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Do I need to have a passion to succeed? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| rolf Senior Member United Kingdom improvingmydutch.blo Joined 5818 days ago 107 posts - 134 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch | Message 1 of 17 24 November 2012 at 2:39am | IP Logged |
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I have learned the hard way through life that you cannot go against the grain when you
want to achieve something, it has to agree with you to some degree. Certainly with my Dutch learning, I'm highly passionate about the language and culture and it's helped me get through some difficult moments. Now I intend on learning Spanish. I think it will be fun BUT I don't have any kind of connection, nothing drawing me in particular to it, or any culture attached to it. Is this a danger? Am I likely to lose interest further down the road, do you think? I'm hoping not because I don't really have as strong a passion for any language as I do Dutch, and that has been hard enough - I love learning languages but they have never loved me :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6258 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German | Message 2 of 17 24 November 2012 at 2:45am | IP Logged |
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No. You can fall in love later and she's very approachable.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Gosiak Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4937 days ago 241 posts - 361 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Norwegian, Welsh | Message 3 of 17 24 November 2012 at 4:14am | IP Logged |
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No. You will find something for yourself, there are so many diffrent cultures connected to this language that the probability that you won't establish any connection is very low. Did you pick Spanish on your own or was it suggested by somebody else? Sometimes the sole sound of the language is enough to get one hooked and later on many other things suddenly appear.
Edit: You could find interesting Dutch-Spanish connections. Maybe that would do the trick. Edited by Gosiak on 24 November 2012 at 4:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5771 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 4 of 17 24 November 2012 at 6:43am | IP Logged |
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I also had a problem with lack of passion for Spanish. But then I became more familiar
with Argentina, and the language came alive for me. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6393 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 5 of 17 24 November 2012 at 9:13am | IP Logged |
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For me the problem with both Spanish and Esperanto is that while the cultures of these languages are really interesting to me, the languages themselves don't really do anything for me (yet. I think I'd love Esperanto if I got to a higher level in it). This has made progress in Spanish extremely slow. Cantonese, on the other hand, is culturally mildly interesting, but the language is super exciting and fun, and this has given me great and rapid progress.
So people are different. For me interest in the language is more important than interest in the culture. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Sandman Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5219 days ago 168 posts - 389 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 6 of 17 24 November 2012 at 10:33am | IP Logged |
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Like a girlfriend that grows on you over time, I don't think you necessarily need a lot of passion early on, just as long as it increases over time ... which it should to some degree.
It depends a lot on the language though. You can get by with less passion for the "easier" languages to learn, but if it's one that's very different and difficult (translation ... one that will take a lot of work over a longer period of time), you may need to be very interested in learning it or it probably won't happen. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6408 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 7 of 17 24 November 2012 at 7:31pm | IP Logged |
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Why do you want to learn Spanish? Your worry makes me wonder if there's something wrong with this decision. If you'd rather improve your Dutch first, do it. I always say that it's good to learn two or more languages at the same time but I also say I almost never start a language if I just can't *not study* it. Spanish is one of the few languages which simply entered my life on its own, without an invitation. Dutch, Romanian and even Croatian have done the same, and Swedish is also knocking on the door, but Spanish is the clearest example.
Be honest with yourself. Do you just want to do more Dutch for now? Do you want to do a different language? Do you even need to take a break from Dutch but to justify it want to start a new language? Do you perhaps need to change your methods for Dutch? Or are you just afraid of the unknown? Afraid that a new language will hurt your precious Dutch? Nervous about going through the beginner level again and looking stupid? You can minimize both issues by focusing on input first. I know the feeling. It was VERY hard for me to make a new serious commitment after Finnish. I ended up playing with Ukrainian, Yiddish and Esperanto because I was afraid of learning something incorrectly (e.g. fossilized pronunciation, grammar mistakes) if I was consciously doing less than I could. IDK if I truly regret this, but now I know that I shouldn't have worried. I didn't even consider the possibility of starting with input only. (except Ukrainian because I thought it was the only language I could try to learn naturally - LOL) I've looked at your blog. Starting a new job and quitting immediately is a stressful decision. Do you feel that you need to make up for that by starting a new language? Consider a different way, explore various areas of life. It seems like now would be a good time to make a list of 100 things you'd like to do... perhaps in Dutch:) Or at least 10 things. Sometimes life just tells us that it's time to evaluate everything in life. Think some more about it before making a decision. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| nonneb Pentaglot Groupie SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4562 days ago 80 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Ancient Greek, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, Hungarian, French | Message 8 of 17 24 November 2012 at 9:20pm | IP Logged |
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I never really had a passion for Spanish. Still don't, really. There's nothing wrong with it; it's just a very neutral
feeling. I use it for work, and I'm really glad I speak it, but I didn't learn Spanish for that purpose. I just studied because I had taken it in high school and I didn't want it to go to waste. I knew speaking Spanish was practical, but I wasn't really passionate about the job opportunities like some learners are. Now I'm at a comfortable B2 level. The problem is that I don't think I'll get into the C1-C2 level because I can already do what I like to do and need to do with the Spanish I have. It's better and more fun to study languages you're passionate about, but it's possible to a certain level. Also, if you're worried about stopping later, I found that the more I studied, the more reasons I had to do it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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