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Language learning skills? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Tyrion101 Senior Member United States Joined 3711 days ago 153 posts - 174 votes  Speaks: French | Message 1 of 19 30 November 2014 at 5:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I was wondering what skills make one good at learning languages? Also what fields they might translate (pun intended) to being successful in. I'm thinking along the lines of, a field not related to translation and the like.
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| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4242 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 2 of 19 30 November 2014 at 5:33am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Part of learning is a skill and the other is your attitude. There are people who pick up a second language later in life
in their teenage years to the point of being very native (talking without any noticeable accent) but their first language drop in fluency. Someone who is good at speaking 1 language doesn't always have the inclination to pick up multiple languages. They can be intelligent in other ways only that learning languages is not their interest. I know 2 people who lived in Europe and they are both fluent in 5 languages including English, French, Spanish, Italian & German. When you are in an environment where you need to interact with people from different backgrounds, you are more likely to learn more than 1 language. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4434 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 3 of 19 30 November 2014 at 5:42am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I believe that your attitude towards learning it and the skills that it provides for you after the fact are what's important. For example, I started learning French about 3-4 years ago now and before that I was just average in school because I didn't really care. I noticed however that after I started getting to a higher level, my analytical thinking increased as did my general desire to learn. I've learned a lot of skills and discovered many different ways to interpret situations that I wouldn't have previously.
To answer your question, I'd say that the only skills needed are time management, motivation, and patience. The skills you develop after learning one are far more numerous and particular after you've learned a language. Edited by sillygoose1 on 30 November 2014 at 5:42am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6380 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 4 of 19 30 November 2014 at 9:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Good pronunciation is often considered linked with musical talent. A general form of intelligence is naturally beneficial, which would translate well to most other fields. There are different forms of intelligence, but they are closely correlated, so if you're good at one thing (language), you're most likely good at the others, too (maths). To be good at listening, you need to be able to focus your attention and not let it drift. Not sure what that would translate to. Archery? Zazen?
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| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3623 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 5 of 19 30 November 2014 at 9:46am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Probably remembering tons of vocabulary and understanding grammatical structures quickly and easily. When I was in high school and first year of college, I found Spanish very easy: I showed up to class, did homework, got A's (except for third-year Spanish: there I had to work more). Because of this, I thought I was good at languages. Then I took Japanese classes; ok, then I must be good at Romance languages; then I started learning Italian; ok, I must only be good at Spanish (and I'm not sure I'm actually that great). So in my case, interest definitely keeps me going rather than talent. For remembering tons of data and understanding trends, I would say these people could also excel in organic chemistry and biochemistry. For just remembering tons of data, biology. Edited by Xenops on 30 November 2014 at 9:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| James29 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5173 days ago 1265 posts - 2113 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 6 of 19 30 November 2014 at 12:00pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think serious language learners typically have great skills to be very successful investors... long term view, discipline, cheapness, humbleness (but very self-confident too), anti-herd instinct, ability to appreciate incremental progress, satisfaction from the means rather than the ends (ends which are never really obtained), etc.
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| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4505 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 7 of 19 01 December 2014 at 12:23am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Lots of grit and determination are always good character traits to have.
Logical thinking has come in handy fairly often. Also an ability to rely on contextual clues effectively. Being able to think a step forward, put two-and-two together efficiently. For those who do well with speaking, I believe the engineering mentality of using a tool is the most efficient one. Engineers are good at fixing problems :)
I'm pretty good at pronunciation, but most people who have seen me play instruments and sing are never quite satisfied with the quality of either, haha.... Edited by tarvos on 01 December 2014 at 12:28am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5060 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 8 of 19 01 December 2014 at 1:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I also will say that a certain amount of grit/perseverance/tenacity is needed as we've recently discussed. Patience is another quality that is good to have. Despite the hype of "Learn X in 3 months" on the course cover, it takes time, especially for beginners. Some people can get frustrated if they think that they have "studied" enough and that "now, they should be ready. This tends to happen with beginners who rely heavily on courses. Tolerance is important. I mean tolerance for one's own mistakes and errors, tolerance for imperfection and tolerance for some of the aspects of a language that just have to be learned. Humility- being humble helps a lot. I've seen some beginners new to the forum who lack this quality and they don't stay around long and don't end up learning a language either.
When one is humble, one can learn that continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result is madness. There will be times when a language will catch you in your hubris and bite you. Being humble in language-learning also means that you accept you aren't as good as you think and go back to try to figure out how to improve that troubling point or concept. When a new member isn't humble- "I'm asking for advice but (left unsaid, but obvious) I'm going to ignore all of it", the results are quite predictable and inevitable- crash and burn. Passion- it isn't absolutely necessary, but it sure helps- especially with a language you don't have to learn. The last quality I want to mention (directed toward beginners who have yet to learn a language to a high level) is how much having learned one language to a high level helps with learning another one. This is when you reap a massive reward. You will have developed the ability to know how languages "work". You know what it is that you need to pay special attention. You can recognize patterns. You have honed the ability to figure out a lot of words and even some idioms with context. You know that there are good days and bad days in language-learning and you don't let it get you down to the point of despair. You know when a resource isn't right for you. You know what you need to work on. This is a huge advantage that any beginner can gain by learning at least one language to a high level. Doing this is like giving yourself a key that will open many doors. As to what fields the experience of learning a language can be useful- I believe it is useful to all of them. The process of learning a language to a high level teaches a learner discipline, humility, pattern recognition, patience, tolerance for your own mistakes and those of others who are not as experienced as you. It can give you a big self-esteem lift. It also teaches another culture and tolerance of those who speak another language and struggle with your own, because you, yourself, have been down that very same road. Edited by iguanamon on 01 December 2014 at 1:56am 9 persons have voted this message useful |
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