Why are you learning our language?

[Elenia]

I've had a few Germans (all friends) ask me why I actually want to learn their language when it's so hard, and I should focus more on Swedish although it is hard, and I have focused more on Swedish

[Serpent]

Yeah, I also get the how/where rather than why I generally just say "on my own" or "in Moscow" In Finland it really helps to mention both the cultural etc stuff *and* frequent travel.
I'm grateful to the many Russians who live abroad without speaking the local language or English And of course also to those who've reached a high level and contributed to the perception that it's easy for us
It's frustrating how my own father doesn't really understand why I wanna learn Belarusian
Also, at least online the fact that I support a specific team is generally a good distraction and something that leads to questions about whether I have some connection to the country. I definitely prefer specific questions to a vague why

[jacob_kap]

Usually I'd tell people about my passion to languages in general and that I've been studying some other languages, too.

When someone tells me they're learning Hebrew, I actually tend to ask this question, as well. Answers are, in most cases, pretty much the same. People tell me about their interest in Judaism or Israel, which is very similar to my answers, as I tell people I'm interested in the country \ countries the languages is spoken in and in its culture.

[dampingwire]

I suppose I'm lucky that I can claim I'm studying Japanese because my company is (ultimately) owned by a Japanese company. That was a prime motivation when I started, but now I just enjoy it.

I suppose that German is not going to be too hard to explain away and "brushing up my schoolboy French" is always OK too.

Getting through that lot should give me plenty of time to dream up an excuse for Spanish!

[tastyonions]

Sometimes I even ask people why they learn English. On the rare occasion that the person says something other than a variation on "to get a better job," I am intrigued.

[PeterMollenburg]

Wow, a really interesting thread here, thanks garyb!

It's nice to read the mixed reactions. Some positive (thankfully), and unfortunately some negative. To me it just goes to show how 'programmed' many people are now in the world to do anything study-wise must relate to economics (hence just speak English! is so common). It's a shame people can't see outside the box for the beauty that their cultures represent through the medium of language. Every culture has so much to offer and language is the obvious vehicle (to us language lovers) for that. It really plays into English dominating the world hands. I hope those people that do see it as ridiculous one day learn to appreciate their language more, no matter how big or small. English, or German or French or whatever are no better than any other language. They're are equally amazing despite the number of speakers. Sorry if I come off a little corny, but it's sincerely the way I see it.

[Via Diva]

I'm surprised to see people discouraging other from learning any language, but even more so a popular one. No doubt that French or Japanese are really popular nowadays, and French have been even more popular throughout the history, so while I heard about the French French being picky about any learner, it's still strange that people don't get it.

I never got any negative reactions (but, well, I never got many reactions at all), some people were surprised by my choice, some were plain amazed. People get used to you being a language freak and even if you barely study anything (grr) they use a chance to brag or just tell a story like "Oh, I know this girl, she learned X languages".

One important thing here is that even a positive reaction can be discouraging. When my English mistakes (for example, mispronouncing words like beard or Danish) amuse my boyfriend he tells me I'm really cute, and though I know that I probably indeed look cute to him, I find myself in absolute horror whenever he copies my accent, to an extent of shouting: "Why don't you try to help me fix it, dammit?". It is super discouraging, because if I keep making loads of mistakes after what, 3 months of daily Skype conversations, after more than 10 years of studying, it makes me think that maybe I shouldn't even try to learn any other language, because I can't dedicate them even a half of the time I spent learning English, so my results are "doomed" to be mediocre.

[Brian]

I've had a few Germans (all friends) ask me why I actually want to learn their language when it's so hard, and I should focus more on Swedish although it is hard, and I have focused more on Swedish

Yes, I've had several Germans tell me how difficult their language is. They seem to ignore the fact that it's actually very closely related to my native language (English) and many words sound similar in both languages.

When I dabbled in Hungarian, this attitude was almost universal.

Some people do seem to revel in the fact that they are native speakers of "the hardest language around"

Maybe I should start lecturing all foreigners about how tough English is to learn, what with its crazy non-phonetic spelling etc.

[Delodephius]

I still haven't met any Japanese people, but I read several stories of foreigners going to Japan and what they experienced. Both positive and negative reactions, both depending on the learners and the natives. But, from those stories and what I have read in this topic, I see a common theme: people don't like to learn. Most people anyway. They hated school, that they were forced to learn stuff they didn't care about, and this dislike of learning has continued into adulthood. So when most people encounter someone who is learning anything just for fun, and not money, they are, well, almost insulted.

[voodie]

The only time I experienced something similar was when I was studying Arabic intensively. Apart from lack of understanding from many of my Russian acquaintances (which isn't that surprizing ), it was the reaction of some native speakers that I found a little discouraging. While some of them were really supportive, others were completely indifferent and just didn't want to switch to Arabic.

Apparently, the authors of the article on Arabic at the old HTLAL forum were right when they said that "the <...> advantage of speaking Arabic is probably not as strong as being a Muslim".