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

[MrPenguin]

Right now, for me, that language is German. I originally started learning it in high school, and found it interesting enough, and fairly easy to pick up, earning me top grades. For years afterwards, I left it mostly unused, though it came in handy on a single occasion attending a piano masterclass with a teacher who didn't speak English. Then, in 2010, on a whim, I started working on it on LingQ, just to test the service, and made rather quick progress. This led me to begin acquiring books and comics in the language, though by this point, I was already losing interest in the language itself, as my interest in other languages took hold. The language was never particularly pretty, in my ears, and over the years, this impression has, for inexplicable reasons, just gotten stronger and stronger, to the point where the language doesn't appeal to me at all anymore.

Right now, the only reason I'm sticking to it, and not switching wholesale to something like Spanish, is because I feel like I've spent so much time on it, having reached such a decent level, and having so many books and comics on my shelf that I have yet to read, that I can't possibly abandon it now (also known as the "sunk cost fallacy"). If I could just find some way of getting rid of my German books without desecrating them (i.e. throwing them in the trash), the heavy burden would be released, and I could move on.

[aokoye]

This is also kind of related to the "only 7% of US college students are learning a language?" in that I know a lot of people who are forced/were into taking language classes because it is/was requirement for their BA.

[zenmonkey]

I wasn't a fan of German and had never really studied it up to when I got the opportunity to move.

It isn't my favourite language today but I enjoy it quite a bit now.
And I certainly enjoy studying it!

[rdearman]

If I could just find some way of getting rid of my German books without desecrating them (i.e. throwing them in the trash), the heavy burden would be released, and I could move on.

Go to the polyglot gathering and leave them on the book swap table, they'll get snapped up pretty sharpish I figure.

[Chung]

The nearest one for me is Russian. I had to hold my nose to learn it since I was due to chase bigger game by doing the Turkic Challenge. I needed to learn just enough to be able to use learning material for Turkic languages spoken in Russia (e.g. Tatar, Tuvan) which have little or nothing available in other languages.

A background in other Slavonic languages made my hair stand when hearing Russian's strong vowel reduction (goddamnit, stop fouling up unstressed vowels like in English!), seeing its unphonemic spelling (a little better than English but MUCH worse than BCMS/SC, Slovak etc.), and roll my eyes / smirk / laugh at false friends (see here).

I admit that its political/historical baggage had a role too. Russian for me is tied to Russia - good and bad - and well... you know... Eastern European history. Having studied beforehand Polish and Ukrainian, both of which had been on the wrong end of Russification, has long left me looking askance at Russian.

This thread reminds me of the chestnut "The last language you would want to learn" from HTLAL. The variation of coming to dislike a language after happy beginnings happens too as seen in "Ever fallen OUT of love with a language?" and "Ex-Languages: reasons for divorce?", also on HTLAL.

[Seneca]

If I could just find some way of getting rid of my German books without desecrating them (i.e. throwing them in the trash), the heavy burden would be released, and I could move on.

Go to the polyglot gathering and leave them on the book swap table, they'll get snapped up pretty sharpish I figure.

Just curious, what are the most interesting things you have ever come across on the swap table? I bet you saw some real gems.

[PeterMollenburg]

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.

Very well said!
————————————

When I moved schools at the end of my first year in high school, I went from a school which taught German, which I loved, as I finally got to delve into a European language, something I had been curious about for a long time, to a school which taught French. In both schools I did not have the choice, as it was compulsory to study the language in the curriculum, whichever one that was at the school you were attending.

My attitude held me back in the new school. I openly stated I hated French. Why? Because it wasn’t German, which I had fallen in love with. It was simply my attitude that I was fixated on because the circumstances didn’t allow me to continue learning German, and I backed up my arguments by saying French was stupid/useless/fill in the blank with a more offensive word. Arguments, of course, with no merit.

After high school, I wanted to learn Spanish, and the avenue of distance education I had gone down allowed me to also choose a 2nd language, German was not available. French was, and I had matured to the point I thought, why not give this language a go, and just see if I like it. Like it? I loved it! And have ever since.

So indeed, negative experiences and attitudes can’t be blamed on the language itself. Even my rants over English/Globish really are rants over world domination and control, not my hate of the English language (which I really don’t hate), since how can a language on it’s own have negative intent? So I agree, all languages are geat!

[rdearman]

If I could just find some way of getting rid of my German books without desecrating them (i.e. throwing them in the trash), the heavy burden would be released, and I could move on.

Go to the polyglot gathering and leave them on the book swap table, they'll get snapped up pretty sharpish I figure.

Just curious, what are the most interesting things you have ever come across on the swap table? I bet you saw some real gems.

You'd think so, but actually I didn't get much. This was because there as a lot of stuff in languages I wasn't interested in. But mostly because it goes so faat! Some people are almost camping nearby to snap stuff up. I do know some people got good stuff. I gave brun ulge a book of Buddhist darma in Japanese and English I was given in Singapore. I saw people snapping up a lot of manga and lots of Russian books.

You really have to be quick!

[Serpent]

Here's an example:


Some of the books I brought are in this pic, for example Narnia in Finnish

[jeff_lindqvist]

Some of the titles I've found over the years (starting with Polyglot Gathering in Berlin 2014): a textbook in Dutch, an old Teach Yourself Japanese, random Esperanto material (including two coasters with the complete grammar, haha!), Sydney Lau's Elementary Cantonese I and II, a bunch of Berlitz phrase books, a bilingual collection of short stories in Italian/English and then Complete Brazilian Portuguese (just the book, so INComplete ). Last year, I browsed the table a number of times, but mostly saw material in languages I don't speak (or don't have a major interest in), including bilingual dictionaries in really useless combinations (for me, that is).

Back to the topic - if I don't like a language at all, I don't learn it. If it makes sense to take a break from a language I'm learning, I'll do that.