Learning languages...your take on it.

[Druckles]

I like C.

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

I've actually heard tell that it's the toughest language in the world to learn :|

Well Hell, it's on.

 

[Raziaar]

How's your Russian going anyway? I'm getting the hang of it

Not as well as I'd like, honestly. I'm still holding out hope for it, but it's one of the many things I've been juggling and trying to learn, and I don't find a lot of time to really devote to it.

I have still retained pretty much everything I learned so far though, other than the alphabet becoming a little hazy. A quick refresher and I'd remember it again, however.

 

[ríomhaire]

I have no interest in learning languages I never plan on using (of which I am learning two, goddamn school system).

 

[Maria Flores]

I have a year of Spanish at secondary school and GCSE A*-level French - in other words I know a couple of profanities in either language and how to fake an accent, and that's where it ends. On top of that, I have learnt Japanese to an advanced level.

Back in my school days I was as skeptical as the OP as to how useful it is to be compelled to learn a language you have no personal interest in. Later, though, I had kind of an epiphany as to the nature of language itself, which helped me to understand why the act of learning a language is itself an act of expanding the mind, as others have said.

Take, for example, the word 'chair'. It evokes an image in your mind of what you understand a chair to be; the type of chair you commonly use, commonly see, the various types you've used throughout your life, etc etc.
Dwelling on the word for any length of time might remind you that any number of 4-legged contrivances for sitting on - from chairs in a school classroom to some antique chair behind a long dinner table - can be defined as 'chairs'.

Now imagine Hypothetical Language X, used in Country X. They are far away and have a completely alien culture to yours. They don't really use chairs - let's pretend they sit on big fancy cushions filled with feathers from a species of bird which is exclusive to their country, or they're nomads so they can't be bothered to carry big chairs around, or whatever. Nevertheless, Language X does have a word which translates into 'chair' in your language, because they occasionally use something to sit on, which you would define as a 'chair'.

But think - what they mean by 'chair' is different to what you would ever mean! Maybe their word for chair is derived from a word for 'hippo skull', or maybe it has a very negative connotation and is evolved from the words 'lazy bastard device' all added together. Therefore, whenever you and some dirty immigrant from Country X were talking together in English, there might be a faint miscommunication between the two of you whenever the word 'chair' cropped up. Unless you actually learnt Language X and spent some time using it (and preferably contextualising it by spending some time in Country X), you would never really know what that guy meant - and thought and felt - when he said 'chair'.

Now multiply that failure to understand by by hundreds or thousands, because every language has countless words which contain some kind of coded information about the culture of the country of origin, and which it is often difficult or near impossible to translate directly. In Japanese, for example, they have commonly-used words for what they consider to be the Japanese sense of aesthetics - Mono no aware and Wabi-sabi. Sure, the clumsy, literal translation could be just 'the pathos of things', but to understand what is really meant, the full translation would have to be the whole damn wiki page and then some. Same with 'sugoi', a word which has about 50 different meanings including 'amazing' and 'horrible', or the way the Japanese say 'try your best!' in the same way english-speakers say 'good luck!' A language is a codex of how a particular race or people interprets the universe, not just some pain-in-the-arse word puzzle where you have to find out which words to swap out for ones you can understand.

tl;dr: Language learning is important, yo.

I've actually heard tell that it's the toughest language in the world to learn :|

Interesting perspective.

Although I imagine most connotations for words within the Western cultures will not be radically different, many different concepts and modes of verbal/nonverbal expressions can have a significantly different meaning (in other cultures).

 

[Saturos]

Well, lets say that you'll never go to another country ever. You stay in the country your currently in for life. Would you still bother to learn another language?

I ask because it is my last year of spanish, and I am getting more annoyed with the fact that I will never go to a spanish speaking country in my life, making this class completely useless to me.

so, say a group of spanish people come into your country, shouldn't they have to learn to speak your language, not a group of spanish enter your country, suddenly, your entire country must learn spanish?


(This holds true for any perosn(s) in any country(s)

Being bilingual or multilingual is very marketable for a traveling salemen or other demanding career in which alot of traveling is involved but tbh, I think immigrants should learn the native language in order to become a citizen of that country. You don't walk into a friend/neighbors house and expect them to live by the rules and standards you have in your own house do you? Language courses should be made an elective, not a core imo.

 

[TimoJay]

I'm curious.. To those that are studying/studied Japanese: Why? anime? (for kids and nerds) japanese girls? (sure they can be cute, but it gets old) j-pop? (i hate it) j-porn? (99% of the time only uses a few words.. iku, deru, sureru, kimochiii, onani, manko, chinchin. [not that i would know] )

 

[Raziaar]

I'm curious.. To those that are studying/studied Japanese: Why? anime? (for kids and nerds) japanese girls? (sure they can be cute, but it gets old) j-pop? (i hate it) j-porn? (99% of the time only uses a few words.. iku, deru, sureru, kimochiii, onani, manko, chinchin. [not that i would know] )

Doesn't really matter the reason somebody attempts to learn a language.

Japanense isn't good for just those things you mention, and I'm sure many people(but not all and maybe not even most young people) learn it for entirely different reasons.

My reason for learning Russian is fairly trivial honestly, but I'm still passionate about learning it. I just think it's a neat langauge, and I've always been fascinated by it.

 

[Nemesis6]

Well, I'm learning Russian to make some kind of a future for myself. Aiming for interpreter. I'd rather die than learn German on any academic level. Learning a language just because it's spoken in a moderate bigger neighboring country = Bull. ****ing. Shit.

The Russians apparently don't really speak English that well, so you'd fare better with broken Russian over there than any form of English it seems.

 

[Phobie]

Learning languages is fun! I wish I could speak more than 2.

 

[15357]

I've learned English, and I speak it well, I suppose. Well, relatively speaking, I'd like to pride myself upon my English skills compared to my countrymen.

I'm learning Japanese; gotta be useful for getting into better universities and taking over the world. Also useful for anime and games.

I want to learn German, the language seems very interesting, and with quite a few similarities with Korean.

I'm curious.. To those that are studying/studied Japanese: Why? anime? (for kids and nerds) japanese girls? (sure they can be cute, but it gets old) j-pop? (i hate it) j-porn? (99% of the time only uses a few words.. iku, deru, sureru, kimochiii, onani, manko, chinchin. [not that i would know] )

Because when my country finally invades Japan, I can go frontline infantry. It'd be useful.


Besides, it gives you extra points when you try for a university.

 

[Druckles]

I have no interest in learning languages I never plan on using (of which I am learning two, goddamn school system).

I use C++ all the time!

 

[Nemesis6]

I use C++ all the time!

And how is that working out for you?

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

When I get the time I would quite like to learn italian or russian.

 

[Laivasse]

I'm curious.. To those that are studying/studied Japanese: Why? anime? (for kids and nerds) japanese girls? (sure they can be cute, but it gets old) j-pop? (i hate it) j-porn? (99% of the time only uses a few words.. iku, deru, sureru, kimochiii, onani, manko, chinchin. [not that i would know] )

Personally, I chose to learn Japanese because I didn't know what to study at uni and more or less span a bottle to decide.

I didn't really think about the benefits until I was well into my course. It has turned out to be useful for gaming. Should I feel the need, I can pick up some games on import months in advance (or get the benefit of certain games that don't see a western release at all) without having to be subjected to a godawful western dub.

There's also the satisfaction of truly having a tangible new skill at the end of your studies, as opposed to the somewhat nebulous skillset people get from, say, a drama or media studies course (no offense anyone).

 

[watermonster]

Well, you could be motivated to learn a language if you wanted to read books written in their original languages.
I know that I stopped wanting to learn French because I knew I'd never be in France. I stopped wanting to visit that place, and since there were no other opportunities of me speaking it, I wouldn't need it.
German, on the other hand, I will need to learn to study in Germany later on. That really motivates me. Forces me.

As for Nemesis and other peeps here learning Russian - you have a ton of my respect. It's my mother tongue, but I can imagine how difficult it actually is, with those cases and changes of endings. If I didn't study Russian first, I doubt I would've ever wanted to tackle it.