I'm Not Learning ____ Language Because...

General discussion about learning languages
whatiftheblog
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Re: I'm Not Learning ____ Language Because...

Postby whatiftheblog » Tue Nov 21, 2017 9:05 pm

My relationship with Spanish is complicated because there's such a huge difference between my receptive and productive skills - I can pretty much get through a long, complicated legal record in Spanish with limited linguee lookups, and I can absolutely read/watch the news, but productively, I'm probably an A2 at best. However, my focus is 100% on perfecting my French right now, and I just don't want it to get too confusing, even though I'm almost positive I could use a version of the AJATT (in my case, AFATT/ASATT) approach to bring myself up to a B2 in Spanish fairly easily.

I reeeeeally like Portuguese & Afrikaans, but, as above, it would just take time away from my French, and I'm hell-bent on mastering it first.
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Re: I'm Not Learning ____ Language Because...

Postby leosmith » Wed Nov 22, 2017 7:49 am

I’m not learning Arabic because 1) due to the political situation I’m afraid of visiting and trying to date women in Arabic speaking countries and 2) Learning Standard Arabic isn’t enough if I want to speak to (most) native speakers. I’d have to learn at least one additional dialect for that, several if I really wanted to feel like a master of Arabic.

It’s a shame really because Arabic is the only remaining hardest category FSI language I can’t speak, and the only official UN language I can’t speak. Those are both huge motivations for me, but I’m afraid to start a language with the 2 big problems I pointed out.
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Ogrim
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Re: I'm Not Learning ____ Language Because...

Postby Ogrim » Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:32 am

leosmith wrote:I’m not learning Arabic because 1) due to the political situation I’m afraid of visiting and trying to date women in Arabic speaking countries and 2) Learning Standard Arabic isn’t enough if I want to speak to (most) native speakers. I’d have to learn at least one additional dialect for that, several if I really wanted to feel like a master of Arabic.


It is possible to visit a country without trying to date women you know ;)

Without entering into politics, I should say there are still great differences between Arabic countries. I've been to the Emirates and I felt perfectly safe, as do most expats who live there. You just have to accept their norms and standards (no holding hands or kissing in public, no drinking alcohol in public etc). I've also been to Marocco and Egypt in the past, and apart from being hassled by people trying to sell you stuff I did not find the experience particulary scary.

The diglossia is of course an issue, but for the time being I don't worry to much about it, as getting a decent level in MSA is more than enough at the moment. From what I've heard you will be understood by the huge majority of Arabs if you speak MSA to them - but you may have difficulties understanding them if they speak a dialect back to you.
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Willow
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Re: I'm Not Learning ____ Language Because...

Postby Willow » Wed Nov 22, 2017 5:42 pm

Xenops wrote:I read this, and I have to wonder: do you need Spanish? It sounds like you’re learning Spanish when your heart is set on Italian. Or perhaps you love both?


It's complicated :D
To be honest, I'm fond of both, and it was unbelievably tough to make a choice, but then I simply started make a course in Spanish, and I wonder whether I'd like to continue with it, when I'll have more time and spirit. That is why I'm restraining myself from Italian, to be honest :)
Still, I love it so much! :D
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