I’m just going to talk for frenchs here, but I suspect it’s the same for americans: we (as arrogant as it sounds… it is) view our culture and language as vastly superior and just don’t bother with the rest. Meanwhile every east european or german I met is fluent in 2 or 3 languages.
… Maybe because they were travelling abroad tho. I realize peoplewho speak multiple languages are more likely to travel than others (or is it that people who travel are more likely to pick up other languages?)
This is probably the reason, yes.
It could be both. Or those people do this for living, perhaps. I mean, you could’ve met some polyglots. But try living in slums or country and you’ll get a completely different picture.
Geography very much dictates that symbiotic relationship between learning languages and travel. It is vastly more expensive for an American or Russian to travel to an area where a different language is natively spoken then it is for a european.
Mexico aside, any trip from where I am would cost thousands of dollars. To do that regularly enough to make it beneficial to learning a language would require a second income! LOL
Interestingly enough, I have visited Bermuda a couple of times, and they are some of the most well-traveled people in the world. The island is as small as the county I live in, and the country has one of the highest standards of living in the world. So, they travel. They travel a lot!
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I dunno, learning languages is beneficial on its own, in a way. I mean, for some people it could be hard to do so I’m not forcing it. But whoever wishes to do so, is strongly encouraged by me.
Oh no… I need to clarify that.
I meant to say that you need to be able to travel enough to places where the language you are trying to learn is spoken in order for that travel to be beneficial to you learning the language. You need to be around other people speaking the language for it to really sink in.
I am a very strong proponent of people learning different languages. Not only because you also learn about other cultures in doing so, but studies have shown it helps develop other cognitive abilities, not the least of which is a better mastery of your own language.
Oh well, yes. But you can also have X-language speaking people in your homeland… that’s a possibility. Not everywhere, though. For instance, you can stumble across small comminities, similar to “Little China”, "Little Italy:, and little whatnot.
Yes, if you want to practice and study different cultures. No, if you want to learn the language on its own.
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Well, I say that both from personal experience and from what I understand about modern languages teaching methods.
I studied German and Spanish, but it wasn’t until I was surrounded by South Americans all day that Spanish really clicked for me. The funny thing was that if catch myself speaking with a the accents of my coworkers when I wasn’t even around them and speaking english. LOL
“Total Immersion” language teaching is the new thing… Where everything is taught in the new language, and students are expected to speak it all day exclusively. I don’t know how well it works, but that’s what they’re doing in some schools here.
There’s also pretty solid evidence that after the age of about five, it becomes incredibly more difficult for us to learn another language.
And I share my personal experience as well. I do learn some languages at the moment, by reading, listening, talking, writing, studying origins, et cetera. I may fail as an interpreter, but in most other related matters I’m good enough, without false modesty.
It’s not new, it’s the natural response of human being. Since bald monkeys are social creatures, they need to socialize. As such, when being placed into different environment, a specimen will try to adapt to it, by picking up bits and pieces here and there. The progression speed may vary, depending on mental capabilities and overall alactiry of mind, but it happens in most cases.
For some. Not for “us”.
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I’ve also learned that some people are just more adept at learning languages than others. The same is true of spelling and geometry. There seems to be some genetics involved. It’s been a LONG time since I looked into it, though.
The basic premise was that if geometry baffles you, you’re probably never going to be nearly as good at is as someone who it just “clicks with.” The same goes for languages & spelling. It seems music was similar…
All of this was older psychological research, though.
I stumbled across it when a teacher tried to explain to me why I went from failing at math and being in remedial classes in Jr. High (7th & 8th year) to being rocketed into my schools most advanced geometry classes. I couldn’t understand why this simple crap was so baffling to everyone else. That saved me, in a sense… I was never bad at math, I was just never interested & had a little bit of drama on the home front. Suddenly being a super star encouraged me in all the right ways.
^^
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Not doing full kills on ravagers helps, but that much. If I’m a ravager and I’m mobility killed, or even if I just end up behind the pack I just self destruct so that I can respawn ahead of the pack.
If I’m on blue team I try like hell to stay on blue team, but that rarely happens as I run a stripped down wheeled build and lag is so much worse in radiance (for me anyway) that I have problems just driving across the bridge even if I’m completely alone.
I I’m on Red team I try like hell to destroy the evil blue invaders.
Update somehow lowered probability of survival for wheeled vehicle anyways, because hovers is now rush forward, and leaving people behind.
I mean it’s a good thing that people mostly stopped spawn camping ravagers, and can’t camp bottlenecks, but now ravagers can, if you have not enough firepower to quickly dispatch them. And if you are outnumbered - you’re screwed.
Flash for the win!
I love the troll ducks.