Learning Foreign Languages: Is it a hobby or a must?

[abufarse]

learning new language is very necessary these day . one of the benefit to understand other culture, english is more then a languages for specially society, its a language of medical, business,airlines
so admire everybody to learn more then one languages.

[Noego]

Originally Posted by abufarse

learning new language is very necessary these day . one of the benefit to understand other culture, english is more then a languages for specially society, its a language of medical, business,airlines
so admire everybody to learn more then one languages.

Unless of course, one person's ability to learn languages is irrelevant to you as far as personal integrity is concerned. You would then admire or despise them for different reasons.

[Obadiah Loombucket]

Originally Posted by Harry Smith

Is learning foreign languages a hobby or a must?

It's not a must if your first language is English, but it's certainly desirable to be able to speak another language or two reasonably fluently. I wish I did - I've got a smattering of French, but that's all. I'd love to speak other languages, including the classical ones - Latin and Greek - , but learning them is such a pain. The trouble is that language-learning inevitably involves a lot of rote-learning. I'm afraid that foreign languages are a mental black hole as far as I'm concerned - which is odd, considering that English is my forte: my degree is in Eng. Lit.

Is there a relatively painless way of learning, or improving one's knowledge of, a foreign language?

[Harry Smith]

Originally Posted by Obadiah Loombucket

It's not a must if your first language is English, but it's certainly desirable to be able to speak another language or two reasonably fluently. I wish I did - I've got a smattering of French, but that's all. I'd love to speak other languages, including the classical ones - Latin and Greek - , but learning them is such a pain. The trouble is that language-learning inevitably involves a lot of rote-learning. I'm afraid that foreign languages are a mental black hole as far as I'm concerned - which is odd, considering that English is my forte: my degree is in Eng. Lit.

Is there a relatively painless way of learning, or improving one's knowledge of, a foreign language?

Yes, there is. I have been learning and teaching English for more than forty years. It's a great pleasure for me to study any foreign language. The main reason of my success is that I can't imagine my life without learning a few foreign words each day of my life. Of course I don't keep them in my mind. whenever I come across them while reading I remember them. There are a lot of pleasurable ways of learning languages.

[hamlet554]

Hi,
I read through your discussion about second/third languages and was surprised when you said that in Germany people didn't speak English to you. I am German. We all have to learn English at school starting with fifth grade. Though, our school system divides into three different schools after elementary school. That's why the level of competence of speaking English differes quite a lot sometimes and some people therefore might not like to speak English. But in most big cities you always find someone who is happy to speak English.

I do have to agree that some English native speakers do expect too much by saying: we speak the world's language, you have to be able to communicate with us. It would do a lot of those people good if they once bothered to learn a second language themselves.

Another language which is also taught at the more advanced level schools in Germany is French, and lately Spanish has become quite popular. Only a few schools still teach Russian, there are more which still teach Latin, and some that teach Italian. Any other languages you have to study at univesity or teach yourself.

[Harry Smith]

Originally Posted by hamlet554

Hi,
I read through your discussion about second/third languages and was surprised when you said that in Germany people didn't speak English to you. I am German. We all have to learn English at school starting with fifth grade. Though, our school system divides into three different schools after elementary school. That's why the level of competence of speaking English differes quite a lot sometimes and some people therefore might not like to speak English. But in most big cities you always find someone who is happy to speak English.

I do have to agree that some English native speakers do expect too much by saying: we speak the world's language, you have to be able to communicate with us. It would do a lot of those people good if they once bothered to learn a second language themselves.

Another language which is also taught at the more advanced level schools in Germany is French, and lately Spanish has become quite popular. Only a few schools still teach Russian, there are more which still teach Latin, and some that teach Italian. Any other languages you have to study at univesity or teach yourself.

When I say that it's not easy to find someone who will gladly speak English in Germany doesn't mean German people don't know English. I have had about 10 students from Germany in Moscow. They were mostly students of German school in Moscow. I must say they learnt English with pleasure. The only problem was they had to speak four languages regularly:German, Russian, English and French or Italian. They could speak English better than English people any other foreign language.

[Noego]

They could speak English better than English people any other foreign language.

Do you mean: "They could speak better English than English people could speak any foreign language."

If that's the case: objection!

No offense, but I think to make such a statement is nothing short of impossible.

I wouldn't be able to make such a claim anyway. Not without some sort evidence at least.

[Harry Smith]

Originally Posted by Noego

Do you mean: "They could speak better English than English people could speak any foreign language."

If that's the case: objection!

No offense, but I think to make such a statement is nothing short of impossible.

I wouldn't be able to make such a claim anyway. Not without some sort evidence at least.

I have a friend from the USA who has been living in Arfmenia for the last 13 years and still he doesn't speak the language. Do you know why? Because people speak English better there and he has no need to learn the language.For me this is the main reason why English speakers don't speak foreign languages better than non-English speakers. Of course there can be exceptions.

[Noego]

I have a friend from the USA who has been living in Arfmenia for the last 13 years and still he doesn't speak the language. Do you know why? Because people speak English better there and he has no need to learn the language.For me this is the main reason why English speakers don't speak foreign languages better than non-English speakers. Of course there can be exceptions.

No I understand that, Harry.

There's no doubt in my mind that your friend never made the effort to learn the language because English is less of an hassle for him.

But my point is that your friend doesn't represent native English speakers as a whole. That's one person out milions of millions of native speakers.

I knew a guy here, in China, his Spanish was perfect. He was American and lived in New Mexico for most of his life. But that doesn't mean anything as far as native English speakers are concerned. Statistically speaking, it's pretty much irrelevant.

I just don't think that your affirmation stands norm as far as native speakers are concerned. I just don't think it's true. But let's agree to disagree right?

[alihandra]

Originally Posted by Harry Smith

But one thing isn't clear to me. Do they ever learn German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese etc. as hard as we do? Or maybe they don't even think about other languages. Any ideas?

--Actually People in the world speak English because of the britsh occupation to lots of countries in the old time.

you can notice also that lots of the African countries speak french because of the occupation in the old time.

So this is why the language[English and French] spread in a large way..

_________________

--Actually alot of people in the world doesn`t learn languages even if English is not their mother tongue.