Are any of you learning English purely or mainly as a labor of love?

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Le Baron
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Re: Are any of you learning English purely or mainly as a labor of love?

Postby Le Baron » Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:16 pm

mrwarper wrote:
Le Baron wrote:Apart from the fact that it would have excluded you from being able to actively post on an English-based forum like this.
I am as unsure what you mean by 'actively' as I am sure I'd be posting in some non-English-language-based forum like this :)

The operative word there is 'like'.
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Re: Are any of you learning English purely or mainly as a labor of love?

Postby mrwarper » Fri Apr 29, 2022 10:27 am

Time for an "English Pop Quiz: How Similar is 'Pretty Much the Same'?" thread? :)
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Re: Are any of you learning English purely or mainly as a labor of love?

Postby Suzie » Fri Apr 29, 2022 12:51 pm

I am another candidate who fell in love with the English language during school. I even seriously considered studying English at uni, but to my parents' great relieve I went into (the financially more promising) STEM instead after realizing that English studies at university level is mostly about English literature, and I am not that much into that. A career in sciences allows me to work primarily in English rather in German, so I am getting the best of both worlds!

First, during school, I was constantly amazed by new words, the expressions, the sounds (a love that I feel for any language that I have learned since). In my early career days, I decided to study at an English university part-time, aside my day-to-day job. It was mostly distance learning, but during each stay I had a huge TV party going on every night, celebrating the opportunity to watch all the cool UK channels. (That was before streaming was a thing, I must add.) I think it was then when I fell in love with British English specifically. I adore listening to the Queen, enjoy the sound of RP in BBC news, and am thrilled every time I hear a local dialect within UK and Ireland. Today, thanks to the internet, I think I am far more familiar with British pop culture than German one, just because I love the sound of the language so much.
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Le Baron
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Re: Are any of you learning English purely or mainly as a labor of love?

Postby Le Baron » Fri Apr 29, 2022 1:54 pm

mrwarper wrote:Time for an "English Pop Quiz: How Similar is 'Pretty Much the Same'?" thread? :)

I thought perhaps: 'how do we measure things in bunches? Unless they are bananas, flowers, keys or grapes?
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Re: Are any of you learning English purely or mainly as a labor of love?

Postby mrwarper » Sat Apr 30, 2022 11:08 am

Perhaps Sam Peckinpah thought his wild, ageing outlaws were bananas too.
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Re: Are any of you learning English purely or mainly as a labor of love?

Postby Le Baron » Sat Apr 30, 2022 3:17 pm

mrwarper wrote:Perhaps Sam Peckinpah thought his wild, ageing outlaws were bananas too.

You may be right. It's the sole figurative use of 'bunch'.
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Re: Are any of you learning English purely or mainly as a labor of love?

Postby tractor » Sat May 21, 2022 6:07 pm

I learnt English because it was a compulsory subject at school. On the other hand, nobody forced me to study it at university. I don't think I chose to do so because of love though. It was more out of academic curiosity.
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