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 Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 1:50 am
I'm learning Chinese and Japanese, both of which my parents support, they just wish I studied Chinese (Mandarin at the moment) more.
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Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 9:57 am
I went on a trip to China recently, with a group of students my age (17-19), as well as a few older adults. For one of the plane rides I sat by one of the adults, and her and I struck up a conversation about languages. I started talking about Spanish and how glad I am to be learning it. She, like many people I know, started telling me a spiel about how she refuses to learn Spanish because of the illegal Mexican immigrants to the US. To her I suppose learning Spanish feels like some kind of surrender, a view I understand but it seems sort of ridiculous. I started to tell her that she might as well learn it; it's good to learn any language, and whether she likes it or not it is a fact that the US is undergoing a cultural change that involves the Spanish language.
Long story short, I told a few students after the flight about our conversation, and for the rest of the trip the news about her "hating Mexicans" (not my words) spread throughout the group and everyone ended up speaking Spanish around her. It was kinda mean, but I lol'd...This one guy on the trip kept making comments to her about how lucky we are for living so close to Mexico (sourthern Cali) and how beautiful of a culture it is and so on.
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Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:09 am
My mom and her side is happy im learning Spanish, so i can talk to my nephew and family still in Costa Rica.
As for me learning French also, and wanting to know Chinese they think its a waste of time and money. They dont understand how people get joy from learning a language and talking to the native speakers.
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Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 10:00 pm
I get made fun of for learning korean. crying
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Posted: Sat May 30, 2009 10:53 pm
People laugh at me for learning Swedish, and I am constantly ridiculed by my dad and a couple friends for not learning Spanish. Apparently just because I live in Los Angeles, it's some sort of essential skill to have...
Some people get freaked out when I tell them I'm trying to learn Arabic, and my mom is supremely irked at me for learning German at the same time as French because she doesn't want me learning more than one langauge at once, so I keep the rest of my langauges secret. rolleyes
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:58 am
I have started to become very interested in learning French (even though i have been learning ever since i started high school ). I start rambling on to my Mum and Dad about french books i want to get, Discussions on Gaia, etc.
My Dad is very supportive of me. I also mentioned to him that i would like to start to learn the basic of German and he learned a bit when he was younger so he is ok with that.
I think they think it a bit strange how my love for language has come on so quick. lol
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Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 10:16 pm
Even though it's not my mom's favorite language, she's happy that I'm learning French, and REALLY likes telling others that I've been studying Japanese, too (Even though I've really slowed up on studying that). She doesn't mind so much that I'm not learning Spanish (though I am half Dominican, and have taken up to Spanish 2 in high school), but my dad is Dominican and he's like "Rooarrrargh, why aren't you learning Spanish? Why are you learning French? Blahblah!" He thinks it has something to do with me not being proud of being part Dominican- Which I VERY MUCH am. heart
To be honest, I know more Spanish than I (or my dad for that matter) believe I do. And for some reason, formally studying it or studying it on my own hasn't been a priority of mine, it's just not speaking to me right now. I think Spanish is a beautiful language, though, and I still intend to take up fluency with it one of these days. If anything, it should be easier for me once I've got the gist of French.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:57 pm
Belthasar727 I don't know if this was mentioned, but I've noticed some people have an attitude towards anyone trying to learn Japanese. It's as if they think every student of Japanese is an anime-crazed Japanophile who's just trying to be stylish. The funny thing is my interest in the language did start with anime and Japanese pop culture, and it's the same story for a lot of people, but it's long since graduated to far more than that. In fact I would say my progression went something like => anime => Japanese pop culture => Japanese culture => Japanese language => Foreign languages => General Linguistics. So it was central to deciding my career path. razz People trying to learn Spanish are also met with an attitude I think, for kind of the opposite reason of Japanese students. Trying to learn Spanish is sometimes considered lame, and the early stages of learning the language (trying to pronounce words, "yo no hablo", etc) gives off this stereotypical image of the "hopeless gringo" trying to adopt Spanish culture. They're unfortunate attitudes really, I don't think learning any language should ever be frowned upon or met with obstacles like that. You pretty much hit the nail on the head for me there. xd We (my sisters and I) used to always just watch TONS of anime with subs (I can't get why people dislike subs... is it really that hard to read your native language? But I guess I'm biased since I'm so used to it) and the Japanese just kind of flew past me. After a while I really wanted to understand. I wanted to go on all the japanese websites and play all the games without waiting for them to come out and buy all the light novels that are probably never going to be translated and read all of them like I read english. So I started seriously learning Japanese, and that's led to my interest to languages in general. But because of the whole anime thing I get really embarrassed telling others that I'm learning Japanese. Nobody hates me for it, but my parents I think dislike me learning it because they think should be focusing on other things. Also, most people in my school think the only language anyone needs to know is English. That may or may not be true but it still really gets on my nerves. On a side note.. how does everyone deal with such racist people in their family?! My mom, being Taiwanese, recognizes what Japan had done to hurt other people. But she realizes that wasn't up to all the japanese people. Like even though my dad's white, it's not his fault slavery in America happened. Honestly if I had a racist sibling I think I wouldn't be able to hold my temper.
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Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 5:28 pm
Belthasar727 People trying to learn Spanish are also met with an attitude I think, for kind of the opposite reason of Japanese students. Trying to learn Spanish is sometimes considered lame, and the early stages of learning the language (trying to pronounce words, "yo no hablo", etc) gives off this stereotypical image of the "hopeless gringo" trying to adopt Spanish culture.I live in Los Angeles, and when someone who's lived there all their life/for a very long time has absolutely no knowledge of Spanish or of the pronunciation at all it makes me want to raise my eyebrow a bit, seeing as we do have a very large prescense of Hispanic culture here and not knowing anything about it just...well, how could you not pick a few things up, you know? I get annoyed when people who've had their whole lives exposed to something learn none of it. -_- TurtIe Tracks Also, most people in my school think the only language anyone needs to know is English. That may or may not be true but it still really gets on my nerves. That annoys me to no end.... burning_eyes TurtIe Tracks On a side note.. how does everyone deal with such racist people in their family?! My mom, being Taiwanese, recognizes what Japan had done to hurt other people. But she realizes that wasn't up to all the japanese people. Like even though my dad's white, it's not his fault slavery in America happened. Honestly if I had a racist sibling I think I wouldn't be able to hold my temper. I deal with my parents and grandmother by getting into long angry arguments/shouting matches which end in me being kicked out of the house for a night because I disagree with their..."views". stare
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 10:21 am
TurtIe Tracks Also, most people in my school think the only language anyone needs to know is English. That may or may not be true but it still really gets on my nerves. During one of the conversations I had with my cousin - who has been living in Australia most of her life and pretty much monolingual - she told me they were never really taught foreign languages, at least not enough to use them, because of that general perception of English as Franca Lingua there. Hence I don't think your classmates are necessarily guilty for that attitude, if their surrounding never exposed them to the importance of having more than just one language in the hand. neutral
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:56 pm
Well I'm mad at this other kid for learning languages, but it's pretty much just a jealous, petty reason. You know that "thing" that you're good for? Like the ONE SPECIALTY? (for instance my friend got mad at her sister because she wanted to be an artist, and her sister beat her and got the credit for everything, and then the SISTER wanted to be an artist, and that pissed my friend off because that was "HER" thing) Well for me that's languages
Then, this kid in my class also decides "hey, I'm going to learn a million languages to get a good job and travel around the world and crap" except he's a TOTAL show-off about it, and did an oral essay on South America (we had to write our own independence speeches pretending to be an independence leader) and he did it IN SPANISH. And now he's getting all the credit for learning languages (He just started French and it pisses me off that he thinks he can help with my French homework. I'm like "No, after 2 weeks of teaching yourself, you don't "KNOW" French!).
So I'm just mad because it was like "MY THING" that I wanted to get credit for, my real passion, and now he's the "language learner". (Dear god if he DARE try Japanese........ >.<)
His parents are pretty Xenophobic though and I feel bad for him about that- they hate everyone and everything foreign and refuse to pay for any college and trips that involves foreign countries and language
I get mad at many people who learn Japanese, even though I'm learning it. And it's mostly because (MOST) people who learn Japanese outside of college/business classes ARE ONLY DONIG IT FOR ANIME. And have NO IDEA about anything in the culture and stuff. OMG that's such a KAWAII NEKO DESOO DESOO DESOOOOOOOO isn't Japanese......
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:59 pm
Athran My ex-b/f is French and LOATHES the fact that I learn German. He compared the language to a coughing fit (I could say something that would offend people about how I find the sound of French, but to him of course, that would be wron)." HAHAHA!!! I agreeeeeee!!!!!!! Everyone's like "French is SO BEAUTIFUL AND ROMANTIC" and I'm like "....What language are YOU thinking of?" (I think English sounds just as ugly, don't worry). I LIKE the sound of German- the only reason people think it sounds bad is because they just hear it yelled by some stereotypical character in propaganda. It's NOT an ugly language, perhaps not the prettiest, but not as gross as people think it is. (English sounds much more repulsive, I think)
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:00 pm
Rioto_Kish I generally get people frustrated because often, when I'm talking, some Japanese will slip out instead of English (which confuses a lot of my friends because they don't speak any other language other than English) but they are pretty cool with it, because they know that I want to be an interpreter one day and that I am used to speaking Japanese/English at uni, so it's hard to suddenly change into just English. ....I do have one friend though who sometimes chastises me for speaking in Japanese all the time. Which is weird, because he studies it too! sweatdrop I find speaking the language the easiest way to learn, and it's now at the point where my first reaction will be to speak in Japanese and not English, it does frustrate people. The only people who don't mind are my Japanese friends and my boyfriend, who is also Japanese (although he feels bad because he feels that he is responsible for me trying so hard to speak Japanese, because sometimes I have problems understanding his English. xd ) To make matters worse, I have no picked up a fairly strong Osaka accent from two friends of mine. One of my mates thought it was terrific that I could speak Osaka-ben (Osaka dialect) and was really proud of me! So that comforts me. I have experienced opposition against me learning Indonesian though. Every time I say I'm learning it, I'm met with 'Why learn a dumb language like that???It's so horrible sounding, and Indonesia's nothing but full of terrorists! Don't waste your time!'' ....which makes me want to slap them, hard. Indonesia is NOT full of terrorists, I have Indonesian friends and they are some of the nicest people you could meet. And Indonesian may sound harsh to some people's ears, but I love the sound of it. heart My friend speaks Indonesian and I think it sounds cool....
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:05 pm
Belthasar727 I don't know if this was mentioned, but I've noticed some people have an attitude towards anyone trying to learn Japanese. It's as if they think every student of Japanese is an anime-crazed Japanophile who's just trying to be stylish. The funny thing is my interest in the language did start with anime and Japanese pop culture, and it's the same story for a lot of people, but it's long since graduated to far more than that. In fact I would say my progression went something like => anime => Japanese pop culture => Japanese culture => Japanese language => Foreign languages => General Linguistics. So it was central to deciding my career path. razz People trying to learn Spanish are also met with an attitude I think, for kind of the opposite reason of Japanese students. Trying to learn Spanish is sometimes considered lame, and the early stages of learning the language (trying to pronounce words, "yo no hablo", etc) gives off this stereotypical image of the "hopeless gringo" trying to adopt Spanish culture. They're unfortunate attitudes really, I don't think learning any language should ever be frowned upon or met with obstacles like that. (I've posted a million things on here and I should stop xD) My interest did sorta start with anime too, I'm ashamed to mention.... (but my first exposure was Aikido).... but then my interests went in the same direction as yours, except Japanese language came before culture (lol xD). I can't stand weaboos. There should be a "weaboo test" that everyone who is interested in taking JApanese should be required to take xD lol that might prevent weaboo-ism (I'm NOT a weaboo anymore. That was years ago)
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 5:05 pm
The_Brightest_Moon Belthasar727 I don't know if this was mentioned, but I've noticed some people have an attitude towards anyone trying to learn Japanese. It's as if they think every student of Japanese is an anime-crazed Japanophile who's just trying to be stylish. The funny thing is my interest in the language did start with anime and Japanese pop culture, and it's the same story for a lot of people, but it's long since graduated to far more than that. In fact I would say my progression went something like => anime => Japanese pop culture => Japanese culture => Japanese language => Foreign languages => General Linguistics. So it was central to deciding my career path. razz People trying to learn Spanish are also met with an attitude I think, for kind of the opposite reason of Japanese students. Trying to learn Spanish is sometimes considered lame, and the early stages of learning the language (trying to pronounce words, "yo no hablo", etc) gives off this stereotypical image of the "hopeless gringo" trying to adopt Spanish culture. They're unfortunate attitudes really, I don't think learning any language should ever be frowned upon or met with obstacles like that. (I've posted a million things on here and I should stop xD) My interest did sorta start with anime too, I'm ashamed to mention.... (but my first exposure was Aikido).... but then my interests went in the same direction as yours, except Japanese language came before culture (lol xD). I can't stand weaboos. There should be a "weaboo test" that everyone who is interested in taking JApanese should be required to take xD lol that might prevent weaboo-ism (I'm NOT a weaboo anymore. That was years ago) As I read on some other site though, I think if a person really, completely seriously starts learning a language, it doesn't matter what their reason is. Maybe they just think it sounds awesome or they just want to seem cool for knowing it, but what matters is if they take it like most people in this guild and study passionately, or other wise passionately try to get fluent in it. smile What may seem like a stupid reason to you could be a very good reason to others.
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