What got you beyond your native language?

I am curious about why people get into languages beyond their own. I think on many occasions it is because of the necessity of course. However, I wonder about what gets that spark ignited when there's no need and just curiosity.

In my case, for example, I started learning English before I could even process the benefits of a foreign language. It was a very "accidental" matter, and I was also very privileged. I am very grateful to be able to grasp it to the level I am able today. With my German is different, I just love learning it and all the things it is teaching me about other cultures.

What about you? :)

When I was speaking to some of my classmates in college who are also studying other foreign languages, they asked me a similar question and I told them that this is my first foreign language to study and I only do so out of necessity. In their case though, it was due to some of their immersion in other culture that made them want to study it and I can understand this as well. I was only studying English back then but I also love watching anime shows. This made me curios about it and made me want to study Japanese language sometime in the future. 

Yes, I get the same feeling. Anime got me into taking Japanese lessons for a while and I think it is a very cool language. Part of it's magic it's that is very foreign to me. I will also start dedicating more to English in the future out of curiosity too!

As I am a proactive foreign language learner, I found it very interesting when I especially talk to foreigners in their languages. I love how they react when I speak their languages. This is one of the biggest facts I start learning foreign languages. 

Another reason would be that it is beneficial to me for better job qualification. If you are bilingual or more, you're highly considered as talent person and people will hire you on a high position with high annual salary.

Those are the reasons why I value foreign languages other than own native language!

In my case, for example, I started learning English before I could even process the benefits of a foreign language. It was a very "accidental" matter, and I was also very privileged. I am very grateful to be able to grasp it to the level I am able today.

I resonate with this. Same as basically anyone from around here, I was surrounded with English since I was a little kid. Most of the cartoons and movies we watched were in English, so we just passively learned to understand the language by watching hours and hours of TV. Then came the English lessons in primary school and the classes my parents signed me up for, and yeah, here I am today. English was a pretty integral part of my life, and I couldn't really imagine how everything would look like if I didn't speak it.

That being said, learning Russian and especially Danish was much different, since it's extremely rare that you come across content in these languages unless you actively seek it. I wouldn't be making any progress at all if I weren't interested in the cultures, and that really is the reason why I even started learning them.

JaeHong.S wrote:

As I am a proactive foreign language learner, I found it very interesting when I especially talk to foreigners in their languages. I love how they react when I speak their languages. This is one of the biggest facts I start learning foreign languages.

I agree! It is always nice to see people's faces light up when you speak their native language. This is a phenomenon that I experience only when I am for a while in a foreign country and I can't help missing my dear Spanish. I instantly get this feeling of familiarity and fraternity with another Spanish speaker. Languages are such a meaningful thing when it comes to identity.

JaeHong.S wrote:

Another reason would be that it is beneficial to me for better job qualification. If you are bilingual or more, you're highly considered as talent person and people will hire you on a high position with high annual salary.

And I also agree. Just because my English is good enough, I know that if things get bad, the worst salary I would be offered would be enough for me to sustain myself, and it is a huge weight off my shoulders. Again, I am very grateful. 

I was a kid and tried singing along American songs (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Madonna...), so my parents thought it would be good for their ears! As a teen, the dream of traveling around the world made me study hard, as well as teaching my schoolmates.

Besides that, learning English was (and still is) a must have for middle/ top social classes in Brazil, it's an asset, it gives you social status, even though people make it up to be trivial. Seriously, in my experience as a teacher it becomes palpable: high class students learn smoothly, lower class ones frequently have difficulties, specially with pronunciation (and tend to give up).

JaeHong.S wrote:

As I am a proactive foreign language learner, I found it very interesting when I especially talk to foreigners in their languages. I love how they react when I speak their languages. This is one of the biggest facts I start learning foreign languages.

Oh yeah I think of this as one of the reasons that got me beyond my native language but this is just recently. I mean I only started traveling frequently this year and of course you will be forced to communicate with the people abroad. I don't take much time and effort to learn their language quick but I always at least memorize the basic words and phrases that are commonly used. The simple translation of yes or now would suffice. As well as phrases when you need to ask for directions. It's really a big help and yeah I guess I find it fun to see them amazed at a foreigner who can speak their language even with just few phrases. When we were in Japan, most store owners that I talked to in Japanese were happy to see that I was trying and even helped me pronounce the words and phrases properly. That's something that I really loved about it. 

Valeria.Fontes wrote:

I was a kid and tried singing along American songs (Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Madonna...), so my parents thought it would be good for their ears! As a teen, the dream of traveling around the world made me study hard, as well as teaching my schoolmates.
Besides that, learning English was (and still is) a must have for middle/ top social classes in Brazil, it's an asset, it gives you social status, even though people make it up to be trivial. Seriously, in my experience as a teacher it becomes palpable: high class students learn smoothly, lower class ones frequently have difficulties, specially with pronunciation (and tend to give up).

That's amazing that you can sing along with those great singers when you were a kid. You must have very good childhood memories because of that. I'm sure that was also helpful with your language learning because you can sing it already. As for your lower class students, maybe it's just not their time yet to love the learning process. I'm sure they will get there and learn it instead of giving up. 

ZairaI.Uranga wrote:

Valeria.Fontes wrote:

Besides that, learning English was (and still is) a must have for middle/ top social classes in Brazil, it's an asset, it gives you social status, even though people make it up to be trivial. Seriously, in my experience as a teacher it becomes palpable: high class students learn smoothly, lower class ones frequently have difficulties, specially with pronunciation (and tend to give up).

And that is, sadly, also true in Mexico. Lower-class people tend to have more difficulties learning because of their context. It may be naive from me, but I hope that changes some day, because learning english is a very good tool, and the process of learning a foreign language is very enjoyable for people to be missing out.

Also true here in Serbia. It's tough to learn good English without private lessons since the state school lessons are usually so awful, and of course the middle-and-higher class people will have more access to those. The private lessons usually aren't super expensive, but it still makes a difference. The poorer kids in my high school class usually had to study super hard to get decent grades in English, and by studying for the good grades, I think they just couldn't focus on actually learning the language and ended up with a good GPA, but not great language skills.

I respect the shit out of studying for the grade though, it's hard and it's usually the only way to take you out of the rut you're in.