Language learning discussion

[Nimphy]

Yup. Yay for next language (after Russian) I can understand thank to language propinquity, but am nevertheless totally unable to communicate in!
Nope, it really seems useful, but a bit strange, isn't it? At least it was for other people I told the story. But maybe the more languages you speak the easier it becomes, or something? It could be an actual question for you, Nimphy, and other people in here learning more foreign languages than my poor count of three/four.
I don't know, I remember being able to get a third of Swedish folk songs texts right supported only by written original lyrics and my poor knowlage of German, maybe I'm just weird.

Well, depends on what you mean by easier. If you mean learning, to a certain degree it does but it never gets really easy. If you mean understanding, of course the more languages you understand the more OTHER languages you will understand.

[mithrysc]

Last night I yelled at someone in very basic Norwegian. In a dream. (Someone in my dream also pointed out that my accent was horrible.) I do not know what this portends.

[Fimbulvarg]

Last night I yelled at someone in very basic Norwegian. In a dream. (Someone in my dream also pointed out that my accent was horrible.) I do not know what this portends.

It means you are ready to verbally discipline some arrogant Swedes.

I suppose you wouldn't happen to remember what it was you were yelling?

[mithrysc]

So, for a while I've been curious about the reasons behind everyone's language-learning. So, why are you learning? Is it because learning in itself is enjoyable? Communication? Cultural immersion? Reading works in their original language? Necessity? Curiosity? A certain webcomic? (Or simply, why not?)

And since I'm asking this question, I might as well start off by giving some answers. Though I'm currently focusing more on Norwegian, both the languages I'm studying now started out of a combination of curiosity and "why not?" I'm somewhat fascinated by languages, so that probably has something to do with it, too.

I also have an ulterior motive of wanting to travel to Norway in the very far-off future.

[The_Engineer]

My fluency background: Brazilian Portuguese is my native language. Part of my family resides in Argentina, so I also know Spanish from a very young age. I lived in the USA and learned American English, but because of English literature I ended up catching a lot of British spelling.

For the languages I'm learning: German was always an interesting language for me. I started learning it as a foreign language at a young age, and right now I only don't consider myself fluent in it because I still have a lot to practice when it comes to speaking.

Dutch is the first language I started on Duolingo. I am still on level 20 or something, so about halfway along the course. The reason for it was that it's very close to German and English so I had a previous advantage, and it just comes kinda naturally.

And Norwegian...
Sigh. To be quite honest I fell in love with a Norwegian person. We plan on moving in together sometime in the future.

[mithrysc]

It means you are ready to verbally discipline some arrogant Swedes.

I suppose you wouldn't happen to remember what it was you were yelling?

I just remember that it ended very emphatically with "Straks!" because someone was being annoying and lazy. That and the accent comment.

[Nimphy]

Hehe. Well, German because of curiosity and a general fascination for the language. Norwegian was done on a whim, but since then it's upgraded to my main learning language. That started out as a "why not". Since then both of them have changed: I want to learn them for communication. To talk with the people here on the forum and elsewhere.

My story with Japanese is pretty long. Let's just say that I started learning it as a why not+"Hey, wouldn't it be cool to understand anime without subs?", and the "why not" part has since then vanished and "anime" is now "anime and manga" (That means learning how to read. Joy.)

I started studying Spanish at school, and fell in love with it. Such a solar and simple language! What I would define as "schietto" in Italian - no translation I can think of. So I have no intention of stopping. It's the foreign language I consider myself most fluent in - I still make mistakes, of course, but I will get better, hopefully.

My relationship with French, on the other hand, was never the happiest, and still is not. I'd still like to learn it, for the simple selfish reason of adding another language to the list.

As for Klingon, it started out as a joke and still remains a joke. But I guess speaking klingon in some remote future might be fun.

[Sunflower]

I learned first Spanish and then French to communicate and for touristic reasons.  California has a strong Spanish/Mexican heritage and a large Hispanic population.  French, I wanted to learn because some of my relatives live in France and I hoped to visit them... *and* see "gay Paree" anyhow.

Cultural/literary reasons took over later -- unfortunately, after I left college and no longer had the time and leisure to study a language seriously.  I still wish I could learn Russian in order to read "Eugene Onegin" and Russian novels in the original, Japanese for Japanese literature (and anime) and "wabi, sabi, suki" aesthetic theory, etc.  I even picked up some rudiments of German by reading the librettos for Wagner's "Ring" operas. 

I was also attracted to linguistic connections.  When, at 14, I learned how all the Romance languages were common descendants of Latin, it really seemed to me like a magic language (just like in the Harry Potter books!).  Now I wonder if there's a Memrise app for Proto-Indo-European.

tl;dr:  The nerdiest possible reasons.

[Solovei]

tl;dr:  The nerdiest possible reasons.

Star I bet my reasons are way nerdier than yours!

[victrixia]

I'm currently not learning any new ones, even though I've got a mild interest in acquainting myself better with Russian. I sort of read it, but not on any usable level.

Being a Finn, the only way to communicate with the outside world is to learn other, non-Fenno-Ugric languages XD We start our first (Usually English, but sometimes Swedish or German) between 7-9 years of age, a voluntary second at around 10-11 and a compulsory third (this is Swedish unless it was one of your previous choices) at 13. You can even pick a fourth at 14, and if you attend Lukio, our version of Upper Secondary (ages 16-19), you can pick as many new languages as are available if you're nuts.

And it doesn't end there - you're encouraged to pick a new one up in University if you have the knack for it, there's a specified unit in each University that teaches languages to students and teachers. (The classes are also available for non-students for a modest price.)

So yeah, rambles! My history is English at 9, German at 11, Swedish at 13, French at 18 (self studies until a couple of classes at the University), Italian at the Uni at 19. I read reasonably well in French and Italian, and can write things if given time and a dictionary, but my spoken skills are very tourist-y. Still, I have survived three weeks in Italian countryside on a summer class a couple of years ago I had to learn the last two anyway, because there was a time in my life I did a Master's degree in Opera Singing (go figure, ugh), and that explains my rudimentary Russian skills as well.

My skills in the other three foreign languages I consider fluent, although English much more so than German and Swedish - but they both are a big part of my life. I've read books in Swedish since I was maybe 14-15 (it's a really easy language to pick up!!). There have been times when I've spoken primarily Swedish with my best friend at the time, or primarily German when I lived there, but English was always my first big love I even did a year of English Literature and Linguistics at the University before my unfortunate music studies.

English is currently my home language as well after I moved in together with my Welsh boyfriend. I also get unreasonably miffed when people obstinately cling to their wrong ideas of pronunciation. XD I'm something of a language police, though not as much so as I was when I was younger. XD Mainly because it's more fun to just communicate, really.

[Fimbulvarg]

My skills in the other three foreign languages I consider fluent, although English much more so than German and Swedish - but they both are a big part of my life. I've read books in Swedish since I was maybe 14-15 (it's a really easy language to pick up!!). There have been times when I've spoken primarily Swedish with my best friend at the time, or primarily German when I lived there, but English was always my first big love I even did a year of English Literature and Linguistics at the University before my unfortunate music studies.

English is currently my home language as well after I moved in together with my Welsh boyfriend. I also get unreasonably miffed when people obstinately cling to their wrong ideas of pronunciation. XD I'm something of a language police, though not as much so as I was when I was younger. XD Mainly because it's more fun to just communicate, really.

If you've studied linguistics at the University level you might recall that there is no such thing as "wrong ideas of pronunciation", only native-speakerism and bias against anything that stands out.

[Fen Shen]

For me it's a mixture of some of the reasons people already mentioned.
I started learning English at school when I was eight*, and since then found that I'm rather good at learning languages. When I was little, my parents used to discuss things like my upcoming birthday presents in English because they knew I wouldn't understand them - which made me so furious and gave me extra motivation to unlock this mysterious secret language. 
When I had to decide between French and Latin in 6th grade, I took French because you couldn't have a pen pal in Latin. I later participated in two student exchanges, to France and Norway, so actually speaking to people in another language is always a big motivation for me.
And as sunflower said, after having learnt French (very well) and Spanish (I manage), learning Italian is even more fun because I love to find similarities (and also false friends, duh).

So in conclusion, for me learning languages is
- kind of a game / passtime / way to exercise my brain
- a way to meet new people and cultures, get to know new ideas and ways of thinking
- and useful when travelling.

*Back then and often afterwards, I have been told how absolutely necessary it is for a German to learn at least English because few people from other countries would ever understand you or even learn German voluntarily. I'm still a bit amazed by how many German learners there seem to be around here...

[victrixia]

If you've studied linguistics at the University level you might recall that there is no such thing as "wrong ideas of pronunciation", only native-speakerism and bias against anything that stands out.

Well, you are of course correct on that notion, however, it's one thing to have an accent (which is completely fine) than to insist that a heavily accented or simply unintelligible pronunciation is "the correct standard british form".

And since I am not a full blown linguist at all, I reserve the right to roll my eyes at people who insist on saying "epi-tome", for instance. Don't take it too personally, dear!

[Lenny]

I've always been at least bi-lingual - my mother and father insisted on speaking their native languages at home, which meant both Dutch and Afrikaans were picked up very very easily. It also helped that I switched between the two countries (the Netherlands and South Africa) many times within the first four years of my life. Also, I've been a bookworm since forever, and we had around an equal amount of material in both languages available.

At four we moved to Australia, and I ended up having to learn English very very quickly. Luckily my kindergarten teacher was Dutch and could still speak it, so it wasn't completely night... I have some extremely confusing memories from that time, though.

During grades 1-5, we were taught Indonesian... Never did badly, but I wasn't at all interested in it, so I've forgotten quite a lot of that, haha.

At around 12, I started learning Latin, which lasted for around three years. Love-hate relationship there. Again, ended up forgetting most of what I learnt, but differs from Indonesian that most of what I did learn just needs a dusting and it'll be back.

Currently, I'm studying (not strictly at all, just as hobby - this may change, but not in the near future) Japanese, Norwegian, Korean, and German. Norwegian is thanks to Kaizers Orchestra and thinking it was really cool and interesting (which now has added motivation considering the Norwegian speakers here), Japanese is anime, manga, music, games, and the increasingly growing desire to work in Japan for a while, Korean is wanting to read webtoons on Naver/Daum without need for a translator + added motivation of the many Korean visitors we receive over here, and German... German is because I can already read say, 50 - 60% of it, so why not?

The overwhelming factor in learning them is, however, just interest. Languages are really really interesting.

[starfallz]

American English is my primary. I took two years of Spanish in junior high, but I don't remember much besides some of the really basic things. I studied Japanese in college for two years and then lived there for 2. I can basically get around, but I am forgetting a lot now since I don't have practice. I decided Finnish would be fun since it is completely separate from anything I know and I have a friend who lives in Finland and taught me how to say two things in it ages ago. And, uh, this comic just feeds the desire really, as well as aRTD.