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What is a useless language to you?

  Tags: Usefulness
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
42 messages over 6 pages: 13 4 5 6  Next >>


Fasulye
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 Message 9 of 42
19 November 2010 at 9:26am | IP Logged 
For me personally useless: Ancient Greek. I learned it at school but couldn't use it for anything.

Fasulye



Edited by Fasulye on 19 November 2010 at 9:26am

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Iversen
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 Message 10 of 42
19 November 2010 at 9:33am | IP Logged 
Some would say that Norwegian and Swedish are useless for Danes because we are supposed to understand each other. But experience has shown that it is an unreliable understanding unless you have at least substantial passive knowledge about the other languages. And then you can in my opinion just as well go the whole way and learn them properly.

Some would say that active Latin, Old Greek etc. are useless, but actually being able to think and write at least Latin is the one factor that hopefully will allow me to keep it alive. Contrary to the period after my Romance studies where I only had learnt it as a passive language and lost it due to lack of use.

Some would say that Low German and Scots and Irish are useless because even the local populations speak something else. But knowing them gives me an additional bond with the local cultures, and besides I find them interesting in their own right as alternatives to the more popular High German and (socalled) British English.

Some would even say that Danish is useless for Danes because we were better off speaking English like everybody else (actually one of my collegues has said this). But weirdos like us are the ones that keep this world variated and interesting.

And as I have already said: if I can find pleasure in working on some project then that's a justification in itself for doing it.   

Edited by Iversen on 19 November 2010 at 4:42pm

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numerodix
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 Message 11 of 42
19 November 2010 at 10:19am | IP Logged 
I suppose a language I don't speak is pretty useless to me. Useful to some other people I
suspect.
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Lucas
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 Message 12 of 42
19 November 2010 at 11:30am | IP Logged 
Between the age of 12 a 19 I've had in average four hours a week of latin (for seven
years) and four hours of week of ancient greek (for six years).

I've made one year of sanskrit in university...the only thing I remember (except
indoeuropean words)is "viaghra"(tiger).

Last summer I had a job opportunity in Kazaksthan so I began to learn it...the only
method in french was really bad and I remember NOTHING.


But it's cool and I don't regret it...I'm very happy to have "learned" those useless
languages!


PS: If I can't write English properly, it's because I choosed ancient greek instead of
english!
And I don't regret it AT ALL!
:)
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michau
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 Message 13 of 42
19 November 2010 at 12:40pm | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
Latin is useless to be because of my focus on oral communication. I can imagine it being extremely useful to others in a wide range of situations.


Latin may be useful for oral communication if you want to make friends with foreign catholic priests.
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Kounotori
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 Message 14 of 42
19 November 2010 at 10:31pm | IP Logged 
mick33 wrote:
Sometimes I think that I might learn these languages or other ancient languages to read literature but I doubt that I will considering that I have started to read the Kalevala in Finnish no less than four times but never get past the first chapter.


If it consoles you in any way, a lot of native Finns find the language of the Kalevala perplexing as well.

In order to understand the language of the book, you should have a relatively broad knowledge of dialectal Finnish (mainly the eastern dialects) and be able to deduce what the archaic forms of verbs mean (the verbal ending -vi, for example, is just a fancy-sounding ending in the present indicative: the first two lines "Mieleni minun tekevi, aivoni ajattelevi" would be "Minun mieleni tekee, aivoni ajattelee" in standard, non-poetic Finnish).

So don't get discouraged. The Kalevala is really super duper advanced stuff, which most Finnish learners don't seem to realize. I recommend that you read some 19th century Finnish literature and get acquainted with the Savonian and Karelian dialects before attempting to tackle it.
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darkwhispersdal
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 Message 15 of 42
19 November 2010 at 11:56pm | IP Logged 
I can't wait to learn Latin and Ancient Greek as I love reading the classics such as Cicero's speeches and the thought of being able to wrestle with the text in Latin without the filter of a translation (no matter how good) just thrills me.
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Solfrid Cristin
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 Message 16 of 42
20 November 2010 at 12:10am | IP Logged 
michau wrote:
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
Latin is useless to be because of my focus on oral communication. I can imagine it being extremely useful to others in a wide range of situations.


Latin may be useful for oral communication if you want to make friends with foreign catholic priests.


Not quite there yet :-)


1 person has voted this message useful



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