10
votes
Accepted
Are there any surveys or studies on what motivates people to learn minority languages and/or rare languages?
Paradowski & Wysokińska (2014) summarise interviews with 6 polyglots about their motivation. The purpose of the article is to discover what motivates polyglots to learn languages in general, not ...
- 2,294
7
votes
Are there any reasons to learn a language you'll never use?
Start using the languages
The internet is full of content in different languages. Take something that is interesting to you and start reading or listening. I enjoy roleplaying games, so I read some ...
- 3,425
7
votes
Are there any studies on what motivates people to learn artistic languages such as Klingon, Dothraki and the Middle-earth languages?
There are three surveys that come to mind regarding Klingon:
Stefan Annernäs' survey of Klingon-speakers
Judith Hermans' follow-up sociolinguistic profile of Klingons-speakers
Klingon as linguistic ...
- 171
6
votes
Accepted
How can I convince my girlfriend she is learning too fast?
Here is a nice article with many excellent tips for you and your girlfriend. Some key takeaways that I think are relevant for your case (my comments in bold):
If there’s a “secret” or “hack” to ...
- 5,076
6
votes
Has the Brexit referendum negatively impacted British people's motivation to learn foreign languages?
According to Lingvist, they saw a big 91% uptick in the usage of
their app after Brexit, suggesting that Brits realize learning a foreign language will suddenly become more important.
...
- 5,076
6
votes
Accepted
What are the reasons for learning a foreign language?
At the time of writing, June 2020, the reasons for learning a foreign language have not significantly changed in spite of the availability of powerful translation software.
Machine translation ...
- 19.7k
5
votes
Are there any reasons to learn a language you'll never use?
If you don't plan to use a language actively (i.e. speaking and writing), you can still learn it out of sheer fascination with its (linguistic) features, or with the literature and culture associated ...
- 19.7k
5
votes
Are there any studies on what motivates people to learn international auxiliary languages such as Esperanto, Interlingua and Afrihili?
Even in the case of Esperanto it is hard to find good sources, so I doubt there are any such studies about other IALs. In any case, Tazio Carlevaro (1989:179-180) lists three main types of motivations ...
- 2,294
4
votes
What are the implications of reading texts beyond my level?
In order to advance in the levels of a language, you may follow the classic approach: follow a path of only learning, going step by step in one or several courses.
But, besides this one, you could ...
- 637
4
votes
From an economic point of view, what are the most important foreign languages to learn for Germans?
The German job vacancy site Joblift analysed 15 million job ads that had been posted over the course of 24 months. See their report Französisch bündelt ein Drittel der Nachfrage: Diese Sprachen werden ...
- 19.7k
4
votes
What are the implications of reading texts beyond my level?
It's difficult to maintain interest in a text which is beyond your level, and you cannot learn words easily from context. It's a long and slow slog, looking up each word in the dictionary. However, ...
- 151
4
votes
What are the implications of reading texts beyond my level?
Linguists who study vocabulary acquisition have looked at different "coverage levels" (% of known words) to investigate the relationship between coverage and adequate comprehension. Hu and Nation (...
- 51
4
votes
Accepted
What is the most widely spoken L2 (second language) in the EU28, besides English?
Regarding the European Commission's Eurobarometer data (page 22) the top 3 list of most widespread second languages:
German - 5%
French - 5%
Spanish - 3%
The top 5 list of most widespread foreign ...
- 186
4
votes
Is foreign music a good reason to learn a language?
To me its quite obvious that anything that motivates you is good for learning a language.
If you strictly mean "should I learn a language because I like music that is in that language", then I think ...
- 83
4
votes
Accepted
Can stressing just on learning vocabulary cause demotivation?
It is possible that the exclusive focus on learning vocabulary is the cause of the demotivation.
First, the brain needs novelty and variety in order to prevent boredom.
Second, it is difficult to stay ...
- 19.7k
3
votes
How to continue improving my English despite the lack of immediate need?
It sounds like you are interested in reading fantasy, but are having difficulty reading Alice in Wonderland. Alice is from the middle of the 19th century and can be difficult today for two reasons. ...
- 1,244
3
votes
How to overcome hurdles learning Chinese as a vegan?
You overcome the hurdles in the same way you overcome other irrational and harmful tendencies and habits you have, whatever those are.
There are basically two possibilities: Either you avoid using ...
- 3,425
2
votes
Are there any studies on what motivates people to learn international auxiliary languages such as Esperanto, Interlingua and Afrihili?
Start with this:
European Identity, Zlatko Tisljar Assoc. for European Consciousness Maribor 3/8'11 http://www.debatingeurope.eu/2011/08/03/should-esperanto-be-the-language-of-europe/#.V53JpLh95hF
...
- 141
2
votes
Are there any reasons to learn a language you'll never use?
Here's a reason:
While learning another language, you also absorb some foreign culture and a different way of thinking and more importantly of perceiving the world around you. It opens doors to ...
- 21
2
votes
How old is too old to learn Japanese?
I learnt Norwegian (and to lesser extent Danish) to good level within a couple of years and I am a bit over thirty. I had studied, but not learnt, Swedish earlier, and I did this while living in ...
- 3,425
2
votes
How to continue improving my English despite the lack of immediate need?
Read (or listen) to more challenging and different things. If you have a particular goal, like reading "Alice in wonderland", then read material with presumably related vocabulary - fairy tales, ...
- 3,425
2
votes
How old is too old to learn Japanese?
I’m closing in to half a century old. Started learning Japanese for fun last year. Took JLPT 5 after about 5 months of self learning using a few apps. Failed. I’m not sure I want to take it again. ...
- 121
2
votes
How old is too old to learn Japanese?
I am 40 and have been learning Modern Hebrew for three years. I taught myself the alphabet and diacritics from books and apps, started learning the actual language about two weeks later, and have been ...
- 1,244
1
vote
How old is too old to learn Japanese?
I'd say it is only too late to learn Japanese if you're at the very end of your life, such as if you have a terminal illness or serious health condition and only have a few months left to live. ...
- 400
1
vote
What are the implications of reading texts beyond my level?
One technique I've found helpful is to pick texts that are beyond my level, but that I'm already familiar with: eg, translated from my native language or on a subject that I have a strong grasp of. ...
- 11
1
vote
Is foreign music a good reason to learn a language?
Trust me, subcultures are not very good to motivate with.
You are safe if you don't believe in stereotypes about the culture itself (like German for example, I mean you could dig up some WW2 topics ...
- 67
1
vote
How to motivate a tandem partner to do exercises that are not part of a compulsory language test?
Building on what lordingtar said, you could try to get them involved in whatever media consumption/ cultural activities you can find. For instance, you could invite them over to watch movies in German ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible