Second Language Acquisition

[Unkotare]

Anyone claiming "quickly, easily, fluently" is full of shit.

 

[anotherlife]

It's a bitch, yes. Especially here. I am European but not Indo European, yet I must speak French, German, and English. And for the heck of it I learnt Russian too. They are all mumbo jumbo. My solution, I shoot everyone who doesn't speak my language. Let's call this language attrition. The Dutch already busted their country into two with a Belgium, on this score, to start with.

 

[HenryBHough]

I can still read and write several languages very well.

But I now have trouble with Spanish and my French is not any better.

One has to stick with it, period.

But was it wise to choose the one language to stick with as Gibberish?

 

[Unkotare]

... I am European but not Indo European, ...

?????????

Huh?

 

[anotherlife]

... I am European but not Indo European, ...

?????????

Huh?

I understand. Europe is a long word to spell. But don't be discouraged, it's one letter shorter than America.

 

[Unkotare]

... I am European but not Indo European, ...

?????????

Huh?

I understand. Europe is a long word to spell. But don't be discouraged, it's one letter shorter than America.

You seem to be using terms you do not understand.

 

[MKlenn]

Belgium

May you, Dutch, re-unite with Flanders to create a new country?

 

[anotherlife]

Belgium

May you, Dutch, re-unite with Flanders to create a new country?

That I would like to see. But including the French parts of Flanders too.

 

[MKlenn]

Belgium

May you, Dutch, re-unite with Flanders to create a new country?

That I would like to see. But including the French parts of Flanders too.

Brussels + what else?
Another unrelated question: Do you like discussions per SKYPE?

 

[Unkotare]

Why adults are better learners than kids (So NO, you're not too old) - Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips

 

[anotherlife]

Belgium

May you, Dutch, re-unite with Flanders to create a new country?

That I would like to see. But including the French parts of Flanders too.

Brussels + what else?
Another unrelated question: Do you like discussions per SKYPE?

I think Brussels is 50-50. What I would like to see is all the French Atlantic cost north of Brittany to go to the new Flandrian state. Dividing Belgium on its own is useless, I think.

 

[Unkotare]

Not all of his 'sales pitch' holds water, but as far as it goes this guy has the right idea.

"I am definitely against all of this “learn like a baby” crap I see floating around in the online language learning community. It’s nothing short of ludicrous!

You aren’t a baby so stop acting like one. It has inspired this wasteful passive listening pandemic – “it works for babies, so it must be good for me!” ignoring pretty damn obvious things like babies don’t speak because they can’t yet not because it interferes with their “inactive absorption” of the language."

Why adults are better learners than kids (So NO, you're not too old) - Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips

 

[MKlenn]

Belgium

How is this (only) linguistic division manifested what concerns personal relations between Francophones and Flemish speakers living in the same neighborhood? And if you are bilingual, how often do you speak French on an everyday basis? And what about the language of the armed forces, bi-lingual? Deep in the past, I heard people telling stories about their service in the Austrian army at the beginning of the 20th century: multilingual – a commander of a larger unit gave a command and the command was translated into languages (Czech, Ukrainian, Slovak, etc.) for soldiers of sub-units, who soldiers were of the same nationality (only Czechs, Ukrainians, Slovaks etc.).

 

[anotherlife]

Belgium

How is this (only) linguistic division manifested what concerns personal relations between Francophones and Flemish speakers living in the same neighborhood? And if you are bilingual, how often do you speak French on an everyday basis? And what about the language of the armed forces, bi-lingual? Deep in the past, I heard people telling stories about their service in the Austrian army at the beginning of the 20th century: multilingual – a commander of a larger unit gave a command and the command was translated into languages (Czech, Ukrainian, Slovak, etc.) for soldiers of sub-units, who soldiers were of the same nationality (only Czechs, Ukrainians, Slovaks etc.).

The ancient Roman army did that too. They had entire legions of foreign language speakers, e.g. the Visigoths. That is not a problem. The foundation should be a state that provides prosperity enhancing stately services to all citizens PER ETHNICITY. The Romans did that. The Belgians do that too, to some degree. But the French don't, and their East European satellite states don't either. So your problem statement is more relevant to France and east Europe than to Belgium.

 

[MKlenn]

Belgium

But what we learn from news is that Belgium suffers from the linguistic division, doesn’t it?There were, e.g., cases of parliamentary crisis in this connection there.

 

[MKlenn]

east Europe

I believe you are right what concerns Eastern Europe. Partially, it is because many East-European nations have very short experience in living in freedom and democracy; and partially, because the minority groups are patriots of and/or loyal to their national states, rather than of/to the states they are citizens of; and thirdly, partially because in the past they were in master/slave relations (enslaved nations / master nations), hence mutual hatred, and more to it – these master/slave relations may often project into the present, in the form of refusing to use the state languages of newly independent (in the past enslaved) nations, too (“why should we use the language of our former slaves”).

 

[anotherlife]

Belgium

But what we learn from news is that Belgium suffers from the linguistic division, doesn’t it?There were, e.g., cases of parliamentary crisis in this connection there.

That is still a lesser problem than complete assimilation like in France.

 

[anotherlife]

east Europe

I believe you are right what concerns Eastern Europe. Partially, it is because many East-European nations have very short experience in living in freedom and democracy; and partially, because the minority groups are patriots of and/or loyal to their national states, rather than of/to the states they are citizens of; and thirdly, partially because in the past they were in master/slave relations (enslaved nations / master nations), hence mutual hatred, and more to it – these master/slave relations may often project into the present, in the form of refusing to use the state languages of newly independent (in the past enslaved) nations, too (“why should we use the language of our former slaves”).

In east Europe, freedom and democracy are what the communist and the entente define it to be. These slave nations had freedom and democracy before ww1 also, in fact they had so much of it, that it was the time when they boosted their population count to become majorities. The real hatred started after ww1, when the current new borders were put in. Those cut people off of their homes and families. Currently, under European Union support, these borders are made even worse by inventing and enforcing national language laws. So I must observe that freedom and democracy is only a con in east Europe, ever since ww1. West Europe and Russia can't afford it otherwise though. One of the major evil of brexit is that it props this evil philosophy. And language laws are the prime tools at the forefront of such modern day state inspired institutional looting.

 

[Unkotare]

Is a life-long process. Anyone honest will tell you that any language they learned after the Critical Period is something they are still working on. However, the benefits of learning languages are many and well-documented. These benefits continue even (or especially) into later life. Couldn't hurt to take on one more.

.