Why do you learn languages?

General discussion about learning languages

Why do you learn languages?

Practical (informational)
9
15%
Literary ("great books")
31
51%
Social (relationships or popular media)
21
34%
 
Total votes: 61

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luke
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Why do you learn languages?

Postby luke » Fri Oct 08, 2021 2:12 pm

Everyone probably has multiple reasons. The poll makes you select a single one, but if the poll had "many or all", that one would probably get the votes and therefore tell us nothing.

Another complication is that some may learn different languages for different reasons, so you're asked to "choose the one that's the biggest component".

The three choices come from an idea in The Word Brain where the author distinguishes three types of language. They are split here into written genres, but they are much broader than written media.

The Word Brain wrote:words can be divided into three great areas:
1) Language of science, documentaries, and media;
2) Language of prose;
3) Colloquial language (comic strips, etc.).
These areas certainly overlap, but only to a certain degree.

That's the idea behind the three choices. The poll choices are in the same order.
0 x

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lusan
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Re: Why do you learn languages?

Postby lusan » Fri Oct 08, 2021 2:52 pm

luke wrote:Everyone probably has multiple reasons. The poll makes you select a single one, but if the poll had "many or all", that one would probably get the votes and therefore tell us nothing.

Another complication is that some may learn different languages for different reasons, so you're asked to "choose the one that's the biggest component".

The three choices come from an idea in The Word Brain where the author distinguishes three types of language. They are split here into written genres, but they are much broader than written media.

The Word Brain wrote:words can be divided into three great areas:
1) Language of science, documentaries, and media;
2) Language of prose;
3) Colloquial language (comic strips, etc.).
These areas certainly overlap, but only to a certain degree.

That's the idea behind the three choices. The poll choices are in the same order.


What about cultural reasons?
It is not pragmatic for me to study Italian and French at all.
I just love the sound of the language and Italian way of life.
Likewise for French.
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Re: Why do you learn languages?

Postby sfuqua » Fri Oct 08, 2021 2:56 pm

I put down great books, but really it is just to travel a bit, in my mind.
Travel without the problems of real travel.
Escape really. :lol:
7 x
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...

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lusan
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Re: Why do you learn languages?

Postby lusan » Fri Oct 08, 2021 3:03 pm

sfuqua wrote: really it is just to travel a bit, in my mind.
Travel without the problems of real travel.
Escape really. :lol:


Me too. Me too.
With time, I began to realize that mind traveling is a lot of fun
without the hassles nor Covid!
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Re: Why do you learn languages?

Postby Iversen » Fri Oct 08, 2021 3:09 pm

What about sheer curiosity? Or collector's mania? I didn't vote, but what I can say is that the three realms of vocabulary as listed by the Wordbrain fit me like a glove: Language of science, documentaries, and (well, ... ) media first, then other kinds of prose, then 'colloquial language', which for me points more in the direction of conversational formulas and small talk than comic strips etc. - but anyway, then we just make a group three for those formulas and relegate Zaaaappp and Boooiiing and ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz to a new group four.

I have good reasons for the first of my languages: Danish because I was born in Denmark, English and German because they were mandatory in school and we are exposed to them quite often here ... but then the fun starts: I started to learn Italian at home because of my interest in classical music, and then I added Spanish because I saw that the couple who had written my Italian textbook also had made one for Spanish. I started to learn Latin vocabulary when I was around 11 or 12 because I had an deep interest in the nomenclature of vertebrates (living as well as extinct)- and I know that it was at that age because I had to use my mother's library card to order the catalogues from the Natural History Museum in London home to my local library. Then French popped up on the curriculum, and after a period at the Literature Institute at the university I decided that French might be a reasonable option if I had to choose just one language. But then there were courses in Old French and Old Occitan and (Modern) Catalan and ... well, then suddenly our institute got a Romanian exchange teacher, and I started to learn that too, and I also followed a course in Icelandic (without ever signing up for anything but French). So basically I tried to cover the Germanic and the Romance languages, even though I had to leave out a few at the time - but I have added those later.

As for Greek and the Slavic languages: no compelling reason, and even though I did by some books in the early 1980s I have first started studying them in earnest way into this millennium - and just for fun since I'm retired and don't ever again have to take an exam or find a job. And oh, travelling. I have travelled a lot, and it was travelling that kept my Spanish alive during the 25 years or so where I didn't study languages. But if travelling was my main motivation for language learning I should probably have studied some Asiatic languages too.
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Re: Why do you learn languages?

Postby iguanamon » Fri Oct 08, 2021 3:50 pm

I wrote about it here in this log post. Curiosity, mental challenge, broadening my mind, discovering new things I didn't know I liked before, meeting people in different countries (and my own) who grew up differently than I did with different perspectives on life and culture.

There's also the thrill of reaching the ability to understand a language that was gibberish before. Being able to communicate with others using the language. Understanding a new culture. I still can't believe I can do this with a second language. It's like a minor miracle.

I can read in three Hebrew alphabets and understand a critically endangered language- Ladino/Djudeo-espanyol. I can break down barriers with Spanish, Kreyòl, and Kwéyòl where I live here in the Caribbean. When I have to travel to the States, Miami is my port of call gateway. Sometimes I have to stay for a day or two. I speak more Spanish there than I do in San Juan, plus Portuguese and Kreyòl. It's a wonderful feeling.

I've read books I would have never, or never could have, read in English. I've watched and listened to media not available in my native language. I've enjoyed music I wouldn't have had access to as a monolingual. I can read Pablo Neruda, García Lorca, and Pessoa in the original. I can delve into African literature with Portuguese. Languages can help me travel without ever leaving my house. I guess I just always wanted to see what was around the next bend.
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Re: Why do you learn languages?

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sat Oct 09, 2021 8:18 am

iguanamon wrote:There's also the thrill of reaching the ability to understand a language that was gibberish before. Being able to communicate with others using the language. Understanding a new culture. I still can't believe I can do this with a second language. It's like a minor miracle.


Yes. There's truly something magical about it. It's completely bizarre when you consider it abstractly, that other people can talk away in their native language(s) and we have no clue what they are saying in many cases. They know exactly what they are saying, they are so used to it that it is as straightforward as my mothertongue is to me. That is incredible. How did this happen? Why is it like this? What are they saying? I want to be able to speak like them, understand them. What is their country/home region like?

In choosing a language (or two, three, four...) and learning to speak like them, understand and enunciate the sounds like them, even slurr certain syllables and express slang like them the magic unfolds and I'm amazed as I understand more and more. It's a journey, piqued by curiousity in the beginning and a journey that makes me want to go and experience their magical lands someday where their magical tongue(s) are commonplace. One word: Fascination. Let's not forget curiousity and let's throw in adventure and exploration. Through hard work we can get there, but let's not lose sight of 'now' while getting 'there', since it's the journey that counts.
11 x

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RyanSmallwood
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Re: Why do you learn languages?

Postby RyanSmallwood » Sat Oct 09, 2021 12:24 pm

I selected "literary" but potentially I could select all 3 depending on how they're interpreted, since I'm strongly interested in popular media (and I would say a lot of "great books" were popular media of their day, but there's other kinds of distinctions one could make), and informational in that there's a lot of history and other kinds of non-fiction I like to or want to read. For social I don't really go out of my way to find people to speak with, but I have friends who speak other languages and its nice they can share articles, videos and whatnot that aren't translated.
3 x

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Elsa Maria
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Re: Why do you learn languages?

Postby Elsa Maria » Sat Oct 09, 2021 5:45 pm

I voted for "Literary" because literature is my one true love that I will never forsake. I continue to read a lot of literature in my native language. The ability to read literature in other languages is beyond compelling, and it is what drives me not to give up.

But it has never been the catalyst to begin! That has typically been something practical followed by something social. It starts like this: I am living there or a loved one is living there or planning to move there. And then, sooner or later, we have friends there. I even started Latin because of a social connection.
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Re: Why do you learn languages?

Postby Caromarlyse » Sun Oct 10, 2021 8:00 am

Identity would be my most succinct answer ;-)
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