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Learning a language but not using it? | ||
Tags: Motivation | Usefulness | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5505 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 25 of 32 01 November 2011 at 12:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Even if I theoretically reached a point someday of having learned all the languages I could ever expect to "use", I would still keep learning, picking something like Ancient Greek or Akkadian or Old Norse etc., just because I so enjoy the process of learning. For me, it's almost more about the process than the result, in fact - I love working my brain, wrapping it around new concepts, reading symbols and pronouncing sounds that I've never encountered before. Communication with others or learning about topics through reading/listening/etc. is, for me, more of an awesome byproduct of my love for learning languages.
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| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5242 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 26 of 32 01 November 2011 at 2:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As usual, I would like to take issue with how the question is framed. How can one learn a language without using it? Now, obviously, it all depends on how we define "using" a language. I don't expect to have conversations in Latin or Ancient Greek, but how can one seriously learn a language without having to actively at least write it or even speak it out loud at least to oneself? I understand that we are referring here to not being able to use the language with other speakers. I may be accused of quibbling, but I think you can study a language without actually using it. On the other hand, I don't see how you can learn a language without actively engaging it, i.e. using it. Edited by s_allard on 01 November 2011 at 2:41pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6515 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 27 of 32 01 November 2011 at 3:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Use it or lose it. When I stopped my language studies in 1982 Latin was the first language I lost, simply because I only had learnt to read it, but nobody suggested that it be used actively - at least not for anything but the translations in the textbook.
No reading on a daily basis --> no practice at all --> No Latin. Even my Romanian lasted longer, although I never used it for communication. The better you know a language (actively or passively) the more likely it is that it will linger on somewhere in your mind. If you just keep thinking a few sentences now and then, or read a few lines, then you keep it alive - although it will eventually rust away. If you aren't at a level where such trifles come easy to you then the resultat will probably be that you totally stop any activity in the language. And then it dies ignominously and in silence. Edited by Iversen on 01 November 2011 at 3:22pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5146 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 28 of 32 01 November 2011 at 3:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree, with only the slight modification that little bits and pieces of what you have lost may turn up unexpectedly. I learned a little bit of Polish 16 -17 years ago, and lost it completely for lack of use. When I started learning Russian, odd Polish words that were long forgotten turned up, and unfortunately not just the ones which were similar to the Russian words. I would drive both myself and my teacher crazy by putting Polish words into every Russian sentence. It took at least a year before I stopped, and even now, if I get stressed I may use the occasional Polish word. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5038 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 29 of 32 01 November 2011 at 4:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've seen this kind of 'semi-forgotten language' interference. Isn't it funny -- in more than one way? :) Interestingly enough, I've never thrown any Spanish unintentionally into another language, so I think of this as 'half-baked' language interference... I used to throw English words in my German all the time. My German still has holes -rather than gaps- in it, but gradually the interference faded away. Now, whenever I try to speak Russian, random German words or pron do pop up instead of the right stuff. It's like you sort of notice a gap is coming in your speech and start to panic, then you try to pull anything that's not firmly assented somewhere else -hence the 'half-baked' label- so you can use it to plug the hole. Often with disastrous or hilarious results ;) Edited by mrwarper on 01 November 2011 at 8:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jalarcon Newbie United States mercurypoisonin Joined 5006 days ago 5 posts - 4 votes | Message 30 of 32 01 November 2011 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you do not speak that new language on a regular basis, you are bound to forget it in time.
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 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6721 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 31 of 32 01 November 2011 at 11:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'd never forget English even if kept my mouth shut for the rest of my life, that's for sure. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6515 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 32 of 32 02 November 2011 at 2:22am | IP Logged | |||||
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But if you also keep the English part of your brain shut and abstain from listening to or reading English for the rest of your life, then even your English may be reduced to a few random and unconnected scraps.
But even then it may be easier to revoke if you should choose to return to this world than a language which you never learnt properly. Personally I think that there are two processes in play: one is keeping an ever so fragile contact with an unused language, which will slow its inevitable fading away down - and you need a certain level in the language to keep this minimal contact without doing something specific. The other is the difference in speed between the relearning of languages you once knew well and those you just knew superficially (or not at all). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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