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What does it mean to love a language iyo? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | Choosing a Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| laban Triglot Groupie Israel Joined 5822 days ago 87 posts - 96 votes  Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English, Italian Studies: Norwegian, German | Message 1 of 14 01 March 2010 at 10:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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What does it mean, for you, to love or like a language, or maybe just prefer it over another?
My thing is - sometimes (a lot :), I like listeing to a certain language, one that I don't understand but like the sound of. I find myself simply enjoying the sound of the language, wanting to learn and understand it, but at the same time wanting to keep hearing it from a "neutral stand"; without really understanding it. (it's usually music btw). It's kind of weird trying to explain it, still I wonder if there is anybody else who might have felt the same? and if not, what is your thing? if there is any? Edited by laban on 02 March 2010 at 1:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| theallstar Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5802 days ago 81 posts - 85 votes Studies: Japanese, Esperanto | Message 2 of 14 01 March 2010 at 11:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Whilst sound is important, what really makes me love a language is it's writing system. For this reason I tend not to be too bothered about languages that use the latin alphabet. I especially love Chinese characters, Hangul and the arabic alphabet.
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| magictom123 Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5593 days ago 272 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 3 of 14 01 March 2010 at 11:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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For me, generally speaking, I gain no pleasure from listening to a language I don't
understand - just frustration. In actual fact, the languages I like to hear to some degree come from a mickey-taking in English (for French, Italian etc). The main thing though is that I have to share some affinity with the language - such as having been to the country where it is spoken or having friends who speak that language. I think I am the kind of person that would find it difficult to learn a language for professional reasons although since I have never been in that circumstance - you never know. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5553 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 4 of 14 02 March 2010 at 1:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Well I've never felt about another language the way I feel about Finnish. You'd think a language you just decided to learn on a whim would fail to keep you interested for fairly long, but Finnish and I have stuck together through thick and thin. We've had our fights but I always come back to it... her, whatever, lol. What it means to love a language? I think it goes FAR beyond just liking the sound of it. There are plenty of languages that sound gorgeous to me but I would never ever want to learn them. I can appreciate their beauty just like I can appreciate the beauty of the men and women of the world, but that doesn't mean I love them. My feelings are unexplainable with the use of words (how ironic for a language nerd, huh?) but I have felt many times that my second language was supposed to be my first. I prefer everything--books, movies, games, conversation, friends--in it over my mother tongue. Do I love Finnish? Well, yes.
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| laban Triglot Groupie Israel Joined 5822 days ago 87 posts - 96 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English, Italian Studies: Norwegian, German | Message 5 of 14 02 March 2010 at 1:53am | IP Logged | ||
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OMG, I was actually crazy enough to think there would be many others who feel the same thing just because I was feeling it; I mean, liking the sounds of languages always came as such a natural/obvious thing to me so that I assumed it might be the reason why others like languages as well.
Now I'm actually 10 times more pleased for asking this question because : A. I feel I got this "special" thing. ;) B. because I now really want to know what are some other unique reasons for you guys to love languages. so.. @theallstar - Thanks for sharing, I've never even thought of it as a reason myself. I'm also interested to know if there are more who share this reason. btw - could you be a bit more specific? I know it's gonna sound a bit weird - but I'd like to know how you actually feel when you see or interact with different writings. (and I'm only asking because I know that for me, there are some sensations involved with hearing sounds) :) @magictom123 - Thank you too, I've also never thought it could be important to someone to actually be in the country where it is spoken. I mean, for me, the languages that I like the most comes from countries I like as well - but in general this is not true for all the languages that I like. As for the second thing, I don't care for friends speaking the language though it could be kinda nice if they'll start with me so I could have someone to practice with. @kyssäkaali - Thanks :), you've obviously got what I was saying/asking ;). I do have a special unexplained "thing" with the sounds though - read my comment to theallstar - great response btw - and I'd love to hear some more about what you feel in an even more elaborated manner (sounds creepy I know - sorry fo that :). Edited by laban on 02 March 2010 at 2:09am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rabochnok Diglot Newbie Colombia Joined 5610 days ago 37 posts - 59 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Turkish, Persian | Message 6 of 14 02 March 2010 at 2:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I love to listen to and read Arabic but don't at all care to learn or understand any form of it.
Now as for loving a language and wanting to learn it, I note that I tend to go for a different alphabet (Persian/Tajik) or latin script but with cool extra letters (Turkish), no grammatical gender (Persian/Tajik, Turkish, Afrikaans), and simple grammar (all three.... well Turkish grammar is hard but in a simple way. I mean it's very regular so I have fun with odd grammar that doesn't break my mind too much) Edited by Rabochnok on 02 March 2010 at 3:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BartoG Diglot Senior Member United States confession Joined 5447 days ago 292 posts - 818 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek | Message 7 of 14 02 March 2010 at 3:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Many years ago, I lived in Bretagne. I mostly lived in the West, though, and only heard the language spoken a handful of times. Some years later, feeling "homesick" for Bretagne, I fell in love with the idea of learning Breton as a way to reconnect. My Breton is extremely limited, but any time I listen to Breton music or dialogs I feel like I'm back in a small Breton village and there's something infinitely calming and delightful about that.
Uzbek and Uyghur are a stranger case. A long time ago, a site specializing in Central Asian culture and current events posted a handful of Uzbek and Uyghur music videos. Some of the songs were slightly peppier versions of traditional music from the region, but some were pop music only with a slightly different beat. The second type of music - not quite Western, not quite Eastern, fascinated me. I love the sound of the language, and I especially love it sung. My iPod tells me I have close to 6 hours of Uzbek and Uyghur pop music, most of it pulled off of YouTube videos. I'm learning Uzbek mostly because I like to know what they're singing about. And so I have a language where I'd get through ordering a meal, booking a room and maybe explaining what I did with my afternoon on a good day, but I know a dozen words for "my love," "my sweetheart" - the filler words of love songs. What it means to love a language, I think, is to stay with it or keep coming back to it because it takes you to a place that you don't get to go in "real" life. It's not that I don't love French, Spanish and Italian, of course, but I use them in my everyday life, so there's a utility to knowing them that is not there with Uzbek, Uyghur and Breton. If I don't come back to them, they will come back to me. It's not the same for the languages that for me are less the stuff of life and more an escape from it, a quiet space in which to enjoy something beautiful for its own sake. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| theallstar Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5802 days ago 81 posts - 85 votes Studies: Japanese, Esperanto | Message 8 of 14 02 March 2010 at 10:53am | IP Logged | ||
I grew up knowing nothing of other types of writing - to me the latin alphabet was all that existed. The only exception was learning an old runic alphabet when I was younger with a friend which we used as a kind of secret code (our chart had a one to one match with each modern letter). However to me this was still just a historical version of what I thought of as "writing". In my teens I remember seeing Chinese characters for the first time on games consoles and being amazed it was actually writing. Years later I finally decided to start learning a language that used them which has led to an interest in lots of other languages. I think the most amazing thing for me is knowing that for people whose native language uses an alternative writing system those symbols are as ingrained and "normal" to them as the latin alphabet is to me. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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