Where does one find other people with our same passion?

General discussion about learning languages
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Where does one find other people with our same passion?

Postby Brun Ugle » Thu Aug 06, 2015 9:52 am

A lot of people that like studying languages for fun seem to prefer studying them on their own rather than attending classes because it's often faster and more flexible, and of course cheaper. Many people that go to language classes do it because they don't know any other way to learn a language or don't have the confidence to believe they can study on their own. I'm talking about those who study for fun, not as a school requirement. But in any case, I don't think you're likely to meet a lot of passionate language enthusiasts there.

The thing is, there is a difference between someone who takes a language class at a community center because they like to vacation in Spain and the kind of people you meet on this forum. Of course there are people here who are only learning a language for a specific purpose whether because they have to for work or school or because they want to for travel or social reasons. But there are also a lot of the sort who drool over grammar books and dictionaries.

It's easy enough in many places these days to meet someone who speaks more than one language, but that doesn't mean they are enthusiastic about languages or enjoy talking about them. It's kind of like with cars. I know how to drive one because I once had a need to learn, but I have absolutely no interest in talking about them. And that's the attitude I often see regarding languages. Someone might know two or three because of school or circumstances, but that doesn't mean they want to spend an evening discussing verb tenses or etymology or something fun like that. (Some people have no idea how to have a good time.)
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tastyonions
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Re: Where does one find other people with our same passion?

Postby tastyonions » Thu Aug 06, 2015 11:34 am

It's interesting, my experience at French meetups has been that most non-natives with a B2+ level in the language also have at least a low-intermediate level in a third language, with many of them looking to improve it. Though there is the occasional person who moved to a francophone country for purely business or family reasons and got an advanced level that way.

People who are into 5+ languages are a rarer breed, though.
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Chung
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Re: Where does one find other people with our same passion?

Postby Chung » Thu Aug 06, 2015 3:54 pm

sillygoose1 wrote:One thought that hasn't crossed my mind in the past 4-5 years is where to meet other people who love learning languages. This hobby of ours is in fact viewed oddly by a decent amount of people so I've never really bothered trying to meet other people who learn languages. I don't think I've ever met anyone in real life who spoke more than two languages.

Has anyone taken any language or linguistic classes in college or something where you've met other people who aspire to speak multiple languages? I was thinking about minoring in a language for fun + social aspect but I figured that French/Spanish/German/Italian classes would be full of people just trying to fulfill their language requirement and that languages like Russian/Arabic/Mandarin would be mainly heritage speakers looking for an easy grade. I wouldn't be sure what to expect from a linguistics course.

What do you guys think?


I have met plenty of people in the flesh who speak more than two languages. A few of them were former classmates from university (one of them was a native Slovak but she could also speak Czech, English and German while another was a Romanian who could also speak English and German to go with a bit of Hungarian). Over the last little while, it's been Couchsurfers who've made up my encounters of multilinguals. The Fennoswedes among them are fluent in English, Finnish and Swedish while one of my hosts in Helsinki was a linguistics grad student who was/is fluent in English, Estonian, Finnish and Hungarian and as I last recall was trying to pick up some Hindustani. Further south, my Transylvanian hosts were/are fluent in English, Hungarian and Romanian. At the same time, none of them were quite like me in wanting to learn for the hell of it (although that grad student was close and I admit that she was like a goddess to me - physically and intellectually 8-) ).

I've never taken a class with the goal of meeting other polyglots or polyglot-wannabes. I agree with emk's point that a lot of such people (including we on the forum) are self-effacing and like the degree of control that comes with learning independently. However, I see classes (and some groups on meetup.com) as an opportunity to get in touch with a native speaker (i.e. the instructor) and/or the local speech community (usually new immigrants or heritage-learners). The complications for me are that I'm into some less popular languages that aren't backed up by classes or meetup groups, and for better or worse, some of these language meetups are conflated with singles groups where language-learning or language-exchange is blatantly secondary to taking someone home.

Apart from that, I'm quite sure that the best place to meet others who fit the HTLAL-mould in-person would be a polyglot conference.
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