There are many reasons we might decide to try to learn another language. We might need the language for study or work purposes, or simply to communicate with family or friends. We may want to connect with a new culture, the culture of another country where the language is spoken.
Usually, the goal is one and the same, to speak and understand the language as well as we can.
Language is culture, history and travel.
In my own case these days, I am motivated just by the possibility of accessing a new culture, learning about another country, its people and its history.
This kind of motivation just suits my present situation as a learner not living where the language is spoken, and not needing the language for any practical reason outside of curiosity and interest. What resources are available to help me, and how do they stimulate and maintain my motivation?
Let’s take a language like Italian for example and consider the ways in which I might enjoy Italian while living in Vancouver. I could go to an Italian restaurant and chat with the waiter in Italian, but that really wouldn’t happen very often. I don’t know many Italians in Vancouver with whom I could carry on conversations in Italian, so that is also not a practical motivation. I am already busy with other professional and social activities so wouldn’t have that much time to seek out Italians here to socialize with.
I could try to connect with Italian speakers via Skype. It is not easy, however, to find language partners who share my interests, and with whom I want to spend hours in conversation especially via Skype. As a result, my opportunities to use the language here in Vancouver are quite limited.
On the other hand, it is quite easy for me to arrange to read a book in Italian. I can buy or borrow a paper book or download an eBook, which I can import into LingQ in order to learn new words and phrases. I can watch movies, which I can find online in Italian or other languages on sites like Filmdoo. I can listen to audiobooks in Italian from sites like Il Narratore, where audiobooks and matching eBooks are available for download. If I am interested in food, I can listen to podcasts like Il Gastronauta from Italy. For more serious fare on history, culture and politics I can download podcasts from the Italian national radio network RAI, in particular their outstanding series Alle otto della sera.
I can listen to all of this interesting content in the car or while doing chores around the house. There are endless opportunities for me to interact with things Italian, and learn about Italy and its culture, while improving my Italian, almost effortlessly.
This is obviously not only true for Italian, but for many languages. The desire to read Russian books was a big part of my motivation to learn Russian. I have literally hundreds of books and CDs at home in languages such as Chinese, Russian, Czech, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Ukrainian, Polish and more.
I have found a wide range of internet resources, radio stations, podcasts, audiobook and eBook sites offering content for these and other languages, which have enabled me to enrich my life in the process of learning and improving in these languages. I have catalogued many of these resources on my computer so that when I feel like listening to or reading something in a particular language, these resources are readily available.
Unless I live where the language is spoken, the amount of time that I can spend listening and reading far exceeds the amount of time that I am able to spend speaking in the language that I am learning. I don’t think that’s unusual. As a result, that is what I am mostly motivated to do.
Speaking is still the goal
Of course I also want to be able to speak these languages, but I know from experience that these journeys in the language, based on reading, listening and using LingQ to increase my vocabulary of words and phrases, will eventually enable me to speak, and speak well.
Some people are motivated to learn another language in order to be able to use it on their next visit to Mexico or Italy on holiday. Their motivation is to just to speak, to say a few things in the language. That is quite understandable. However, it has been my experience that when I try to learn a language just in order to say a few things for a trip, I don’t do very well. I find that I don’t really understand what people are saying, and struggle to say much beyond a few phrases. I end up not being able to do much beyond pointing and gesturing in the language when I get to my destination.
When I have prepared properly with a lot reading and listening, I do much better, even though much of my vocabulary might seem not directly related to my needs as a tourist.
Language for work or study
Some people are motivated to learn another language because they need it for academic or professional reasons. These learners usually spend a lot of time in classrooms and study the language with great determination, often focusing on preparing for language proficiency tests, and studying grammar rules and vocabulary lists.
Even though these learners put in more time and effort than the tourist planning to visit Mexico or Italy, the results are often disappointing. If these learners are able to acquire a more intrinsic sense of motivation, an interest in some aspect of the culture, this will make it more likely for them to achieve the more “practical” goals of achieving a high level in the language that they need for their tests and professional purposes.
I have always found that when I am able to acquire a familiarity with the language through my interests, and gain different perspectives on the culture, current events, history or even cooking, I connect more strongly with the language. As a result, not only my listening comprehension and reading skills improve, but my speaking ability develops very quickly once I have the opportunity to use the language.
Usually having invested so much time on my input activities, when I go to speak I have a much better background from which to work on my speaking skills. More and more of my accumulated passive vocabulary becomes activated the more I speak. While I struggle at first, I progress very quickly.
I don’t think it is possible to do well in language learning without committing to going beyond the language itself. We need to use the language to take side trips into the culture, into whatever interests us, not just what is in the textbook. This makes the language learning journey more enjoyable, and ensures that we reach our goals.
Why did you start to learn another language? I look forward to discussion in the comments.
Want to learn a language from content you love?
11 comments on “Why Learn Another Language?”
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Hi Steve,
Thank you for your videos…I really enjoy them and vote for twice weekly.
I am not a “typical” language learner….if there is such a thing. I’ve only started to learn Italian in my sixties and, frankly, don’t ever envision attempting to learn another language. I am learning Italian because my mother and all ancestors were from Italy. I get a kick out of being able to understand larger parts of movies, podcasts, news programs, and written material. It just makes me happy….and, hopefully, helps my brain!
Ciao Steve, avevo già commentato in italiano il tuo video. Ho provato a mandarti un messaggio privato ma youtube oggi ha qualche problema…
Visto che hai letto “I Promessi Sposi” volevo suggerirti questo simpatico video intitolato “I Promessi Sposi in 10 minuti” in cui cinque attori riadattano i testi di varie canzoni italiane per mettere in scena un bizzarro riassunto dell’opera di Manzoni.
Non si tratta di niente di così sconvolgente ma ti lascio il link del video sperando che possa trovarlo piacevole:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9CxZnsbY04
Why we decide to learn a new language? Maybe to discover new aspects of our personalities, like alter egos…and yes, certainly watching a video, or reading a book in the original language is a completely different experience then reading their translation.
Frequency of videos? I don’t know… once a week?
Ciao 🙂
Tosca
That was a great post thanks for sharing mate! Well others are trying to learn other language just to have a one step forward to the country that they want to go, however, there are businesses supports this kind of motivation which they offers language courses.
Thanks for all your work Steve. I recently discovered your YouTube channel and I’m very glad I did! I share a lot of your opinions about the value of learning multiple languages. My strongest non-native language is Japanese followed by Spanish, Korean and a bit of Russian.
One thing you didn’t directly mention which I think is important is that languages often give you a different way of thinking about things. For example, as you are aware, in Japan, you say “gochi-sou-sama-deshita” after a meal and “otsukare-sama-deshita” when somebody gives you a ride somewhere (or in countless other situations). Or you might say, “o-saki-ni” when you leave work before your co-workers. I lived and worked in Japan for two years and after a while, you get used to these types of phrases. Then, when you get back to the USA, you find yourself “missing” those phrases because there isn’t an equivalent way to relay the same feeling. Then you realize that when limited to English, you are limiting your mind’s ability to express itself fully. At least that is what I have found!
Another example if I may, my wife is a native of South Korea. In Korean you can say, “nuki-hada” when you’ve eaten a lot of oily foods and desire a fresh bite of kimchi to counteract the oiliness. That one was a bit of a challenge to explain to my parents, ha ha.
I’ve just started learning Russian and look forward to similar Russian-thinking ways to expand my mind.
Regards,
Rick
Yes we enrich ourselves linguistically and culturally. It is all a voyage of discovery.
Hi Steve! I have to say that in my case, the motivation is the virtual ‘door’ that learning a new language provides. You’ve mentioned books, movies, material but everytime I learn or improve a foreign language, I learn the meaning of new words or gain perspective on words that I already know that I would not have thought before. This process makes me feel ‘smarter’. I will never quit learning new languages for the rest of my life, as long as I’m healty enough to do it.
My attitude as well.
Hi Steve
My motivation to learn a new language is cause I always want to be a fluency English spoken. I have no knowledge enough but I’m spend a lot of time studying, so I think I’ll achieve my purpose one day. Nowadays I use to watching a several videos on the LingQ, I’m Brazilian and this kind of study is very well for me, there are excellent example to follow and interesting method to learn.
Keep it up and enjoy the journey!
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