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Quality/Quantity | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5132 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 1 of 33 26 June 2010 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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I hear the term "Quality, not quantity" thrown around so much on this forum, but what ever happened to quality and quantity?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5601 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 33 26 June 2010 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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That is even better. But, for people that have limited time, it is better to focus on
quality efforts. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ChristianVlcek Bilingual Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5647 days ago 131 posts - 141 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Slovak*, Ukrainian, Irish, German, Russian | Message 3 of 33 26 June 2010 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would venture to say that most people, save for professional linguists/translators and/or those with a very devoted interest simply don't have the time to master a large number/variety of languages. Given limited time, it comes down to the individual's priorities, learning a small number (or even just one!) to a high level of proficiency, or learning many to a lower level. Of course some people have the time/resources/desire for pain (I jest!) required to master many languages, but many don't.
For me personally, having a deep interest in the cultures/countries whose languages I study, I would much rather spend my time enhancing my abilities to have an intellectual conversation in those few languages (4 as it now stands), as opposed to, perhaps learning how to order a coffee and chat up a waitress in 15-20 languages. It comes down to individual priorities based on the available resources (time, motivation, etc.). Edited by ChristianVlcek on 26 June 2010 at 5:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Akao aka FailArtist Senior Member United States Joined 5132 days ago 315 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Toki Pona | Message 4 of 33 26 June 2010 at 5:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I saw an interesting analogy made by another user (whose name I forgot), he said...
"Speaking English is like walking. Speaking a foreign language is like swimming. However, for few people, speaking a foreign language is like walking." This makes a ton of sense in its essence, but I wish to be able to speak at least one language as walking, and the rest as very good swimming. I will be simply learning language after language to see how many I can get before I die. Not necessarily thinking about how many I will learn along the way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dolly Senior Member United States Joined 5586 days ago 191 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 5 of 33 26 June 2010 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I used to date languages, but I had to make the hard decision to stick with just one L2. But then again, a language isn't "one". Historical changes, different regions and dialects, colloquial vs. formal, grammar controversies, sociolinguistics--even if you study "just" one L2, there's a lot of terrain to explore.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5148 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 6 of 33 26 June 2010 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with what many others have said. I also feel that many people just don't have the time to become excellent at many foreign languages.
On the other hand, I am striving to do the whole quality and quantity thing myself. I have been twice inspired, once as a kid, and then a second time as an adult when I met the chair of the foreign language department at my university, who is fluent in about six or seven differing languages. I believe that if anyone wants to bad enough, he or she can become very fluent in many languages, even without being a translator or linguist. On the other hand, I also believe that it takes careful dedication as well as planning. To learn Turkish, then Russian, and then French does not make much sense. By working through related languages in language families, I think that it is very much obtainable to go for both quality and quantity. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5069 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 7 of 33 26 June 2010 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | ||
It's very hard to do so, that's why. Each language is a castle that must be assaulted, as Kato Lomb would have it. I am continually reading English (my native language) poetry and prose and learning new words and modes of expression, and this improves my speech and writing. How could anyone possibly find the time to do the same not in one language but in multiple languages? Take Russian or German. You could spend a lifetime reading Russian literature or German philosophy and doing either would bring you that much closer to "perfection" in that language. How could you give justice to 5 or 10 other languages? Where would you find the time? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6499 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 33 26 June 2010 at 8:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't want to be restricted to just a few languages, but that doesn't mean that I only want to be able to ask for a cup of coffee. Actually I don't drink coffee, so if I couldn't discuss history and science and music and tourism and languages and myself then I wouldn't want to have any conversations at all.
In fact there is a difference between how you learn languages up to something like basic fluency and how you get from there to advanced or even near native. Provided that you can find enough spoken/written sources and communication partners the advanced languages will take care of themselves. The mediocre or miserable languages need constant attention. Therefore you cannot just assume that knowing ten languages takes twice as much of your time as knowing five. The problem arises when you cannot find those ressources, and then you may find that you have to train even you better languages on your own. But it is still easier and less time consuming to do that than it was to learn such a language in the first place. Edited by Iversen on 28 July 2010 at 6:57am 8 persons have voted this message useful |
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