Language and travel? (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Language and travel?
Tags: Travel \| Reasons for study
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

15 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

markchapman
Diglot
Groupie
Taiwan
tesolzone.com/
Joined 5472 days ago
44 posts - 55 votes

Speaks: English*, Mandarin
Studies: Portuguese

Message 9 of 15

14 April 2010 at 11:17pm | IP Logged

If English wasn't my native language I would certainly learn it for economic and other reasons.
If I was an economic migrant, I'd learn the local language because I had to.
However the above two are not true of me, therefore I learn the languages of the countries/cultures I'm interested
in.
1 person has voted this message useful

TixhiiDon
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 5464 days ago
772 posts - 1474 votes

Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian
Studies: Georgian

Message 10 of 15

14 April 2010 at 11:48pm | IP Logged

I think for me a love of languages actually led to a love of travel. I don't remember
having any particular interest in travel when I was a teenager learning French and
German at school. I also remember the first time I went abroad on my own, which was to
Warsaw for two weeks during my first year at university - my Polish professor basically
forced me to go although I really didn't want to. I didn't have a particularly amazing
time but I think something kind of clicked in me and ever since then I've had a great
love of travel.

Having said that, I don't travel for traveling's sake. I haven't been to Africa or
America (both North and South) because I'm not interested in those regions and I feel
no need to tick them off a list. My next big travel goal is to get myself to Georgia.
At the moment I'm looking at Summer 2011, providing the political situation in the
country is stable enough, I'm still studying Georgian by then, and I don't fall into
abject poverty or get run over by a bus.
2 persons have voted this message useful

Johntm
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5422 days ago
616 posts - 725 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

Message 11 of 15

15 April 2010 at 5:22am | IP Logged

TixhiiDon wrote:

I think for me a love of languages actually led to a love of travel.

This applies to me. I wouldn't say I have a love of travel, because I haven't travelled much, but I plan on travelling one day. For all the languages I plan to learn, I typically chose the language because it looked cool or sounded cool or seemed interesting, and from there I get somewhat interested in the culture of countries it's spoken in (for the most part). Korean is the only one I liked the culture in first, but then I learned a little about the language, and that's what made me decide I wanted to learn it.
1 person has voted this message useful

noriyuki_nomura
Bilingual Octoglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 5340 days ago
304 posts - 465 votes

Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, French^C2, German^C2, Italian^C1, Spanish^B2, Dutch^B1
Studies: Turkish^A1, Korean

Message 12 of 15

15 April 2010 at 10:08am | IP Logged

To me, it has always been my dream to be able to converse, discuss and debate about various topics such as politics, economy, current affairs, local cultures, in as many languages as possible, and to do so, naturally traveling (or working in an international department/company) would give me more opportunity to have contact with people from various countries/backgrounds.

Imagine being able to discuss/debate about various subjects in a nice charming restaurant/cafe with someone in Paris, and then the same in Zurich, and in Rome, or in Tokyo, or in any other cities around the world in the local languages, to me, it's one of the most wonderful experiences one could ever have!

Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 15 April 2010 at 10:14am
1 person has voted this message useful

Tally
Bilingual Diglot
Senior Member
Israel
Joined 5608 days ago
135 posts - 176 votes

Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew*
Studies: French

Message 13 of 15

15 April 2010 at 10:15am | IP Logged

noriyuki_nomura wrote:

Imagine being able to discuss/debate about various subjects in a nice charming restaurant/cafe with someone in Paris, and then the same in Zurich, and in Rome, or in Tokyo, or in any other cities around the world in the local languages, to me, it's one of the most wonderful experiences one could ever have!

So true!
1 person has voted this message useful

Iwwersetzerin
Bilingual Heptaglot
Senior Member
Luxembourg
Joined 5669 days ago
259 posts - 513 votes

Speaks: French*, Luxembourgish*, German^C2, English^C2, Spanish^C2, Dutch^C1, Italian^C1
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin

Message 14 of 15

15 April 2010 at 4:56pm | IP Logged

In my case, languages and travel are definitely related. I am completely addicted to both and when I am interested in a language, I automatically become interested in the country and culture as well and vice-versa. Studying Russian made me want to go to Russia and going to Greece made me want to study Greek.
1 person has voted this message useful

The Blaz
Senior Member
Canada
theblazblog.blogspotRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5600 days ago
120 posts - 176 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Swahili, French, Sign Language, Esperanto

Message 15 of 15

15 April 2010 at 6:43pm | IP Logged

Yes, travel is a huge reason for learning languages. But joining the multicultural and
multiethnic communities at home is an amazing aspect as well. If I am able to speak in
French and Swahili to a newly arrived Congolese refugee who barely speaks English, that
is an amazing feeling. Conversely, when a Karen refugee from Burma arrives and I'm unable
to speak to him, I feel guilty about it!

1 person has voted this message useful

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