Is language learning work or fun?
I wonder if people consider it work or fun to learn English or other languages. I look forward to hearing your views..
You may find this post on language learning and play of interest.Anyway, let me know what you think.
Comments
I think learning a new language can certainly be considered as a fun activity. I doubt, however, people are learning a new language for fun (at least not 99% of them). People are more likely to do so only because they have to. Even if there is a will to learn a new language, but there is no real need, people will naturally opt to do something else more enjoyable (and probably something that requires less resources).
Initially, learning a language(in my case English) is something that I did not choose as a fun activity but as a small part of my various skills to show on a resume. I also chose to learn the language as I had to because I had suffered a couple of major setbacks or mortifying moments of not knowing English well in real life. If I did not think about it straight away, I would suffer more setbacks. (Nice thinking on my part that geared me to pick up the language.) It would also be difficult for me to compete with those who know the language very well. The first step was so painful, the language itself was alien to me, no basic vocabulary, reading, listening activities were awful to do, and never mind speaking. I did not have the luxury of a teacher on my side who could provide me right strategies of learning a language. I did all the learning myself for six months or so, reviewing words directly from a dictionary or try to read a reader digest, but all the learning went in vain, as I was trying to read something that was designed/meant for native speakers. I was stressful, mentally detached, and was almost on the verge of giving up. I started reproaching myself, for not being able to be a good learner. Fortunately, I got a chance of using internet and came across a couple of ESl websites that provided me some helpful tips. With useful tips at my disposal, I felt that I was making a breakthrough, all I needed was patience, sturdiness on my part, to see some fruitful results. I did not speak for a long period of time, say two years, just read and listened to English, almost daily. The devoted time to learning varied from 30 minutes to hours. Now I am able to write succintly, if you consider it by non-native speakers standard.
Now my thinking has changed, as I understand most of the stuff, learning English comes to me as an enjoyable hobby for killing my time, sometimes I watch a movie, other times I listen to an audiobook or podcasts on my mp3 player. Now I feel less stressed when I read or listen, you can say that, learning a language is no more work/chore for me. I also don't care whether how good marks I attain in language testing exams. English is my new native language and I enjoy doing stuff in the language. I will continue to do so. As I am enjoying the benefits of learning a new language, my heart is also pining for learning more languages. I do not want to stick to English only. I wish I could learn more!
Yes, I agree... I found it was really necessary to partake of the culture. I have friends in (or originally from) various Latin American countries and Spain, and I learned quickly that the same word might have a different slang use from place to place, or the same thing might have different words.
I also found that dialect was something else that needed to be overcome. Pronunciation, cantido (singsong), and speed all tended to be different from regional speaker to regional speaker.