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

[nooj]

Which one(s) and what was your history behind it? Forced to at school? Obligated by moving to the country? Did you end up liking it, or do you still not like it?

[Kamlari]

English.
I don't exactly dislike it, but I don't like it either.
You just have to 'know' it to access this forum.

[aaleks]

There's no such a language. But to some extent it was German. I always wanted to learn English but in my school there were only two options: German and French. German was my own choice but to 9-year-old me there was no real difference between the two languages. They both wasn't English after all. Anyway, after a while, as a normal human being , I came to conclusion that I made a mistake and French would've been the better choice. But I think that if my German teachers weren't so bored and boring creatures my feelings toward the language would've been different. The one of the reasons why later (after school) I tried to learn it on my own was a teacher I had met who loved the language (and also thought that I had the ability to learn a foreign language). Nevertheless that attempt didn't last long enough to bring my German up to a high level. So after I stopped learning German I lost it. I think that if I were interested in the language that wouldn't have happened, or I would've already done something to revive it. But I still hope that one day I would .

[rfnsoares]

I would not say that. I prefer to say that there are languages I am not interested in, at least for now.
Also there are languages that I miserably failed, German for example.

[Saim]

There are languages that I wasn't hugely into when I first started (some of which I even have a fluent or advanced understanding of, like Polish or Urdu) but they've always ended up growing on me. Since I'm studying linguistics and have had the concept of linguistic equality drummed into me I also find it hard not to see all natural languages as different manifestations of the same thing; actively disliking any of them would be anathema to that sort of attitude.

[Xenops]

I got to a reasonable level in Spanish in high school, and it wasn't a passion, but I enjoyed it at the time. When I tested into intermediate level Spanish at the two-year college, the instructor made the language seem more boring than it ought to be. Combined with my dad insisting that I should gain fluency in Spanish before tackling other languages, my enthusiasm for it has slumped. I also don't have a fascination with Latino cultures. Now, instead of trying to force myself to study a language I don't love, I'm working on languages I do love, like French.

[Speakeasy]

I find this question somewhat unusual for a forum whose members generally “want” to learn foreign languages and who freely “choose” to do so. Hopefully, the notion of being “forced” or “obligated” to learn a language will not lead us into yet another political discussion as in: “the requirement to learn X-language is an unfair imposition which causes much needless suffering ...”

I recall my obstinate resistance at being “forced” to learn how to tie my own shoelaces. This was probably due to my confusion with the sheer complexity of the task coupled with the horrifying thought that, in the future, my mother would be paying less attention to my every need. Eventually, I came to appreciate the additional autonomy that mastering this skill procured me. Nevertheless, I always envied those children whose parents had circumvented the problem by purchasing their darlings loafers.

I suppose that the equivalent of the above would be having been “forced” to learn a language, or anything else for that matter, the knowledge of which later turned out to be a blessing in disguise, coupled with the awareness that there existed a less stress-provoking solution to the problem.

EDITED:
Tinkering (OCD)

[sillygoose1]

This language for me is probably Spanish. I really liked it to begin with but for the past two years I've been becoming disenchanted with it. However, I do really like the media associated with it even if I'm impartial to the cultures associated with it these days. On the one hand, I discovered some of my now favorite filmmakers (Alex de la Iglesia and Pedro Almodovar) because of it when I was younger and I maintain that they make some of the best movies as well as drama and comedy series these days of which most don't even get subbed.

The only reasons I'm sticking with it are for the media and because I already got so far with it that I don't want to lose it. I think last year for example all I did was watch Mar de plastico, La casa de papel, and a few movies. There aren't any books I'm interested in reading in it anymore, I don't really see myself visiting a hispanophone country over a francophone country, Italy, or Germany.

[Henkkles]

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.

[aokoye]

I agree that this thread has the ability to morph into something political really fast. At the same time I know at the very least one person who was forced to take Russian classes as a child and did. not. want. to. Needless to say, she remembers almost no Russian as an adult after her well over 5 years of Russian in school.