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Are we all a bunch of wusses? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| davidbailey Newbie Brazil EXLsite.com Joined 5425 days ago 8 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* | Message 97 of 151 08 December 2009 at 6:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My friend Fabio is a teacher...and tells his students that 'language is culture...so for someone to really learn the language that gotta love the culture'. Okay...so maybe love is too strong of a word, but motivation definitely plays a big factor...and the more you enjoy something the more motivated you would be to study it.
According to Fabio, culture is... Literature Music Movies Video-games Etc Some way for you to get involved with the culture and learn the language. I don't know as I totally agree with all of that...but it is an interesting outlook in light of this thread. Since I never watch movies in Swahili or read Timbuktuian literature...I haven't yet developed an interest in the culture enough to learn the language. ;) 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5651 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 98 of 151 08 December 2009 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My main motivations are
1) Being able to communicate with large numbers of people that I wouldn't otherwise be able to speak with. 2) Professional usefulness of the language (I work in IT) 4) Geographical proximity (I am Swedish) 5) Interest and appreciation of the culture and the people who speak that language + access to culture that would otherwise not be available. 6) Easy of learning. To use Iversen's allegory - I don't want to climb Everest right now. In light of this, German and Russian are perfect languages for me. The comparison between Hindi and Swedish was not very relevant. Unless you travel to India I don't think that you would meet any Indian people who don't speak English, but who do speak Hindi. Having worked very closely with Indians for a long time and also visited for work, I'd say that the culture is VERY different - in fact Hindi is more of a cross-cultural language than anything else; there are many different cultures in India and they are probably very hard for a Westerner to get into. I think the same is true for many African and some East Asian cultures too. You couldn't just turn up in a country like that and be one in the crowd just because you speak the language... Whereas in France or even Japan, that is more or less possible. I think there is one category of people who DO try to learn Swahili, Hindi and similar: Missionaries who are interested in communicating with "regular" people, but who aren't necessarily interested in the local culture per se, but in spreading Christianity. I once met a German ex-missionary who spoke several African languages fluently after spending all her adult life there. PS - what's wossies - can't be fussed to look it up. DOes it mean "cowards"? If so, I think the title is misleading. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5624 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 99 of 151 08 December 2009 at 7:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I take it Arabic gives me massive non-wuss points?
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| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5334 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 100 of 151 08 December 2009 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
It's not really clear to me which is important here, that the language is difficult or that is has few speakers. Wouldn't Arabic be about as wussy as Japanese? Difficult, but not obscure enough to be really hard-core? Swedish is both difficult and small, but Sweden is probably too civilised for the language to be cool. Let's try to find the least wussy language instead! I think someone around here studies Okinawan, that is pretty hard to beat. Perhaps Ainu? Or Udmurt? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5660 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 101 of 151 08 December 2009 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I can't travel around the world so I learn the languages which surround me. As I live in Europe these are most likely European languages or languages of immigrants living in Germany. If I had money to travel around the world, I would probably want to learn indigenous languages to discover some very unknown cultures and their endangered languages. But with my living conditions I must be realistic and glad, if am I able to finance the learning of rather common languages. I know that I can't change my life circumstances.
Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 08 December 2009 at 10:36pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| pfwillard Pro Member United States Joined 5512 days ago 169 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 102 of 151 08 December 2009 at 10:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Basque, Magyar and Finnish: All wussy tongues? No use denying the fact that they are all well within the scheduled rail services of Western Civilization.
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| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 5935 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 103 of 151 08 December 2009 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
Real men learn Ancient Greek ;) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5334 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 104 of 151 08 December 2009 at 11:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
No, real men already know Greek. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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