LifeLongStudent Diglot Newbie United States focalfox.com/blog Joined 5127 days ago 13 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish
| Message 1 of 15 12 November 2010 at 6:21pm | IP Logged |
1. See the world through a new lens
2. Improve native language skills (vocabulary, grammar, etc.) through retrospection
3. Be able to communicate with a larger pool of people
4. Eavesdrop on people who think you can't understand
5. Improve your memorization skills
6. Make friends with people from other cultures
7. Travel to "off the beaten path" places not usually visited by tourists
8. Impress potential employers, coworkers, friends, acquaintances, etc.
9. ......(what do you guys think??)
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jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5419 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian
| Message 2 of 15 12 November 2010 at 6:27pm | IP Logged |
Getting access to media you couldn't otherwise watch or read is a big one for me as not
everything gets translated into your own language.
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LifeLongStudent Diglot Newbie United States focalfox.com/blog Joined 5127 days ago 13 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish
| Message 3 of 15 12 November 2010 at 6:31pm | IP Logged |
jazzboy,
that's an excellent point! Not only can you get info not readily available in your home country, but you can experience the same "story" from a different angle, or bias, if you will.
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Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5957 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French
| Message 4 of 15 12 November 2010 at 7:42pm | IP Logged |
Delay the onset of Alzheimer's by five years:
bilingualism found to delay onset of Alzheimer's
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meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5968 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map
| Message 5 of 15 13 November 2010 at 12:43am | IP Logged |
I agree with all of the above excellent reasons, but in my mind, there's one more.
Now this is certainly not an actual goal, and it's not much among my reasons for learning languages, but once, just once, I'd like to be proficient enough to convince another (just for fun!) that I don't speak or understand English! (native language)
Alas, that plan must be in the distant future, if at all, and I don't expect to ever be competent enough to play this trick on a native speaker. But the others . . .
Doing this successfully would, I think, be a sign of progress for me! (or perhaps just an uncalled-for moment showoff moment, and really annoying for the "victim" of the ruse!
Besides, if I got found out, I'd look so, so extremely stupid. Thus, it's really only an entertaining idea. I'll probably never do it. But just the thought of becoming able to do that is a benefit, because it increases motivation!
I'd particularly like to try this at the color-of-dehydrated-urine yellow holiday Rosetta Stone kiosk:
"Können Sie mir helfen, englisch zu lernen? Ich will englisch sprechen! Es gefällt mir nicht, wenn ich nicht verstehen kann. Ich habe gelernt, dass Rosetta Stone am besten ist, nicht war?
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Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5568 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian
| Message 6 of 15 13 November 2010 at 7:26am | IP Logged |
It's fun, like a really complex but fascinating puzzle.
Overcoming the hurdles boosts self-confidence.
Learning languages a hobby that our brains are hard-wired to do. How many hobbies can you say that about?
Edited by Levi on 13 November 2010 at 7:32am
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slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6676 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English
| Message 7 of 15 13 November 2010 at 10:01am | IP Logged |
I can read or listen information about topics I like or need in other languages. This is useful if there aren't translations available in my native language.
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RealJames Diglot Newbie Japan realizeenglish.com/ Joined 5125 days ago 37 posts - 42 votes Speaks: French, English* Studies: Japanese
| Message 8 of 15 14 November 2010 at 4:50am | IP Logged |
Communicating with the locals gets you a whole slew of benefits that most are completely unaware of.
To me this is the greatest advantage, friendship.
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