What is the point of mastering/learning so many languages?

General discussion about learning languages
devinfitz
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Re: What is the point of mastering/learning so many languages?

Postby devinfitz » Tue Nov 16, 2021 12:18 am

I like these sorts of discussions, precisely as everyone's motivations end up being wildly different. I started in the 'I just want to read Chinese literature' camp. Then, it turned out that to qualify for my advanced degree, I also needed three years of Japanese. And, since I was in a program focusing on minority languages - Manchu and some Tibetan ended up in the mix. By the end, I had written a very aspirational global history, held together mostly by masking tape and some focused study (i.e. learn enough Dutch to read this thing in Dutch, promptly forget all Dutch, repeat with German, etc.).

Initially, my motivations were that vague mix of 'loving a thing' and 'well, I need to do it.' I think that's what generates a bit of stress when people study there first few languages. But at the end of it all, I think it comes down to a sort of ambiguous philosophy and an enjoyment of something both immersive enough and bottomless enough to tame my obvious ADHD. My new job, which I won't go into here, pushed me fully over the ledge, as suddenly things became 'practical.'

The philosophy is simple on my part: language acquisition is part of my personal practice to overcome the myopia inherent in Anglo-American academics and society. A concrete example of this was when I recently heard some folks from the Taliban speaking in Dari on the Iranian news - and understanding the language drove home the "holy crap, these are just kids, ground down in horrible global system who are now grinding people down in a whole new horrible system." I could have arrived there intellectually, but it wouldn't have been as immediate to me without the language.

Next, comes the enjoyment. I believe, like many 'polyglots,' that fluency is a myth. Believing that, I no longer view languages as anything other than a delightful hobby. Good, bad, I really don't care. While my wife makes pots, I lock myself in a dark room for several hours and come out with something new. The real problem, which I ask sincerely: how do I not ignore everything and just think about languages constantly?
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Re: What is the point of mastering/learning so many languages?

Postby Ogrim » Fri Nov 19, 2021 8:50 am

acorngalaxy wrote:Obvious economic / show-off benefits aside,

What is the point of mastering so many languages? (we’re talking more than 4-5)


I strongly doubt that there are obvious economic benefits from learning more than 4-5 languages. I'd even say that for most people (at least here in Europe), there is potentially some benefit in learning one language (English mostly) but the more languages you add, the less economic benefit they will bring you. In most professions, knowledge of languages is way down the list of competencies and qualifications employers ask for.

Personally, I benefitted greatly from knowing English and French well, because I wouldn't have my current job without those languages (they are the organisation's working languages). My other languages have been beneficial in other aspects of my life, but they have not given me a better job or a higher salary.

As for showing off, well, some people do llike to show off with their languages, and you find a few of them on YouTube, but personally I have never had the desire to brag about my language skills. Most people I relate to are not even aware of my interest for languages and have no idea that I am trying to learn Arabic and speak Romansh (they probably wouldn't even know that Romansh exists, come to that). If people ask me directly how many languages I know, I tell them, and if they are really interested, I will give them some details, but outside this forum I really don't talk about it. I've experienced that people who are not into language learning as a hobby find it rather tedious if I start talking about Russian verbs of movement or the Arabic influence on Spanish. :)
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Re: What is the point of mastering/learning so many languages?

Postby einzelne » Fri Nov 19, 2021 1:25 pm

Ogrim wrote:I strongly doubt that there are obvious economic benefits from learning more than 4-5 languages.


There are none.
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Re: What is the point of mastering/learning so many languages?

Postby rdearman » Fri Nov 19, 2021 4:48 pm

einzelne wrote:
Ogrim wrote:I strongly doubt that there are obvious economic benefits from learning more than 4-5 languages.


There are none.

Unless those languages are computer programming languages. :)
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Re: What is the point of mastering/learning so many languages?

Postby devinfitz » Fri Nov 19, 2021 9:47 pm

Terrifying the common folk with your towering intellect ...
Just kidding, but there are definite economic benefits to being 'impressive.' Better chances of promotion, better reputation, etc. all correlate. More mundanely, being more nimble to respond to opportunities matters.

In my case, I'm pretty certain I only got my job because of reading proficiency in around 12 languages (my job is super niche).


einzelne wrote:
Ogrim wrote:I strongly doubt that there are obvious economic benefits from learning more than 4-5 languages.


There are none.
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Re: What is the point of mastering/learning so many languages?

Postby einzelne » Fri Nov 19, 2021 10:57 pm

devinfitz wrote:reading proficiency in around 12 languages (my job is super niche).


Can I safely assume that you job is in academia in some humanities department?
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Re: What is the point of mastering/learning so many languages?

Postby Axon » Sat Nov 20, 2021 6:07 am

Sure, there might not be many jobs that list "must speak 4-5 languages" on the actual job posting. But each new language opens up economic opportunities just like it does travel and culture opportunities, and I'm kind of mystified why people even here might assume it doesn't.

Someone with two strong languages besides, say, native American English can look for work in the US at companies dealing with either of their target language markets, plus companies in any country speaking their target languages. As someone who would be perfectly happy living and working in many different countries, personally I feel like I have a whole lot of freedom in career location precisely because of my languages.

Also, it really does stand out to people. I have six foreign languages on my CV, even including Russian and French listed as a modest "Reading Only" level. It's consistently been one of the first topics brought up in any interview, and no interviewer has ever seemed to view it as bragging or exaggerated. Even for jobs with no language skills required, it makes me a more valuable candidate because interviewers start asking themselves if there might in fact be a way they can use somebody multilingual.

Finally, even a basic knowledge of many languages can add a lot of value in terms of something like a sanity check before sending content off to more expensive translators. If you're hiring a project manager or software engineer who will work on projects that end up getting translated into many languages, you'd probably love to hire someone with a broad range of language and culture knowledge because they'd be able to know things like "Oh, our product name is a slur in that language" or "that design looks like the flag of the country they hate" and so on.
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Re: What is the point of mastering/learning so many languages?

Postby jimmy » Sat Nov 20, 2021 9:18 am

rdearman wrote:
einzelne wrote:
Ogrim wrote:I strongly doubt that there are obvious economic benefits from learning more than 4-5 languages.


There are none.

Unless those languages are computer programming languages. :)

:)

computer programmer can also gain much money.
Also, I am not sure which one can gain more money: language learners/translators (multilinguals) , computer programmers.
Actually, I was a nominator to be strong computer programmer , but I did not spend sufficient effort.
all in all these days I am considering to head this field.
I will have published some patent materials (in english) ,there are many publication in Turkish.
But cannot be sure whether these will bring me money.(Because corporations do not directly get in touch with us inventors to ask permission via paying our product's licensing fee)
so,...
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Re: What is the point of mastering/learning so many languages?

Postby s_allard » Sat Nov 20, 2021 1:42 pm

Axon wrote:Sure, there might not be many jobs that list "must speak 4-5 languages" on the actual job posting. But each new language opens up economic opportunities just like it does travel and culture opportunities, and I'm kind of mystified why people even here might assume it doesn't.

Someone with two strong languages besides, say, native American English can look for work in the US at companies dealing with either of their target language markets, plus companies in any country speaking their target languages. As someone who would be perfectly happy living and working in many different countries, personally I feel like I have a whole lot of freedom in career location precisely because of my languages.

Also, it really does stand out to people. I have six foreign languages on my CV, even including Russian and French listed as a modest "Reading Only" level. It's consistently been one of the first topics brought up in any interview, and no interviewer has ever seemed to view it as bragging or exaggerated. Even for jobs with no language skills required, it makes me a more valuable candidate because interviewers start asking themselves if there might in fact be a way they can use somebody multilingual.

Finally, even a basic knowledge of many languages can add a lot of value in terms of something like a sanity check before sending content off to more expensive translators. If you're hiring a project manager or software engineer who will work on projects that end up getting translated into many languages, you'd probably love to hire someone with a broad range of language and culture knowledge because they'd be able to know things like "Oh, our product name is a slur in that language" or "that design looks like the flag of the country they hate" and so on.


I think this post says it all. And, like the author, I’m mystified as to why some people in this thread – of all places – might even think that knowing many languages has little value. As for job opportunities, depending on the nature of the job of course, a good knowledge of multiple languages always comes in handy. Any job that interfaces with the public in today’s world can call upon some knowledge of a foreign language.

This is old hat. What I would like to insist on, as was brought up in this post, is how most people, including job interviewers are really impressed by good language skills, especially if one can demonstrate them. Multilingualism is associated with intelligence and education, rightly or wrongly. Where I live, French-English bilingualism is already impressive (more so for the native-English speaker). Add Spanish and things start to get hot. Now when you demonstrate a fourth or fifth language on the spot, there is a serious wow factor. All this works in your favour. These languages may not be required for the job at hand but I truly believe that you never know when that little extra might be useful.
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Re: What is the point of mastering/learning so many languages?

Postby SpanishInput » Sat Nov 20, 2021 2:43 pm

Axon wrote:"Oh, our product name is a slur in that language"

Happens all the time in the Spanish-speaking world. The name of a Hayao Miyazaki movie, the name of an LG OS, the name of a Samsung player, the name of a Mitsubishi car model are all bad words in Spanish. Every time I encounter something like this I wonder: "Don't they have any Spanish speakers in the team?"
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