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Choosing a Local Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| ErictheNerd Newbie United States Joined 4769 days ago 1 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese | Message 1 of 6 27 April 2011 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm fortunate enough to live in a community (suburban DC) that has a wide variety of immigrant communities. I'd say the most popular languages in my immediate vicinity are Korean, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Mandarin (in that order), though I wouldn't have to travel far to find speakers of Arabic, Farsi or even Amharic. The county library system has a few branches with books in Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese. I'm just curious if other people have decided to take up a language of one of their local immigrant communities, and what their experiences have been. Were people in the community receptive to an "outsider" learning their language? Did it depend on the language? Do people think this is a valid reason to choose a given language. It just feels odd that I've lived in this area for so long and can't put a phrase in Korean together (though I can read Hangul). Thanks for your advice!
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6965 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 2 of 6 27 April 2011 at 6:23pm | IP Logged | ||
I can somewhat relate since I took up Polish partially because I was working in an area whose clientele was noticeably Polish. I say partially because I suspect that I was also being influenced by a general interest in Eastern Europe supported by earlier studies in Hungarian. Reactions to my studying languages other than the arguably hackneyed choices of Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish have tended to be extreme in my case. I've heard it from native speakers (e.g. "Why do you want to learn our language when hardly anyone speaks it?") and outsiders (e.g. "God Chung, it's wild that you can't speak Russian or Spanish but speak Hungarian and Slovak"). When others find out that I can speak French and some German, those don't elicit such extreme reactions. Edited by Chung on 27 April 2011 at 6:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5154 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 3 of 6 27 April 2011 at 7:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Despite all the creeping anglicisms even English is an exotic language here, so the only "local" languages available to me are those represented on my bookshelves.
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| Raye Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4963 days ago 37 posts - 51 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: DutchB1 | Message 4 of 6 03 May 2011 at 11:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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It sounds like you’d have to go through the same considerations you would go through in choosing any language, local or not, such as access to materials, level of natural interest/curiosity, what you’d like to be able to do with the language, and so on. But on top of that you’d also have to think what the “local” aspect means to you. Do you want to meet people in that community? Are you more interested in travel to their country of origin? Are there employment opportunities you’re interested in locally?
As for perceptions of outsiders, my only experience is Spanish in the U.S., which is generally a super-friendly environment for outsiders learning Spanish or even outsiders just trying out a bit of Spanish in the middle of an English conversation. Don’t forget that there can be major dialectical variety within the language you choose and that some of the local speakers may actually be native speakers of some third language (a minority language in their country of origin), so, decisions, decisions. Edited by Raye on 03 May 2011 at 11:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5795 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 5 of 6 04 May 2011 at 12:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Here in Vancouver, the top five languages are English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, and Punjabi. There are also quite a few Filipinos, Koreans, Iranians, and various Arabic speakers.
I find that most Canadians who only speak English are not that motivated to learn anything else that's of local importance. If anything, they gravitate to the nationalist project of trying to learn French, even though it's almost non-existent here. The nearest significant numbers of French speakers are 3000+ km away. In my experience, local speakers of other languages are quite happy (and surprised) to find that someone from outside their community is trying to learn their language. There are several groups around that meet weekly to practice various languages. It's particularly easy to practice Cantonese and Mandarin, because there are several shopping malls that focus specifically on people who speak those languages. When I talk to people in Mandarin on the bus or in a restaurant, they're generally happy to talk to me. I've only made baby steps in Punjabi and Hindi so far, but I have people lined up to talk to me once I get more serious. I have plenty of acquaintances from central and south america who participate in some Spanish-speaking events that I could go along to. Really, I think that learning the local languages is one of the best ways to choose languages. You get to see a lot more things around town that you might have missed otherwise, and you meet people you wouldn't normally have met. And in a practical sense, you get plenty of opportunities to practice and use the language. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 5914 days ago 707 posts - 1219 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 6 of 6 04 May 2011 at 11:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I have to agree with doviende. For day to day practice in speaking another language I
am better off knowing a bit of Polish, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Mandarin or Bengali. All of which are spoken by the extensive immigrant communities in my part of the UK. In fact, that's why I started learning Polish and as a result I've made a lot of friends who help with my learning, as I help theirs. If I choose French or German I wouldn't get many opportunities for speaking practice at all. Listening to the Latvians I've met has introduced me to a language I would never have considered learning, but it's so delightful I'm seriously thinking about tackling it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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