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Are we all a bunch of wusses? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5712 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes  | Message 41 of 151 17 December 2008 at 11:43am | IP Logged | |||||
I agree with this. One should be attracted to a culture in order to learn its language, and that attraction can only be engendered by getting acquainted with it, at first necessarily in translation. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| maya_star17 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5728 days ago 269 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 42 of 151 17 December 2008 at 11:56am | IP Logged | |||||
@Iversen: thank you for your enlightening post. In one shot, you answered many of my questions :)
Not that Spanish language/culture has been/is a waste of time... but at one point, I was thinking of getting the entire Romance family down. In retrospect, I'm questioning why I would've bothered. There is a limit to the number of languages any human being can realistically learn well, and to the extent that I have time and brain cells, I would like to explore as much as I can. Last but not least, frenkel, I agree that it is a good idea to try to get some idea of what a culture is like before deciding to go further. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jimbo baby! Senior Member United States Joined 5790 days ago 202 posts - 208 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* | Message 43 of 151 17 December 2008 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I would like to learn a more difficult language like Mandarin at some point. But my main interests now are in Romance and Germanic languages for cultural reasons, not because they are easier. As an American I am more familiar with Western European culture and history because that was the main focus for us in school and in the media. I could name the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Spain without too much trouble but I would have great difficulty naming the leaders of Slavic or Asian countries unless that country is constantly in the news or in crisis. It's just a matter of exposure to certain cultures.
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| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6756 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 44 of 151 17 December 2008 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
Oh, I do agree one has to "justify" to oneself each and every language one wants to take up in earnest. They all take an awful lot of time, and moving from one to the next just because it's there is a very bad idea.
I haven't been able to decide which Western languages are "indispensable", and this determines how much time is left for the more exotic ones. I guess everyone has to decide for him or herself. Edited by frenkeld on 17 December 2008 at 2:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Vinlander Groupie Canada Joined 5634 days ago 62 posts - 69 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 45 of 151 17 December 2008 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think a big fator people are leaving out is the wealth of the people that speak it. The Germanic and Romance speakers consist a large part of the world's wealth. In poor countries no one bother's with books or software they learn it by talking to people in swahili. If your broke you can't really produce literature movies and all that so easily. This is why Japanese is so important to westener's, with all the products they produce it just make's sense to learn it.
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| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6260 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German | Message 46 of 151 17 December 2008 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Maya – you need to understand that “useful” can mean many things to many people. Others need to realize that Sweden and Italy are not only about blondes and good food.
A very small European country can provide a lifetime of reading pleasure – considerably more so than some populous, exotic languages. If you learned the 4 main Romance languages (for the price of Japanese, Korean or Arabic) you’d for instance get access to over 20% of the world’s current book production, and a whole lot of movies. Concentrating “only” on 7 European languages you can claim being able to read in the original some 70% of the world’s book production. Likely more if you consider historical book production. Arabic and Korean will cost you about the same amount of time (or more) and offer considerably less in return. On the other hand, you’d experience something very different etc. and you may place greater value to this. Others will weigh things differently. I like Korean movies, but I’m not willing even to even attempt learning the language. “Liking” it is not a sufficient justification for the effort. On the other hand, I will likely attempt to learn Portuguese after Spanish even though I don’t have a very strong affinity for this culture. The effort-to-usefulness ratio is very favorable. Had I not learned Italian as a kid, I’d possibly even skip on Spanish. I’m leveraging my Slavic background to learn Russian. I am taking my time with it. If I didn’t speak Croatian, I doubt I would have tried even though Russian offers a wealth of literature. Am I a wuss? Perhaps, but I am making the effort. Most other Slavic speakers will not even try. Btw, Croatian>Russian is not as easy as it may seem and I find the two cultures very different. Where there is "overlap" I find it interesting, rather than boring. Cultures may cover similar ground, but they'll look at things differently. Italy, France, Brazil, Mexico etc. are very different places, there’s an awful lot to see and do. I do not believe anyone can claim great knowledge of the western civilization even if they were familiar with all of the main European languages plus the classical ones. Having learned the language, you need to use it – a lot. A polyglot is not necessarily an erudite (although it helps - a lot). People eventually learn humility and get gray-haired. The same goes for other great civilizations. If you want to get a taste of it, and experience the culture, learning the basics and moving on is a way to go. I sort of want something “exotic”, sort of don’t feel like paying the piper. I believe that “we” first need to appreciate our own (great) culture and the fact that we have it so “easy”. Not everyone can say they don’t “feel” like learning 6-7 great European languages. Your comment about a limit to the number of languages any human being can learn well is especially relevant for a person trying to learn some very distant languages. Your comment about wussing out is also relevant, but I would call a wuss someone with a great desire to learn something “exotic,” with practical means to do so, and still not even attempting to do it and only if it motivates them to succeed. In any case, in language learning you should not berate yourself. You’re a hero. If one has absolutely no interest in something, it’s useless. People are complicated, and sometimes they will persuade themselves they don’t really want something (when in fact they do). This goes both for avoiding related languages and skipping on “exotic” ones. Edited by reineke on 17 December 2008 at 5:48pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| sajro Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5809 days ago 129 posts - 131 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 47 of 151 17 December 2008 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think it has little if anything to do with comfort and more to do with interest. I, personally, am not interested in many Asian languages. If I were to learn an Asian language it would probably be Cantonese or Japanese, but I prefer I-E languages. They interest me more, with their inflections. I'm also interested by the Caucasian and Finno-Ugric families, as well as a few isolates.
So, it's not got anything to do with wussery. It's just not interesting to some people. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Oleg Triglot Groupie Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5642 days ago 57 posts - 95 votes Speaks: Russian*, Polish, English Studies: Spanish, French, Italian | Message 48 of 151 17 December 2008 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Oh, come on! If I'm not interested in Africa, it doesn't make me a racist. And I'm not gonna move to Cambodia, therefore I don't want to learn Khmer.
I learn Spanish because I'm interested in Spanish-speaking world, its people, Spanish and Latin American literature, cinema, etc., and not because I understood that it would be easier to find Spanish penpals or grammar books when I was making my choice. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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