Have you learned a language that you don't like?

[languist]

In a sense, yes. I really dislike the Italian language. I know that it is very popular (as least in my experience), and many people consider it one of the most beautiful languages (alongside its Romantic siblings, French and Spanish), but I really dislike pretty much every aspect of how it sounds. However, I work with Italians every day, and count many among my friends, and so purely through exposure, I have picked up a lot of Italian. In fact, if they speak slowly, I'm sure I can understand almost everything. I've never actively "learned" it, as in I've never studied it, and actually I can produce very little, but certainly in a sense I've learnt a language that I don't like. Normally, I fall in love with a language whenever I find it naturally weaving into my environment, but it just hasn't happened with Italian even after so many years. Sometimes I feel guilty that I'm not taking advantage of this (free!) "immersive environment" and properly learning the language, because I'll never have a better opportunity to do so, but then again, sometimes you just have to follow your heart - and my heart is kind of drawn to the pharynx...

[leosmith]

"Don't like" is an understatement. I've gone through times when I hate the language that I'm learning, and I've even quit studying several of them in disgust. But in the end, I've picked every one of them back up. And there are times that I love my languages too. But in general, especially after I've reached a comfortable level, I just consider them to be handy tools. I guess I feel neutral towards them.

I can imagine situations where someone needs to learn a language she doesn't like, and use it daily after reaching the desired level. That would suck. I'm fortunate to never have been in that situation.

[nooj]

What made you hate the languages that you were learning at the time? Was it because of a bad experience with a teacher?

[Speakeasy]

Nooj, I find this line of questioning more-than-a-little curious.

Why are you emphasizing the negative (don’t like, forced, obligated, negative experience, hate the languages)?

What are the goals of your inquiry? What are you trying to achieve with this discussion thread? What are you going to do with the “information” that you are seeking to collect?

[leosmith]

What made you hate the languages that you were learning at the time? Was it because of a bad experience with a teacher?

I blamed all sorts of things - bad teachers, bad language partners, bad host country politics, bad advice from fellow learners, etc. But the actual cause was lack of confidence in myself. That's not to say that those teachers, etc, couldn't use a good chewing out, and I did open a big 'ol can of whoop ass on some of them, but the thing that really needed to be changed was my attitude.

Even now I'll get to hate, or maybe a better word is fear (fear of failure), a new language occasionally. It's usually short-lived thankfully. I remember once while learning Korean last year I got freaked out and just quit completely. I hated it. The next day I was super motivated - how could I stop for a whole day? I was going to lose everything! lol. I made great progress that day, and overcame that particular problem (some grammar issue I think), and then I loved it! It's interesting how I put myself through stuff like that. It's not nearly as bad as it used to be though. The new leo just spends much less time obsessing over his faults than the old leo did.

[nooj]

I blamed all sorts of things - bad teachers, bad language partners, bad host country politics, bad advice from fellow learners, etc. But the actual cause was lack of confidence in myself. That's not to say that those teachers, etc, couldn't use a good chewing out, and I did open a big 'ol can of whoop ass on some of them, but the thing that really needed to be changed was my attitude.

I agree with what you said about it being me, not the language itself. This language learning thing is weird, because to advance, it demands being comfortable with making mistakes, acknowledging imperfection, all the jitters about being in an uncomfortable place, not knowing how to say the right thing etc.

It has definitely taught me many life lessons!

I am also studying a language currently that really doesn't inspire a lot of love in me. But every person I've met who is also studying this language loves it, because they like how it sounds, or because of the culture it goes along with, or the people they know, whereas I'm not as enthusiastic on any of those points.

I've talked about this in my Language Log. However, I keep on going on with it, due to my stubbornness more than anything, and I'm hoping once I'm actually there in country, I can change my views and appreciate the language more. That is to say, I'm learning something although it doesn't bring me much satisfaction, but in the expectation that it will eventually. It's definitely not as pleasant as learning a language that you like from the start, but life is like that, sometimes you gotta do things you don't like...

[Cavesa]

While I understand the question I don't really know what it means to not like a language. Any negative emotions caused by being forced to study a language shouldn't surely be projected at the language itself, but to the actual source. If you ask me, all languages are great. Circumstances however can be suboptimal.

For me, it was clearly English. And just being forced to it any actively punished for the previous French studies was just a part of the reason. I

I simply didn't like it. It sounded ugly. Now, it is just a very good tool, it doesn't need to be nice.
Back then, it was just the least attractive choice of those somewhat available.

Using the language is great, and English can be nice under some circumstances (a certain writer, songwriter, or actor can make it sound great), but I don't like it in general. I don't get any positive emotion just from hearing it, which is something I get from my other languages.

[leosmith]

I am also studying a language currently that really doesn't inspire a lot of love in me.

I didn't find the reason in your log, probably because I didn't read the whole thing - why are you studying it?

[nooj]

This language is French, and actually it's very tough to describe why I don't like it or why I started to learn it in the first place, and what keeps me going. I am writing the following as a kind of stream of consciousness to better figure out why I don´t like French. Please don't expect this to make sense, it is meant to help me more than to help you make sense of why I don't like French.

One can start to learn a language for the silliest of reasons. Me, I believe I started because I was interested in existentialism - yes, Sartre and de Beauvoir and all the rest, as a moody young adult . That holds no more sway now, I think they were rather atrocious human beings (I would characterise them as sexual predators, even) and their philosophy is consequently discredited in my eyes. So French literature and philosophy was my way into French, and there are a few thinkers that I still keep reading in French, people like Montaigne or Pascal or Derrida even.

Then I found a much more viable motivation, which is that I made a French friend who was on exchange and was in my linguistics classes, and who had the same interest as I did in language. He was especially interested and knowledgable about his language: he was the first to give me an introduction to oral French, 'real' French, as he said it, which is the base all I know of about French to this day. Over the years, I have made other French friends, and they are probably the main reason why I have any positive feelings about the language at all, because I associate them with their language...

I can count the number of things that I like about French or things that I have found through the medium of French in a rather short list.

1) My friends.
2) Some authors or thinkers in French that I like.
3) The sound of non standard French (Meridional, Canadian, African Frenches etc)
4) French rap, Canadian music, some other stuff.
5) The rock climbing in France and French speaking countries
6) Traditional French cultures (which have their roots in other languages, not French)

That's...about it.

The standard language itself isn't very aesthetically appealing to me, but that is the language in which the majority of the content I watch is made in.

To be honest, I think I would like French a lot more as a language if I lived in Canada and I was exposed to a nicer sounding version of French (nicer sounding to me) everyday, or if I lived in Burkina Faso and I could listen to a nice Burkina Faso accent, or if I lived in the south-west of France and I could listen to a nice Gascon accent. But what makes these Frenches so interesting is precisely their difference from French, via the influence of the pre-existing languages. For example, Canadian French is deeply influenced by the linguistic origins of its French colonists. 'French' as such is not a language that makes me want to listen to it or speak it all day.

When I meet French learners, they talk about French culture, food, art, the way of life, but I find most French movies kinda boring, save for those which interestingly enough, deal with minorities (le Prophète, la Haine) or with something that reveals a side of France that is not popular in secular France, like its religiosity, for example the films of Bruno Dumont.

Looking back on it, it is the standard language that I don't seem to like and the mainstream and the uniform culture that goes with it. I find the regional cultures of France far more interesting, or at least, what remains of it in France, so that the next time I go, it will definitely be to Brittany and to the French Basque Country. And it is the French languages that I find more linguistically interesting and aesthetically pleasing than French. I like listening to Gascon or Provençal way more than French, they sound beautiful, or Picard, or Breton, or even a Lapurdian dialect of Basque. I'm learning a standard language that produces little that I find interesting. French rap isn't standard French!

Okay, lemme put it this way. I am far more interested in Russian music, Russian literature, Russian TV shows and cinema (especially from the Soviet period), and I have Russian friends, than I am in French music, literature, cinema, AND I am more interested in living and travelling in Russia and Central Asia than in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada or Francophone Africa. Russian sounds way nicer to me than French, as a language. I have to actively look to find things I like about French or in French, whereas I don't have to do that with Russian. Russian needs no justification for me. It's immediately a language I like. Whereas French isn't.

[Cavesa]

When I meet French learners, they talk about French culture, food, art, the way of life, but I find most French movies kinda boring, save for those which interestingly enough, deal with minorities (le Prophète, la Haine) or with something that reveals a side of France that is not popular in secular France, like its religiosity, for example the films of Bruno Dumont.

Looking back on it, it is the standard language that I don't seem to like and the mainstream and the uniform culture that goes with it. I find the regional cultures of France far more interesting, or at least, what remains of it in France, so that the next time I go, it will definitely be to Brittany and to the French Basque Country. And it is the French languages that I find more linguistically interesting and aesthetically pleasing than French. I like listening to Gascon or Provençal way more than French, they sound beautiful, or Picard, or Breton, or even a Lapurdian dialect of Basque. I'm learning a standard language that produces little that I find interesting. French rap isn't standard French!

I am the opposite, as I simply started liking French one day during my childhood, for no particular reason. My cousin was learning it at school instead of the ugly English, perhaps that was one of the triggers.

But I totally see your point. I find the way French gets presented kitsch and annoying. And what is worse, people not learning or liking French judge me due to these stereotypical uncritical superficial French lovers.

Your path of finding minor stuff that you were passionate about in French is what I did with English too. I didn't like English, but I loved Harry Potter. And I loved computer games. And I was lazy to look up subtitles for tv series.

French is being presented extremely badly, from this point of view. I am not surprised so many people choose Spanish instead even in the Czech Republic. And here, French makes much more economic or touristy sense. People are just bored of the kitsch dreamy ideas of the "French way of life". And I am not surprised.