Life as a monolingual (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Life as a monolingual
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

49 messages over 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Beysic
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 5067 days ago
20 posts - 39 votes
Speaks: English*, Mandarin
Studies: Japanese, Korean

Message 49 of 49

09 May 2011 at 2:00pm | IP Logged

Solfrid Cristin wrote:

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...

I understand what he was saying - after learning a language you're interested in and immersing yourself in the culture of the country in which it's spoken, it certainly loses the mystery and luster it held beforehand. That said, a new kind of appreciation develops in its place. I'll never forget going back to China for the first time after having lived here for a semester and getting a grip on Mandarin. I simply got on the plane, got off thirteen hours later, and got to my destination in Beijing all on my own by utilizing my Mandarin skills. The fact that it lacked any real noteworthiness and was totally natural was in and of itself amazing.

Edited by Beysic on 09 May 2011 at 2:02pm

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