nedelja, 11. november 2007

Studying foreign languages is a waste of time?


I guess we all know what would happened if nations spoke only their national language. International communication would not be possible. It is quite hard to imagine such a world. Therefore it is necessary to study foreign languages - to communicate with the world.

Unfortunately we do not have an universal language (except body language) that everybody would understand and speak. There were some trials e.g. Esperanto but so success was made. And even if people would accept Esperanto we would have to learn it as if it was a foreign language.

But anyway some selection must be made. When we decide to study any foreign languages we should consider the applicability of language. I guess it is quite inconvenient for an average American to begin learning Slovenian language.

I guess speaking foreign languages depends on the largeness of some nation, as well. Slovenes are obliged to speak at least English when we want to communicate to the world. But anyway it is better to know the foreign language and the native languages. Because if the whole world wanted to speak one language native languages would extinct and there for the notion of nation would extinct, too.

But once we are studying foreign languages I think it is a waste of time when we go into details unless we want to know the language better then native speakers. Learning is useable until we can communicate in that language without any problems.

And what are the objective solutions? I guess there are not any easy way solutions. You have to put some effort into learning foreign languages and I think it is worth. Because it is always good to understand other people. And if we are to lazy to learn that, we still can use our universal body language.

3 komentarji:

Anonimni pravi ...

Efektive, Jaka, Esperanto jam surprize sukcesas — aparte en via propra lando! Ĉi-somere okazis granda konferenco de la EEU en Maribor, ekzemple. Jen ligiloj al plia informo:

Actually Jaka, Esperanto has been surprisingly successful — especially in your own country! This summer a large conference of the EEU occurred in Maribor, for example. Here are links to more information:

La 7-a Kongreso de Eŭropa Esperanto-Unio
Esperanto en Slovenujo

Amike (in friendship),
- Hoss en Novjorkio (New York), Usono (USA)

Saša pravi ...

Speaking in general, I agree - the most important thing is successful communication. Those who need to be fluent in speaking and writing though usually have to invest some more effort in learning to use the language. It depends on what you want and what you need I guess.
Concerning Esperanto - I find it interesting but prefer to study real, living languages. There are so many and learning them is so much more than just acquiring language structures… It’s exploring other cultures, widening you horizon… I like the way different languages sound differently, the way they express some ideas in such similar ways, and others in so very different. Language tells a lot about its users. I’ve recently watched a very interesting presentation about this by Stephen Pinker at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/164 - worth watching if you are interested in this sort of things.

Anonimni pravi ...

He he! Esperanto ja estas «vera», vivanta lingvo. Ĝi havas pli da parolantoj ol multaj aliaj «veraj» lingvoj, kaj multe pli riĉan literaturon. Kial malŝpari jarojn en klasĉambro parkerigante la tedajn verb-konjugaciojn de nur unu nacia lingvo — kiu nur unu kulturon malfermus — kiam anstataŭe oni povus vojaĝi tra la mondo malmultekoste, lernante pri fremdaj kulturoj kaj landoj de tiuj, kiuj loĝas tie?

Heh heh. Esperanto is indeed a «real», living language. It has more speakers than many other «real» languages, and a much richer literature. Why waste years in a classroom memorizing the boring verb conjugations of just one national language — which provides access to just one culture — when instead you could be travelling the world on the cheap, learning about foreign lands and cultures from the people who live there?