Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaurnim
Most of us know that French is not going to rule the world as a language.
But english speakers must learn other languages as well, as it broadens your views and keeps you open to other cultures.
As there is no perfect translation and there are only adaptations, we need to keep the variety of languages that exist so that we can enjoy the texts in their original glory.
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Do you realise how well one must learn a foreign language in order to
enjoy reading a fiction book (understanding all the subtlities and nacities of the language/text/novel)?
I am not sure you do.
Mind you, I am speaking about a certain level of knowledge of a certain language that is far superior to the level equal to be able to ask direction to the nearest loo in a foreign country.
As about this famous saying:
anyone "must learn other languages as well, as it broadens your views and keeps you open to other cultures"
I totally disagree with it.
There are plenty of opportunities to learn other cultures if you are interested. Just read the proper books or google for it on the Internet and you will learn a lot more about them than spending a huge chunk of your life to learn grammar and vocabulary of another language.
The simplest example is me. My first language is Russian, my second language used to be Hebrew and now it is English.
Learning language didn't broaden my understanding of the cultures who are using the languages at all, however, I am sure that if only a fraction of the time I spent on learning the languages I would spent on reading books about the cultures in my native language, I would learn so much more.
I sincerely envy people whose first language is English, and if I were one of them I would never waste my time on learning a different language as a hobby (unless one enjoyes learning languages, as one might enjoy reading books, or playing chess etc.). There is so much new and interesting in the world that you can learn instead of 3.000 foreign words. Or as a worst case scenario spend the time to advance in your carier.
