A wonderful song in Georgian. So I wanted to leave SC for a while so I could try building my life around something other than SC, and in all it was a good experience. I think everyone should try something new for a couple a months, just to experiment. In my case, I found something I loved. Languages. I have always been somewhat interested in languages, having learned Spanish through middle school and German through the first portion of high school. However, I never really was too dedicated to learning languages. During the last couple of months, I spent virtually all my available time studying foreign languages probably doing about 500 hours since I was banned. I didn't really study to learn to speak the languages, more just to understand how they worked. I studied off and on Georgian, Written Arabic, Finnish, Russian, Irish, Icelandic, Mandarin, Farsi, Swedish, Norwegian, French, Japanese, Korean and Lakota. I didn't really get anywhere far in any of the languages, but I feel like I understand the elements of human languages a whole lot better and just generally increased my global understanding. The process of language learning is something I really love and I feel like it will probably replace SC as the center point of my free time. Or maybe it won't. But now I know I can enjoy other things besides SC, which makes me feel more grounded and balanced. No one needed to read that as it didn't really say anything important but thanks if you did
Well it's good you've found something you are passionate about, as fun as SC is your life really shouldn't revolve around it solely. However becoming fluent in another language, even one close to english is extremely difficult. I took 2 years of spanish in high school, and four semester in college (a requirement) and honestly I probably have the vocabulary of an 8 year old native speaker.
You literally need to spend long hours drilling (the non sexual kind) and practicing if you want to get anywhere. But doing so can really open your eyes and mind to other cultures, and can really give you a lot of satisfaction. Es difficil pero puede ser muy gratificante.
Don't be a Cultural studies major, be a linguist. Given that you aren't delving deeply into any particular language it seems like you're interested in the basic structure of the languages themselves.
你会读华文或讲话语吗? Can you read or speak the languages that you've researched on at a basic level? Anyway, I think its great to learn something out of passion and interest, not because of academics.
On March 31 2012 12:30 leo23 wrote: you haven't accomplished anything. you didn't learn any language.
sorry for being a downer
If you look closely, he never claimed to have done so.
To be fair, he did say he gained an understanding on the process of learning a language. It's pretty hard to say you have a grasp on it when the only process was looking up stuff about a language and then giving up.
I have been studying Mandarin for a few months now, living in China, it has really gotten me interested in languages. It is super fucking hard learning characters and tones, but it is such a drastically different approach to language that it has really opened up my mind to looking at things from a different point of view.
On that note, "long time no see," is a phrase that is directly translated from Mandarin, and now anytime I hear it, I laugh.
On March 31 2012 12:42 ohsea.toc wrote: I share your enthusiasm OP. I studied Japanese during school and then Arabic at University. He who has two languages has two souls. Or something.
Or maybe you just know how to say nothing in two languages.
Did you enjoy learning norwegian? I find it pretty tough to be honest I thought english was hard to learn but norwegian is really tough for me, the asian languages come alot easier because well I'm chinese and I've been around them my whole life.
Did you learn all those langauges at once? or sequentially?
I feel like we have something common. I would also pick up new languages but never really get too far with either of them. If you want to get somewhere, you have to change this. It's not that your passions aren't real it's just that you get easily distracted or discouraged. If you can push past that point you can use your passion and you wil be rewarded. Once you get to a certain level in the language you start enjoying it way more than in the beginning. You won't be afraid you won't learn new things, instead you will be eager to do so. Every single minute spent will be worth it.
Maybe that's the case or I might be totally wrong here. Either way good for you to rediscover your passion and hopefully you can make something useful out of it! Good luck.
Edit: I just clicked your link and I remember that blog :D But most importantly I remember it was this blog which lead me to Philip Glass. Thank you a million times. I've had much fun discovering minimalism in music ever since!
On March 31 2012 12:42 ohsea.toc wrote: I share your enthusiasm OP. I studied Japanese during school and then Arabic at University. He who has two languages has two souls. Or something.
Or maybe you just know how to say nothing in two languages.
I think you saw immediately that Le French is a superior language :p
Seriously now, I feel the same about learning new language : you also learn how to think differently because the ideas and wway to express are different.
I started learning Cantonese three weeks ago, with my new gf.
Really helps with her being from Hong Kong; I wanted to learn even before because where I work about 75% of the employees speak both English and Cantonese. Seems like I'm always missing out on a good joke when I hear them speak it and laugh afterwards.
I just finished up my general education at community college and am moving on to UCSC to study linguistics next semester. Language for me is a very interesting subject. I'm glad that you share my interest.
On March 31 2012 12:30 leo23 wrote: you haven't accomplished anything. you didn't learn any language.
sorry for being a downer
If you look closely, he never claimed to have done so.
To be fair, he did say he gained an understanding on the process of learning a language. It's pretty hard to say you have a grasp on it when the only process was looking up stuff about a language and then giving up.
It sounds like he studied the way languages are formed, possibly their history and a little bit about the cultures/history of the countries where these languages are spoken (or 'global undersanding' could mean, instead, current affairs).
This is actually a field of study. Just because some of you haven't heard of it, doesn't invalidate either the academic discipline or his efforts, nor the discpline required to both study and give up something for a time either.
Nice blog, wasn't expecting much at all from the title, but was pleasantly surprised 5/5.
Edit: And for clarity, he didn't say he gained an understanding on the process of learning a language, he said he feels "like he understands the elements of human languages a whole lot better" and "more to just understand how they worked". Ergo he wasn't trying to learn new languages, he was studying a branch of linguistics.
Hey thanks for all the comments. @Leo23 I wasn't really trying to learn any of the languages, as I said. I was really just interested in understanding how their grammar works and what it WOULD be like to learn one of them. It was fun, and it wasn't SC so that was an accomplishment for me. @TheToast Ya puedo hablar español y alemán. Sé que es muy dificil aprender una idioma pero gracias por los consejos. @TLeaf I actually thought Swedish and Norwegian were the easiest languages I studied. The pitch accents seem a bit tough to get the hang of (especially as their usage varies by dialect) but there is only about 130 strong verbs one needs to memorize to be able to conjugate flawlessly. The changing forms of the nouns for definite and indefinite are tough too but NOTHING compared with Icelandic. @Azera don't know exactly what you said. I know the first 2 mean "you know how to..." and I recognize the question word at the end so I am guessing something like "Do you know how to read Chinese?" In that case, the answer is no. I only learned about 200 basic characters but I am not even sure if I remember all those :O @keioh French is a very nice language. The sexiest language IMHO(I find the Parisian "r" especially arousing when said by a female) The grammar and phonology, not terribly interesting but the literature is amazing! Probably second only to English in depth and expanse. Also, I love French impressionistic music and art. @OmniscientSC2 A native Georgian! I absolutely love everything to do with your country. My personal favorite language. @ImbaTosS Bach in Welsh? Hmm I have no idea. In German it is a sort of field. Do you speak Welsh? ɬ is my favorite sound but too hard to make it sound like a native. @Subversive Nice to know someone understood my message so well.
EPT
and there is a right answer!
In that case, the answer is no. I only learned about 200 basic characters but I am not even sure if I remember all those :O
