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Parents think I’m weird... | ||
Tags: Polyglot bashing | Teenagers | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5590 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 73 of 161 18 December 2009 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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cfjenkins, I completely agree with you, I learn languages for fun and safety. I honestly don't know our country's future, no one really does, but I study day in and day out in case I have to leave to find a better living. I hope this does not happen, but if it does, and I can make more money living in another country, I will do so.
My parents repeatedly tell me "Oh you'll never use that" or "English is the best, why do you think everyone learns it?" I think each language has their own peaks and valleys. Like English - Widely spoken, relatively easy to learn (I'm very jealous of the people that do so, they learn a foreign language much faster than myself, and speak very well, especially members on this forum. I'm very very impressed by the members here that use English as a foreign language. German - Language of science, culture, and engineering. Many well made products come out of Germany, and it's a big "business" country. I love the spoken language, the harshness of it. Many smart individuals come out of Germany, I've always been impressed by the German people that I've met. Russian - Language of science and technology. It's pretty widespread and there is a wealth of information and science books printed in this language. They're known for their engineering and rocket building, which I'm a huge nerd about. I love flight. and Cyrillic :) The russian people are very friendly to learners too (Thank god, because I have to pronounce a word 5 times before I get it right :)) Spanish - Knowing this will give a learner access to every country in central and south america (excluding Brazil) Personally, I love the culture and the way it's spoken. It's a beautiful language I hope to pursue to advanced/native like fluency. I also plan on teaching my children this VERY EARLY in their lives :) In my opinion, a small knowledge of Spanish goes a VERY VERY long way. -Jordan Edited by datsunking1 on 18 December 2009 at 6:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zarathustra Groupie Canada Joined 5811 days ago 57 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 74 of 161 19 December 2009 at 12:23am | IP Logged | ||
You agreed with his post, which was essentially a diatribe on American materialism, then go and say you'd leave the US to make more money? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7161 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 75 of 161 19 December 2009 at 12:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Touché, zarathustra.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rina Newbie United States Joined 5549 days ago 35 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Korean | Message 76 of 161 19 December 2009 at 1:39am | IP Logged | ||
I think he means that Americans generally have no interest beyond their own little world. Graduate college, get a job, stay in one place and hope the world will leave you alone from there on. I think he just means if it comes to a point where another country has better opportunities and could offer a more comfortable life, then he would move. If this is what he meant, then I can't say I disagree. But...perhaps I should just let him talk for himself, eh? So I'll shut up about that :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6384 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 77 of 161 19 December 2009 at 3:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I've deleted a number of posts that have gone off topic. Please don't post any political or cultural rants.
This thread is about supporting Jordan. Edited by newyorkeric on 19 December 2009 at 3:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shizuka30 Newbie United States Joined 5530 days ago 3 posts - 8 votes | Message 78 of 161 19 December 2009 at 9:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello Jordan!
My younger sister and I had to deal with backlash from others when we were learning foreign languages as teenagers. In my case, I was crazy about Spanish and began studying the language at the age of 15. My parents didn't have a major problem with that. In fact, my mother studied Spanish when she was a teenager, so she encouraged me to learn the language. However, things took a 180 turn when my sister and I decided that we wanted to learn Japanese. My father lived in Japan when he was a boy (because my grandfather was in the Army) so he bragged to people that his daughters were learning Japanese. My mother, however, wondered, "What are you going to do with Japanese? Why are you studying it?" I think in her case, it was mainly concern. She didn't do anything weird like hide my books or keep my sister and I from studying Japanese. At school, however, it was different. Other teenagers at the high school even criticized my sister for studying Japanese so much. My sister studied diligently anyway and as a result, she was chosen to live with a Japanese host family for ten days as part of an exchange program. It turned out that our city had a sister city in Japan! Needless to say, my mother's concern turned into pride and she told everyone, "My daughter is going to Japan!" She even helped my sister prepare for the trip and everything! In my case, I have been working since the age of 15, so I have used Spanish in the workforce. The Spanish speakers were appreciative, but the monolingual English speakers hated me. I wasn't trying to show off or anything, I just heard Spanish and replied in Spanish. I tried to keep up my Japanese language ability over the years, but I let people discourage me. "Why is someone like you learning Japanese? Nobody here speaks Japanese, so you'll never use it!" Later on I decided to learn Korean as a hobby and I tried to keep that a secret, but my co-workers at work found out when they caught me reading a Korean grammar book during my break. "Korean? Why are you learning Korean? Isn't that too difficult for you?" To make a long story short, I recently found a job teaching English in South Korea. Outside of work, I had to use Korean. On Saturdays, I had to use Spanish because I was introduced to a group of Koreans who wanted to learn Spanish. I was soooo kicking myself for not continuing my study of the Japanese language while in the United States! Japan was right next door to South Korea and I heard Japanese spoken in Seoul. Fortunately there were plenty of private language academies in Seoul, so I was able to continue learning Japanese. I even took a short trip to Japan for a few days in August, and I recently took the JLPT in December. (I hope I passed!) Now that I'm back in the U.S. (for a short vacation) my mother is happy that I worked outside of the U.S. Now she wants to visit South Korea! Ironically, she's the same person who said a few years ago that she did not want to travel outside of the U.S.! You never know where learning foreign languages will take you! People will criticize you and say, "You will never use that language, so why are you learning it?" I had to wait ten years after I began my study of the Japanese language, but I eventually made it to Asia and was able to use the language there. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5590 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 79 of 161 19 December 2009 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Shizuka, that's pretty impressive actually, japanese and korean appear to be very difficult to me lol I know a very limited amount of japanese, I think it's a great language too.
I never really looked at it that way honestly, that you can used it 10 years later or something, modern society usually relies on the "I want it here and now" type thing lol I guess language learning is a great investment, what you learn now will be something you can still use 10, 20, or 30 years later. You can use it much longer than anything you can buy, which is why I invest my money (not a massive amount, just enough to get some pretty good books and some dictionaries :D) and time learning. Knowledge never goes away from you, so you might as well build it now. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| joanthemaid Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5475 days ago 483 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, German | Message 80 of 161 19 December 2009 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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It DOES go away if you don't use it... You can tell that by just hearing me speak German (and Spanish, to a lesser extent), which I learnt in Higschool and stopped only five years ago! It makes me sad...
About Japanese: it seems to me that in Western countries, learning Japanese automatically labels you as a geek (because many people who learn Japanese love mangas, videogames and so on). Personally I find nothing wrong with being a geeks, OR learning Japanese without being one. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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