Only bugmen don't bother with learning languages other than their own and English.
How often do you read in a non-mother tongue(s)?
How many languages are you capable of reading?
Did you ever learn a language just to read a specific piece of literature?
What about translations from and into languages other than your native one and English? What for?
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If it was worth reading it would be translated into English.
>inb4 thirdie cope
You can expect lots of monolingual plebs in the replies.
There you go
I find it fascinating someone would learn a new language only to read a certain book in the original. That's around 500-1000 hours of your life just to read a book or two in a language you will probably never use except in passing remarks in conversations (and most of those time you will come across as pretentious anyway). I get learning a new language if you literally have nothing better to do, for example if you're neet and want to pass the time, learning a language is infinitely preferable to vidya.
For me learning a new language is useful for a few reasons: 1. You work with the language. 2. You plan to go to the country where the language is spoken, and be there for a significant amount of time. 3. Have relatives/friends you meet often who speak the language. 4. You have a life long obsession with a certain geographical area and its culture and want to deepen your interest in it by learning its language. That way you'll use the language by reading it often for example, visiting the country or countries and speaking the language frequently etc.
Otherwise I'd rather use my time training my body (gym, martial arts) or reading good books in my two languages I know already.
>I find it fascinating someone would learn a new language only to read a certain book in the original.
This doesn't imply that you don't care about the rest of the language's corpus, just that the force of a specific opened the door to an entire world. Like rhymed, metered or alliterative poetry - translations are basically whole different works at that point.
Beowulf and Dream of the Rood made me pick up Old English, for example. Because of that it renewed my interest in medievalist studies and sources.
ad hominem
Translation into English warrants that the work is considered of interest and/or profitable by the Anglophones and their establishment - but it certainly does not prove it's quality.
Learning a language can open up worldviews inconceivable or unapproachable by a monolingual mind. It's literally the opposite of Newspeak.
The point of learning a language as to broaden your world view is pretty general and abstract imo, however learning it opening you up to new interests is a good point I missed. People who learn a language out of that type of interest usually move on to learn multiple languages, like a snowball effect. And that in turn opening up entirely new areas of interest. Maybe I'll learn a new language one day.
Point 4 basically covers anyone who isn’t a retrograde dope. The notion of being fundamentally satisfied with the culture of the anglosphere is repulsive and I didn’t realize just how much I was missing in every avenue by not interacting directly with the rest of the world until I got halfway decent in German. Now I can’t wait to move on to Greek (Ancient & Modern,) French, Italian, and more if the span of my life permits.
This thread is about Bilingual people.
I don't need any other languages than the two I have. Language learning is gay, and no it's not that I'm bad at it. I do fairly well, I just never really cared about them after learning English for some reason.
>How often do you read in a non-mother tongue(s)?
I read exclusively in English now. So most of the time.
>How many languages are you capable of reading? 2
>Did you ever learn a language just to read a specific piece of literature?
Sounds like a waste of time.
Regardless I can always pidgin through any normal western romance language with enough effort.
>This thread is about Bilingual people.
The OP is clearly rebuking individuals that know only two languages, are you mentally moronic or something?
Also
>I don't need any other languages than the two I have. Language learning is gay, and no it's not that I'm bad at it. I do fairly well, I just never really cared about them after learning English for some reason.
Learning English hardly counts as an achievement given its ubiquitous nature. Try to learn a language that actually isn't all that popular and maybe then someone could consider your input valuable.
Fricking brain-dead moron.
>1. You work with the language.
wageslave maggot, rotten mind, contaminated, proving OP right
I find it fascinating someone would learn a martial art only to train their body in it. That's around 500-1000 hours of your life just to get into a fight or two with a skill you will probably never need to use except in passing barfights (and most of those time you will come across as inexperienced anyway). I get learning a martial art if you literally have nothing better to do, for example if you're neet and want to pass the time, learning a marital art is infinitely preferable to vidya.
Training the body has a wide array of benefits aside from training to prepare for a fight. It's exercise, it's good for your health, longevity, your brain, self confidence, vitality. You're a gay trying to make this comparison
Training the mind has a wide array of benefits aside from training to prepare to speak a language. It's mental exercise, it's good for your mental health, mental plasticity, your social aptitude, self confidence, virility. You're a gay trying to make this comparison
Learning a language does not improve your physical health though, that's exlusive to fitness. You're sedentary. You'll be a weak dyel the rest of your life with a hunch back and little self respect.
Only reason it's either/or for me is because I have a job and a family. I literally have maximum 2 hours per day to myself. So it is an either or. Either I read books and train in those two hours or learn a language. Not everyone is a neet. I'm not denying the usefulness of learning a language though, see
I'm assuming you have kids, in which case I can understand why you feel you don't have the time, but there's no reason to assume only NEETs can learn a language. The time you're spending right now on IQfy could be used to learn a language. It takes about 30-45 minutes a day to make consistent progress and maybe less then that once you get over the initial hump of learning the basics. And the best method of learning is by doing. I myself began learning French while working a full-time job and I now have reached the point where I get most of my study through input (meaning I try and read French poetry and literature or watch videos/films in French in my freetime). It's up to you how to spend your time and I have nothing against anyone who decides they'd rather do another activity, but there are a multitude of reasons why someone would learn a language and one of them is to read literature in the language. Like I said, the fact is, things get lost in translation. That is an objective statement, full stop. There's no room for debate on that. It's up to you how much you care about alleviating that problem. You can still get plenty out of a good translation, though I would argue you get very little with translated poetry unless the translation itself is unique.
>cope
I'm a born antisocial, frick people, I just want to read.
Training martial arts is actually not that great for your body and leads to joint problems and brain damage depending on which discipline you follow and how often you spar. Exercise to maintain health, longevity and vitality can be done in a short amount of time a few days a week and for the most part you could achieve the same effect by engaging in physical activities performed outside of a gym (hiking for example). You're creating a false dichotomy as if it's either/or.
Learning languages is fun and useful. Keeps your mind sharp and I believe it has an overall effect on your brain to the point that it even improves your perception and comprehension. The fact of the matter is, things get lost in translation. It's unavoidable. Obviously you can't learn every language there is in order to avoid this problem completely, but it's a fine idea to study a few languages you have interest in even if your only goal is to read poetry/literature in the language.
You would be using the language far more if you read literature written in it than for the reasons you described. Unless you're in a situation where learning the language is basically mandatory, consuming media in a foreign language is the best reason to learn it if that media interests you strongly enough. Outside of going on holiday you'd never use it otherwise
>native language
German
>can read and speak
English
>some knowledge so that reading and speaking is possible
French
Polish
Japanese
Italian
Latin
I already went overboard and it detracts from my abilities to write in my native language . OP is a moron.
>Didn't reach high proficiency with anything other than English
>Blames his incompetence on language learning instead of a lack of focus and commitment
Many such cases
Learning a new language is mental bloat.
Read me a bedtime story in English now, please.
I'll allow you to tell me the special connotations of the words while you translate if it'll make you feel better.
I have FLLD it’s impossible.
>How often do you read in a non-mother tongue(s)?
Daily
>How many languages are you capable of reading?
Four, to varying levels.
>Did you ever learn a language just to read a specific piece of literature?
No
I just think languages are neat and fun to learn.
>spend a little bit of time learning a language
>have fun
>actually realize how much time and work it's going to take to do more than learn a few words or phrases
I am someone who was accused of being elitist earlier for reading Japanese and have been inthe past.
>Only bugmen don't bother with learning languages other than their own and English.
Sure, go for that if it helps you cope.
>How often do you read in a non-mother tongue(s)?
I won't say every day, won't even say once a week. It depends entirely on what I'm doing. Usually it's never, then it can be as much as 3-4x a week.
I CONSUME media in other language often though but it doesn't matter.
>How many languages are you capable of reading?
13 but it's not impressive.
I'm autistic. My mother raised me and taught me German as a 2nd language before high school so I was forced to learn French there. Because my mother memed me and I was low tier autist, I didn't know I had an affinity for languages then and went into the class bare. In high school I stuck to French, German and then Japanese bringing me up to 4, I'd focus hard on Japanese afterwards. There's some degree of overlap between languages which imo makes it less impressive, knowing danish & icelandic's basically one and the same.
Some people'd wish to have my flexibility on languages but I barely put it to use. I also don't count languages I had no interest in learning but picked up while I was in the country.
>Did you ever learn a language just to read a specific piece of literature?
Not necessarily. I'm only 34 years old but I learned Japanese in my teens alongside French and played vidya/read mango to go with it. Literature didn't even register until I was far gone.
I WOULD have learned Japanese to play vidya but I was stupid and got sucked into war due to circumstances and picked up another language there.
>What about translations from and into languages other than your native one and English? What for?
Answered this the other day. Don't usually read translations into my language, I consume media in it's raw form where I can. I only double dipped in the first few years of Japanese but now I generally read raw. Japanese is more beautiful than English and I don't like translators.
I'll come off as elitist. People who know 5+ usually do. 7-10+ are c**ts. but people who pick up languages fast like me suffer without filtering because you learn whether you want to or not.
It's tough talking about it 'cause on one hand people WANT to learn languages and on the other there's people like me and Tim Rogers who are naturals, learn and will pick up a language when we're thrust into an environment. Jealousy spawns 'cause who wouldn't want to learn another language.
I'm gonna split this off a little and say that the best I've gotten out of knowing multiple languages has been in poetry. Particularly in French & Icelandic and I am in love with Japanese as a language. I love parts of Mandarin but I have no desire to learn more unless I were to visit again.
Languages suck. Sex is the only thing that matters.
I speak five languages and I'd say that even though learning a language is a worthwhile investment, it should be pursued only if you're interested in the literature (or the arts in general), the culture or for travel or work reasons. Don't be tempted by the aroma of being seen as a polyglot, or a learned person. The work that goes into maintaining such a hollow illusion is not worth it.
I feel like you're way to obsessed about something that most people wouldn't pay too much attention to, other than to say "thats quite impressive".
I speak 4 languages (Eng, Rus, Arabic, Italian) and can sort of read Chinese, thought not to a level im happy with.
I will say that unless you have the time to dedicate to a language, say 2 hours a day, learning it is not enough. You will lose it quickly.
I learned Arabic in the army, working as an interpreter, and have been keeping it up with Poetry and by following Arabic news sites. It's a task and takes time away from me learning other languages im interested in .
Italian is the same way, except that my wife speaks as well so we sometimes just switch to it for a while.
I plan to spend 30 minutes at most for maintenance
Almost always, since I'm eastern european so outside of autochtonous literature everything is in foreign language
Capable of reading 3 comprehensively, basic texts in 2 more
Learning Italian for lit reasons currently
I prefer french translations of languages I don't know
Whatcha reading in Italian?
Any favorite French translators? What do you like about them?
I want to read the divine comedy in Italian, along with d'Annunzio's writings.
There is also a book on Brigate Rosse that is only in Italian that I want to read
I don't have preferred french translators tbh, I generally just go by the publishing house and trust that what they translate is good
>How often do you read in a non-mother tongue(s)?
I read in English, which is not my native language, almost everyday, especially these days.
>How many languages are you capable of reading?
Two. Japanese and English.
>Did you ever learn a language just to read a specific piece of literature?
Sometimes I consider beginning to learn a third language mostly for literature, but most of the time I end up thinking that it's not worth putting a lot of effort into it considering my current situation. I would rather focus on practicing English more so that I can use it without problems and read more books in two languages. However, I truly admire people who aspire to learn many languages.
>What about translations from and into languages other than your native one and English? What for?
When I read translations of the works that were written neither in my native language nor in English, I tend to choose an English translation recently. I'm probably doing wrong but often feel like that English translations from European languages are more precise compared to my native language ones. But I should stop caring much about it and read translations in my native language as well whenever I find it somewhat likeable.
I've been studying French for a few years now with a slight lull in between and I've recently begun to focus primarily on comprehensible input, so I'm trying to read more. I've read Candide and I'm currently reading Baudelaire's poetry. Wouldn't say I'm too good with the language yet but I can read the two aforementioned works pretty comfortably with the aid of a dictionary.
I've also begun dipping into Spanish and Italian, though I'm just using Duolingo to familiarize myself with the basics. My goal with those two is to read Don Quixote and La Divina Commedia in the original, though I wouldn't say I'm learning any of them for one work alone.
I tend to read other language stuff at least twice a week, whether it's a book or an article. Competently and aside from English, I'd say three. My best is Classical Chinese and then Mandarin. My Latin's okay and I want to get better with it. I'm trying to learn Spanish, Italian, and Biblical Greek.
I learned Classical Chinese to read Confucian and Daoist stuff, ended up getting obsessed with stuff like the Huainanzi and Guiguzi.
I tend to only read translations to English, but I have a Faroese copy of the Hobbit that's kinda cool.
>I learned Classical Chinese to read Confucian and Daoist stuff but ended up getting obsessed with stuff like the Huainanzi and Guiguzi.
Based. Did you take any courses/pursued a degree, or is it all self-taught? Personally, I've read a well-researched Serbian anthology of Chinese classic poetry. A lot of the stuff is actually hearty and down to earth.
I absolutely loved the songs about drunks and angry parents.
Biblical Greek's a weird choice unless you're a theologian on a payroll or high-ranking clergy. Everything a layperson might need is in commentaries written in living languages (or Latin/Church Slavonic).
Learning Ancient Greek would open up more opportunities and a more vibrant, artistically, and intellectually sound corpus - not to mention that with just a few additional lessons, the Septuagint becomes readable.
I don't mean to shit on the Bible or call it stupid - it's beautiful stuff, inspiration for all Christiandom - but even the best Psalms can't trump Greek dramatic texts. If you care not for Euripides, Aristotle and others - go for biblical Greek. I say this since I studied it a bit in the seminary, and I can swear that picking up koine as your first Hellenic language without a burning passion for Christ will become uninteresting and unfruitful.
Are you seriously falling for such bad bait?
>bad bait
i can no longer tell
It was part of my undergrad. I did Asian studies and religious studies. With Chinese, I focused on Northeastern (Dongbei region) Mandarin and Classical Chinese of the Pre-Qin through end of the Han dynasty.
I have a burning passion for Christ and eventually want to sit down and properly study Biblical Hebrew and maybe Aramaic.
Hey, awesome! I've been studying Classical Chinese too. Can I have your Discord?
With GPT4, I can translate works with more profundity and beauty than most revered translators. I will never have to learn a new language.
holy reddit
Nah, u are, lil israelite boy.
I've tried translating with GPT4. It isn't bad, but it's still nowhere near as good as a competent human.
It gives you a better baseline for revision than waiting years for a “competent translator.” There were a few instance where GPT4 provided almost identical translations of Benn, Rimbaud, Trakl, etc. Granted there will not be universal overlap, but you can revise it to fit the final aesthetic output. Then I started translating essays that have never been translated but our crucial to my philosophical interests, and that has beeb helpful as well
But how do you know it's accurate if you don't have a knowledge of the original language to check it against?
project harder
this
>just learn an entire language to read a few books and not even get much of a better experience than you would from the translated version so midwit pseuds on lit can continue peddling their insecurities bro
No thanks.
>can't tell the difference between a translation and a localization
You are just a goy.
Kek these are the people promoting this ridiculous meme
I don't care, you do you. It is not like you aren't promoting the ridiculous meme of Americans. Maybe English is the language of complacency.
>English, gaeilge, 日本語
would recommend.
>gaeilge, 日本語
>would recommend
I would love to pick up japanese but I need to finish the job and master French and Russian first.
If I try learning too many languages at the same time I'd progress for jack shit and just stop with everything.
Why bother with a language of a nation that wasn't able to vote for it's own independence when it was offered on a plate? So you get some scholarships or funds from their government?
Wouldn't Irish or at least Welsh be of more interest unless there is a deep emotional and personal connection with some Gaelic-speakers?
Why are Europoors obsessed with learning languages? Yeah, I learned a few languages out of necessity but it's neither fun nor difficult.
Is it so hard for Americans not to be soulless automata when money or status isn't involved? Which ones did you learn and what was the necessity?
Of course it's going to be easy and boring if you're doing it solely for work and don't care for a more nuanced and metaphysical expression.
Soulless? You're the atheists. While you mechanically study your languages to acquire your nerd cred some of us are leading authentic lives.
I think it's fun.
You can't even know your own language.
>How often do you read in a non-mother tongue(s)?
Pretty much all day every day (not anglo)
I also know a little bit of german and nipponese
people get too uppity and pretentious over learning languages. im working to forget languages and become monolingual. caring about this shit is ridiculous