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Masochism: learning difficult languages | ||
Tags: Foreign Languages | Difficulty | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| unzum Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom soyouwanttolearnalan Joined 6916 days ago 371 posts - 478 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 10 19 July 2009 at 9:35pm | IP Logged |
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Here's the FSI difficulty scale for languages, category III is considered the most difficult, and I have also included languages from category II that are considered more difficult than the normal category II languages, in an effort to put together a list of difficult languages for English speakers.
Category III: Languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers 88 weeks (second year of study in-country) (2200 class hours) Arabic Cantonese Mandarin *Japanese Korean Category II: Languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English 44 weeks (1100 class hours) *Estonian *Finnish *Georgian *Hungarian *Mongolian *Thai *Vietnamese * Languages preceded by asterisks are typically somewhat more difficult for native English speakers to learn than other languages in the same category. So I was wondering if anyone here has learnt all 4 category III languages, or more than 3 languages from the lists above. Such a thing might be considered language masochism, enjoying learning a language because of its difficulty. ;) Anyone here consider themselves a language masochist? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5767 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 2 of 10 19 July 2009 at 9:58pm | IP Logged |
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Knowing two East Asian language (at least one non-Chinese), I believe, all the others come naturally.
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| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5911 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 10 19 July 2009 at 10:13pm | IP Logged |
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Maybe a little? Not right now though. But for a while I was doing Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew and Ancient Greek at the same time, which was a fun challenge.
But do we really need the word 'difficult for this'? 'Takes more work' or 'takes longer' or 'less straightforward than x other language' describe it just fine, but if we're enjoying it and really want to learn, difficulty isn't such a big deal. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5768 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 10 20 July 2009 at 12:08am | IP Logged |
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Not yet. ;A;
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| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5651 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 5 of 10 20 July 2009 at 1:04am | IP Logged |
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So I'm a masochist because I'm learning Korean and Japanese, yet most of the media I watch is in either of the two languages? It might be masochism if I was learning them to learn them, but I have a motive for learning both of them.
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| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6852 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 6 of 10 20 July 2009 at 1:50am | IP Logged |
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Let's see...by the end of grad school I'll have studied Mandarin, Cantonese (and possibly other Chinese languages/"dialects"), and Japanese. Maybe Korean. Thai is on my radar too, but not for academic purposes, just out of interest.
Masochism? Only if I were learning them because they're hard. I'm learning them because I'm interested in them and love their respective cultures. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 6188 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 10 20 July 2009 at 1:51am | IP Logged |
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Japanese and Korean have never been difficult to the point I'd say I was torturing myself in learning them. In fact Japanese was cake unless you factor in culture, then it's just a matter of talking to enough Japanese natives. Korean, despite me having a background in Japanese, I consider more difficult overall due to its high number of similar words (not synonyms) and two sets of numbers, as well as a couple other things.
Mongolian, however, has caused me many a headache so far, but I refuse to give up, so perhaps that one is my masochistic language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| janalisa Triglot Senior Member France janafadness.com/blog Joined 6892 days ago 284 posts - 466 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese Studies: Russian, Norwegian | Message 8 of 10 20 July 2009 at 1:54am | IP Logged |
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I guess I'm a masochist, then-- I've learned Japanese to an advanced level, Mandarin to a basic conversational level, and now I'm working on Thai. And all the languages in the Category III list are languages I'd like to learn someday. I certainly do enjoy a challenge!
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