List of things you cannot do with English (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

List of things you cannot do with English
Tags: Discouragement from learning
Share with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon
Language Learning Forum : General discussion

60 messages over 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next >>

maydayayday
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5030 days ago
564 posts - 839 votes

Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish^B2, French^B2
Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese
Studies: Urdu

Message 9 of 60

23 March 2012 at 8:03pm | IP Logged

Impress girls in a night club?
12 persons have voted this message useful

anjathilina
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 6415 days ago
33 posts - 106 votes

Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin
Studies: Hindi

Message 10 of 60

23 March 2012 at 8:21pm | IP Logged

Everything wrote:

Well, it works for almost all languages. But if you want to motivate
a native English
speaker to learn another language, let's say :

- English doesn't come with an open-minded community like for Esperanto. Esperanto works
like a filter. When you speak English, it also includes racists, extremists, moralists
and so on... Unlike Esperanto speakers who always are open-minded. But that's probably
the only language which works this way.

Not that I can't see the appeal, but choosing a language in order to avoid people you
disagree with rather seems the opposite of "open-minded."
15 persons have voted this message useful

sillygoose1
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4447 days ago
566 posts - 814 votes

Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French
Studies: German, Latin

Message 11 of 60

23 March 2012 at 8:25pm | IP Logged

I feel left behind and less intelligent if a European can speak say, English, Italian, and German but I can only speak English.
11 persons have voted this message useful

emk
Diglot
Moderator
United States
Joined 5343 days ago
2615 posts - 8806 votes

Speaks: English*, French^B2
Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian
Personal Language Map

Message 12 of 60

23 March 2012 at 9:02pm | IP Logged

Here are few personal examples from the last couple of weeks.

- I couldn't speak to some of my inlaws without using French.
- I couldn't listen to French news radio.
- I couldn't have read the "Immigrants" bande designée. OK, it's not an eternal
cultural treasure, but it was well done, and I enjoyed it.
- I couldn't appreciate the lyrics to some clever and well-written French songs.
- I wouldn't get to feel how how "en" and "y" feel in my head, linguistically speaking.
Clitic pronouns: Almost as fun as agglutinative languages.
- I would have to force French speakers to struggle in English. Sometimes it feels
polite for me to struggle in French instead. :-)
- If I travel in a French-speaking country, I don't have to live a in a tourist bubble—
I can talk to anybody who's willing to put up with my mistakes.

In general, languages are useful because they let you meet people you would otherwise
never meet, and because they let you experience cool books, movies and websites. Of
course, if there isn't anything you want to do with your language, then why bother?
8 persons have voted this message useful

frenkeld
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6754 days ago
2042 posts - 2719 votes

Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German

Message 13 of 60

23 March 2012 at 10:39pm | IP Logged

clumsy wrote:

I have an idea for a post, in modern times it's a must to know English, and learning it gives you a lot of oppurtunities. But is it worth at all to learn any other language?

"Is it worth it at all" is a funny way to put it. A language enthusiast can always learn another language and find some use for it. That's why imho this question only makes sense if asked from the perspective of someone who is not into languages, but would be willing to learn one for utilitarian reasons.

The answer would then depend on where one lives, what one does, and one's lifestyle.

Edited by frenkeld on 24 March 2012 at 10:28pm
1 person has voted this message useful

vonPeterhof
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4583 days ago
715 posts - 1527 votes

Speaks: Russian*, English^C2, Japanese, German
Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish

Message 14 of 60

23 March 2012 at 11:27pm | IP Logged

clumsy wrote:

1 you cannot learn Sundanese

I did not find anything in English on it, but there were some websites on it in Japanese.

But why would I want to learn Sundanese in the first place, if English is the only language worth learning? ;)
1 person has voted this message useful

Gallo1801
Diglot
Senior Member
Spain
Joined 4713 days ago
164 posts - 248 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Arabic (Written), Croatian, German, French

Message 15 of 60

23 March 2012 at 11:32pm | IP Logged

I think Madiba sums it up well.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.
If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.
11 persons have voted this message useful

fiziwig
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4676 days ago
297 posts - 618 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

Message 16 of 60

24 March 2012 at 5:34am | IP Logged

To really experience the literature of ANY language you need to read it in that language, not in English translation. You can get the gist of it in English, but you can't experience the art of non-English literature in English.

Nor can you experience the art of Shakespeare in German or the art of Goethe in Italian, or the art of Chaucer in modern English.

5 persons have voted this message useful

This discussion contains 60 messages over 8 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next >>

Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum

This page was generated in 0.3594 seconds.