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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5264 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 81 of 217 25 April 2015 at 1:16am | IP Logged | |||||
I couldn't agree more... I rarely learned from my (nursing) lectures. In fact once I came to realise this I skipped many of them deliberately as i realised it went like this- provide information to learn via dry lectures which was all the same as print outs ---> do assessment (assignment/exam). So intead of wasting time in lectures i learned off the lecture printouts and textbooks instead at home (sometimes certain tut's etc were compulsory tho & I did try to make it to the lectures most of the time). and you think you have it bad in the UK, Australia is perhaps worse. You can travel the length and width of this country with barely any change of accent of Australian English except for some country/bogan more relaxed way of speaking. We are soooo far from anywhere and and my closest neighbour (I live in the south east) is another predominantly English speaking country (NZ). Why couldnt the Dutch or Portuguese at least settle some of this country- or the French arrive sooner here or in NZ than the English dammit! I mean there is New Caledonia but its not close and by no means of any consequence/influence on Australia (most Aussies don't even know where it is). What's rubs salt into that monolingual wound is the teasing statistics on our indigenous languages- we apparently have a MASSIVE indigenous pool of linguistic diversity. But where? And I don't mean this with disrespect (I'd love to learn an aboriginal language if they had more influence, but I have barely EVER heard one spoken in real life - I'm struggling to recall if any I've heard has not been on TV, there's not enough speakers and the gov't is doing nothing to save these languages- many reduced to a handful of speakers thousands of kms from here in the unhospitable outback- the only areas the English settlers couldnt live). Yes we have large immigrant groups and some places get a good consistent flow of tourists from Europe. However the general population who are not immigrants are not keen on learning foreign languages. We are worse than the UK, Canada and US (all these are close to or have large numbers of French or Spanish speakers near them or within their country). NZ's maori language is in a healthier situation than the aboriginal languages here. All in all the anglophone countries seem to have some kind of superiority complex in which a homogeneous English landscape is favoured by more than those who value diversity. Perhaps that is not entirely correct, often its governmental policies or economic policies forced on the ppl (or persuaded). PM 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4078 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 82 of 217 25 April 2015 at 1:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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I would wager that the USA are the most
insular, monolingual country in the world where, when even the UK and Australia have some interest (vain, very low levels, but still it is there), the USA want to shelter themselves from all other languages but English, yet the same time spread English all round the world. In California, which is seen as the beacon of liberalism in terms of everything, but especially languages, in the USA, is so bad that the two years required secondary schooling of foreign languages is apprently ending, with some parts of the state cancelling the requirement of the 2 years to graduate with a foreign language. One poster here from California said that her son graduated high school without ever taking even one semester of a foreign language class. Thus, he enters university literally monolingual, 0 knowledge of anything except English. That makes me sick literally, and is quite disturbing. There is a big difference, as Australia do not consider themselves to be rulers of the universe, like the USA or the UK (c.f. British Empire). So their Anglophone style haughtiness can only have a limit. NZ even less, although they have a good attitude of being officially bilingual with a bilingual national anthem like Canada (and singing the Maori part first). If you watched the Cricket World Cup 2015 final, seeing NZ sing theirs first with two languages and then Australia next only in English, I do wonder if they ever considered following NZ's pattern. With regards to Australia, I should put it nicely, but the worst monolingual Anglophone areas are probably Alice Springs, rural Queensland "Alabama with a beach", and basically any parts that compare to rural USA. However, I do notice that Tasmania, known to be some sort of rugged insular land, has quite a lot of immigrants from the Netherlands and Germany. New Zealand is a transliteration of "Nieuw Zeeland", but sadly is not a Netherlandophone country. This is all inconsecuential obviously, as the situation in the Czech Republic is so rich and surrounded with languages that it puts to shame all of the Anglophone countries combined in this respect. Edited by 1e4e6 on 25 April 2015 at 1:36am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5264 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 83 of 217 25 April 2015 at 2:46am | IP Logged | |||||
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All very good points. Odd isn't it that the US doesn't have an official language. Are they (gov't) trying to claim
they're wouldn't dare impose one language on people all the while their education policies do exactly that? Louisianna is another good example- French used to be very widespread in fact the then US president worked together with the Canadian PM to attempt to eradicate French from North America. First Acadians were deported to Louisiana, subsequently French speaking students were later only allowed to be (forcefully) taught in English throughout Louisiana. Ironically, when you consider the number of Spanish speakers in the U.S. today the country should be (officially) bilingual. Yet as you say they do nothing but drive their language throughout the world- via economic pathways, films, music & internet. Odd that the minitel never made it on a world stage yet the internet did. And why is Hollywood in the U.S. and not Madrid, Berlin or Bangkok? Convenient too that the EU is favouring English more and more. In my mind all the anglophone countries mentioned above are part of the same system started by Britain and continued by the US. The EU is next followed by the rest of the world. As for Australia. The aboriginal languages are very diverse, so much so that having part of our anthem sung in 'aboriginal' would likely insult many because which aboriginal language do you choose? In NZ they deliberately constructed (so I'm told) a national unified standardised form of Maori. This is too difficult in Australia as the aboriginal languages (apparently) are too distinctly different. I agree Czech Rep. is an envious linguistic position. PM 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4697 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 84 of 217 25 April 2015 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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PM and 1e4e6, this is a personal language log. If she wants to debate something that's fine, but it seems better that you should start a thread of your own. FWIW, I think education is great, but please don't respond to that here unless Cavesa says she wants to hear more about that topic.
Cavesa: I understand what a pain it is to study medicine. I initially started university as a pre-med student, and decided I wasn't willing to be so single-minded as to give my life to one subject for 7 years. I'm just too much of a polymath.. On the other hand, it might be encouraging to think about the possibilities becoming a doctor opens up for you. My sister did slog through and is a doctor. For quite some time she only worked 2 days a week and was quite well off. In addition, every summer she does voluntary medical work in Honduras for 2-3 weeks. Doctors are needed everywhere in the world, especially doctors who are willing to give their time. There are a lot of places you could go and do good work among people who really need it, while being forced to practice one of your target languages since many of them will be unable to speak any other. If you ever take an interest in Hindi, the Hindi-Urdu Flagship has been developing extensive resources at http://hindiurduhealth.org/. Edited by Jeffers on 25 April 2015 at 4:14pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5264 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 85 of 217 26 April 2015 at 6:55am | IP Logged | |||||
I wholeheartedly agree Jeffers. I think it was me more than 1e4e6... I got carried away and kept the topic going and took it further off course. My apologies Cavesa. For what its worth too I think they are some very positive words with regards to medicine and your sister's experience Jeffers. It even made me wonder whether I could consider it. PM 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6491 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 86 of 217 26 April 2015 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well formulated. Please don't hijack other people's log threads, and please avoid political discussions. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5264 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 87 of 217 27 April 2015 at 3:17am | IP Logged | |||||
So well formulated in fact that I completely agreed, and was off walking into the night, quietly in fact. I'm a person that values highly humility, and in fact don't feel we self reflect any where near enough- we are in fact taught to be very ego-centric. Ironically I feel I need to stand up for my little ego here. So after Jeffers commented, I self reflected and decided Jeffers was right, very much so in fact. I then sent an apology to Cavesa (as well as in her log), but haven't received my trophy for that yet... still waiting... joking of course. I sincerely meant the apology. I asked her if she'd like me to remove/edit anything and was walking quietly off into the night until I see a light shining on me once again and saying 'yeah, that's right, yeah, what he said' from yourself Iversen. It seems you have a knack for while asking me to pipe down you actually engender a response out of me. It was suggested that such matters be discussed elsewhere. I distinctly remember having such a thread on a very similar topic shut down on me last year. You didn't suggest that I move it there, you asked that politics be kept out of discussions. Again a fair point, as this is all about language learning, right? I personally find it very difficult to refrain from politics entering discussions on many topics. You name the topic and it is not free of politics. From language evolution, to medicine, from using electronic devices to shopping at the supermarket (and many topics come up in logs and discussions here). Nothing is devoid of political influence nowadays and thus whenever I give my opinion I feel one needs to look deeper into what's behind the problem(s) rather than throw a pill at something see you on your way with a prescription and get my financial pat on the back for recommending you a certain company's medication without actually looking at the cause. At least I get what I want and don't care what happens to others, or pretend I don't know/care (ie deliberately persist with my own ignorance). Perhaps I'm getting off track for some people with these statements but a long shot, and digging my own grave, but when you think you live in a democracy discussion on a whole swathe of topics should not require any political discussion. However when you realise that very so called democracy is masquerading as democratic but is in fact a dictatorship being called democracy at every turn to keep us believing it is so via every media outlet then you realise, regrettably so, that almost nothing in life is devoid of political influence. Reopen my discussion from last year and I'll gladly move my posts there, or delete them from here if you wish. I'd be happy to remove this post and earlier onces upon request (of if you do it yourself). I did feel the need to defend myself tho. Once again I admitted fault and agreed I posted in the wrong area and got carried away. I don't intend on turning HTLAL into a political arena, and in fact will endeavour to refrain from much political/strongly opinionated discussions as I can't convert everyone now can I, but as a fellow citizen of this democratic arena I ask that you don't turn HTLAL into a dictatorship either as I'd rather some people see at least some snippets of the matrix that we live under, as opposed to continuing with status quo as the wool over peoples eyes seemingly grows thicker. PM (I highly doubt I'd make a 'good' prime minister) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 88 of 217 29 April 2015 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi guys, sorry about the late answer. My boyfriend broke up with me recently so there
wasn't much mood to dive into the forum or quite anything, I am spending time with friends, studying and so on. I suppose I'll get to the languages more and to lots of input just to get lost a bit. I still have some hope but it is could easily prove false. Well, the last Harry Potter in Spanish promises some good twelve-fifteen hours away from my own life. The Witcher in German, should my laptop manage to run it, should give even more. I hoped to write here lots of notes about my recent travel experience but the break up there quite took away from it all. It was a nice list along the lines: "what can happen if you don't know Hungarian when going to Hungary", "how unexpectedly practical can Spanish prove" and "to the ages old debate one language to high level or more languages to lower ones, the latter option is awesome for an european". Thanks Jeffers, I think the debate has got quite far here, even though I see how I ignited it and perhaps should be more careful in future. Apology accepted. My apologies about not being careful not to ignite such deviations from the central topic of my log-languages. If you wish to edit and therefore shorten the log by cutting out some of the pieces, or to move them to a separate discussion, feel free to do as you feel right. I trust your judgement as we are getting back on track now. The better side of my dislike for classes is that time I spend avoiding all the non obligatory ones can be put to better use. And that the only trouble with reading Spanish translations of Pratchett's books in boring classes is keeping from laughing out loud. P.S: why isn't there a service where I could borrow a passable gamer laptop for a week or two? I want to get lost in games for a while but I cannot afford to play once the exams draw too near. Buying (or having a friend assemble) one is expensive and totally unnecessary for my usual needs. Just a thought, hopefully not deviation from the topic again too much. But my GOG account includes these games with German (and a few others): the Witcher 1 and 2, whole Broken Sword saga, a vampire themed adventure saga and another adventure that happened to be on sale in past. Edited by Cavesa on 29 April 2015 at 9:52pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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