How many people can actually speak? (Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies) Language Learning Forum

How many people can actually speak?
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Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies

45 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6

s_allard
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5217 days ago
2704 posts - 5425 votes

Speaks: French*, English, Spanish
Studies: Polish

Message 41 of 45

05 February 2013 at 5:58am | IP Logged

zerothinking wrote:

...
In terms of there not being many people who speak a foreign language, once again, that's because it's hard work! You have to diligently study daily for a long time. It takes dedication and endurance. It's no small accomplishment and few people can stick it out because few of them actually want to learn one enough. And then to top it off, they use horrible methods so they are will struggle even more even if they do have dedication.

Language learning is not easy and it's not always fun.

I want to take exception with this impressive statement that language learning is not easy and it's not always fun. In my opinion, this is a manifestation of a certain idea that learning has to be painful and not fun.

I am of the contrary opinion. I certainly believe that learning a language requires a lot of effort. We can call that work in a physiological sense. I have no problem with that. On the other hand, I believe learning should be fun, if possible.
Why does fun have to be incompatible with learning. The main reason so many people drop out of courses is simply that most course materials are boring.

Edit: I corrected a series of spelling mistakes from an early draft version that can be seen in a subsequent post by @leosmith. My apologies.

Edited by s_allard on 05 February 2013 at 3:20pm
1 person has voted this message useful

leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6337 days ago
2365 posts - 3804 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

Message 42 of 45

05 February 2013 at 1:57pm | IP Logged

s_allard wrote:

I want to take exception with this impressive statement that language learning is not easy and it's not always fun. In my opinion, this is a manisfestation of a certain idea that learning has to be painful and not fun.

I am of the contrary opinion. I certain believe that learning a language requires a lot of effort. We can call that work in a physiological sense. I have no problem with that. On the other hand, I believe learning should be fun, if possible.
Why does fun have to be incompatible with learning. The main reason so many people drop out of couses is simply that most course materials are boring.
I ; ; &nbs p; ; &nb sp; ; &n bsp; ; & nbsp; ; ; ; ;

Some comments. Please don’t use “impressive” in a negative sense, and please use spell checker and correct your grammar before posting. You haven’t “taken exception” with anything zerothinking wrote, so please don’t say you have.

1 person has voted this message useful

s_allard
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5217 days ago
2704 posts - 5425 votes

Speaks: French*, English, Spanish
Studies: Polish

Message 43 of 45

05 February 2013 at 3:18pm | IP Logged

@leosmith. Sorry for some of the bad spelling in my post that was done at an early hour. That said, I wanted to express my disagreement with the idea that language learning has to be hard work and that you have to diligently study for a long time and that the problem is lack of dedication. And that it isn't always fun. So maybe it's wrong to say that I take exception to this idea. Let's say I disagree.

I don't believe that language learning requires hard work. It requires effort and study but I don't call that hard work when compared to what many people do for a living. I'm not saying that learning a language is easy. I think it can be intriguing, exciting, satisfying and challenging but not hard work.

As for fun, well maybe looking up words in a dictionary is not a barrel of laughs, but I certainly think that for most of us learning a language is fun. I admit that many high school students probably do not find French irregular verbs funny. I agree but by and large, most of us here at HTLAL are doing this for fun.

As for use of the word "impressive," I did so with the meaning of "having made a vivid impression," Maybe it was a bit ironic, but I stand by it.
2 persons have voted this message useful

tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4494 days ago
5310 posts - 9399 votes

Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

Message 44 of 45

05 February 2013 at 9:15pm | IP Logged

That's also because you can't take exception with something, you take exception to
something...

Edited by tarvos on 05 February 2013 at 9:17pm
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s_allard
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5217 days ago
2704 posts - 5425 votes

Speaks: French*, English, Spanish
Studies: Polish

Message 45 of 45

06 February 2013 at 12:32am | IP Logged

tarvos wrote:

That's also because you can't take exception with something, you take exception to
something...

I do appreciate grammar lessons, but I do also look at usage. A bit of googling will show that "take exception with" is in good company. Here is an example:
Take exception with

3 persons have voted this message useful

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