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Being Multilingual: One negative aspect | ||
Tags: Time to learn | Multilingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5335 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 26 of 32 13 March 2011 at 8:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
I know, and I was hoping that I would understand a little of it through my Russian, but I didn't get a thing. The actress, Nina Dobrev, who is Bulgarian herself translated the text into Bulgarian, but I guess my Russian is too weak to understand other Slavic languages through it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| geordie Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 5088 days ago 24 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 27 of 32 14 March 2011 at 5:37am | IP Logged | |||||
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I definitely relate to the OP. It can be especially deterring when your friends or family question your motives for learning a language since your time "could be better spent" focusing on something "more important".
It's possible that, like others have said, learning languages is not your calling. Or maybe you just need to find a better balance between languages and your other interests. Here are some things you might wanna ask yourself to help decide whether learning the language(s) is worth the trouble: -why did you start learning it in the first place? do those reasons still apply? -you've come this far already, should you give up now? -are you making good progress? (If I could learn a language in a week, I'd do nothing but study languages! Definitely a good ROI (return on investment)) -how useful will it be in your life? -do you enjoy studying it? -will the other things you're interested in be more important for your future? more enjoyable? Hope that helps. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5346 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 28 of 32 14 March 2011 at 6:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Whether with history, literature, philosophy or other branches of the humanities, there comes a point where you realize remaining mono or bilingual is no longer an option if you wish to approach anything beyond the commonplace.
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| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6035 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 29 of 32 14 March 2011 at 10:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Personally, I don't do much "learning" in the strict sense. I just plunge into the language, reading and listening native material (and attempting to speak). Also I'm very picky about books. Things like Harry Potter simply won't do, I don't care it is translated in 1 gazillion languages. If you are smart about it language learning doesn't eat away your time for intellectual enrichment. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| CheeseInsider Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5123 days ago 193 posts - 238 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* Studies: French, German | Message 30 of 32 19 March 2011 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't know HOW you could possibly not learn about history, other cultures, world affairs etc when studying a
language. Unless all you're studying from is a language learning manual or two, it's impossible to not learn about tons of different, interesting things. There comes a point in your language studies when you start watching films, reading articles and books, talking to other people, listening to the radio etc in your target language. That's part of the learning process is it not? Tons of learning about a variety of subjects to be had there. Not to mention that if you can speak another language, you can go to the countries that speak those language (circumstances permitting) and experience and learn about life from another culture's point of view. I honestly can't think of anything more exciting and educational than that! Edited by CheeseInsider on 19 March 2011 at 3:51pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| CaucusWolf Senior Member United States Joined 5273 days ago 191 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Written), Japanese | Message 31 of 32 19 March 2011 at 10:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
With the FSI MWA course its impossible not to learn something about Arab history or history in general. At the top of my head I remember reading about the Ba'ath party in Syria, the United Arab Republic(the unionship between Egypt and Syria.), The formation of the United Nations, The kidnaping of the nazi war criminal Eichmann in Argentina as well as many other things. Edited by CaucusWolf on 19 March 2011 at 10:39pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 32 of 32 20 March 2011 at 7:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have just for fun plowed through a Russian textbook in Danish, called something like "Meeting in Skt.Peter(s)burg". The 'plot' basically is that there is a family with a father and a mother and two daughters and a small son, and then they suddenly get a Danish neighbour, who visits a museum and some eateries in the city with one of the daughters (who spends too much speaking in her telephone), and then we meet the boy friend of that girl and some other personas and the grandparents and some more people... At that point I broke off the reading. If this had been my only source for Russian culture and history I wouldn't even have known that Russia once had a czar or that it later became part of the USSR under a communist regime. If there is a reference to the Great Patriotic War then I have overlooked it, and there is not one word about the mafia.
So much for textbooks representing the communicative approach to language learning. Oh no, I don't say this is a bad book - within its own reference group it is one of the better ones I've seen (none of the silly games or multi choice exercises that mar recent Teach Yourself volumes). But still... Luckily you can learn languages from sources with more factual content - or from much better literary works, if that's what you prefer. Edited by Iversen on 20 March 2011 at 7:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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