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The value of learning a second language |
 Posted: Tue Dec 9, 2008 5:47 pm |
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| I'm sure 100% of us on this website speak English perfectly, and I was wondering what do you think is the importance of learning a second language?
I know it depends on which language, but just think on average. Even if you learn a popular one like Spanish then i'm sure the majority of Spanish speakers you ever meet will speak well enough in English to communicate. I ask because I'm currently learning Korean. Pretty fuc*ing useless once I leave the country. I already know more than enough to survive. Should I carry on studying and become better? What good will it be once I leave, except to show off that I can do it? |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 2394 Posts |
| Posted: Tue Dec 9, 2008 6:00 pm |
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| Honestly? If I could get by, I wouldn't learn any more. Well, I wouldn't go out of my way to learn any more, obviously you'll pick more up the longer you're there no matter what.
I speak a decent amount of Spanish, which I learnt travelling around South America. In fairness, there were plenty of people I met out there who didn't speak a word of English, so it was worth knowing. I speak a fair amount of French, too. I find this is useful as French people can be really arsey if you don't try and speak French when in France. As soon as you try, they revert to English quite happily though. So I think those languages are worth knowing. The other language I speak is Hungarian. I had to learn this with work, and I hate it. Horrible language. I can get by now, but should I ever leave this job, I'd drop it straight away. I guess it's a similar situation to your Korean one. |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 5217 Posts |
| Posted: Tue Dec 9, 2008 6:02 pm |
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| i know a bit of korean, 1 whole word which i cant spell but sounds like sheeba and means fuck, or shit or something.
Keep learning, get a qualification and it will look really good on your CV, shows your willing to learn and like a challenge. |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 883 Posts |
| Posted: Tue Dec 9, 2008 6:30 pm |
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| I think languages are a great way of improving cultural awareness. You can't really know your shit about a country unless you speak the language.
I do French at Uni and have found out what french people and french culture is like because of watching french tv/films, reading french papers/books and most of all talking to french people! . |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 204 Posts |
| Posted: Tue Dec 9, 2008 7:32 pm |
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You can't really know your shit about a country unless you speak the language.
Exactly. Learning the language brings cultural awareness, shows respect to that culture and helps knock the stereotype that British people can't be bothered to learn languages. :/ It's common knowledge that travellers get treated with a more respect if they show they are trying to speak the language of the country they are in. I always try to learn at least 'hello' 'yes' 'no' 'please' and 'thank you' in the languages of the countries I travel (and will travel) to. If you have a good knowledge of the language - enough to get by, then it's up to you whether you learn more or not. If you're interested in a language, then go for it. I'm trying to improve my Spanish - I would love to be fluent, and I am also learning Japanese, which is great fun! English is the language of business in many countries in the world so unless you are living somewhere for a long time you can manage with the knowledge you have. |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 1537 Posts |
| Posted: Tue Dec 9, 2008 11:39 pm |
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I always try to learn at least 'hello' 'yes' 'no' 'please' and 'thank you' in the languages of the countries I travel (and will travel) to.
Ditto, and a few more such as excuse me and sorry (for when I bump into people  )
I'm trying to improve my Spanish - I would love to be fluent,
Again ditto on that, I've been teaching myself for about 3/4 months and I'm pretty good considering I was useless at German in school. I speak a fair amount of French, too. I find this is useful as French people can be really arsey if you don't try and speak French when in France. As soon as you try, they revert to English quite happily though.
I can defiantly relate to that, the Parisian police were the worst when I was there. As soon as I began to speak broken French they had no problem at all with me, before that they were incredibly ignorant. |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 209 Posts |
| Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:50 am |
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I'd love to be able to speak another language, I just don't seem to have enough time to get around to doing it  |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 4388 Posts |
| Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 1:17 am |
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| For me, learning a foreign language is much more than just being able to converse with the locals. After all, if you want to be any good at it you'll need to do it for YEARS and longer still to keep the knowledge levels too.
I enjoy studying languages because not only is it fantastically useful, its also an insight into the culture of the target language that I wouldn't get from studying just in english. For that, I think you need a real interest in the culture/history of the places where your target language is spoken. Perhaps I should also say that I'm currently 3 months into a language degree too. 
I guess studying Korean will continue to be of benefit the longer you stay there and if you'll keep interested in goings on if you come back home? Up to you I guess. It will defo look good on the CV though. |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 5603 Posts |
| Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:17 am |
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For me, learning a foreign language is much more than just being able to converse with the locals. After all, if you want to be any good at it you'll need to do it for YEARS and longer still to keep the knowledge levels too.
This is a good point...language changes all the time. Just think of the amount of new words being added to the English dictionary, then consider all the different types of slang that are coming into being in every other spoken tongue!! Being fluent is more about translating word for word, it's about knowing how to converse using current terms, and keeping up with the ever-changing vocabulary! X |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 3099 Posts |
| Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:10 am |
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| 한국어 잘 할 수 있으면 한국사람일 이야기할 수 있어요.
By which I mean those ladies you mentioned in one of your first posts from Korea. ;) Personally, I'm going to keep studying Korean while I'm here just for the understanding that comes with it...though there is potential for making contacts over here and having a skill for a future job that very few other people in the West have (my energies are also going to be spent brushing up on my French, as it'll help me when I go to Canada). For studying languages in general, I think that it's worth it just for fun, and being able to communicate in other countries you might go to. |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 690 Posts |
| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:54 pm |
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| hey im in spain right now as an exchange student and ive been here for 5 months and have aanother 5 months to go and i have to say that no matter what language it is its awesome to know another language. not just for the culture even tho thats all great but for work im sure theres so many good jobs for people that speak english and a second language especially korean cus its not as common for a 2nd language. id continue with it, i mean if u already started its a waste to stop i use to take chinese for 8 years and i quit about 3 years ago and dont remember shit. i wish i kept with it so i personally think its an amazing feeling when u can finally speak a 2nd language really well. i want to learn more after this but it is insanely hard so and i cant imagine korean so i guess its different but i still think any language is guna be useful | |
| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 9 Posts |
| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:26 pm |
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| Yeah, this is something I have thought about too...
I have a few Arabic friends and I started learning a bit of that, it's not ridiculously hard.. I also thought about going to south america and trying to learn a bit of spanish there, but not sure if there are ways of doing that on a programme or something. I have the rosetta stone programmes, but I got bored too easily lol.. might have to give them another go though... |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 1084 Posts |
| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:35 pm |
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| I've been meaning to learn a new language but I can't decide which......
What language is pretty universal and will be useful to know in sticky situations lol? |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 16 Posts |
| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:37 pm |
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| English......... but I guess we know that one already eh...
Probably spanish or french, they seem the most common lol |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 1084 Posts |
| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:47 pm |
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Well, now you've mentioned, i think i could do with brushing up my English really. It can get quite messy sometimes...especially if ive consumed some form of alcoholic beverage 
I think I'll go for Spanish. French likes to complicate things by making all objects have a gender. |
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| Back to top | Location: Unknown | 16 Posts |
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