# Why languages?



## labiosdechupone

Hi everyone - this isn't a question about vocab or grammar, sorry! If that breaks the rules then ignore me. I was just wondering, what is it that you love about languages? There seem to be a lot of people here who are linguists and who just love learning new languages - what is it that you like about them? For me, it's the logic of grammar and the way it just fits together like a jigsaw. A really random question I know, but it seems like an ideal place to ask. Thank you!


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## Keigan

Language is the basis of every relationship. Moreso, it bears the historical, psychological and cultural traits of the population who speaks it. And that's widely interesting.


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## Elibennet

Hi Labios (what a name!)I think it is a good question. I love learning foreign languages and am very fussy as to the use of my own. Why I love it? I think that it is the greatest talent I have. When I learn a foreign language what I feel is that Im remembering something I knew some time in another life. The languages I don´t know are secret codes I want to unveil, and as to the languages I already know, I always want to know more. They also reveal the idiosyncacies of the people who speak them. 
The problem is that many times people have told me that they feel afraid of talking with me because they think I will find mistakes in whatever they say. And they are right!


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## Julito_Maraña

It's what makes us human. It's what makes us different from every other living creature we know of, and as far as we know.


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## Elibennet

Many people I know are human but they couldn´t care less about learning foreign languages.


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## beclija

But they speak a language, don't they?


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## Elibennet

beclija said:


> But they speak a language, don't they?



yes, but this thread asks why us, language lovers, love languages. Not what role languages have in  human nature.


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## Julito_Maraña

> There seem to be a lot of people here who are linguists and who just love learning new languages



My experience is that even people who have no interest whatsoever in foreign languages are interested in language.  So even if they don't belong to the second part of the AND statement they belong to the first. 

This applies to people today and, as far as we know, to any people who we have a record of.


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## Alxmrphi

I don't know why I do, I guess I have seen other languages written, and I haven't been able to make any sense of it, but now with some other languages, I know bits and pieces and it's like a blindfold has been lifted off my eyes, and it seems to me like I "shouldn't" know it, but I do, like I am breaking a code or something.

There is something about logging on to MSN and talking in a different language for 5 mins before one of your friends comes on and it's back to Internet English with them about arrangements for going out later on, etc.


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## Thomas1

To me they are the key to getting to know other cultures, and peoples. I can spend all my free-time learning a language and somehow I never have enough and the more I learn the more I want to plunge into it. Maybe it's because I acquire some pieces (that are to me very interesting) of a language to later put them together in a _jigsaw_--it's a kind of a big adventure that makes me feel like an explorer and discoverer.


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## Alxmrphi

I agree Thomas1, it makes me feel more cosmopolitan, and that's a nice feeling.


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## Sallyb36

For me it's all about communication, it's a way of communicating with previously out of bounds people.  Communication is of tantamount inportance.  I just love being able to speak to as many people as possible, and knowing different languages widens the range of people I can communicate with.


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## kia76

Yes, the word is _communication_!
It's wonderful when you sit and chat with people from other countries, comparing different lives, worlds and experiences, maybe passing from English to German to French... 

(Feel free to correct my grammar... I know it's awful  )


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## sarcie

kia76 said:


> (Feel free to correct my grammar... I know it's awful  )


On the contrary, kia, it's perfect!  

Why languages? Why not! I love how much I learn from and about people, just by making the effort to speak to them in their native tongue(s). Since the people who can fully express themselves in their foreign language are the lucky few, I find I get a better understanding of people when I can understand them expressing themselves in their native tongue. And has been previously in these forums, some notions are virtually untranslatable so grasping them first requires a bit of linguistic effort on your own part. 

[Not put particulary elegantly - maybe I need to put in some practice in my native tongue! ]


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## Sallyb36

kia76 said:


> Yes, the word is _communication_!
> It's wonderful when you sit and chat with people from other countries, comparing different lives, worlds and experiences, maybe passing from English to German to French...
> 
> (Feel free to correct my grammar... I know it's awful  )



I love this too.

Also, I was rubbish at Maths!!


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## Alxmrphi

kia76 said:


> Yes, the word is _communication_!
> It's wonderful when you sit and chat with people from other countries, comparing different *lives*, worlds and experiences, maybe passing from English to German to French...
> 
> (Feel free to correct my grammar... I know it's awful  )



Being incredibly pedantic here, but I think "life styles" is better than "lives", though both are 10000% correct.


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## Etcetera

When I am learning a language, I'm not learning only the vocabulary and grammar - I'm also getting to know more about other cultures, other "life styles".  I've noticed long ago that the texts used in textbooks (you know, all these dialogues and other stuff) usually deal with different cultural aspects. For example, my Polish textbook gives a lot of information about Poland and its major cities, the Italian one have many texts about great Italian writers... 
Besides, the more languages you speak, the more people you can talk to!


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## karuna

I, for one, try to learn languages especially because they are so difficult. I don't have any talent for languages either. I can learn Maths very easily instead, but if it comes naturally, it doesn't give much satisfaction. On the other hand when I learn something about a language next day I have forgotten everything. So, I have to study it again and again to master even one little thing, yet it gives enormous satisfaction when you are finally somewhat able to speak or understand foreign language. These foreign languages are like big secrets for me that need to be uncovered whatever effort it takes.


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## french4beth

I always thought that French sounded pretty cool!

Also, echoing other posts, you don't simply learn a language: you learn about its people, its history, its culture, its mindset, etc.

I'm fascinated by people's accents (whether foreign or native speakers); I'm always dying to find out where the person is from!  I'm a word phreak, whether in my own language, or acquiring new words (or learning about previously acquired words). I find it to be endlessly fascinating!

By the way - did you all know that all babies world-wide babble alike?  It's only as they grow older that babies develop linguistic differences...


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## Lugubert

Some people collect stamps.

I collect languages, out of curiosity, and in a hope to learn enough to read insteresting and/or beautiful stuff in the orginal languages. The communication aspects helps.

Or is it scripts that I primarily collect? I'm fascinated with writing systems.


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## KingSix

Trying to be fluent in a foreign language is like making art, music or practicing sports. It's hard and frustrating but in the end it's rewarding.


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## Alxmrphi

We are excluding modern art here? Like a can of soup or an unmade bed etc? lol


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## KingSix

Alex_Murphy said:


> We are excluding modern art here? Like a can of soup or an unmade bed etc? lol


 
Modern art is still art my man. The modern artists are giving what the people want, but that's a different story, it's about languages now


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## Alxmrphi

I was refering to 





> Trying to be fluent in a foreign language is like making art,



As for modern art, maybe this is for another topic, IT'S NOT ART!


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## Frank06

Hi,

As a kid I collected stamps and coins from foreign countries, but I got more interested in the scripts on those stamps and coins than in the objects themselves. The first big problem at that time, though, was the realisation that it was not enough to write my native language in 'Russian' letters to get Russian.
I also remember spending hours with my nose in that 20 volume ecyclopedia -- probably the best door to door sale ever -- in order to 'transcribe' those words on the stamps.

TV helped; foreign programs here are subtitled. 
Chinese restaurants helped (every village here in Belgium has its Chinese restaurant with fascinating 'drawings' on the walls and people talking in 'a weird way'. For me, as a kid, that was awesome!)
Early language classes certainly helped (by the age of 12 I had Dutch (native), French, English, Latin, Greek classes).

In short, it is a children's disease from which I never fully recovered  .

Groetjes,

Frank


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## Heba

hmmm,why I love learning new languages?
I always try to learn the languages of the cultures I am interested in. I believe that if you want to know more about a certain culture, you should know its language. Now I am learning Spanish, and later, I want to try Italian, God willing.

I learn languages for change, a new language adds a new flavour to my life


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