|
 |
Languages You Missed Out On | ||
Tags: Choosing a Language | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| lifekiwi Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 5703 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Portuguese Studies: Russian | Message 9 of 34 17 June 2009 at 9:54pm | IP Logged | ||
|
My neighbor and friend speaks Russian as a native language. I wish I had realized my love for languages earlier. I still have two or so years left before we graduate though so I think it'll work out.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5657 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes  Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 10 of 34 17 June 2009 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | ||
|
When I first read through this thread, I thought it did not apply to me. I grew up in totally monolingual environments in the central and southern United States. I studied some Persian in college (plus Latin in high school and German in college, neither of which I really learned well) and went to Iran for three years to work. Here's where my missed opportunity comes in. I lost interest in learning more Persian soon after arriving in the country. I got distracted by all sorts of other things and I also had no idea how to really learn a language. I limped along, doing OK with small talk and bazaar shopping, but after leaving the country I pretty much let the language go for a long, long time. So, I passed up a golden opportunity. However, four years ago my interest was rekindled, and a friend and I have worked very hard on Persian ever since. We have read through much of the classical literature and are now starting in on classical Arabic.
Timing is everything, it seems. And, it's never too late! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dotifa Newbie United States Joined 5645 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 11 of 34 18 June 2009 at 1:46am | IP Logged | ||
|
My situation might be a little more remote, but when my great-grandparents came to the United States from Finland they didn't want to teach my grandparents (this was the case with both of my mother's parents) Finnish because of the stigma of being an immigrant back then that they didn't want my grandparents to carry. Thus they couldn't teach my mother who in turn couldn't teach me it. I know it's unknown what would have happened with my grandparents and mother with the language and this happened with countless of other immigrants and is the case with most people in the United States (as most of us are from non-English heritage) but it still is saddening to know that another language could have been kept in my family and wasn't. I do want to learn Finnish, hopefully I can learn it, I just have no idea where to start...
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| oz-hestekræfte Senior Member Australia Joined 5684 days ago 103 posts - 117 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Danish | Message 12 of 34 18 June 2009 at 5:11am | IP Logged | ||
Well I have written it here on the forums before, but I'll say it again =D I missed out on Danish. My dad speaks it, and always used it with his parents but he never spoke in Danish to us. Knowing my dad it probably never crossed his mind to do so. haha. I wish he had spoken Danish to us though it would make my current studies much much easier. I wonder, if I had learned Danish naturally as a child whether I would care as much about it as I do now. I tend to agree with you that the "missed opportunity" does create some enthusiasm in itself. I also envy you obtaining your Croation citizenship. By the time I thought about getting Danish citizenship I was too old. To obtain Danish citizenship through my dad I would have had to apply for it when I was 21 or younger. What an annoying cut off. My younger brother and sister are still young enough to obtain it but aren't really interested. >( so that's my 2 missed opportunities Edited by oz-hestekræfte on 18 June 2009 at 9:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6871 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 13 of 34 18 June 2009 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I used to be friends with a guy who was one of three brothers. The three boys had a mother who spoke perfect Polish (she was born in Britain, but had been raised by her Polish parents). Thus, she could have taught her three sons to be fluent Polish speakers, but deliberately decided not to, for various reasons. This was during the 1980s and 1990s I knew them.
Now, fast forward to the present day, and there is a huge migrant community of Polish people in Britain. Bet the boys wish they'd been taught Polish now, as it would have opened a lot of doors for them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6017 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 14 of 34 18 June 2009 at 5:14pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Silver lining for those of you who heard languages as children but never learned to speak or understand them:
It's said that if you are exposed to a language for two hours a week at the age of two, your brain will learn to distinguish those sounds and if you ever chose to learn the language, you'll find your ear settles in quite quickly to the accent. Any exposure you had as an infant will count for something. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5655 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 15 of 34 18 June 2009 at 9:59pm | IP Logged | ||
|
For me, it was Korean. I have a Korean mother, but my parents divorced when I was three, so the saying is true: if you don't use it, you lose it.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5772 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 16 of 34 18 June 2009 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Alemannisch. Okay, not a language but a dialect but I wish I had been able to pick up a local dialect in addition to my standard German.
1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
