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Study languages you are bound to fail in | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5326 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 96 11 March 2014 at 3:19pm | IP Logged | ||
This is one of the major reasons I chose Egyptian: it's tons of fun, but I don't feel the slightest obligation to "finish" it. Like Mandarin, Egyptian has an interesting script. It has grammar that bends my brain in delightfully strange ways. There's some surprisingly good literature, some of which was already ancient when Moses tangled with either this guy here, or possibly his son. And well, it's rather amazing to look at a picture of a temple and actually see words… But I'm not trying to "finish" Egyptian, whatever that might mean in this context. I'm just goofing off, taking my time, and working through the occasional text. Because Egyptian is so ancient, I find it easy to limit my ambitions and to just enjoy the process. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5560 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 10 of 96 11 March 2014 at 3:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sorry, Solfrid, when I it looked over I thought: Who am I to tell you these things?
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| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4433 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 11 of 96 11 March 2014 at 4:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think "fail" is a somewhat misleading word here. An example of that would be my six-months endeavour at one point to learn Standard Arabic. I got through the alphabet, I studied in much detail three or four lessons in a Linguaphone course, supplemented with some other free material I found on a website. However, if I failed it was because I was not dedicated enough and did not pursue it, so today I have forgotten most of it, and struggle to make meaning of Arabic script. I did discover that Arabic is not an easy language to learn (at least for me), but it made Russian seem comparatively easy.
However, if you mean studying a language for an extended period of time without having the ambition of ever speaking or writing it at a proficient level, then I guess my Romansh studies partly fall into that category. I do try to write a little in my log, but it is mostly passive acquisition. I can read a book or listen to a news programme on the radio and understand most of it, but I would be hard pressed keeping up a meaningful conversation in the language. On the other hand, the example is perhaps not the best, as it is a Romance language, so I get a lot "for free" from Italian and Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4047 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 12 of 96 11 March 2014 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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What an odd premise I must say, because I don't think I will fail in any language I will study actively unless there are factors outside of my own motivation and sufficient materials.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5128 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 13 of 96 11 March 2014 at 5:08pm | IP Logged | ||
If I ask it is because I am genuinely interested in the answers. If I had all the answers myself, I might as well just stay put :-) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4501 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 14 of 96 11 March 2014 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Can you fail a language?
I don't think so. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5056 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 15 of 96 11 March 2014 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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That's what I'm doing right now with Ladino. I will never master this language, but I'm having fun exploring the language, religion and culture of a people about whom I knew little before. There are two different Hebrew scripts to explore. It's pretty neat to read Judeo-Spanish from right to left in Hebrew Rashi script and Solitreo handwriting and be able to understand it thanks to my Spanish and Portuguese. I'm having lots of fun with it even if there is no point.
My advice to you, at this stage of your life with languages, after you have accomplished so much, is to just be happy learning what you can, even knowing that you won't be able to speak Mandarin, Greek, Mongolian or Russian like you do Spanish. As Zen philosophy says, it's our expectations which make us unhappy. Let go of those, perhaps now, unrealistic expectations and be happy. I'll leave you with this quote from Barry Farber to illustrate my point, which I've quoted before (HTLAL's eyes begin to roll, again!):
You ought to see the look on a Haitian cab driver's face in New Orleans or Miami when I greet him in Haitian Creole and tell him my destination. We'll have a pleasant conversation of small talk. Yeah, I make mistakes, but they love that I try and seem to know a fair bit! I get really good service too! Edited by iguanamon on 11 March 2014 at 10:30pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tea oolong Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4210 days ago 28 posts - 33 votes Studies: Korean* | Message 16 of 96 11 March 2014 at 8:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Written Chinese and Spoken Chinese would be a snap for the OP. But, despite the language she's learning, I'd strongly suggest she practice writing and memorize Chinese Characters while she practices her current language. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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