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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Icaria909 Senior Member United States Joined 5592 days ago 201 posts - 346 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 16 19 October 2010 at 12:37am | IP Logged | ||
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There was a great quote floating around the forum about this, but I think Ludwig Wurttgenstein said "the limits of my language are the limits of my world." (please correct if you know the actual quote and author). But I can see how learning multiple languages gives you a greater ability to understand and see the world.
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 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 10 of 16 19 October 2010 at 2:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I generally agree with Meramarina in her observation, but it doesn't seem that the oenological studies of the gentleman in her message has been enough to change his outer appearance. Actually he still looks like a belated teenager from the 50s with nothing more than beer, fast cars, early rock and gurrls on his mind. At least he ought to look several years older at the 'after' picture.
Wurttgenstein ---> Wittgenstein nr. 1, the author of a famous, but weird Tractatus. Somewhere midway through his career he decided that everything he had said until then was wrong, and then he metamorphosed into Wittgenstein no. 2, who had a somewhat less Aspergerian outlook on the world. But Wittgenstein no. 1 was more fun. Edited by Iversen on 19 October 2010 at 2:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5968 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 16 19 October 2010 at 2:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, all that wine-drinking kept him very well preserved! It's not like that for all of us, though.
You should see MY Before and After picture! <----- This one is before. I'm deteriorating rapidly. My foreign languages have helped me a lot in my English language editing work. I can understand standard vs. nonstandard grammar and usage so much better than I did before, and I can identify sections of text in a document that might cause difficulty for a non-native reader. I wouldn't know how to do that without my foreign language study. And I have a rather impressive pallor from too much time indoors reading. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Old Chemist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5174 days ago 227 posts - 285 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 12 of 16 19 October 2010 at 8:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I think it not only improved my English, as has been said, but also taught me not to be snobbish about different types of English and foreign languages. The famous French maxim that what isn't clear isn't proper language (Ce qui n'est pas clair n'est pas francais) should be the principal way language should be judged. It is dangerous to damn new usages and "sub-standard" language, it has a logic of its own and fills a gap in the standard language.
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| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6126 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 13 of 16 19 October 2010 at 8:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Japanese hasn't helped my English. If anything, I have to fight off a few Japanese-inspired quirks, like saying "I think" and "Possibly" all the time, and I need to resist picking up some of the relentless perkiness of the middle-aged Japanese ladies. I spend a lot of time with my brain reduced to the level of a 4 year old because I'm thinking in simple and non-subtle language.
One thing, now when I read anything about overseas politics, for example China or the Arab world, I have come to believe there are two kind of observers -- 1. those who speak the language, and 2. those who don't have a clue. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5208 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 14 of 16 19 October 2010 at 12:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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I do understand English a lot better since studying French - I'm one of these people who likes learning grammar and benefits from learning structure, and knowing what things like relative clauses, participles, and all the different types of pronouns are has improved my understanding of English and hence my writing and expression ability and ability to spot mistakes. We were never taught a lot of grammar at school because even by "Higher English" level (the course we do at age 17 here) most people were still struggling with the difference between a noun and a verb, and besides there was far more focus on literature than on language, so we didn't have the chance to study anything more advanced.
A better perception of the world in general, though? I wouldn't say so. Edited by garyb on 19 October 2010 at 12:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 15 of 16 19 October 2010 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder if this heightened perception of language in general isn't what is called noticing in the world of second language pedagogy. The idea is that if you consciously learn a foreign language you must become very aware of formal details that most people never pay attention to. You "notice" things like case endings or grammatical gender agreement, the sound system, verb forms, etc. because you are focusing on learning them. You may or may not have the proper linguistic terminology, but the important thing is that to develop accuracy you have to become very conscious of how things work. I would emphasize, however, that this applies specifically to adults and people who are formally or wittingly learning a language.
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| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5829 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 16 of 16 30 October 2010 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | ||
I cannot count the number of times I have wished for a word equivalent to ちょっと or 頑張る in English. They're so useful for expressions I can't even duplicate in English. Sure, you can say "do your best" in English but it doesn't cary the nuances or cultural context of 頑張る and often it sounds kinda weird to us. As far as the thread topic itself goes, I think just going through the process of learning a language- especially on your own- teaches you valuable skills with a wide application across your life. Diligence and perseverance, the ability to monitor yourself and adjust your course accordingly, and learning what your own learning style is are all valuable side-effects of studying languages for an extended time. This may be true of other types of self-study, too; generally speaking, learning anything changes the way we think and has a ripple effect across many aspects of our lives. The bigger the thing you learn, the bigger the ripple, which is why studying a language and its culture can expand one's mind so dramatically, or so I believe. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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