Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby Rem » Sun Nov 20, 2016 4:37 pm

I've never really been able to explain why I want to learn the languages that I'm studying. I just really want to learn them. Mostly I enjoy the challenge involved and, while there are a lot of similarities involved in learning languages, each individual language also has it's own quirks that offer me something different. I would eventually like to work with languages somehow (possibly as a translator) so that's definitely a motivator.

German: This is the language that I'm most likely to work in. I'm looking at the possibility of carrying on to a translations Masters in German (assuming I survive my degree course first). ;) The grammar is interesting and, although the pronunciation is pretty simple for a native English speaker, there are a few sounds that trip you up if you're not careful. :mrgreen:

Mandarin: The tones are a definite challenge, not to mention having a completely different writing system to deal with. The later appeals to my artistic side; each character is like a little picture with it's own story/background. I'd also be interested in working in the Chinese language if I ever manage to get my skills to a decent level.

Czech: I'm a bit of a grammar nut so show me a language with 7 grammatical cases and I'm there! I also think the language sounds lovely and the Ř is a real challenge for me at the moment.


Other languages come and go. I'm a chronic dabbler because all the different aspects of languages intrigue me. It means that my progress overall is slower and it does affect my main languages at times, but it's a trade off I've decided I can live with. The inevitable periods of burnout are also a problem but I'm (very gradually) getting better at dealing with that as well.

I've never really been much of a traveller but, now that I've visited a couple of different places, I think I'm starting to get a taste for it. There are certainly a few countries/cities that I wouldn't mind going to and of course learning a little bit of the local language/s. ;)

If I could just get over my fear of speaking I'd be pretty happy with my situation. :P
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby totobaba » Sun Nov 20, 2016 6:08 pm

I'm currently learning French intensively in Bordeaux. I guess I just knew that I would need to be able to speak French for the rest of my life due to career choices. So I chose to learn French. Generally, a lot of people in the MENA region and Africa speak French so it connects me to people from countries that I have no other connection with whatsoever. I'm positive that someday I'll go on holiday there and have some nice chitchat with local business people and travellers in, say, Senegal.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby Tristano » Fri Nov 25, 2016 11:06 am

- French: first language I ever studied and long time forgotten. I started to work with french colleagues and therefore I decided to pick it up again and bring it to good (enough) levels.
- English: world language, plus very important language when I moved in the Netherlands to work in an European company.
- Spanish: I love the language, is very simple for me and I programmed a vacation in Andalucía (and I succeded with using it).
- Dutch: I live in The Netherlands and I use it everyday both at work and outside.
- Russian: I had the desire to learn a challenging language with an interesting culture from a new language family, but not of the biggest difficulty. I'm engaging with the culture. I'm listening Russian music and this weekend I will cook two Russian dishes. As soon as I will be able to do it I will start to read books in Russian.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby eido » Wed Apr 25, 2018 8:50 pm

Spanish: it wasn't French, and had a degree of usefulness to it. Sounded pretty. Was told it would be "easy".
Icelandic: liked the sound, liked the culture and the history.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby zjones » Wed Apr 25, 2018 9:34 pm

I've always had a love affair with the sound and sights of the French language. This developed in my late childhood/pre-teen years, since my older sister took a French course around that time. The way French looks on a page makes me giddy.

Also, I get a kick out of people who say they hate France, which is more common than I anticipated. It probably has something to do with the semi-xenophobic area of the US that I live in, because I'm not sure how someone can outright hate the culture of an entire nation. Hating France seems to go hand in hand with hating cats, so I generally just laugh genially at the person who is presenting such miserable life opinions, and immediately determine to ignore that person for the rest of my life the conversation.

I love history, and I'm a sucker for learning about the Age of Enlightenment, which includes both the American Revolution and the French Revolution. French culture and language was so important during that time, and it seems silly that I should bother to learn any other language for the time being.

This is neither here nor there, but once I've reached a B2 level in French (therefore proving to myself that I have the motivation and ability to learn a language), I may certainly look at other languages. I'd probably choose the language of a country I'd be interested in visiting. Scandinavian languages are attractive because I've often wanted to blend into a crowd of similarly tall women. It would be nice to be able to look other women in the eye. Icelandic and Arabic are also interesting to me.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby leosmith » Wed Apr 25, 2018 10:36 pm

zjones wrote:Hating France seems to go hand in hand with hating cats

It would really suck to be a French cat. Funny that you mentioned this, because the first polyglot I ever messaged, coincidentally the first polyglot I'd even heard of, tried really hard to get me to learn Esperanto instead of French. He said he hated French, and his reason was that he had to pronounce it deep down in his throat, which made him think he was always about to spit or something. That was a strange polyglot encounter.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby zjones » Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:57 am

leosmith wrote:
zjones wrote:Hating France seems to go hand in hand with hating cats

It would really suck to be a French cat. Funny that you mentioned this, because the first polyglot I ever messaged, coincidentally the first polyglot I'd even heard of, tried really hard to get me to learn Esperanto instead of French. He said he hated French, and his reason was that he had to pronounce it deep down in his throat, which made him think he was always about to spit or something. That was a strange polyglot encounter.


That's fascinating, haha! What a bizarre reason to dislike French, and an even more bizarre reason to try to convince someone else not to learn French. I get that some people aren't interested in French language or culture, which is fair. It's when people hate it with a passion that I'm surprised... I just get kind of wide-eyed and wonder why they would say that to a self-confessed Francophile. It's not my job to be a defender of the French language, though. :D

By the way, I see you're from Seattle. That's close by, I'm an Inland Northwesterner.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby tarvos » Thu Apr 26, 2018 7:56 am

I think I've mentioned this before, but I just stumble upon stuff and do things. Mostly it has to do with pure curiosity and travel or moving opportunities, sometimes with a fascination for some obscure bit of the culture.

But I'll try and make that post about the languages I've learned now:

English: Grew up in Canada and spent many childhood holidays in the US and some in the UK, so it speaks for itself. Not really a foreign language.
French: Started my first words in Canada. I went to holiday on France often as a child, and loved mandatory French at school. Dropped it for years, then returned to it after I spent loads of time in Belgium in my early 20s.
German: This was mandatory at school and I have friends from Germany. Never really studied it much, but it was easy enough to just pick up as I went along.
Russian: I knew nothing about the Russophone world when I started it, and wanted to decode the mystery. I decoded the mystery years later.
Swedish: I love Scandinavia, so I learned it, and it's really easy if you speak some Germanic languages already.
Icelandic: I love Iceland, so I learned it, to a lesser degree. I love Nordic countries in general.
Romanian: My ex spoke Romanian at home and after that I prepared a volunteer trip to Romania.
Spanish: Learned Spanish because I had to move to Spain at some point and didn't know much Spanish and just went for it.
Mandarin: I got a chance to spend half a year in China, suddenly realised I had to learn Mandarin, and learned Mandarin.
Italian: Because it's easy once you know all the other Romance languages
Portuguese: Because it's easy once you know all the other Romance languages
Hebrew: My ex was Jewish and I reaaallly want to visit Israel someday. I think it's got a very interesting history and it was very fun to listen to people speak Modern Hebrew.
Czech: I was supposed to move there, although the move fell through, but had decided to learn it anyway. And it's a nice place to go on holiday.
Greek: I grew up with a best friend who is half Greek and spent a month in Crete, so decided to make some effort to learn Greek.
Korean: I wanted an Asian challenge and I wanted to visit both South and North Korea (the latter hasn't really happened apart from the border zone) without being completely at a loss. Now I was just moderately at a loss.
Hungarian: Several trips to Hungary in my mid-twenties.
Esperanto: It's easy and I have many Esperantist friends, so I decided to just learn it at some point and managed to speak it after one week at an event. TRUE STORY FOLKS
Polish: For a trip to Poland plus it's easy once you know Russian and Czech.
Norwegian: Because I wanted to explore the differences between Norwegian and Swedish so I could speak more Norwegian-ish.

The others are just dabbling and curiosity or passive skills.
Last edited by tarvos on Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby brilliantyears » Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:03 am

This was fun to think about! Mostly because it turns out my reasons for most things I do in life are because I can and why? why the hell not! and generally me being stubborn (also goes for every non-language related thing in my life).

(In chronological order)
- English: No particular reason, it just happened. But if it hadn't "just happened", I definitely would have learned it because the world feels like a very limited place for a native Dutch speaker with no knowledge of English.
- German: No particular reason. The basics just happened (thanks to an infinite number of childhood vacations to German speaking countries, and mandatory German in high school) and now I figure, why not use it?
- Japanese: It started with an interest in one specific Japanese band, then grew to a general interest in Japanese rock music, then a general interest in Japanese culture, and then the language. (I cared enough to get a BA in Japanese :) )
- Mandarin: I started learning this for my job at the time (also paid for by said job, which was a big bonus).
- Korean: They needed enough applications for an evening course to happen, and my friend really wanted to take this course so I figured I'd join.
- Russian: The first language after Japanese that I consciously picked myself. I already had some travel plans for that region, and when I was in Georgia (not US) last summer I realised knowing at least a little Russian would have been both helpful and fun.
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Re: Reasons for choosing the foreign language you have picked

Postby tarvos » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:29 am

- Russian: The first language after Japanese that I consciously picked myself. I already had some travel plans for that region, and when I was in Georgia (not US) last summer I realised knowing at least a little Russian would have been both helpful and fun.


This is always so Dutch. I always find out that every Dutch person I know has always been to some random country obscurely. It's always like, "oh that happened when I went to Surinam/Indonesia/Georgia/Burkina Faso once"

"Yeah I was in Ukraine last week for some business negotiations and..."

And I am always like WHAT THE HEEBIEJEEBIES ARE ALL THESE DUTCH PEOPLE DOING IN THE BACK END OF NOWHERE.
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