Report Blog Entry
I kind of want to talk a little bit about the idea of learning a language for strange reasons. Language learning is almost exclusively a practical thing, so learning a language that I have no investment in is... strange.
For context, I'm in early stages of language learning for two different languages, Russian & Spanish (LATAM dialect). Spanish is an easy one to justify, most of my friends speak it and I live in an area where Spanish is a very close second to English in terms of usage. Russian, on the other hand, is a strange one. Truthfully, I mostly decided to learn it to help me with geoguessr rounds. Being able to read Cyrillic is very helpful in reading street signs, or at least that's true in theory. In practice, without being familiar with specific cities, it's kind of useless. Despite that, it's a very fascinating language to learn.
Language is a very cool thing, all things considered. The way we as people have made arbitrary sounds have genuine complex meaning for communication, even going far further than how animals do, is very interesting and cool. It's easy to forget just how similar we are when we focus so much on what's different. In truth, we're more alike than different, and bridging language gaps only proves that idea.
language learning for strange reasons
3 Kudos
Comments
Displaying 2 of 2 comments ( View all | Add Comment )
ChasingClouds
The only language that I want to be proficient in is Russian, and it feels weird for me explaining it to people because I'm not learning it for any practical reason; I'm not faced with it on a daily basis, and I don't want to learn it for a job. I just,,, like Russia? It's a bit hard to explain. Language, history, food, things like that. I don't claim to be knowledgeable about Russian culture (and I should probably be better about that lmao) but you kinda have to be in it to win it when you're learning languages that are pretty low on the "Languages People Want to Learn" list.
Anyway, all this to say that I definitely get seeing it as a way to connect with others across the world, and it makes me smile seeing native English speakers with Russian as a language of interest :D
yeah, definitely. i think because languages are so difficult to learn, since you literally have to almost rewire your brain for them, its easy for people to forget that you can do it for non-practical reasons. strangely enough, the less practical it is, the more interested i am in learning it, because there arent people in easy access to me who can ridicule my poor knowledge lmao
by ket; ; Report
Charlie-adhd
As Russian native speaker, I think that learning Russian or another Slavic language to foreigners is like trying to learn Chinese.
But I'm glad that people are studying it, especially now, in a tense environment in the world...
Good luck learning Spanish and Russian!
thats a very interesting sentiment, from my early learning, its definitely not easy, but it feels quite straightforward. i know there are far more advanced things i've yet to even touch on, like cases, but conjugation felt fairly straightforward and the sentence structure seems understandable. hardest part for me has been handwriting, since i'm basically trying to learn both block letters and cursive simultaneously, which is... definitely not the easiest lmao
by ket; ; Report
Not all Russians understand other people's handwriting (especially doctors' handwriting), and some even understand their own haha
by Charlie-adhd; ; Report