alaart wrote:Let me ask a couple counter question to you dabbles. Is it worth dabbling? Can you get something really valuable just by investing a bit? When you stop - why do you stop? Is the curiosity satisfied? Or did you just try several languages to see which language was the right one for you? - do you feel guilty when you stop?
I'm not much of a dabbler, although I have dabbled in the various languages of the British Isles as well as those of the Iberian peninsula, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Latin, Occitan (as I'm writing this I'm thinking maybe I am a dabbler, but it doesn't take up much of my time).
Anyway, a language like Welsh was fun for me to dabble in. I do not live in Wales and I don't know anyone who speaks Welsh as far as I know, but I do go to Wales sometimes. It's nice that I now have some sense of the pronunciation and the orthography now because in Wales almost all 'official' signs are bilingual. I take up enough of my time learning two languages, so I didn't keep Welsh up and I have no regrets about that. I now know how to say Llandudno, and I know why hills in England have similar names to hills in Wales. Curiosity satisfied.