Learning languages of immigrants around you

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nooj
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Re: Learning languages of immigrants around you

Postby nooj » Thu Sep 27, 2018 1:28 am

Hashimi wrote:
nooj wrote:....mostly they speak in 'dialetto' aka Italian languages because they left before Italian was really a thing in Italy


It's true that most of their ancestors came from Veneto and Piemonte, but I think they speak neither Venetian or Piemontese, but Italo-Australian.


The younger generations born in Australia, if they speak any at all as opposed to having assimilated into monolingualism, certainly, but I know for a fact because I've experienced it that the older generations still speak their regional languages like Venetian, Sicilian etc. Basta tendere l'orecchio!
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Re: Learning languages of immigrants around you

Postby Querneus » Thu Sep 27, 2018 9:27 pm

nooj wrote:Are you learning the language of immigrants around you?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Vancouver#Languages

No. Well, I do happen to be learning Mandarin, but the fact it's the second largest immigrant language in Vancouver is not the main reason why I learn it (it is one of the reasons, but maybe reason #5 or so). If I had a greater interest in the immigrant languages around me, I'd have to drop the likes of French and Latin and focus on Cantonese and Punjabi instead (and Tagalog and Korean and Persian...). There's nothing wrong with Cantonese, Punjabi or the others of course, but my interests and priorities lie elsewhere.
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Re: Learning languages of immigrants around you

Postby nooj » Fri Sep 28, 2018 3:28 am

My point in the original post was that I would have much more opportunities to practice a language spoken by lots of people around me.

Everyone has different interests of course. Nothing wrong with that! But I find it strange how I choose the harder route than the easier one, I'm sure I would improve Mandarin or Javanese faster than improving my Italian. Access to native speakers is like El Dorado and yet I've lived in Australia for well over a decade and never bothered to even look into many immigrant languages (other than my own of course).

Anyway I just went to the library and found an excellent Bengali grammar today...I feel the urge coming on, someone stop me. Not another language, no. :(
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Re: Learning languages of immigrants around you

Postby tarvos » Fri Sep 28, 2018 7:41 am

That would mean learning Arabic, Somali, Turkish, Farsi, and a row of eastern European languages such as Polish or Serbian or Bulgarian, and also various forms of Chinese and perhaps Vietnamese.

The Muslim world isn't of much interest to me, given those countries' torrid LGBT record. (Of course there are LGBT refugees, and I am more than willing to learn Arabic to help them, but a country majority which is politically averse to my very existence isn't really something I am amazingly interested in.) Some of these I have some experience with, such as Mandarin and Polish, but when I have to fear for my safety that takes priority. It's sad that I have to say that, because I know that not all Muslims are opposed to LGBT, but better safe than naive.
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Re: Learning languages of immigrants around you

Postby nooj » Fri Sep 28, 2018 9:52 am

To a certain point I understand you. But Poland and China aren't LGBT friendly either.
Last edited by nooj on Fri Sep 28, 2018 9:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Learning languages of immigrants around you

Postby tarvos » Fri Sep 28, 2018 9:54 am

nooj wrote:Poland and China aren't LGBT friendly either...


I know several Poles and they are fine with me being LGBT. They are not as accepting as the Netherlands, but there's a big difference between Poland and Iran or Yemen or Saudi Arabia, where being LGBT costs you your life. In Poland or China, it doesn't. I am safe from actual physical violence in China (violence against LGBT is rare, discrimination is rampant though) and in Poland it's who you know. I've travelled to Wroclaw as an openly trans woman two years ago, before HRT, and it was OK.
Last edited by tarvos on Fri Sep 28, 2018 9:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Learning languages of immigrants around you

Postby nooj » Fri Sep 28, 2018 9:55 am

There's a range of LGBT openness, sure.

What about Russia? Would you want to learn Russian?
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Re: Learning languages of immigrants around you

Postby tarvos » Fri Sep 28, 2018 10:22 am

nooj wrote:There's a range of LGBT openness, sure.

What about Russia? Would you want to learn Russian?


I already spoke Russian fluently before my transition. I lived in China before my transition too. I wouldn't want to live in Russia, but I don't need to learn the language as I already have my Russian social circle, and they are LGBT-accepting, and I speak that language better than almost all of my other foreign languages (except perhaps Spanish) anyway.
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Re: Learning languages of immigrants around you

Postby IronMike » Tue Oct 09, 2018 11:05 pm

nooj wrote:To a certain point I understand you. But Poland and China aren't LGBT friendly either.

Poland is WAY MORE FRIENDLY toward LGBT than any Muslim country, sorry. I can't talk about China due to no personal experience.
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Re: Learning languages of immigrants around you

Postby eido » Wed Oct 10, 2018 12:25 am

I almost learned Burmese because we have two people my mom befriended at her old job from Myanmar. It's a lovely language. I'm still getting used to the concept of tones though - I do not have an ear for music, so I think that makes tones more difficult. I have a couple of resources on my computer for this language. However I do not think I'll be learning it any time soon because I'm too afraid to speak it - the woman of the pair has emphasized many times that her language is too hard to pronounce and she wouldn't even teach my mom a few words, so I think she doesn't like to see it murdered. And even as English is difficult for her, she's still better at it than will be my attempts to speak her language should I ever try to.

I'm already learning Spanish, and my reason for learning it was that it was the most widely spoken foreign language in the United States - back when I signed up for it as a fourteen year-old. But I grew to love it as more than some cold, lifeless thing and it's my first love that I will spend the rest of my life learning (if I have to).

I do feel there's a sense of being a bit of a sycophant when you learn languages of immigrants, especially if they're a bit specific or more stereotypically "rare". Like, are you actually learning to accommodate the speaker, or are you learning to have them be impressed with you? What about interest? It comes down to that old debate of practicality versus interest, I guess.
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