Language learning discussion

[Laufey]

This thread made me wonder why on earth I'm actually studying/have studied certain languages, because running over them quickly in order of appearance it would go:

:finland: mother tongue, had no choice
:sweden: Finland's bilingual, had no choice
:uk: compulsory language at school, had no choice
:iceland: moved to Iceland, language very necessary so again had very little choice
:japan: I needed something extra for my uni studies and it was the easiest one available (besidesyesIloveanime)

I'm not even thinking of adding :france: even though I did study it in ground school, high school and later on in polytechnic because it's one of those languages that immediately bleeds out of my memory storage when I turn my back to the books. It's also the only one I tried to learn because I actually like the language itself and how it sounds like. I'm assuming the fact that I never got to use it much had something to do with always forgetting it because all the ones I don't forget stay in my mind for a reason:

:finland: Self-explanatory.

:sweden: In Finland Swedish is just everywhere. It was very important for customer service jobs in Helsinki - you'll get a job without knowing it of course but having even the basics down puts you higher on the list of employable people. Having said that I'm horrible in Swedish. I'm that girl in class (because there's always that one tries-very-hard-fails-very-hard student in every Swedish class) who'd say things like Jag svimmade hela sommaren.*

:uk: English just is everywhere, if you don't know the lingua franca you're in trouble. I also lived in the UK for a while.

:iceland: You can live in Iceland without knowing the language but that'll be really hard and you won't know what's even going on. Besides it'll be easier to actually make friends with people when you can chat with them, although I have to say for my friends' group that they're a massively patient bunch with a good poker face. Talking with them had some adverse effects too though... I picked up a lot of spoken language stuff that made at least one professor at the uni a bit frustrated at me at times.

:japan: I mainly come across this one watching anime, I have no excuses. 

Spoiler: show

*A classic "What Did I Do on my Summer Holiday" essay + false friend situation with the English "to swim". In Swedish it means "to faint".

[Koeshi]

(can't read cyrillic, though; I always tell myself that I'll learn it, and then sort of...forget).

Cyrillic isn't hard to learn, I've picked up on the sounds of most letters just by knowing what things sound like and seeing the name spelt.  Of course I can't speak any Cyrillic language, so even though I can read a lot of it, it is still meaningless to me except on the few occasions as when the word sounds the same in English.

[Treefloof]

Well, I only really have one thing to say here.
Et sprog er aldrig nok!


*high fives self for finally posting something*

[Pessi]

Visiting Helsinki in ~3 months, so cramming for politeness & survival (& curiosity, oh my).  All those "extra" vowels look daunting!!   

Don't be surprised if people here decide to aswer you in english. One thing immigrants and exchange students are often dismayed about here is that learning the everyday use of the Finnish language is hard since no one will speak it with them. Everyone just switches to English when they hear the other one speaks Finnish hesitantly and/or with a strong accent.

[Fen Shen]

But why is that so?
It seems to me that some language communities embrace learners' attempts more than others do. When I was in France, many communication attempts ended with a big confusion because I was speaking French - with an obvious accent, it seems - and the other person tried to switch to English/German, without big success. I don't know if some people don't like foreigners "butchering" their language, or if they just want to make communication easier... During my short trip to Göteborg this year, I experienced the total opposite: Although my Swedish is really bad basic, when I started a communication attempt in Swedish, people answered me in Swedish as well. (At least until I didn't understand them anymore, then they switched to English.) As a language learner, I felt a lot more welcome in Sweden than in France.

[Mélusine]

But why is that so?
It seems to me that some language communities embrace learners' attempts more than others do. When I was in France, many communication attempts ended with a big confusion because I was speaking French - with an obvious accent, it seems - and the other person tried to switch to English/German, without big success. I don't know if some people don't like foreigners "butchering" their language, or if they just want to make communication easier... During my short trip to Göteborg this year, I experienced the total opposite: Although my Swedish is really bad basic, when I started a communication attempt in Swedish, people answered me in Swedish as well. (At least until I didn't understand them anymore, then they switched to English.) As a language learner, I felt a lot more welcome in Sweden than in France.

It depends a lot of the persons. If someone ask me something in french with accent, my reaction will be answering a little more slowly and with my hands than usually, and making sure we understand each others ; but it's because I consider the person is making the effort to speak in my language and "impolite" to ignore this effort by switching to an other language. If someone seems lost, my first reaction will be trying english. I suppose the people you have met were just trying to communicate better with you. With or without success

[Koeshi]

One of the complaints that my mother has about France is that the French all refuse to speak French to her.  True she is pretty bad at it, but can't practice because they all insist on speaking English to her.

[Mélusine]

One of the complaints that my mother has about France is that the French all refuse to speak French to her.  True she is pretty bad at it, but can't practice because they all insist on speaking English to her.

*Sigh* When I hear/read such things, I fear French will keep their not-so-friendly reputation.

[Auleliel]

One of the complaints that my mother has about France is that the French all refuse to speak French to her.  True she is pretty bad at it, but can't practice because they all insist on speaking English to her.

I had the opposite problem. I was speaking French extremely hesitantly (and probably incorrectly--I never studied French but I can read it okay), in a place where it was very likely there would be people able to speak English (the hotel restaurant, at a hotel that catered to foreign tour groups), and they refused to speak slower or try English or even make reasonable responses to what I was able to say in French. We ended up getting the wrong food and being charged for things we didn't order.

[Koeshi]

We ended up getting the wrong food and being charged for things we didn't order.

Had a similar issue with a restaurant in Germany, we brought a (bad) German speaker with us but the restaurant workers spoke mainly Italian and poor German.  So when he ordered extra cheese for his pizza they took it to mean for all of us, which was quite a surprise boost to the bill at the end.

*Sigh* When I hear/read such things, I fear French will keep their not-so-friendly reputation.

I wouldn't worry about that.  At least you are a lot more internationally liked than the British and far more than the Americans (US not Canada, everyone loves Canada).

[Auleliel]

I wouldn't worry about that.  At least you are a lot more internationally liked than the British and far more than the Americans (US not Canada, everyone loves Canada).

Many times when I travel I pretend to be Canadian instead of American, for that very reason.

[Ana Nymus]

  At least you are a lot more internationally liked than the British and far more than the Americans (US not Canada, everyone loves Canada).

On behalf of America, I would like to officially apologize for all the silly, annoying (etc.) things we do. I promise that most of us are trying (most of us). Whether it's working or not is another story.

[AuthorOfLight]

On behalf of America, I would like to officially apologize for all the silly, annoying (etc.) things we do. I promise that most of us are trying (most of us). Whether it's working or not is another story.

^^^^  I second this.
Also, we almost have it worse than people in other countries. You see americans far away - we get them up close and personal. 

[viola]

I will say that while I am not American, I have spent a few years living among them. While they can be a bit different, I have gotten to know several Americans that I could only describe as beautiful individuals and wonderful people that I am thankful to have in my life.

[Krisse Kovacs]

well, self-teaching is like not even learning, but still know few words, I wish I could find a way to elarn languages but

I speak Hungarian since it is my mothertongue
English was the first language I had to learn in school (my school for english first when I had to elarn a language, so I could choose from german or english)
in highschool I had more english, and 2 years of german. I kinda forget it, even I was kind fo excited to learn it, I would not mind to know german, but not using so I keep forgetting more and more

then I tried japanese, like many people does, for anime, which made me so japan fanatic, I am over it, so I am not so interesting, currently I can still understand a but and read a bit.

Finnish and Swedish basically for my hetalia finland and Sweden cosplay, also I was interested in these languages. Finland is the most adorable language I have ever heard so I wanted to try to learn, but it is really difficult and hard to continue. Swedish is kind of similar, but it was much easier, I also got a tiny book, which is kind of helpful for begining the studies (not actual language book for serious studies) also I love both Finland and Sweden as country, and I thoguht sweden is even useful maybe. (I kept saying to move to Finland and be a finland-swede xD but kind of impossible I guess)

norwegian also got me a little since one of my friend tried to teach me some words, it is similar to swedish, so it is not that difficult if I know a bit of swedish. but that is jsut the bokmål. if I would learn norwegian, I want nynorks, JUST BECAUSE I CAN? xD

lately I was thinking of icelandic as well, because it is so interesting for me, I can't really explain, but it would be so difficult to learn, the pronounciation would kill me first, I can't even pronounce english properly, which is kind of "easy" some says...... (For me Finnish is easiest to pronounce)

and I realized how nordic fan I am... again xD