (in all senses of the word) with someone from the other side of
the planet. I am sad to hear that your reaction is to be "no longer very interested in
foreign things". The more I learn of languages and culture the more interested I get. But
that's just me...


Yeah that pretty much sums up how I feel about it too.
1 person has voted this message useful



unityandoutside
Diglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 6014 days ago
94 posts - 149 votes 
Speaks: English*, Russian
Studies: Latin, Mandarin

 
 Message 31 of 49
03 May 2010 at 12:10pm | IP Logged 
Akao wrote:
True, I could have worded it better. :P

What I was trying to say is that if you blindly choose a language that you know nothing
about based on hype then you will often be disappointed.

I agree with you on your point about hype. But I don't think learning a language because of "hype" is a choice made because of genuine cultural interest. If someone said to me that they learned such and such a language because they loved the culture, I would presume that they had had some kind of contact with the culture (and probably the language as well) that was deeper than picking up on hype.
2 persons have voted this message useful



bushwick
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 6244 days ago
407 posts - 443 votes 
Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch
Studies: French, Japanese

 
 Message 32 of 49
03 May 2010 at 1:28pm | IP Logged 
wow, to me knowing and learning languages had quite the opposite effect, that is, it didn't dispell any myths and preconceptions, it created even more mystery.

knowing that in the three languages I know (maybe even four if I count Dutch, which I am not fluent in but I can put myself in pure Dutch mode) can express completely different things and that were one language lacks something, the other will have it. it makes me realize the culture even more, how closely it is interwined with language.

and especially know, when I am doing an art project, and something I found is that I can not possibly express the thing I am focusing on in words, but that our minds can still take it (or even better, that there are so many attempts in other languages to explain, but none succeeds)

I don't know, the more I learn about languages the more I learn about cultures and the other way around. languages are a beautiful thing, mankinds greatest invention and I continously get amazed that just a babble of sounds can create so much meaning.

it's magic really.


4 persons have voted this message useful



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