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Your motivation for learning languages? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Motivation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| CheeseInsider Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5127 days ago 193 posts - 238 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin* Studies: French, German | Message 1 of 19 07 January 2011 at 9:54am | IP Logged | |||||
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Why did you start learning your target languages? What are some difficulties you've encountered and how have you gotten past them? What's your motivation, what drives you to work at your languages? Also, what level do you want to achieve and what do you want to do with your languages once you've achieved that level?
For me I started learning French for no good reason but have since fallen in love with it. It's really a great language for being angry in, I love watching French people argue on youtube. My short term goal for French is quite humble and is basically to be able to read a novel for enjoyment rather than as a device for learning. For German, I started... Also for a silly reason! Mia, a German singer (who is awesome) really turned me on to German and I just LOVE, passionately LOVE the "ch" sound in German. Omg, if there was only one sound I could make for the rest of my life it would be "ch"! And also because the whole feel of German is sexy. My goals for German are to get through my German textbooks :) I hope to one day be an interpreter, preferably a conference interpreter stationed in Switzerland, Austria, or some other far far away country. On a... Not really related note, whatever happened to that old American accent that one sees in old American films? Where the voice is kind of uh, I don't know, it has a vibrating quality? Like with Charlie Chapman, however you spell his name. Anyways, it may just be a delusion that I have hahaha :P And yes I am aware that there is a seemingly similar post in the General Discussion section, but I feel that the other's take is more about practicality than reasons derived from a sense of accomplishment. Edited by CheeseInsider on 07 January 2011 at 9:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mr_chinnery Senior Member England Joined 5762 days ago 202 posts - 297 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 19 07 January 2011 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Never thought I'd see German described as sexy! Different strokes for different folks
though eh. I started learning Italian because I love the place and I'm sick of going abroad and being the stereo-typical English ignoramus. Plus I really needed a hobby, I was wasting my free time playing computer games, so I get a sense of accomplishment. If you're interested about professional translation, someone opened a thread on here recently which you will find interesting. They seem to know what they're on about. I thought Charlie Chaplin was a silent movie star!? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| nimchimpsky Diglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 5616 days ago 73 posts - 108 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English | Message 3 of 19 07 January 2011 at 4:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My motivation was to read the subtitles from movies without Dutch subtitles. In the meanwhile I have fallen in love with the English language, but I occasionally still watch Japanese movies. The main problem was the pronunciation. I was reading English as if it was written with the Dutch spelling
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| CheeseInsider Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5127 days ago 193 posts - 238 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* Studies: French, German | Message 4 of 19 07 January 2011 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Haha yeah, I don't know there's just something about German ;) That's definitely a better reason than the ones I have haha. How is your Italian coming along? Much luck with it! It's a real cool language. Hey thanks, do you know what section of the forum I should look for that topic on? ^_^ What?! Oh well, I guess I must be delusional haha because I totally thought it was his voice that I was thinking of!!! All will be okay though, I'll just get some fresh air and maybe the crazy will go away... ^_~
You have?! I don't know many people who study English because they like it! Anyways, I wish you good luck with your English studies! Thanks for your reply! :D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mr_chinnery Senior Member England Joined 5762 days ago 202 posts - 297 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 5 of 19 07 January 2011 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I do indeed, it's right here http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?
TID=23927&PN=1 The Italian's going well thanks. My primary resources are Pimsleur speak and read essential Italian, and teach yourself complete Italian. I'm halfway through Pimsleur and I'm loving it. As my first second language, I've found Pimsleur really good, as long as I keep asking 'why'? Why does that word end in that way etc etc, because there is little explanation of grammar. I started Pimsleaur French as well, frankly because I was getting SO bored of the lessons regarding numbers and currency...I'm enjoying the differences and similarities between the two. I've got more reason to learn French because my gf's dad has a house over there which we visit once or twice a year. I felt Italian would be the easiest way into Romance languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| CheeseInsider Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5127 days ago 193 posts - 238 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* Studies: French, German | Message 6 of 19 07 January 2011 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
Unfortunately the link didn't work for me, but nevertheless, thanks for the link. I'll keep it handy in case my computer decides to start behaving :D I've heard good things about Teach Yourself. How do you use it exactly? Do you read it chapter by chapter? If I may, allow me to suggest to you some additional materials, one of which is free. If you want reading practice, Lingq.com is good and has French, Italian, and some other languages. Also, Michel Thomas is what I used for French, it's worth it if you can get it at a library or somewhere else for a reduced price. Wow that must be très très fantastique, I can only imagine how awesome that must be to visit France. Do you like French or Italian more? And that's interesting that you picked Italian as your gateway language to the romance family considering Spanish and French for example are more accessible due to the abundance of material. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Khublei Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Yugoslavia homestayperu.net Joined 5352 days ago 90 posts - 141 votes Speaks: English*, Irish*, Spanish Studies: Russian, Khasi, French, Albanian | Message 7 of 19 07 January 2011 at 7:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My motivation was living in Peru and not knowing Spanish. Then I discovered that I not only loved speaking another language but I liked the process of learning it too! My only motivation is to be able to speak to people in their native languages.
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| sjheiss Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5689 days ago 100 posts - 174 votes Speaks: English*, Basque | Message 8 of 19 07 January 2011 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Basque I started learning because I just fell in love with the culture and country and everything about it, and the language itself is so fascinating and beautiful. And it's awesome to be one of the few people teaching himself Basque to fluency, that is, not in a class. ;) But that's not a reason I started learning it, although I've always been attracted to minority languages, so that's what originally led me to Basque. I'd be very if I live in Euskal Herria someday. If I do move there, I'd probably learn Spanish there, as Spanish isn't extremely interesting to me. :P
Latin I started because I've always loved it, and since my awesome Social Studies teacher in 6th grade I've loved history, especially the Romans and Ancient Greeks. Latin is really fun to learn for me, and I want to be able to read original works in it too. And right now I'm trying to decide between whether I should start learning Polish or Dutch. I like both countries a lot, and the languages are very awesome, but it's hard to decide. :) Edited by sjheiss on 07 January 2011 at 9:07pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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