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Female Foreign Language Learners | ||
Tags: Female Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Jimmymac Senior Member United Kingdom strange-lands.com/le Joined 6159 days ago 276 posts - 362 votes  Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French | Message 185 of 202 27 April 2009 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Facebook is an internet social networking site not too unlinke myspace. It is certainly worth joining up if you want to find penpals.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5771 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 186 of 202 27 April 2009 at 5:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's a link:
www.facebook.com 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Starfallen Groupie United States Joined 5823 days ago 43 posts - 49 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 187 of 202 27 April 2009 at 5:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well I'm female, so here goes...
1.) What was your motivation for Learning Languages? Initially, it was just for fun. I've enjoyed the culture and entertainment for years, and I wanted to be able to speak a second language. It's a good mental workout. 2.) Was it difficult for you with all of your other responsibilities? So far... not at all. I'm in my 20s, married, with a house and full time job. No kids yet, but very soon. Actually, I often use housework as an excuse to study (with audio, podcasts, music, etc). It helps with boring tasks like that. If I have to slow it down when I have kids, so be it. But I don't plan on giving it up. Of course, I will have a husband and family to help out with looking after the kids. 3.) Do you think that it is a male dominated arena? I've never really thought about it. I haven't taken any formal classes since highschool. In my Spanish classes, it was pretty even, but then again a foreign language elective was required. Although, I did take a couple years of Latin and those classes were definitely female dominated. I wouldn't say the girls did better or worse, but there were more of them in the class. Also there are plenty of girls interested on various forums and sites I visit for Japanese. I will say that it's easier for a young male to leave and travel independently. Men seem to be more inclined to travel by themselves, and to date women from foreign countries. That may give them an advantage, but I think anyone can learn a language if they want to. 4.) Did you simply learn out of a desire or a need as your environment dictated? A desire. I don't really *need* it, but would be nice for work and travel. Although to be honest, I don't see myself learning and maintaining many languages like some of the people here. I'm just interested in a second, and *maybe* a third later in life. I am, however, quite serious with my motivation and interest. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jar-ptitsa Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5904 days ago 980 posts - 1006 votes Speaks: French*, Dutch, German | Message 188 of 202 27 April 2009 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Facebook's banned in my school :-(
Wow, fasulye, how didn't you hear of facebook? I just noticed that I didn't reply those quetsions, which you posed the female vsitors of the forum. Here're my responses: 1) What was your motivation for Learning Languages? First I learned Latin and Dutch. I hadn't so much motivation excepted for latin I had because I wanted to be doctor, and Latin's important for study medicine. when I lived one year in another place (not my house) I learned german from 2 native-speakers. I had motivation because it's *very* importatn know some foreign languages: this is the best protection of your thourhgts . When I returned we had English in the school and I found a Spanish book and therefore learned Spanish. 2.) Was it difficult for you with all of your other responsibilities? Yes, it's difficult to learn a languages. Which other responsibilities (exactly)? School: yes, they want that you study their things. 3.) Do you think that it is a male dominated arena? I doubt it. I think that before, engineering was male dominated, but not more: I know some girls who want to study chemical , electric, mathematic, or mechanic engineering. I think that the monastic style study of the languages is male-dominated: the girls don't like this style, but of course we learn languages. 4.) Did you simply learn out of a desire or a need as your environment dictated? Necessity: I discovered the system, which I use all the time, for exampel when I use the internet. without this, it wouldn't be possible to go online because of those risks (which I haven't because I think in the foreign languages). This questions apply for the males as well (3 can be: is it female dominated?) It seems weird that the people pose the females such questions, because my school adn my old school are for boys and girls, and we learn the same subjects, although you have to chose the direction Languages OR Sciences. I chose sciences. hahaha traitor :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5853 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 189 of 202 27 April 2009 at 8:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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No, I've never heard of Facebook! Perhaps it's very popular among pupils at school...
Now it's my turn - being a female - answering the four standard questions: 1. What was your motivation of learning languages? When I lived with my family in the United States as a child it was necessity. Later at grammar school it was compulsary to learn foreign languages, but I decided to learn two more than I need to. And all the other languages I learned later in life I learned out of my own free interest without having any obligations to do so. 2. Was it difficult with all your other responsibilities? I was good at school, so I could manage learning four languages there without any problems. Later at university I could fit in my language learning. The three years form 1998-2000 when I attended my fulltime professional education I could resist of not learning any languages for three years. I have never founded a family or so, so the only thing, where I have have to match it with are professional educations, my work and my circle of friends, who are very supportive to my language learning. 3. Do you think that language learning is a male dominated area? No, just the opposite. In all my language courses of the Volkshochschule and at my second university study of Romance languages there were 90 % females. Only polyglottery seems to be a male dominated special field of language learning. 4. Did you simply learn out of a desire or a need that your environment dicated? Ok, when I was a seven-year-old-child and my family moved to the United States, I was forced to learn English, because I was going to the American elementary school. So I had no other choice than to learn English as quickly as possible. Later at grammar school also two foreign languages were compulsory, but I was interested to learn them and so I decided to learn two additional languages. All the languages I learned as an adult I learned as a hobby and partly with a professional strategy behind it and out of my free will. Fasulye-Babylonia Edited by Fasulye on 27 April 2009 at 8:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Olympia Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5987 days ago 195 posts - 244 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Old English, French | Message 190 of 202 28 April 2009 at 3:23am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm also female--and here's my perspective.
1.) What was your motivation for Learning Languages? I've always been fascinated by other languages and cultures, and I was exposed (though only slightly) to French in elementary (primary) school, and I loved it. Later I was able to take Spanish classes at school on a more regular basis, and I caught on quickly and was able to commit the knowledge to memory without the need to study. Then, a few years ago, I was fortunate enough to have a teacher who was a native speaker of Spanish, and I simply found it was easier to understand her in Spanish than in English. She made it so interesting that I began to explore (via internet) aspects of popular culture in Spanish like TV and music. For the first time I started to really gain spoken fluency in Spanish and was gaining recognition for it at school. That was when I truly fell in love with languages. 2.) Was it difficult for you with all of your other responsibilities? Not really. I never really need to study, so taking on Spanish and then Portuguese has been fairly easy. 3.) Do you think that it is a male dominated arena? It depends on the language. I would say languages like French and Italian are more female-dominated and languages like German and Mandarin are more male-dominated, at least among my friends here at the university. For Spanish and Portuguese I've seen about equal proportions. 4.) Did you simply learn out of a desire or a need as your environment dictated? It started as just a required class at my school, and I did have a desire to learn, but I guess my environment dictated it a little bit when my teacher was a native speaker and I wanted to be able to communicate more effectively with her and I also imposed the rule on myself that Spanish would be "our language," meaning the only language we used when communicating with each other. This worked tremendously well. What I was not expecting was to gain her praise and eventually her love. We rarely see each other now as we live 1,000 miles apart, but she is like an aunt to me and we continue to correspond via e-mail and I visit her when I am in town. 5.) Can the males please answer the first 4 questions as well? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5853 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 191 of 202 28 April 2009 at 7:07am | IP Logged | ||
Olympia, may I ask you out of curiosity: How can you learn languages without studying them? I cannot really imagine in which way this works. Fasulye-Babylonia 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Whiskeyjack Newbie Canada Joined 5738 days ago 36 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish, Spanish, Russian | Message 192 of 202 28 April 2009 at 2:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'll answer the first question as a dude
Why did i get involved in learning languages? because if i didnt i wouldnt be able to talk to, and learn from interesting ladies :) Edited by Whiskeyjack on 28 April 2009 at 2:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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