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Are we all a bunch of wusses? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6704 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 17 of 151 16 December 2008 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think people are wusses for choosing to study European languages. I've studied two East Asian languages but I don't consider myself any better or more adventurous than someone who has mastered several European languages. We all study different languages based on our interests and needs. I don't think I can tell my Dutch colleagues and friends that I don't want to learn their language just because I've already studied other European languages... ;)
Maya_star, you mention Hindi and Cantonese as languages which are somewhat overlooked. First of all, basing your observations on the membership of this forum is not very scientific. I'm sure there are a lot of people learning these languages who aren't members of this forum so that will no doubt skew the numbers. On a more personal note, I have no practical use for either of these languages and I'm sure a lot of other people may feel the same way. They're both fascinating languages and I would make an effort to learn a few phrases in Hindi or Cantonese if I were planning a visit to India or Hong Kong but I don't see a real urgency to learn either at this moment. As for the African languages, apart from the fact that I'd have very few opportunities to use any African language in my everyday life, the resources available for learning any language other than Afrikaans or Swahili are few and far between. Most of the existing books or courses are either very outdated or are aimed at linguists rather than language learners. People should be free to learn whatever interests them, whether it's Georgian, Zulu or French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6757 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 18 of 151 16 December 2008 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | ||
I haven't been to Sweden, but what's wrong with Italy? The place is steeped in history, has great food, has made incredible contributions to culture - what's so dull about it? You seem to be yearning for cultures that are more distant and exotic, but that doesn't make the more familiar ones any less worthwhile. I am not at all convinced that people studying Italian would've rather learned Arabic or Hindi, but are afraid to take them on - I bet they just really like Italy. There is also the problem of what to do with a language once you learn it, if you plan to use it beyond communicating during travel. As far as I know, both Hindi and Arabic suffer from relatively low new book publication rates, and while I don't know anything about Arabic cinema, Bollywood cinema is definitely not to everyone's taste. Your personal preferences are entirely legitimate, but the whole business with "wussiness" is a misconception on your part - by and large people won't study a language that isn't of significant interest to them no matter how easy it is, and those that do make that mistake are not likely to repeat it again, once they see the cost involved. Edited by frenkeld on 16 December 2008 at 4:43pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jbiesnecker Diglot Newbie China yuehan.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6154 days ago 4 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Cantonese, Shanghainese | Message 19 of 151 16 December 2008 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm sorry, but this is absurd.
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| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5713 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 20 of 151 16 December 2008 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | ||
Some people learn languages not to travel but in order to gain access to the culture of which they are its vehicle, and culture is emphatically not a function of population. While every language has its genius and all societies have something to teach us, some peoples have made contributions grossly out of proportion to their numbers. Thus for an intellectual it makes immensely more sense to learn Hebrew, Italian or Pali than languages with humongous populations but comparatively meager cultural offerings. Edited by JuanM on 16 December 2008 at 5:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jar-ptitsa Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5712 days ago 980 posts - 1006 votes Speaks: French*, Dutch, German | Message 21 of 151 16 December 2008 at 7:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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"Are we all a bunch of wusses" : I don't agree at all!!!! To learn a language isn't wussy (it exist this word??? ) I think that it's not important which thing, for exmaple language, which you learn and it's never wussy. Other things as well, such as gardening are not as well. I don't want to learn other languages now, only the ones I've learned until now and improve them. I haven't interest or energy for learn, for example Japanese or an African language.
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| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6516 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 22 of 151 16 December 2008 at 9:37pm | IP Logged | ||
I like this answer. I'll also note that most of us aren't doing languages to prove anything to anyone. It's not a competitive sport, after all, so being a "wuss" or not doesn't really apply. I got drawn to the languages I want to study as much by the culture related to it as the language itself, and I've had far more exposure to European, Russian and Asian cultures than African or even Middle Eastern. It's a fact of personal history, and nothing can change that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maya_star17 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5729 days ago 269 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 23 of 151 16 December 2008 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | ||
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maya_star17 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5729 days ago 269 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 24 of 151 16 December 2008 at 11:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Oh, and another thing - a lot of people have mentioned that utility (the "usefulness" of a language) has a role to play. That's largely true, but I've seen many people who are learning languages as a hobby/out of interest (this is often true for people studying Japanese, myself included).
In cases like that, I'm not sure why somebody would learn Catalan or Icelandic when there are many languages out there that are much more exotic, and spoken by far more people... especially when the person learning Catalan might already know Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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