Your biggest language decisions ?
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Forum Name: General discussion
Forum Discription: Discussion about language learning for people who study languages on their own.
URL: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=37209
Printed Date: 18 August 2021 at 10:29am
Posted By: DaraghM
Subject: Your biggest language decisions ?
Date Posted: 01 November 2013 at 11:26am
What are the biggest language decisions you feel you have to make at the moment ? Is it studying a new language, dropping a language, changing your current methodology or simply where to spend you language budget ? At present, I’m trying to decide whether to go broad and study a large number of languages next year, or go deep, and focus intently on just a couple or even one. By the way, I’m not looking for advice to my question. but I am curious what other learners are trying to decide themselves.
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Replies:
I'm dreaming/thinking of going to study here: http://www.omancenter.org/
You know what's putting me off? A lot of the students look like university students. I feel there is a big age gap between me and them and I'd feel out of place and would make them feel like they are getting stuck in a class with an oldie :)
KSAKSA on 01 November 2013
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Right now I'm balancing between my challenges and current own desires. I've already accepted that I won't complete most of the reading challenges... in fact in the remaining two months of the year I can complete two at most. Polish where I'm at 43/50 and Italian where I'm at 31/50. I have a lot of stuff to finish reading in Italian, but a few things in Portuguese are also really important. And I don't want to neglect German and Croatian, especially the latter.
I've also bought a lot of books for the super challenge, but my perpetual question is "what to read and in what language?" :))) things like, shall i buy this now or shall i wait for a discount? what if this book goes out of print while i'm pondering?
More generally, I'm thinking of when and how to learn Swedish. And what to do with languages that are currently useless to me but that I'm attached to, such as Belarusian, Karelian, Indonesian.
Serpent on 01 November 2013
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I tend to decide and think later, I can always renounce on my decisions because it's
not like someone puts up forbidden signs all the way you go. So if I want to do
something I do that and then no one will stop me and if after six months I think "this
is fine for now" then I go do something else.
I might just play guitar for five months and forget about everything else. Things work
themselves out anyways. I just prioritise one target per time, complete that one, next
one. In this way I can have projects of a couple months so I never get sick of seeing
one language forever and always.
And in my better languages I just do things to maintain them. I just finished an e-mail
in Romanian.
tarvos on 01 November 2013
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I've just decided to drop Egyptian Arabic, and it was not an easy decision, since we're in the middle of the #Add1Challenge and I was taking it with Arabic, and really studying it a lot.
Right now I'm going to focus on French and Dutch until January, and then, I want to start tackling German.
fabriciocarraro on 01 November 2013
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I've dropped German, and thinking about keeping my Italian at B2 rather than aiming for the C level because it's just too much work and I'd like to focus on some other things.
sillygoose1 on 01 November 2013
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My biggest decision was definitely to quit all deliberate language learning in 1982, when I had passed my university exam in French and Literature and realized that the 1968 generation had occupied all the good jobs at the university level and wouldn't be inclined to leave them before I were in my fifties. And incidentally this was a lucky decision, because the whole sector with a few exceptions has been shrinking ever since.
My second biggest decision was to revert on that decision - but only at a hobby level - in 2006, when I accidentally hit upon this forum. It was like giving a former alcoholic a drink.
Iversen on 01 November 2013
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Iversen wrote:
My second biggest decision was to revert on that decision - but only at a hobby level -
in 2006, when I accidentally hit upon this forum. It was like giving a former alcoholic a
drink. |
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Interesting. I had thought of you as a founder member, but I think it goes back to 2004
doesn't it? Still you were there in the relatively early days, and are (thankfully) still
here.
montmorency on 01 November 2013
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I'm trying to get my focus down to fewer languages and am wrestling with which language(s) to drop from the rotation since I'm starting to feel spread too thinly.
Chung on 01 November 2013
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My biggest decision: How hard should I push for full professional speaking skills in French, and how much time should I invest?
I'll be wrapping up my Super Challenge reading very shortly, and starting my online probability class in French, which should be a nice challenge. But beyond that, I need to decide whether I should get my listening comprehension up to a solid C1, or whether I should do intensive speaking work. And even though my reading is good, I don't want to stop reading, because it gives all my other skills such a boost.
Choices, choices. :-)
emk on 01 November 2013
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KSAKSA wrote:
I'm dreaming/thinking of going to study here: http://www.omancenter.org/
You know what's putting me off? A lot of the students look like university students. I feel there is a big age gap between me and them and I'd feel out of place and would make them feel like they are getting stuck in a class with an oldie :) |
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As a teacher, I prefer the students that are actually old enough to have a job and some life experience. They always have more interesting things to talk about.
I'm With Stupid on 01 November 2013
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My biggest dilemma now is what to do with Swedish - drop it, study it, change my approach (to what?), drop out from the class (a really disappointing one) and study it on my own only, go on with the class and hope for the better, improve my motivation (how?) etc.
Plus: how to combine learning languages with a rapidly increasing amount of work, how to improve my active German, what to work on to improve my French, how to prioritize all my language plans and fit them into my schedule, what to do to avoid Swedish-Dutch interferences.
It seems that there are many choices to be made... but like Tarvos, I often just go with the flow.
Julie on 01 November 2013
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My biggest challenge right now is narrowing my language list to the ones I really want to learn and am willing to maintain. The problem is just there are so many hours in a day for study, and I really don't want to sit back and watch my skills decay. For example, I'm most interested in Spanish, Irish, German, Portuguese, and Japanese. So those are the five I would work hardest on attaining fluency in, and maintaining said fluency for life. Other languages, like French and Italian, are important to me, but only in the sense that I'd like to get to a decent intermediate level in them and am willing to sacrifice them if I have to. But there's so many fascinating languages out there...I gues it's really all just a question of discipline. Of which I have very little...
IndÃritheach on 02 November 2013
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As for past decisions, my biggest and best one was to start Finnish at the age of 15 and not wait until I "finish" German. I still haven't.
Another surprisingly important decision is adding Esperanto and Belarusian to my list shortly before starting uni. Sometimes I wonder if everything would be different if I hadn't been so frustrated about not having time for my own language learning. I think it's possible, given that I would've found enough time for just Finnish.
Serpent on 02 November 2013
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The decision that stands before me is when to return to studying Korean.
lichtrausch on 02 November 2013
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The biggest decision I have made in regards to language learning is putting the cap to a maximum of 5 languages for the foreseeable future.
1) Since business level fluency is my minimal goal, I thought it would be best to focus on fewer languages, particularly ones that I have strong connections to or have easy access.
2) Focusing on fewer will also allow me to effectively cover any gaps I have in any of the languages I speak/study.
3) It will also give me time to study and attain certification in all the languages (except English and Thai).
4) Allowing myself more time for other non-language hobbies.
Tetsu on 07 November 2013
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I have made two very big decisions in my life concerning languages:
At the age of 19 I decided to go for a Masters Degree in Romance Philology at University, thus spending 6 years studying languages and linguistics full-time rather than (as my Dad put it back then) doing something "useful", like law or economics.
The second biggest decision was to (re)start with Russian about two years ago. It has completely changed the way I spend my spare time.
Ogrim on 07 November 2013
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KSAKSA wrote:
I'm dreaming/thinking of going to study here: http://www.omancenter.org/
You know what's putting me off? A lot of the students look like university students. I feel there is a big age gap
between me and them and I'd feel out of place and would make them feel like they are getting stuck in a class with
an oldie :) |
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Hey, don't worry about age when it comes to language learning, you'll bond with others over your love of a common
language/goal. The minority won't like being around someone purely based on age - but these people are usually
tools anyway. I say go for it!
freakyaye on 08 November 2013
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My biggest decision is usually whether my recent use of the F word was appropriate and whether I should have brought F's mother into the conversation.
luke on 09 November 2013
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Actually in hindsight the most decisive one was to start studying Russian - on a whim.
I have not regretted this decision ever in my life.
tarvos on 09 November 2013
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