Maybe it's because I appreciate the aesthetics/stylistic differences of speech more than the meaning/grammar/technicalities, or because I'm not familiar enough with any other language by English to appreciate it, but I find the study of different accents more interesting than other languages. In fact I find the idea of learning new words, grammar etc tiresome and pointless. Snobbishly I think English is all the verbal communication I need. I even don't find the lingo of dialects as interesting as the actual sound differences of accents of English. Anyone in the same boat as me?
More interested than accents than languages
I spoke another language as a child and took three foreign languages in high school -- and can't do much more than read a menu and order food in any of them -- even less in one. Not to knock people who really can speak multiple languages -- that's an impressive achievement -- but I'm not one of them, and I'm okay with that. Not proud of it, but okay with it.
I stumbled across Antimoon while looking up accents, and that's more interesting to me than anything else, too -- the various permutations of English that exist around the world. I think all the comparisons are endlessly fascinating, from slang and vocabulary to pronunciation.
I stumbled across Antimoon while looking up accents, and that's more interesting to me than anything else, too -- the various permutations of English that exist around the world. I think all the comparisons are endlessly fascinating, from slang and vocabulary to pronunciation.
I know you do Uriel ;-). I should point out I would learn a language, but only if there was a really good practical reason to do so. I'm certainly not one who will learn a language for fun. I might consider learning Spanish for example if I were to work in South America. Who knows though, I guess, I might end up finding it more interesting than I think.
>>Maybe it's because I appreciate the aesthetics/stylistic differences of speech more than the meaning/grammar/technicalities, or because I'm not familiar enough with any other language by English to appreciate it, but I find the study of different accents more interesting than other languages.<<
It's a pity that my university rarely touches on English accents in sociolinguistics.
I think there are a few reasons why accents are more interesting in language itself (I don't compare languages though). There are other aspects of language: grammar (aspect, mood, verb, adjective, collocation...), vocab (in different domains), pragmatics, legal discourse, poetry, literary theory, ... and you know, there are written language and spoken language, and modern English (like in the past few centuries) and historical development. But then, if you study accents, you can easily show them to the others purely by speaking them. This is unlike how I'm now supposed to read whole books... like banging my head against a brick wall.
This thing is, you can keep reading and reading, skip a lot of time you can use otherwise on eating and sleeping (A lot of us have sleeping problems as students; we're very busy), get more and more confused about very abstract ideas............ and as the motto of Oxford goes, after you learn so much, you simply find you know so little, and the more you learn, the more you forget.
It may be true with studying sounds (accents), but at least I can devote more time on more lively stuff - i.e. sounds. I don't have to "hit" the books as often when I read sounds instead of theories which are often very lengthy.
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Even though I value reading ability, I'm always more concerned about how to articulate speech than to write very good stuff in a foreign language. But what's more, I'm not very into "that many accents".
It's a pity that my university rarely touches on English accents in sociolinguistics.
I think there are a few reasons why accents are more interesting in language itself (I don't compare languages though). There are other aspects of language: grammar (aspect, mood, verb, adjective, collocation...), vocab (in different domains), pragmatics, legal discourse, poetry, literary theory, ... and you know, there are written language and spoken language, and modern English (like in the past few centuries) and historical development. But then, if you study accents, you can easily show them to the others purely by speaking them. This is unlike how I'm now supposed to read whole books... like banging my head against a brick wall.
This thing is, you can keep reading and reading, skip a lot of time you can use otherwise on eating and sleeping (A lot of us have sleeping problems as students; we're very busy), get more and more confused about very abstract ideas............ and as the motto of Oxford goes, after you learn so much, you simply find you know so little, and the more you learn, the more you forget.
It may be true with studying sounds (accents), but at least I can devote more time on more lively stuff - i.e. sounds. I don't have to "hit" the books as often when I read sounds instead of theories which are often very lengthy.
==
Even though I value reading ability, I'm always more concerned about how to articulate speech than to write very good stuff in a foreign language. But what's more, I'm not very into "that many accents".
Uriel,
I don't understand why you dropped out of languages when you had such a promising beginning. If you are still interested in them, I'll bet you could start again and become fluent in at least one of them.
I don't understand why you dropped out of languages when you had such a promising beginning. If you are still interested in them, I'll bet you could start again and become fluent in at least one of them.
I never got around to taking a language in college, even though I was supposed to for my degree program, and by the time I started worrying about it, it was kind of too late --unless I wanted to spend a few extra semesters just catching up on that one requirement. ('Fraid you can't take Spanish I, II, and III concurrently and knock them out in one semester!) So I was able to do some fancy academic footwork and change my degree program to a closely related one (BFA instead of straight BA) -- and then I no longer needed a language to graduate. Whew!
I was interested in all kinds of subjects in college and strayed many times from my major, but I never really got into languages -- I was more into science and literature and art. My tastes have always changed a lot. I could certainly be persuaded to take a language now that I could really use one like Spanish. If I ever get around to getting a second degree, I might -- although I also might not really have the time for it now, as I have to earn a living, too, instead of partying in the dorms. Sucks to grow up!
I was interested in all kinds of subjects in college and strayed many times from my major, but I never really got into languages -- I was more into science and literature and art. My tastes have always changed a lot. I could certainly be persuaded to take a language now that I could really use one like Spanish. If I ever get around to getting a second degree, I might -- although I also might not really have the time for it now, as I have to earn a living, too, instead of partying in the dorms. Sucks to grow up!
Great reply-fun to read. I'm sure you'll do fine with Spanish if that's what you choose.
>>So I was able to do some fancy academic footwork and change my degree program to a closely related one (BFA instead of straight BA) -- and then I no longer needed a language to graduate. Whew!<<
What's BFA and BA?
>>I was interested in all kinds of subjects in college and strayed many times from my major, but I never really got into languages<<
Me too. From economics to European studies, from English to German and the reverse, and from literature to linguistics. But strictly speaking I never switched between fields. I could claim a linguistics minor, given the depth I study in within another major...
I never did anything other than German at university. For many reasons, I think it's already too troublesome to have a German major, so I didn't even want to take anything extra to burden myself. I enjoyed it far more to take French privately at a very low cost by reading books only.
What's BFA and BA?
>>I was interested in all kinds of subjects in college and strayed many times from my major, but I never really got into languages<<
Me too. From economics to European studies, from English to German and the reverse, and from literature to linguistics. But strictly speaking I never switched between fields. I could claim a linguistics minor, given the depth I study in within another major...
I never did anything other than German at university. For many reasons, I think it's already too troublesome to have a German major, so I didn't even want to take anything extra to burden myself. I enjoyed it far more to take French privately at a very low cost by reading books only.
I'm majoring in computer science at the moment, but I still find (natural) languages interesting. I haven't strayed at all so far, except for minoring in mathematics. I'm thinking of double majoring in mathematics as well though.
I'd much rather be a mathematician than a linguist because I'm not that interested in linguistics in general. I couldn't care less what African or South American languages sound like for instance.
I'd much rather be a mathematician than a linguist because I'm not that interested in linguistics in general. I couldn't care less what African or South American languages sound like for instance.
I'm not trying to be contradictory, by the way. I like learning about English, French, Japanese, and Chinese, for instance, so I do like some languages. I'm just not interested in all the minor languages out there.
>>I'm just not interested in all the minor languages out there. <<
Me neither. But there's no such program as a combination of English, French, Japanese, and Chinese together. Right in the first semester, I had already learned that it would be impossible to take a French AND German major. First, they won't believe you can manage both. Second, their timetables will never be compatible. When you spend 7 contact hours per week for 40% of your credits for German/French per semester, then of course you would find it difficult to devote another 40%. (which is my case)
However.... speaking of my experiences, I'd agree that it's difficult to learn two together in such a fashion. And even if you take one language major, you also burden yourself a lot, since it takes a lot of contact hours. Overall, I think my German major is hardly productive. Especially after my return from Germany, it sounds laughable now. If I didn't need it for credit fulfillment and for freeing myself from multiple papers every semester if I took another major (sociology/politics/history... all that crap, esp. sociology I'd say) otherwise.
Very few people believe in my method, or any others that you guys from the western world introduce (our honored polyglot professor, the American journalist, the AJATT guy, etc). They may either invest their time needlessly on language majors... or enroll in some even worse language courses at university (which also cost some money).
But well, yes, I must say the German major does help somehow in going thru contexts that I couldn't go thru otherwise alone, and there are teachers to talk to. But otherwise, to become literate in German, I don't need them. Sometimes my teacher tends to correct me in a way that the young Germans wouldn't do. There is certain disparity between the German you learn in the classroom and the real German they use. The simple with Chinese. Probably some mistakes your Chinese teachers points out is completely natural and alright to me. Or I should say: normally (younger) native speakers are more descriptivist than language teachers.
Me neither. But there's no such program as a combination of English, French, Japanese, and Chinese together. Right in the first semester, I had already learned that it would be impossible to take a French AND German major. First, they won't believe you can manage both. Second, their timetables will never be compatible. When you spend 7 contact hours per week for 40% of your credits for German/French per semester, then of course you would find it difficult to devote another 40%. (which is my case)
However.... speaking of my experiences, I'd agree that it's difficult to learn two together in such a fashion. And even if you take one language major, you also burden yourself a lot, since it takes a lot of contact hours. Overall, I think my German major is hardly productive. Especially after my return from Germany, it sounds laughable now. If I didn't need it for credit fulfillment and for freeing myself from multiple papers every semester if I took another major (sociology/politics/history... all that crap, esp. sociology I'd say) otherwise.
Very few people believe in my method, or any others that you guys from the western world introduce (our honored polyglot professor, the American journalist, the AJATT guy, etc). They may either invest their time needlessly on language majors... or enroll in some even worse language courses at university (which also cost some money).
But well, yes, I must say the German major does help somehow in going thru contexts that I couldn't go thru otherwise alone, and there are teachers to talk to. But otherwise, to become literate in German, I don't need them. Sometimes my teacher tends to correct me in a way that the young Germans wouldn't do. There is certain disparity between the German you learn in the classroom and the real German they use. The simple with Chinese. Probably some mistakes your Chinese teachers points out is completely natural and alright to me. Or I should say: normally (younger) native speakers are more descriptivist than language teachers.
>>If I didn't need it for credit fulfillment and for freeing myself from multiple papers every semester if I took another major (sociology/politics/history... all that crap, esp. sociology I'd say) otherwise. <<
[...] from multiple TERM papers every semester when I took another major otherwise.
That is, if I took another major, I'd have even more work.
>>The simple with Chinese.<<
The SAME with Chinese.
Sorry for the mistakes.
[...] from multiple TERM papers every semester when I took another major otherwise.
That is, if I took another major, I'd have even more work.
>>The simple with Chinese.<<
The SAME with Chinese.
Sorry for the mistakes.
I couldn't care less what African or South American languages sound like for instance.
wowo what an open-minded person! IoI
wowo what an open-minded person! IoI
Xie, BA stands for Bachelor of Arts, and despite the name is the standard undergraduate degree in most liberal arts fields, including history, literature, languages, etc. (In the hard sciences, like math or engineering, the equivalent is a BS -- Bachelor of Science.)
BFA stands for Bachelor of Fine Arts, and is specific to the actual arts -- art, music, drama, etc. It usually requires a few more credit hours to achieve than a regular BA and is considered a professional degree.
Much as I hate to quote Wikipedia, they give a fine synopsis of the difference here:
"In the United States, the Bachelor of Fine Arts, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. It is also named in some countries the Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA. In Britain the equivalent degree is the Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts, while in Australia the Bachelor of Fine Arts is awarded to students completing a degree in visual arts, not performing arts. Specific degrees such as the Bachelor of Dance or Bachelor of Drama are used in the performing arts in Australia and much of Europe.
In the US, the degree differs from a Bachelor of Arts degree in that the majority of the program consists of a practical studio component, as contrasted with lecture and discussion classes. A typical US BFA program consists of two-thirds study in the arts, with one-third in more general liberal arts studies; for a BA in Art, the ratio might be reversed.
The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), which accredits BFA programs in visual art and design in the United States, states that "the professional degree (BFA) focuses on intensive work in the visual arts supported by a program of general studies," whereas "the liberal arts degree (BA) focuses on art and design in the context of a broad program of general studies."
A BFA degree will often require an area of specialty such as: acting, musical theatre, ceramics, computer animation, creative writing, dance, dramatic writing, drawing, fiber, film production, visual effects, animation, graphic design, illustration, industrial design, interior design, metalworking, music, new media, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, or television production. Some schools instead give their students a broad education in many disciplines of the arts.
Although a BFA is traditionally considered a four-year degree, a BFA program may take longer to complete because of the amount of studio course work required."
As an art major, I had the option of getting either a BA or a BFA. My first university only offered BA's. My second offered both, but to be accepted into the BFA program required you to pass an intensive portfolio review and was very competitive -- not everyone who applied would be deemed good enough to get in. My final university, the one I graduated from, assumed that most art students wanted the BFA and made no attempt to restrict access to it. I had taken so many extra classes by the time I was done that I could pick either degree path. The BFA actually allowed me to get out more quickly, so I took it.
BFA stands for Bachelor of Fine Arts, and is specific to the actual arts -- art, music, drama, etc. It usually requires a few more credit hours to achieve than a regular BA and is considered a professional degree.
Much as I hate to quote Wikipedia, they give a fine synopsis of the difference here:
"In the United States, the Bachelor of Fine Arts, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. It is also named in some countries the Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA. In Britain the equivalent degree is the Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts, while in Australia the Bachelor of Fine Arts is awarded to students completing a degree in visual arts, not performing arts. Specific degrees such as the Bachelor of Dance or Bachelor of Drama are used in the performing arts in Australia and much of Europe.
In the US, the degree differs from a Bachelor of Arts degree in that the majority of the program consists of a practical studio component, as contrasted with lecture and discussion classes. A typical US BFA program consists of two-thirds study in the arts, with one-third in more general liberal arts studies; for a BA in Art, the ratio might be reversed.
The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), which accredits BFA programs in visual art and design in the United States, states that "the professional degree (BFA) focuses on intensive work in the visual arts supported by a program of general studies," whereas "the liberal arts degree (BA) focuses on art and design in the context of a broad program of general studies."
A BFA degree will often require an area of specialty such as: acting, musical theatre, ceramics, computer animation, creative writing, dance, dramatic writing, drawing, fiber, film production, visual effects, animation, graphic design, illustration, industrial design, interior design, metalworking, music, new media, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, or television production. Some schools instead give their students a broad education in many disciplines of the arts.
Although a BFA is traditionally considered a four-year degree, a BFA program may take longer to complete because of the amount of studio course work required."
As an art major, I had the option of getting either a BA or a BFA. My first university only offered BA's. My second offered both, but to be accepted into the BFA program required you to pass an intensive portfolio review and was very competitive -- not everyone who applied would be deemed good enough to get in. My final university, the one I graduated from, assumed that most art students wanted the BFA and made no attempt to restrict access to it. I had taken so many extra classes by the time I was done that I could pick either degree path. The BFA actually allowed me to get out more quickly, so I took it.
I know I'm not a mod but this thread has gone a little off topic don't you think?