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Originally Posted by ardeegee
I have an interest in languages, but lack the discipline to stick with learning them. In high school, I didn't learn French (required foreign language classes). In my college years I didn't learn Russian and Latin (personal interest, no classes.) Now for the past few years I've been not learning Japanese. I've also at times made brief thrusts towards not learning Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mayan glyphs.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vivaldirules
Pretty much ditto. Not Spanish in high school. Not Russian in college. More recently, not Latin, Greek, or Sanskrit. By the time I die, I figure I will have not learned many languages - perhaps to the point of being an expert at it.
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The problem with learning a foreign language is that it requires some effort, or some contact with speakers of said language, and preferably both.
When I was at school I learned German, and we had of course yearly exchanges with German students. We kept wondering at how much better they were at languages than we were, and they were, mostly because foreign languages had more hours in the curriculum. But in my, admittedly limited, experience later in life when I had occasion to work with German people, I found that many German adults are just as bad at speaking English as French adults. Learning a language is great, but if you don't practice it it just goes away.