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Are women better at learning languages? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3886 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes  Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 41 of 76 10 October 2013 at 12:06am | IP Logged | |||||
Oh, I agree. But Blair is implying this only applies to men :D One of the top women has a very blasé atttude. She spends 30% of the time in class on her phone on facebook, or arranging her music list. But she beats everyone in class (other than the top women). No background in German either. Doesnt read from any other text. Edited by Gemuse on 10 October 2013 at 12:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4813 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 42 of 76 10 October 2013 at 9:07am | IP Logged | |||||
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Just his use of "himself" and "his" doesn't mean he speaks of men only. Sure, the English natives often come from background with media fanatic about political correctness at all costs but it is worth it to realize sometimes there is much more included than just a few words. Especially when you read older books, the things apply to women as well but it just wasn't popular to even mention us those days.
In my opinion, you are now just nit picking to excuse your own feling of failure. In my opinion, you just accidentally got to a class where the most intelligent (at least in the language learning related areas) and the quickest to learn people happen to be women. It could have been the other way or mixed in any ratio possible. Those ten or so people are not a sample to base any conclusions from. 8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5138 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 43 of 76 10 October 2013 at 12:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Why would it be shocking or even surprising if one gender would be better at something than the other gender? I am quite ready to admit that men in general are better at parking in tight spots, and at finding their way, and in math and physics, than women in general.
I would also assume that there is a reason why the overwhelming majority of those who study languages at universities are women. And the reason would hardly be because they are bad at it... This does of course not say anything about the likelyhood that any specific individual would be better than any other individual based exclusively on their gender. Do women have an advantage in learning languages? I hope so! Men seem to have an advantage in almost everything else :-) Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 10 October 2013 at 12:11pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4426 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 44 of 76 10 October 2013 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
But maybe it's simply a case of more boys being attracted to maths and physics because it's seen as a masculine pursuit? Actually Norway is a good example for this thread. It's a country where young people of both sexes and from all backgrounds willingly learn English. Who speaks it better? Males or females? Edited by beano on 10 October 2013 at 1:17pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4511 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 45 of 76 10 October 2013 at 1:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
In my view that is more a cultural and sociological thing than that it has anything to do with aptitude. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5138 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 46 of 76 10 October 2013 at 1:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
To be perfectly honest, I do not think I could tell. I know my two daughters are better at English than any of the boys in their class, but if I look at all the Norwegians I have heard speak English, I do not think I could with any kind of authority claim that any gender is better than the other. It is more down to how much exposure that they have had than to gender or even level of intelligence. I see boys who do really poorly at school in general do quite well in English because they play video games all night, and I see very bright girls underperform in English because they are too shy to speak up in any language, and because their parents do not allow them to watch much TV. On average I would say they do equally well, but I have not seen any serious research on this, so this is just my gut feeling, for whatever that is worth. Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 10 October 2013 at 1:31pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4426 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 47 of 76 10 October 2013 at 1:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Quick question. How do you actually learn a language from playing video games? Is it from the game
dialogue (which surely must be limited?) or from the ability to play a multi-user version over a network and chat with fellow participants all over the world? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5138 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 48 of 76 10 October 2013 at 1:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
Do you really want to ask a 51 year old woman that question? :-) I have not seen a video game in my life, so I cannot tell - I just observe the results. I suspect it is not video games alone though, but TV and music as well. Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 10 October 2013 at 1:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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