Languages You Can Learn at Home or/and Abroad
Living in the country where your target language can be a good way to learn a language, but it's not the only way. I've met excellent speakers of English who have never lived in the US or any other English-speaking country. You don't have to leave the US to speak good Spanish-but Spanish is a big language. I've never met anyone who spoke really good Japanese without a little time invested in the land of the rising sun, but perhaps I haven't met enough people.
What are your thoughts? Do you need to travel to the country where the language is spoken or does this depend on the language? In the case of Japanese, perhaps there is a link between the language and the culture, too great to ignore. On the other hand French, Spanish, and English are spoken widely and are not solely linked (imo) to the language.
Disagree if you like.
"where your target language is spoken can be a good way..."
"and/or abroad." Yikes! My English is going down the tubes.
<<"and/or abroad." Yikes! My English is going down the tubes.>>
It's ok, KT. You speak English very well considering it's your second language.
I've met very few people who were able to learn a language without significant immersion in a region or nation where it is spoken. Even with an easy language such as Spanish, the only fluent speakers I know are natively bilingual. I've met a few students who immersed themselves in Spain or Mexico and got fluent that way, but that's about it. I suppose one can create their own 'immersion' at home using CDs,radio,movies,etc..but it is a much greater challenge.
Well, guess English, French and Spanish are widely spread through music, movies, games, books, etc., and that alone makes it much easier to learn the language and to learn which words are used when, which expressions are used (sense of culture), the pronunciation and so on.
In the case of Japanese, I wouldn't say there's a link between language and culture too great to ignore, it's just that it's not a language we're exposed to in an everyday basis like the others (at least in my case). That's why it's easier to just be there.
Of course we're just talking about the spoken language, right?
I believe it's perfectly possible to speak the language, at least the standard language, without ever visiting a country where the language is spoken.
On the other hand, it confuses me quite a bit those few people who can live in a country for more than 20 years and never really speak the language... Like, they live in their own little communities or depend on family to pass by, or even get some job where language skills aren't essential...
>>In the case of Japanese, perhaps there is a link between the language and the culture, too great to ignore.
One of my acquaintances claims to have learned Japanese by osmosis as a teen... and he claims to speak it fairly fluently, with Japanese professors (about linguistics) and his Japanese acquaintance (small talks), never having bought more than 2 books (1 is a dictionary, 1 is a book of past paper for JLPT level 2). He learned thru playing games, and a huge difference is that he knows more generic Chinese characters than the Japanese...These days, fluent learners of Japanese and Korean are everywhere... But I took that with a huge grain of salt, because I could feel he could be bragging. This guy also claims his Japanese is even better than his English, but he's studying anyway to teach _both_ of them.
Well, I think I can even create my own language shift, if I turn the processes into a total war at home. In sharp contrast, the relative "smallies" I'm learning are rarely used, and the chance of using it, if at all, is very slim. For the same reason, I do think there's a Spanish fad brought by you Americans even to Chinese cities...it should be a fairly fun language to learn, but I couldn't imagine how many would fail miserably even within 3 months, like those who're very into the Chinese fad... indeed, even when you consider the long-term knowledge as well, English is no more easier than French, for example. It's not that rare to see people who can't claim to have improved their English greatly after staying for 1-3 years. That may just come down to how much they can do among locals.
>>On the other hand, it confuses me quite a bit those few people who can live in a country for more than 20 years and never really speak the language...
Some inf. complex idiots are saying that Cantonese should be abolished since every non-local wouldn't bother to learn it. In reality, yes, the Island, Discovery Bay, Sai Kung... are all "islands" of both foreigners and upper-class people, the former of which wouldn't normally be supposed to learn the local lingo at all. Some South Asian immigrants might exclude themselves from the Chinese, no matter whether they know the language at all, and the Chinese don't normally get to know them; those who only come here to work won't even have a chance to learn, and therefore they are ignored just like their countrymen. This city is one of the perfect paradises for foreigners to get by, 1) without ever succeeding in integrating into it or 2) earning buckets of money.... while poor fellows like me have to struggle for survival! So, even I have a bit of inf. complex lol.
Like what some rant-ers would say, it seems to me that people can't think with such poor (or diverse, to be neutral) language standards... given most people's diverse background. Oh no, they can't really read... so children keep on whining about verb conjugations even at the first glance of English. They can't think as deeply as most people here (incl. trolls) do. So, the question here is nonsense to them - though, I must remind you that the city these children belong to could be a terribly different place from the rest of China, and therefore don't expect you can practice Mandarin here, except with the Chinese passers-by at university OR with the very few locals who can speak "Chinese", like me. This sorts of lingo DO require quite a bit of time for immersion in person...
In my experience there's more German cultural exposure in the United States (food, music, movies, not to mention Germans on the internet...) than French.
<<It's ok, KT. You speak English very well considering it's your second language.>>
K.T.'s writing always did reek of Spanish grammar. Now we know for sure.
K.T.'s writing always did reek of Spanish grammar. Now we know for sure.
No, he is a native English speaker, but once he learnt Spanish he understood the superiority of the Spanish grammar.
Spanish grammar is quite primitive compared to that of English and other Germanic languages.
I don't think "primitive" would be the correct word here... It is actually the more "primitive" cultures that often have the most complex languages, especially those with the fewest number of speakers.
I don't think "primitive" would be the correct word here.
What is the correct word then?
"K.T.'s writing always did reek of Spanish grammar. Now we know for sure."
I'm afraid I don't agree with your police work on this one.