How many language opportunities are on your doorstep?

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Le Baron
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How many language opportunities are on your doorstep?

Postby Le Baron » Mon Feb 07, 2022 4:44 pm

I ask because when learning a language it's more common to look for (and see) those people speaking your target language. Though I didn't have to look very hard to find Spanish opportunities, I did have to seek them out. This does mean that they are not quite 'on my doorstep' as it were.

Compare this to some of my actual neighbours where I live. I could, if I was pursuing it, have the daily possibility of speaking Arabic with my Syrian neighbours; and they are not the only ones in that respect. There's also the opportunity for Turkish, quite a lot actually and not just for going to Turkish mini-markets.

Yesterday afternoon another neighbour of mine (a few houses away) came to borrow a bicycle pump. He's from Eritrea and there are quite a few speakers of Tigrinya/Tigre here now. And yet practically no-one is pursuing it. When he was first here I read a letter he got (uselessly written in Dutch) informing him they couldn't find an interpreter right now. No longer necessary since he learned to communicate in Dutch

One of the motivating factors for me to persist with Indonesian are the opportunities for meeting Indonesian/Malay speakers here because of the colonial past. This also helped with Sranantongo mainly around Amsterdam. These two are also languages largely neglected by the majority despite being actually useful for building community bonds. Of course I know why learners pursue larger languages or ones more suited to their ambitions. It is however a pity that there are often so many local opportunities for actual engagement that we never get to pursue. To be sitting behind a screen trying to get hours of Mandarin listening, when e.g. real-life Cantonese people may be in the same town. Or to choose Arabic not just because it seems 'cool' and exotic, but to actually break the ice with quite a few of your fellow residents.

What do you have around you that you might not be tapping into (or maybe you are)?
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Re: How many language opportunities are on your doorstep?

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Mon Feb 07, 2022 5:26 pm

Le Baron wrote:What do you have around you that you might not be tapping into (or maybe you are)?


Languages with some (native) coverage in my area: all of the Nordic languages (except Faroese), Finnish, probably Estonian, Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, anything from Southern Slavic family, Greek, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, probably French (not sure), then a number of languages from Africa, Arabic, Persian/Dari, Turkish, Urdu/Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Mandarin, Japanese, Thai... I've probably forgotten a few.
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Re: How many language opportunities are on your doorstep?

Postby iguanamon » Mon Feb 07, 2022 5:30 pm

For me, oddly enough for the Caribbean, it's German. I have a good friend/boat partner/neighbor who is a German immigrant and a friend who has an Austrian wife. Then, there's Palestinian Arabic. Almost all the gas station/convenience/grocery/furniture stores here are owned and operated by Palestinian Arabs. I also have a friend who immigrated from France to the US at age 19 and a friend who was a French teacher on the island for a number of years. I have two business colleagues who are native Russian-speakers. So, there are opportunities aplenty... and I'm working on Catalan?!
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Re: How many language opportunities are on your doorstep?

Postby Le Baron » Mon Feb 07, 2022 5:38 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Languages with some (native) coverage in my area: all of the Nordic languages (except Faroese), Finnish, probably Estonian, Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, anything from Southern Slavic family, Greek, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, probably French (not sure), then a number of languages from Africa, Arabic, Persian/Dari, Turkish, Urdu/Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Mandarin, Japanese, Thai... I've probably forgotten a few.

Blimey! There's no shortage of opportunities there. It's like the United Nations! Do you live in the UN headquarters? :)
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Re: How many language opportunities are on your doorstep?

Postby zenmonkey » Mon Feb 07, 2022 6:06 pm

When we were learning Setswana, we had a difficult time finding a speaker that would provide lessons on the Internet. Recently I saw 2-3 speakers in an exchange program.

Immediately in this area, there is easy access to FIGS speakers plus most other European languages. Any major Indian or Asian language, no problem. Any important Middle Eastern languages is also accessible. Some indigenous languages from LatAm. One of the first Tibetan Buddhist Dharma centers in America is up the hill, a few kms away. There are bucketloads of Yiddish speakers here. There are three Farsi schools less than 3 miles from my father. 4 community colleges, 3-4 major universities with language programs. DLI is about an hour away, but I don't think I have access to that.

There are no more Oholone speakers but I think there are Yokuts/Miwok communities nearby.

Overall the Bay Area has a tremendous potential to meet other cultures and languages. When I'm in Paris or Frankfurt, it's pretty much also a rich territory for exchange.
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Re: How many language opportunities are on your doorstep?

Postby rdearman » Mon Feb 07, 2022 7:20 pm

zenmonkey wrote:When we were learning Setswana, we had a difficult time finding a speaker that would provide lessons on the Internet. Recently I saw 2-3 speakers in an exchange program.

Where? I would be interested in that!

For me, I already speak to the Italian and French neighbours. But not the speakers of Farsi down the road (I speak to them, but in English). Otherwise, not a lot of people around locally, although the guy doing my plumbing this week is originally from Russia. There are some Cantonese speakers around, but I haven't really spoken to them. I haven't really looked around for people, mostly because I have no intention of learning another language. I have heard people speaking Polish, Romanian, and Hindi. I have many friends I could speak to in: Dutch, Mandarin, Tamil, Spanish, Japanese, Afrikaans, Swedish, Norwegian, Yoruba, Welsh, Czech, Slovakian, Urdu. But I don't know any of those, and they probably don't have the patience to teach me.
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Re: How many language opportunities are on your doorstep?

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Mon Feb 07, 2022 9:16 pm

Le Baron wrote:Blimey! There's no shortage of opportunities there. It's like the United Nations! Do you live in the UN headquarters? :)


Not at all. Just a small town in the middle of nowhere (in Sweden). History has had an impact on the inflow of people and there are higher education institutes since a few decades. When I say native speakers, that can mean a few international students, a handful of families, a community...
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Re: How many language opportunities are on your doorstep?

Postby zenmonkey » Tue Feb 08, 2022 3:13 am

rdearman wrote:
zenmonkey wrote:When we were learning Setswana, we had a difficult time finding a speaker that would provide lessons on the Internet. Recently I saw 2-3 speakers in an exchange program.

Where? I would be interested in that!

Tutoroo.co and teachme2.com have people.
Italki.com had someone a few months back but they never answered my message.
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Re: How many language opportunities are on your doorstep?

Postby Sonjaconjota » Tue Feb 08, 2022 9:13 am

I’m not one for grasping speaking opportunities with strangers, but I do perk up my ears when I hear foreign languages. There are plenty of occasions for that in Barcelona, Spain.
We have tourists, exchange students and immigrants from just everywhere in the world.
Among the languages that I can understand, the ones I hear most are English and Italian. It is always mentioned that Italians are the biggest group of immigrants in Barcelona, although it seems that some of them are actually Argentinians with an Italian passport. But yes, Italian is everywhere here.
During the last ten or fifteen years, there has also been a big change in the city, and many shops and other businesses in Barcelona have been taken over by people from China, India and Pakistan. If you know a language of these countries, it wouldn’t be difficult to find a conversation partner.
That’s one of the reasons I have been contemplating learning some Urdu, but the nice chatty shopkeepers in the minimarket in front of our building have been substituted by a grumpy silent countryman, so there’s no rush anymore.
Here’s a list of registered foreigners living in Barcelona:
https://www.idescat.cat/poblacioestrangera/?geo=mun:080193&nac=a&b=12&lang=en
Last edited by Sonjaconjota on Wed Feb 09, 2022 7:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How many language opportunities are on your doorstep?

Postby BeaP » Tue Feb 08, 2022 9:44 am

I have very few opportunities. People from other countries end up in my neighbourhood only by marriage. There a several Germans though, and because a lot of Hungarians speak German in my generation, sometimes there's a large German-speaking company on the playground.

I've never studied Japanese, but if you're interested in it, I recommend seeking out martial art clubs. When I was practising kendo, we regularly had guests from Japan: PE teachers and soon-to-be PE teacher students. There were a lot of programmes outside the trainings as well, some of them cultural (sushi-rolling or cinema), some of them not so cultural (serious drinking).
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