Why are you learning a Language? - Infographic

[guico]

Hi everyone!

If you had to state one clear goal for why you're learning a foreign language, what would that be?

I'm really curious to see what variety of reasons people might have, if we get enough responses my plan would be to make a nice infographic  with that data!

 

In my case, for instance, I've moved to Germany for a job (in English) and fell in love w/ the country. Although I feel integrated at work, it bothers me that I can't interact with people in a casual way in the real world - I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of positive social interaction.

My number one goal is: Learn the necessary words to to enable these spontaneous social interactions.

 

Cheers!

Guilherme

[darkchild]

I am learning Arabic because I live in Dubai presently and I want to understand when they speak.

It is so frustrating because I am a slow learner and most jobs I want do require Arabic speakers.

I guess that is the reason I am learning Arabic; if I am ever successful

[Milanina]

I'm learning for love! Well, whilst I always wanted to learn Italian - I never had motivation enough until I met my husband. (Whilst this was the initial romantic pursuit - it developed into practical reasons such as communicating with family & friends and to be able to survive in Italy a little bit more independently)

[hades_leae]

I'm doing it because I want to be multilingual, not for a job or anything, but because I have a deep interest in learning other cultures, and I also believe in the advancement of human kind. I want to be able to speak 10 languages at will. While I know I may not have a relevant use for them in the future, that doesn't make learning another language irrelevant. 

You don't tell yourself that being able to put puzzles together is not going to make your life any better, so you just won't do it. You do it because you enjoy it.

[Norm A]

I just love learning new things and languages enable me to connect with people from all over the world. It's amazing when you can visit a country and be able to speak in their native tongue. That is what really excites me about learning new languages. It makes for far more exciting travels and experiences. 

[abonnen]

I am learning a new language to learn about more other cultures and I am planning on traveling a lot and want to be able to understand where I am going, and to communicate clearly.

[sidney]

I'm just a casual language learner at this point, so my motivation is to just to increase my knowledge in foreign languages so that I will understand it when I get to come across those certain foreign languages in movies, music, in the internet, books, etc. Also, if I will travel to a foreign country then for sure that knowledge is most welcome.

[lingvo]

Interests may vary. When learning a language, generally speaking, my reasons are:

- Cultural interest. Not the strongest reason to keep on learning but is valid nonetheless.

- Usefulness. How many people speak this language? How much I can achieve with spending time learning it?

- Family background. A close family member or several of them speak a different language that I don't know. Not a bad idea to learn through them, as long as they are up to it.

- Immigration. If I move to another country long term, I suppose is for my best interest to learn the local language.

- Fianceé. If I'm engaged with a girl from a foreign background. Could be neat to share our cultural customs each other.

 

 

[VinayaSpeaks]

The main motive of learning any language is communication.Communication can be done in various ways. Learning language also creates earning opportunity. You can work as a translator or language interpreter. If you have writing skills,you can also earn money by writing. Nepali is my mother tongue.I learned English to make money as a translator and writer.

[K-Barry]

Decided to pick Spanish back up again recently, mainly for the practical/personal benefits: employment and general interaction.

Also stumbled upon Manx which only a few hundred people can speak to a good standard, so I thought I'd be a bit different and go for that. Plus by learning Manx it allows for Irish and Scottish Gaelic to be picked-up fairly easily.

I find Manx to be a lot more enjoyable than Spanish. Whether that's because of it's uniqueness or what I've learnt about the history of the language, I'm not sure...

[Sailor Cat]

I'm learning languages because I want to understand what people say and interact with them. I feel frustrated, when I'm on vacation and can't understand, what the people there say.

[宇崎ちゃん]

My reasons differ per language.
I learnt English to communicate with the world (initially because it was yet another subject at school, but there's so much more you can do with English alone that what you can do with Polish and Dutch combined).
I learnt Japanese initially to understand in-game text, but now also because I want to live and work in Japan.
I learnt German because I thought I could use it on certain internet forums, but ended up not using it at all and my German skills have dropped horribly.

I also tried to learn Spanish, Chinese and Russian, but I lacked motivation for all 3 of those.

[Mereloshn]

My primary reason for learning Spanish is a practical reason.  Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language in the country I live in, the USA, and it might eventually become the number one spoken language, and I've spent a lot of time around Spanish speaking people so it will be very useful for me to learn it.  I will also very likely have opportunities to travel to Spanish speaking countries here in the Americas. 

 

My primary reason for learning Yiddish is that it's part of my family culture and heritage and I feel like speaking Yiddish is a birth right of mine that deserves to be preserved.  It's the language of Ashkenazi Jews (white european jews) and I am half Ashkenazi and the language fascinates me.  It's pretty much a combination of Medieval German and ancient Hebrew and it's giving me a sense of both Germanic and Semitic languages simultaneously so my understanding of different languages is growing rapidly simply by learning my family language, which is good for my cognitive skills and for my appreciation of my family background. 

[Julian]

To be able to travel to many popular countries and speak their languages fluently. It would also make my life quite a bit easier on the internet. Then there's the feeling of accomplishment, and being able to show off. My parents are already impressed with the fact that I speak English, so I wonder what they'll think when I take it a couple steps further. I might even learn their language, Arabic. I've always thought of it as an aggressive sounding language, but it is an important one and I'm all about important languages. You won't see me study Afrikaans even though it's pretty much an exaggerated dialect of my native language.