Поруке: 86
Језик: English
Echo49 (Погледати профил) 04. фебруар 2011. 11.55.43
Genjix (Погледати профил) 04. фебруар 2011. 12.16.07
C++, Python, GNU Assembly, PHP, Perl, clisp/scheme, ... bunch of others
Never cared enough to learn another language. What's the point? It's a gigantic waste of time unless you plan to live in the country and not worth the time investment. Whole world speaks English and in places that don't (and these are very few having spent 5 years travelling) you can point and make chicken sounds or learn the alphabet. Usually if you stop enough people in the street someone will speak passable English to help out.
But if you enjoy learning languages then more power to you. But not everyone does and it's wrong that some on this forum think it should be forced on people as mandatory.
I find language learning extremely hard so maybe for others it's more worthwhile if you easily pick up languages though. But for me, no.
T0dd (Погледати профил) 04. фебруар 2011. 13.38.24
But that was in 1974, a long time ago. Since then I've made sporadic efforts to hold onto my French. Those efforts continue even today. I subscribe to several French podcasts, which are a good way to stimulate the French in my brain every day or so. I can't claim fluency, however. I can read French pretty well, and I can certainly "get by" in French, but once the conversation gets beyond a superficial level, I stall pretty quickly.
Some years ago, the dean at the university where I teach started a program of special classes for faculty members to study new languages, or refresh ones they'd studied years before. It was a great idea, and I used the opportunity to learn some Spanish. I didn't get even to the modest level that I had achieved in French, but it was a start.
When I started learning Esperanto, in about September of 1985, in less than a year my ability to use the language, though not perfect, had surpassed my ability in French. Attending NASK in 1986 had a lot to do with that, I have to say. I've read books in French, but I've read far more books, with more enjoyment, in Esperanto. The thing that's hardest to convey to people who don't know anything about Esperanto is the sheer pleasure of using it.
danielcg (Погледати профил) 04. фебруар 2011. 13.46.15
I hope I misunderstood you.
Daniel
Genjix:
Never cared enough to learn another language. What's the point? It's a gigantic waste of time unless you plan to live in the country and not worth the time investment. Whole world speaks English and in places that don't (and these are very few having spent 5 years travelling) you can point and make chicken sounds or learn the alphabet. Usually if you stop enough people in the street someone will speak passable English to help out.
sudanglo (Погледати профил) 04. фебруар 2011. 13.52.36
Seems to me that ones time would be better spent honing ones command of ones own language in order to express onself more precisely, more eloquently, more persuasively, more wittily. However each to his own.
In my case, with regard to French, the reason is very practical. I like watching TV in the evenings and hate seeing the same films/programmes repeated over and over again on UK TV, and in the case of films, often too late in the evening anyway. I also get really irritated by constant interruption with advert breaks.
In Thanet, (and even more so since the Feb 1st switch off of analogue in North Eastern France) it's not too difficult to get the 18 channels of the French equivalent of our Freeview. Boulogne is banging out 8Kw now on three of the muxes.
On French TV I can entertain myself with quite different sorts of programmes and films, and films are often transmitted just after dinner our time and without advert breaks.
My ability to speak Esperanto fairly fluently is an accident of my youth. Given that I do speak it, I would like more people to speak it so that the language would be more useful. Incidentally, I once made some money out of Esperanto. But that's another story.
erinja (Погледати профил) 04. фебруар 2011. 15.13.25
sudanglo:I also get really irritated by constant interruption with advert breaks.Wow, good thing you don't live here in the States. We have so many advert breaks that they have to edit UK programs for length before showing them here. We have so many advert breaks that on visits to the UK, I BASK in the relative lack of breaks.
danielcg (Погледати профил) 04. фебруар 2011. 15.29.33
Regards,
Daniel
erinja:sudanglo:I also get really irritated by constant interruption with advert breaks.Wow, good thing you don't live here in the States. We have so many advert breaks that they have to edit UK programs for length before showing them here. We have so many advert breaks that on visits to the UK, I BASK in the relative lack of breaks.
Miland (Погледати профил) 04. фебруар 2011. 16.52.11
Ironchef (Погледати профил) 04. фебруар 2011. 17.47.53
erinja (Погледати профил) 04. фебруар 2011. 19.00.30
An hour-long program has only 42 minutes of actual program content in the US.
Advertising is so pervasive that in NFL American football games, play on the field actually STOPS so that ads can be shown to TV viewers. Must be boring to sit there in a stadium during all of those commercial breaks, watching the players mill around and scratch themselves, while the viewers at home watch commercials. Good thing I'm not a fan of American football, so I don't have to worry about that stuff!