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What motivates your Language Learning?


darkchild

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There is one thing that motivates my language learning and that is 'Intimidation'.

When I feel intimidated that everyone around me can speak a particular language and I cannot, I get intimidated to learn quickly.

What's your motivation?

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That's a very interesting motivation! Intimidation works reverse in my case. If people around me acquires the language more quickly and is now able to communicate with each other, I tend to cower and give up entirely. That's probably the reason that it takes me a while to learn a language. I remembered one time in our Korean language class at work, I'm one of the poor performer, as I tend to get lost at the lessons quite easily, haha! That only means I never learned Korean at all. Too bad. If I were to learn a language, my motivation probably is if it's required in my work. Then, I'll be obliged to learn. In my previous work before, it was just for fun, and not really required. It's probably why I wasn't too serious about learning Korean.

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Learning a foreign language isn't about the final result only, it's a process you should enjoy throughout the whole journey. Otherwise, things can become pretty much complicated. That's exactly my attitude. I'm happy to discover more and more things about the languages I love. I'm happy to keep improving them over the course of time.

And, of course, I'm happy to talk to and understand more and more amazing people.

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I love the idea of being able to talk to anyone, anywhere, simply by swapping a language to one we can both communicate in (even if only at a basic level). I'm fortunate that my first language is English as it is so widely spoken, but I don't want to be obnoxious and think that everyone else should learn my language to communicate with me, and not vice versa. I also like the idea of eventually being able to travel the world, or relocate to another country, without having to worry about how I will communicate important things in emergencies.

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For whatever reason, I just really, really like learning languages. When this isn't enough, though, I remember the reason I am learning the language in the first place. I'm learning German because I descend from there, and I really feel tied to that culture. I'm learning Lithuanian for the same reason. This is usually enough to keep me going. Another quick motivational fix for me is to listen to music and singing in my target language. Hearing a language used in such a beautiful way almost immediately motivates me.

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Motivation is key to learn a language. Even if you are some memory whizkid, without motivation you will not be able to succesfully learn a language . For me, there are tons of reasons that would motivate to learn a language: moving to a country, cultural love, foreign couple etc. I learnt english by my own because all the media I was putting my time into it was originally in english. Like videogames or books.

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For me it's just learning something new and beautiful. As much as I appreciate the language we speak natively I have to admit it doesn't sound half as smooth as many other languages like french so I am trying to learn that just so I have a language I can speak that's very elegant. I also just like to learn because of wanting to understand the culture and media a lot easier and in their purest form so I am also trying to learn Japanese so I can understand the shows without the use of subtitles. 

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Like Baburra, I also like to learn Japanese so that I can watch shows without needing subtitles. I'm such a very big Anime and Manga fan. But aside from that, the process itself of learning Japanese is already motivational. It encourages me to continue learning more especially when I encounter some words that are very useful and very common in casual conversations. It gives me a feeling of satisfaction just by learning something new. 

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What i find motivates my language learning initially and all through my learning experience is my love of the culture, history, the country and the people. For instance, in the case of Italian, when i was in my mid teens my family and I visited Italy and I fell instantly in love. The experience stayed with me and I never ever forgot Italy, and craved to return as an adult. I did realise that dream and found I appreciated everything Italian even more. Within 3 months of living there, I could hold a conversation in Italian. That stint in Italy didn't actually sate my hunger for all things Italian, and I would really like to one day return with my husband and maybe live there for a few years; just enjoying the stunning views, the people, the food, the culture, the history and go back to speaking Italian in Italy. IDK what it is, but my love for that country is crazy!

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My motivation is to learn as many languages as I possibly can. It is a matter of personal achievement for me. And one I am trying to succeed in, even if it is hard at first.

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Learning languages is my passion. There are many aspects that motivate me. However, one of the biggest reasons is that I am an introvert and for some reason I feel more confident about myself that I can speak multiple languages. It gives me connections to people that I would not ordinarily have the courage to speak with.

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Having an increased ability to interact with people is my main motivation. Also being able to travel to places where English isn't widely spoken is another. I prefer to focus on the positive benefits of learning a language but I do admit feeling bad about my ability or speed of progression becomes a motivator after about 6 months of learning.

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  • 8 months later...

I'm learning German and French languages because I want to understand the lyrics of songs that I'm listening. Also, these two languages sounds really impressive for me. Meanwhile, Russian language is extremely useful for looking a job in my country.

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1 hour ago, laula said:

I'm learning German and French languages because I want to understand the lyrics of songs that I'm listening. Also, these two languages sounds really impressive for me. Meanwhile, Russian language is extremely useful for looking a job in my country.

 

Laula, I also like to learn languages with the help of lyrics. I came across the application musixmatch. You can listen to your songs and at the same time, the text(lyrics) are floating over your display. It's a great way to learn. Besides that, you can put a second language. That way you can learn languages even better (I use an android phone).

Have fun in your language journey!

Daniel

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2 hours ago, Daniel Goodson said:

Laula, I also like to learn languages with the help of lyrics. I came across the application musixmatch. You can listen to your songs and at the same time, the text(lyrics) are floating over your display. It's a great way to learn. Besides that, you can put a second language. That way you can learn languages even better (I use an android phone).

Have fun in your language journey!

Daniel

Hey Daniel

Nice to have another fellow Swiss Guy here on linguaholic.com :=) Hope you have a great day

regards

L

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I am learning a new (or 2 new) language-s right now for the challenge. I guess I just want to prove to myself that I can do it. I don't know if this will be enough motivation for me in the future though, but I've proven to be quite good at picking up languages (basing from past language classes I took in the past, I just didn't continue it then though). Also, for Japanese, I really like Japanese literature, stories and media and would like to read some of it in the original. 

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  • 1 month later...

I love experiencing different cultures. The best way to really experience the culture of any country is to learn their language. Reading great works of literature translated takes out the beauty of it. Whenever you read the original text you read and experience the writer's real emotions when they wrote that particular novel or poetry.   

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  • 2 weeks later...

The desire to communicate with a partner and honour their culture can accelerate language learning. Of course, this doesn’t apply to romantic relationships exclusively. Cross-cultural friendships can fuel one’s integrative motivation.

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