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Most satisfying language? | ||
Tags: Motivation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6783 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes  Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 1 of 22 13 October 2009 at 11:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I guess we spend most of our time here talking about studying languages, but what about some really satisfying experiences you've had with language? What's the most satisfying language you've been able to learn? Maybe it's one that's eluded you for years, or one that seemed impossibly hard. Maybe it's one that turned out to be a lot more fun than you even imagined.
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| healing332 Senior Member United States Joined 5620 days ago 164 posts - 211 votes | Message 2 of 22 13 October 2009 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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What a great question! For me it would have to be translating Spanish for a man who was lost in the big city,he tried to explain to others what had happened to him but no one understood but me. Second would have to be my first 4 minute conversation totally in Swedish, it was on a teleconference. I was told by the Swede that she understood everything I said( after only 2 and a 1/2 months of Swedish studies it made my day)
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| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 3 of 22 13 October 2009 at 11:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've found German to be by far the most satisfying I've ever studied. By that, I mean challenging, when I was learning and found the grammar frustrating - you know when something frustrates you but it makes you smile? Or perhaps this is just me..
Anyway, the first really satisfying experiences I had with German were when I was in the Maldives on a diving holiday, just before I was going to take my GCSE exams - German included, of course. I came with the expectation of speaking no German whatsoever, but I met a family from Munich who were also all completely mad about scuba diving, as I was then and still am now. I began by talking to the youngest two, the two boys, who were about 6 and 9 at the time. The six year old could speak no English at all, although he seemed to be able to understand some of what I said to my brother, and the other boy understood little bits. The whole time we were there, I acted as a translator between the youngest of the boys and my own brother, which frustrated my brother and seemed to amuse the little German boy. I ended up speaking to the whole family entirely in German the whole three weeks we were there; it was great for my German, great for my confidence levels and apparently great for my exam results, as I talked about diving a lot in the written exam and got an A* :-] The dad said, though, and I remember it very clearly, that if he had spoken "real Bavarian" to me, then I'd not have understood a lot. I'm not entirely sure what he meant by that; perhaps an accent, or maybe an entirely new repertoire of vocabulary? Hmm, in any case, fascinating! If anyone has any clarification on that, I'd love to hear your thoughts on exactly what he meant! My former German teacher is from Augsberg in Bavaria, which I believe is not too far from Munich or so, but my German geography isn't all that great; however, since becoming what I consider fluent in German for my purposes, I have had no trouble understanding anything he says, and we haven't spoken English to each other for about six years. Maybe he is just avoiding the dialectal words? In which case, I wish he wouldn't! :-} Jack Edited by LanguageSponge on 13 October 2009 at 11:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maaku Senior Member United States Joined 5574 days ago 359 posts - 562 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 22 14 October 2009 at 12:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Bavarian borders on being an entirely different language, like Swiss German or Low German. I say "borders" as a linguist would call it a different language, while a politician would not (as minority language classification carries with it certain responsibilities of the state that are not necessary in this case).
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| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 5 of 22 14 October 2009 at 12:46am | IP Logged | ||
Well, that's pretty fascinating, I will have to look into it and ask more about it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5567 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 6 of 22 14 October 2009 at 4:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I get a lot of satisfaction whenever I address someone in a language I overheard them
speaking, and there's that stunned look that says "Whoa, you speak my language? And you're American?" Definitely, for me, the most satisfying language I've studied is Chinese. Being such a challenge because it's so different from English, the feeling of accomplishment is so much stronger when you start to understand things and the language starts making sense in your head. The cultural differences from English are also pretty strong, compared to the European languages I studied before I started Chinese. This makes it even more satisfying, as you get a heavy dose of culture throughout all your language studies. Also, I find that Chinese speakers are always the most surprised that a white American like me is learning their language, and they're always very enthusiastic and supportive of my studies. And oh yeah, Chinese also has the awesomest writing system ever. Edited by Levi on 14 October 2009 at 4:15am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6659 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 7 of 22 14 October 2009 at 2:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had a brief conversation in Portuguese a few days ago. The other guy was stunned that anyone in my little remote town would speak any Portuguese at all. In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that my Portuguese is rusty and not so great. It's the sort of thing that encourages me to freshen up my Portuguese.
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| Sharila Diglot Newbie Norway Joined 5520 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English | Message 8 of 22 14 October 2009 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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My most satisfying language to learn yet, is Latin. Actually I just started learning it, but the glossary constantly gives me epiphanies, since I can recognize the Latin words in English, Norwegian, Swedish and German.
Also it is so interesting to study latin, because I am very interested in zoology, botany, history, Ancient Rome, religion and demonology. The Latin is what all these subjects have in common. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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