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Are we all a bunch of wusses?

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
151 messages over 19 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 7 ... 18 19 Next >>
reineke
Senior Member
United States
https://learnalangua
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851 posts - 1008 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 49 of 151
17 December 2008 at 6:16pm | IP Logged 
Oleg wrote:
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.


You’re also likely not moving to Spain. In any case it’s not hard finding a Russian or a Swede learning Spanish or French and staying home. It’s the weight of a particular language in the world that often makes it very appealing. Penpals and grammar books are consequently easy to find. No one suggested racism, simply wussiness. Others prefer a challenge and are willing to try something very different. They will likely also choose to stay home. In their case, unfortunately, a good grammar is hard to find.
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Jar-ptitsa
Triglot
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Belgium
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 Message 50 of 151
17 December 2008 at 7:09pm | IP Logged 
If you don't learn Syldavian you're a wuss!!!!!! It's the most exotic and interesting culture; in comparaison India and China are completely boring. If you want to have some lessons, you can go to the Klow restaurant and Tintin will teach you. LOL!!!



Here's some money for your lesson:


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maya_star17
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Canada
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Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 51 of 151
17 December 2008 at 7:35pm | IP Logged 
reineke wrote:
Maya – you need to understand that “useful” can mean many things to many people.
You're right. I think this is something I hadn't thought about as much before. Japanese would be pretty useless to a lot of Westerners, but if you're interested in Japan and Japanese culture (like me), it becomes "useful".


By the way, to everyone in this thread: I realize that "wusses" was a poor choice of wording. If it helps anyone at all, feel free to re-read my OP and replace the word "wuss" for "Eurocentric," and you essentially get what I was trying to say. I apologize for coming on to people in a somewhat agressive fashion.
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frenkeld
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
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Studies: German

 
 Message 52 of 151
17 December 2008 at 7:53pm | IP Logged 
maya_star17 wrote:
reineke wrote:
Maya – you need to understand that “useful” can mean many things to many people.
You're right. I think this is something I hadn't thought about as much before. Japanese would be pretty useless to a lot of Westerners, but if you're interested in Japan and Japanese culture (like me), it becomes "useful".


To a hobbyist "useful" can simply mean a large book publishing or movie industry, so one can, no pun intended, "use" the language after learning it.

Quote:
By the way, to everyone in this thread: I realize that "wusses" was a poor choice of wording. If it helps anyone at all, feel free to re-read my OP and replace the word "wuss" for "Eurocentric," and you essentially get what I was trying to say. I apologize for coming on to people in a somewhat agressive fashion.


But it was the best possible choice! It generated a discussion and made us all reach deep into our souls to see if there is Japanese lurking there somewhere. At some level, knowing which languages to learn comes even before the best methods for learning them, and I can't imagine myself being the only one who is somewhat confused as to how to prioritize all the languages that are out there.

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Mikko
Newbie
Finland
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15 posts - 16 votes
Speaks: Finnish*

 
 Message 53 of 151
17 December 2008 at 10:48pm | IP Logged 
Vinlander wrote:
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.


This little comment says more than rest of the thread in combined. Speakers of European languages + CJK control and have created most of the worlds wealth and innovations.

When living conditions are high and every new day is not just another fight to survive, then you have the time to create a culture that a random foreign language learner might find interesting.

Just think about how much of africans and indians live. It really is no surprice why african and indian languages are not on top of everyones list.

Also, it does not help to create interest in the more exotic languages that most african countries and even India are administrated with a european language.
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maya_star17
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5728 days ago

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Speaks: English*, Russian*, French, Spanish
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 54 of 151
17 December 2008 at 11:07pm | IP Logged 
Mikko wrote:
This little comment says more than rest of the thread in combined. Speakers of European languages + CJK control and have created most of the worlds wealth and innovations.
If by "innovations" you mean modern technology, then you're right. Otherwise, it might interest you to know that before the modern era, many (if not most) innovations were invented in places other than Europe.

Quote:
When living conditions are high and every new day is not just another fight to survive, then you have the time to create a culture that a random foreign language learner might find interesting.
The majority of Chinese people and Indians don't have to "fight to survive."

Also, believe it or not, it's not only "rich" countries that have culture. Every country/language has a deep/rich culture. Did you know that many African cultures have a rich tradition or oral literature, including folklore and sometimes poetry? India (which you appearently dismissed as being uncivilised) has a religious tradition that is, in its depth, beyond anything the West has ever dreamed of.

Of course, whether or not a country is able to share its culture with other nations is a matter of wealth. But that doesn't mean that just because you're not used to seeing movies made in Africa, that Africa has nothing valuable (in terms of culture).
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dmg
Diglot
Senior Member
Canada
dgryski.blogspot.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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1 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Dutch, Esperanto

 
 Message 55 of 151
17 December 2008 at 11:42pm | IP Logged 
Jar-ptitsa wrote:
If you don't learn Syldavian you're a wuss!!!!!! It's the most exotic and interesting culture; in comparaison India and China are completely boring. If you want to have some lessons, you can go to the Klow restaurant and Tintin will teach you. LOL!!!


Actually, joking as this may be, the Syldavian linguistic reconstruction is a fascinating read.
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reineke
Senior Member
United States
https://learnalangua
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Studies: German

 
 Message 56 of 151
18 December 2008 at 12:25am | IP Logged 
maya_star17 wrote:
The majority of Chinese people and Indians don't have to "fight to survive."

Also, believe it or not, it's not only "rich" countries that have culture. Every country/language has a deep/rich culture. Did you know that many African cultures have a rich tradition or oral literature, including folklore and sometimes poetry? India (which you appearently dismissed as being uncivilised) has a religious tradition that is, in its depth, beyond anything the West has ever dreamed of.

Of course, whether or not a country is able to share its culture with other nations is a matter of wealth. But that doesn't mean that just because you're not used to seeing movies made in Africa, that Africa has nothing valuable (in terms of culture).


It is not difficult to look up movie production numbers and see that they very closely follow GDP numbers. In films per capita even India trails developed countries. When you consider documentaries, series etc. and not just feature films even India's Bollywood production figures are not terribly impressive. African movie production figures are simply appalling.

Your comment about religion is unacceptable.

Edited by reineke on 18 December 2008 at 12:35am



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