Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby aokoye » Tue Oct 25, 2016 11:35 pm

For German - I saw a segment on TV when I was 10 or 11 about the Vienna Boys Choir and fell in love (this was when I was starting to get into classical music). My 10 year old brain thought "in order to see the Vienna Boys Choir I have to go to Vienna and in order to go to Vienna I have to learn German." That is the sole reason why I started German when I was in 9th grade and part of the reason I studied abroad in Vienna when I was 20 and 21 years old.

I mean yes it turns out I loved German but the reason was the Vienna Boys Choir who I did end up seeing while I was living in Vienna.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby sarkey » Fri Nov 04, 2016 11:08 am

I first started learning Korean because of Kpop and dramas... So, I've picked it up, dropped it, again and again but I always come back. I no longer listen to kpop as much as I used to, but I still love the way the language sounds and I don't plan on giving up dramas. I am starting to get serious about learning Korean. Hopefully I'll actually stick to it this time around.

I also tried studying Mandarin for the same reasons, but it's too difficult.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby maschingon » Fri Nov 04, 2016 11:21 am

I'm currently learning German because I'm working with an Austrian who wants to learn Spanish, so I'm "teaching" him Spanish and he's "teaching" me German (we aren't actually teaching each other, but rather just using each other for writing and speaking practice, and correcting each other, adding those corrections to SRS, etc.)
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby YtownPolyglot » Fri Nov 04, 2016 6:16 pm

I attended a private school where French was required. I left that school and reactivated my French in high school and college.

French was so easy in high school that I figured I wanted a challenge, but not too much of a challenge. Spanish was available and seemed practical.

In graduate school, someone said we would need reading knowledge of French and German. That didn't turn out to be true, but I have never really *needed* an excuse to pick up a language. Now I have learned some German.

There are many italian-Americans in my area, and the local fraternal Italian group offered cheap Italian classes, so I took two years of it.

On my own, I'm trying to learn Portuguese. Every time I try to speak Portuguese, Spanish comes out so it is not so easy to stick with.

I'm also experimenting with Norwegian. It's just far enough away from German and English that I don't anticipate interference problems.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby Iversen » Sat Nov 05, 2016 9:11 am

Since I live in Europe it seems to be a fairly idea to start out learning the European languages first. Whether I ever get time to learn a number of Asian languages too is a big question. As for native languages of the Americas, Africa and Australia there are simply too few resources to make them attractive to me.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby tiia » Sat Nov 05, 2016 10:44 am

I started English in school and there was basically no choice not to take it. But even if it had been optional, I probably would have picked it anyway, just because I already had had contact with English speakers and therefore knew how useful the language is.

I chose Latin two years later, because I didn't want to learn French.

Spanish was optional at school. I took it for fun as long as my grades were ok. The language was supposed to be beautiful and not too difficult. After school I had forgotten everything.

I picked it up again, when I realised that now I really want to learn it again, because:
1. There was this one evening at a language cafe. We spoke (more than) five languages mixed together, but no English, because English was too simple/boring for us. I could recognise a few Spanish words, but understanding the content was nearly impossible for me.
2. The same year my flatmate suddenly wanted to learn Spanish for whatever reasons. (She's not a language nerd, nor travelling a lot btw.)
3. It felt always had felt a shame only to remember five Spanish sentences after those three years in school.

Well and I had the possibility to attend Spanish classes at university. It's something that usually keeps me going with such things.

Why I chose Finnish I wrote already here.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby Hundetier » Sat Nov 05, 2016 12:25 pm

My first language was no choice: English was and is mandatory for all.

Later in school I had only the choice between Latin and French. I chose French because I thought I would learn something useful which I could use later. But that didn't work out, I only learnt to hate language-learning. Now I can get the sense of very simple french sentences but I can't say a word.

After school I started to learn a bit Italian for a visit to Italy, but I didn't get into this language. And it wasn't necessary: nobody wanted to speak with me in italian, so I stopped this experiment and forget the wish to be able to communicate with others in their native language.

This spring I stumpled on a selflearning course for Spanish and just for fun - or better to avoid learning something important but boring for an exam - I began to use this course and also began to love the spanish language. I never had so much fun and motivation with learning a language before. At school it was an unpleasant drill with no visible gain. Now I'm looking forward for my first trip to Spain, and I hope, that I will be good and confident enough to actually speak spanish there.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby rdearman » Fri Nov 11, 2016 12:00 pm

Bones wrote: Later, I became interested in the American culture, which increased my motivation to learn English further.

The reference to American culture brought to mind a story about Gandhi. Someone once asked Mahatma Gandhi what he thought of Western civilization. “I think it would be a good idea,” he said.
:lol: :lol:
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby PunkJesus » Sat Nov 12, 2016 3:18 am

I'm learning Spanish due to living in the southern United States. It's around me everyday. Also, when I started to actually learn it on a serious level. I just really fell in love with the language, even though it can make me very frustrated at times.

I'm learning German because of the way it is pronounced. I see German the way people see French. I find German a very sexy language to my ears. I got hooked on Rammstein, then it was Megaherz, Oomph, and Christina Stürmer that made it stronger. Also, hopefully one day I will be able to move there.

Hopefully after I get very good in Spanish and German. I want to try learning Russian. The same reason I love German. I love the way Russian is pronounced. One of my favourite bands in Russian is Слот (Slot). I would also like to visit Moscow someday, too.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby smartguide » Fri Nov 18, 2016 8:15 pm

:) My Mum speaks what is termed 'broken French' which she learnt while living in the Carribbean. I wanted to understand what she was saying and hence my journey to learn French. I chose to learn the Spanish language after French because of their similar style and because of my wish to travel South and central America.
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