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Boring Language? | ||
Tags: Burn-out | Motivation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6911 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 16 19 July 2009 at 2:41am | IP Logged | |||||
Who says that you can't be at a plateau at that stage? I've had that "I don't get anywhere" feeling several times during my Chinese studies (and I don't know much!). I agree with others: go back to easier material, change material or do something completely else (if it's that boring). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 10 of 16 20 July 2009 at 1:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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NOTE: DO NOT FEEL AS THOUGH YOU HAVE TO READ THIS POST!!! IT IS VERY LONG, RAMBLING AND DOESN'T EXACTLY HAVE A POINT. SO IF YOU PREFER NOT TO WASTE YOUR TIME, DON'T BOTHER READING THIS. BUT IF YOU ARE EXTREMELY BORED (like I was when I wrote this), YOU MIGHT FIND IT TO BE A NICE TIME-PASSER. I HAVE NOW WARNED YOU. DON'T BLAME ME FOR WASTING YOUR TIME IF YOU CHOOSE TO READ THIS. :) AND NOW, WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY, THE "ESSAY" OF SORTS.
I feel much the same way with Spanish. I attended an English-Spanish bilingual immersion elementary school for four years (starting when I was five until when I was almost nine) and during that period of time, I was as fluent in Spanish as I was in English. But when the school closed and I attended a monolingual school with minimal contact with the language until age twelve. I inevitably forgot much of my vocabulary and some grammar, yet the state of mind that "I speak Spanish fluently" stuck. When I entered into the highest level (but still beginning level) Spanish class that my middle school offered, I was very confused for a while at the concept of verb conjugation and noun gender, etc, because when I was in the immersion program, I would just say these things naturally but without knowing why. However, because I started hearing the language on a regular basis, I suddenly could speak Spanish again and much of my vocabulary came flooding back to me. Thus, I maintained the "I speak Spanish" mindset. The next year, I began teaching myself French (and later Portuguese, both of which I loved) and found that I already 'knew' a lot because of Spanish, and yet it was so novel. I started to actively understand aspects of Spanish grammar that I had not known about (but had been using just the same). It was exciting at first, but my "Spanish Language Arts" (a reading/writing class conducted exclusively in Spanish but spent most of the year explaining what nouns, verbs, pronouns, etc, were) was not very good. Since I could already converse, write, and read with ease, I felt that it was pointless to continue studying Spanish. However, I decided to give it one more year of schooling to see if got any more worthwhile. I took a placement test for high school courses, but because I could speak but did not know about the grammar and thus did not know what things like "conjugate the verb in the imperfect subjunctive" meant (but could use it if asked to say "if he were"), I was placed in a class much below my level. I recognized this almost immediately, but didn't talk to the teacher about it because I thought it would pick up some speed and become engaging. It didn't. I learned next to nothing the entire year and could practically sleep in the class and still ended up getting 100% (+/- 1%) each semester without trying. This year of Spanish only affirmed what I had expected. So I announced to my mother that I would not be continuing with Spanish the next year and she insisted that I take it for at least one more year. My Spanish teacher consulted me and said that with my current level, I should sign up for level 5 AP (advanced placement), the highest my school offers besides a literature class that I didn't feel particularly interested in taking. The course involves summer homework including listening to Spanish for an hour per week and writing a weekly journal in Spanish. I have been viewing both as chores and undesirable tasks and have been contemplating my situation with Spanish quite a lot lately. I wonder how the next year in AP Spanish 5 will unfold and moreover, I wonder why I dislike Spanish so much. I have come to the following conclusion: I dislike the Spanish language because never really chose to pursue it (other than that first year of it in middle school) and was forced into it, as it were. To me, it feels as though I am being forced to study my native language as a foreign language, which is exceedingly dull. It also just seems that after ten years, I should be allowed the privilege to be DONE with this simple language. I have also begun to find the mere idea of it dull as well--part of this is due to the fact that almost everyone here takes Spanish (and so it is not very chic), that it is a very easy language, and that I don't particularly find Latin American culture (with the some exceptions in South America) interesting, although I do find the find the history and culture of the pre-Columbian peoples of the region to be interesting. Unfortunately, where I live, we are given mainly Latin American culture and history, but little actual history and culture of Spain, nor are we given the opportunity to learn any of the dialectal differences or the Castilian pronunciation. It also does not help that one of my good friends (who also speaks Spanish through immersion) with whom I converse about languages very openly hates Spanish. The only way I can conceive of finding Spanish interesting again is to attempt to switch my accent over to a Castilian one (with the 'th' sounds for soft 'c' and 'z') so that I feel as though I have something novel to work on with Spanish whilst learning new vocabulary and such. I would also like to expose myself to Spanish history and culture. I also really want to go to Spain and South America, but have as of yet been unable to do so. I do sincerely apologize for the extreme length of my post. It was not intended to be so long, but seems to have turned into an essay of sorts! Please do not feel obliged to care about what I was rambling about or responding... It was just me venting about my terrible boredom with Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5911 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 11 of 16 20 July 2009 at 9:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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Ellasevia, reading your post (yes I'm bored too) just made me think you might be interested in learning a little something about the language situation in Spain, what with Catalan, Basque, etc making their mark, if you're interested in Castilian Spanish you might also enjoy learning about how the other languages and cultures interact with it. It's pretty interesting stuff... And definitely something to be informed about if you're interested in Spanish history and culture, cause there's more to it than just the Castilian parts. And the people in those regions will love you for appreciating their culture and language :-)
Liz Edited by Lizzern on 20 July 2009 at 9:48am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 13 of 16 20 July 2009 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
When I say I used Spanish to learn French, I solely meant in terms of understanding the grammar and vocabulary. For example, because I knew how to say things in Spanish, it would give me a general idea of how to say them in French: Spanish: Quiero aprender francés. French: Je veux apprendre le français. I guess this isn't a great example, but it shows what I meant, that is, that I used common vocabulary roots and familiar grammatical structure to discover French. Sure, verb conjugation is completely different in Spanish than in French (different endings), but because I knew Spanish, I knew how to conjugate verbs. Does this make any sense? I started fresh with the pronunciation, because it is very different (my grandmother was a French teacher and my grandfather was a professor of linguistics, by the way). In fact, it was easier for me to adjust to French pronunciation than to Portuguese. In terms of fluency, I can read/write/converse easily in each. I rarely have the opportunity to speak Portuguese with people, but when I do, they tell me I speak very well and quite fluently. With French, with only a few months of self-study, I was able to skip the first two years of French at my school, but could have easily skipped the third as well and gone straight to the fourth year (unfortunately my school doesn't offer Portuguese so I don't know what the situation for that would be). My teacher was very impressed. :) I scored 6th in the US on the National French Exam this year. I hope that answers your questions. If you like, I can give you some more details about how I transitioned from Spanish to French. I would agree with you though, that going from French to Spanish would be much easier. Edited by ellasevia on 20 July 2009 at 8:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7023 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 14 of 16 20 July 2009 at 11:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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To me German has become very boring. I don't even like the sound or the look of it anymore. It seems so common and ordinary, not exotic at all. I was in the library the other day and overheard someone bragging about how well they spoke German. All I could think was "So what? It is not like you speak Cantonese or Finnish." No offense to German speakers out there, its just not for me anymore.
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| Belardur Octoglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5613 days ago 148 posts - 195 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean | Message 15 of 16 21 July 2009 at 11:08am | IP Logged | |||||
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Ellasevia, at least if you stick out the AP class and take the exam you get college credit for it without having to take more classes...
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 16 of 16 21 July 2009 at 2:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
That is one of only two benefits I see from taking the class. The other is a sense of completion. Finally! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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