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"I can’t learn foreign languages" | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| stout Senior Member Ireland Joined 5371 days ago 108 posts - 140 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 33 of 47 17 March 2010 at 2:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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Finally the best way to aquire fluency in a foreign language is by spending some
time in the country of your target language.However that's not always possible if you don't have the money or you have family sentiments or other circumstances that prevents you from spending some time in the country of your target language. However,on the other hand,if you are able to move to a country of your target language.Then get up and do it and go to that particular country. So if I can learn a foreign language.Then you can do it too... Stout... 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 34 of 47 17 March 2010 at 2:49am | IP Logged | |||||
Indeed, Indians always surprise me with their knowledge of various languages. I met an Indian guy from Mumbai while doing some political outreach before the 2008 election who was about my age (in his 20s) and spoke English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati, and a couple others I can't remember. And I, as an American who had spent so many thousands of hours studying languages, had only reached a respectably advanced level in French and Esperanto. I'm so jealous of people who live in multilingual communities where polyglottery is the norm. It just goes to show that exposure is the biggest factor determining whether or not you will succeed at learning a language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| robsolete Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5385 days ago 191 posts - 428 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 35 of 47 17 March 2010 at 3:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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Yeah, Levi, my trip to India is more or less what broke me out of the monolingual mindset. I spent five months volunteering in a village school, teaching English. In that time I met a few 12 year olds who could converse freely in Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Urdu, a bit of Tamil, and some English.
At that point I realized that all the excuses I had heard (and previously made) about foreign language learning were completely invalid. I really think the biggest component is fear. Indians are a pretty social lot, and since the country has 25+ official languages, it is not uncommon to run into people who speak different mother tongues. So people are used to getting by with whatever combination of their mother tongue, Hindi, English, and whatever else they happened to have picked up along the way. I often think that this is why Bollywood movies are (unjustly) criticized for being simplistic or unsophisticated: when you have to market a film to a population that speaks over two dozen languages (2/3 of which will only have basic familiarity with Hindi) you need to make your plot pretty obvious and easily accessible. There are plenty of Hindi movies that are complicated and more 'artistic' but these would never get off the ground in terms of commercial interests due to the significant language barriers. All things considered I think Bollywood does a decent job (although like Hollywood they put out more than their share of crap). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5677 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 36 of 47 17 March 2010 at 3:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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Stout,
In case you didn't know, individual posts can be infinitely long. If the box fills up, keep on typing; a scroller bar will show up. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| skeeterses Senior Member United States angelfire.com/games5Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6618 days ago 302 posts - 356 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Spanish | Message 37 of 47 17 March 2010 at 4:42am | IP Logged | |||||
But I suspect that the Indians who can speak 5 or 10 languages do a lot of codeswitching as opposed to speaking each language fluently. Just getting up to a respectable level in French is an impressive accomplishment in itself. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| guesto Groupie Australia Joined 5741 days ago 76 posts - 118 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 38 of 47 17 March 2010 at 5:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think you're reading too much into this...
I just can't cook, I tried to bake a cake and it turned out like crap. I just can't do maths, those symbols look like Chinese. I just can't play an instrument, I'm just not a musical person. I just can't write essays, I never know how to structure it. I just suck at driving, I almost crash every day. In my experience it's just a way people have of making conversation. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5430 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 39 of 47 17 March 2010 at 5:34am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes the ability to converse is an impressive skill, but we have to remember that in the vast majority of cases where this occurs spontaneously it is because of ambient multilingualism or plurilingualism. India is a case in point. So is Africa, and of course many parts of the world. People learn multiple languages because they are exposed to them and often spontaneously learn them. At the other extreme, take a basically monolingual country such as the United States. Immigrants of course force themselves to learn English, but the vast majority of Americans have no need or use for a foreign language. So, Americans tend to be the least multilingual in the world while everybody else is learning English. This is not a criticism, it is simply a fact that the main reason that North Americans don't speak many languages is simply the result of history and demographics. l 1 person has 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 40 of 47 17 March 2010 at 6:11am | IP Logged | |||||
I don't like when people make excuses for languages, like "I can't learn" or "I don't have enough time to learn" those are just crappy excuses. I don't have a lot of time either, but I manage to study. If they don't want to learn another language, they should just say it. It's not that big of a deal (unless they don't know the language of the country they live in) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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