{"id":1188,"date":"2023-02-26T12:33:51","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T12:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laurajanebaxter.com\/?p=1188"},"modified":"2023-02-26T12:34:05","modified_gmt":"2023-02-26T12:34:05","slug":"yearning-to-learn-a-language-for-no-good-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laurajanebaxter.com\/?p=1188","title":{"rendered":"Yearning to Learn a Language for No Good Reason"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why do I want to learn a language?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s so appealing about Japanese? You don\u2019t need to learn it. It probably won\u2019t help you develop in your career. You never need to talk to anyone in Japanese. In fact, you have no friends or family members who speak Japanese. Maybe you\u2019ve never even met a Japanese person. But still, somehow, you just feel that you really<\/em> want to be able to speak Japanese. Why? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe Japanese is not your story: maybe you really want to speak Polish. Maybe you wish you could speak effortlessly in French. Perhaps Mandarin Chinese grips you when you\u2019ve never even been anywhere near Asia in your life. Or maybe you\u2019ve got your eye on something much more uncommon like Romani or Toki Pona. You know <\/em>you\u2019ll never need to speak it. In fact, you\u2019ll probably have a hard time even meeting <\/em>someone who speaks the language. Yet, for some reason, you just really <\/em>want to be able to speak it and understand it. You want to be fluent <\/em><\/strong>in it. Now.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s no point! Everyone speaks English anyway.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are probably only three languages that you’ll ever need<\/em> to speak:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Your native tongue.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. The main language of the country where you live.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. English.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    If you\u2019re already a proficient (or native) English speaker, it is very likely that you don\u2019t often have a need for other languages. If you\u2019re proficient in English (you\u2019re reading this without problems) and yet you still<\/em> want to learn another language, without an obvious motivation<\/strong>, you probably can\u2019t quite pin down your \u2018why\u2019. I\u2019m going to tell you my reason why. Tell me afterwards if this is your \u2018why\u2019 too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Every Language has a Different ‘Feeling’<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Each language has a different ‘feeling’. Most days, I listen to or speak in four different languages. For me, those languages are Spanish, English, Esperanto and Brazilian Portuguese. Some people say that their personality changes when they speak a different language. I wouldn\u2019t say that\u2019s true for me (what you see is always what you get). But, each language dresses me differently, feels different on me, and brings out a new side of me. Languages are like clothes: we can try them on, see how they fit, and see how they feel on us. Then we discover that they help us express sides of us that are already lying dormant within us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What does Spanish feel like?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    As I\u2019m studying in Spain, I use Spanish in my academic life with my peers and professors. As I study Philosophy<\/a>, I use my Spanish to explore complex, heavy ideas. So, when I speak in Spanish, there\u2019s a crispness <\/em>to it with the tidiness of the Castilian lisp, yet a vivacity <\/strong>as I express my voice with a latin flair<\/em>. Spanish is my first foreign language I learned out of pure interest, and it\u2019s the one that feels most like home. I like how Castilian Spanish feels when I wear it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What does Esperanto feel like?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Several times a week, I speak in Esperanto – an artificially-constructed language<\/strong> – with a fellow polyglot, Chelsea-Rae Moses<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. Esperanto consists mostly of verbs with European etymological roots and is built almost entirely out of sets of prefixes and suffixes that you use to build up words. I get to play with Esperanto: the sound doesn\u2019t flow like a natural language: it chops. The more fluent I get, the faster I can \u2018chop\u2019 through the sounds. Esperanto feels like running across stepping stones, and sometimes you know which idea you want to get to, and you have to do some quick mental calculations to work out which stepping stones will get you there. Then, off you go through the linguistic river, finding your way: chop-chop-chop-chop. (If you want to hear what Esperanto sounds like, you can listen to my friend Chelsea speaking here<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What does Brazilian Portuguese feel like?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Later in the day, a Brazilian girl bursts out from within the depths of my soul. If Spanish courts you politely, then Brazilian Portuguese sweeps you up in a whirlwind of tipsy flirtation. The speed of the syllable delivery in Portuguese is much slower than in Spanish, and Portuguese is riddled with complex diphthongs, so you have time to bask in each vowel twist and meander through them. If you’re interested in trying on the silken layers of Brazilian Portuguese for size, my favourite YouTuber Luan Machado and his channel Comprehensible Portuguese Podcast – Portuguices<\/em><\/strong><\/a> is a great place to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The language you want to speak is already dormant within you<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    If you want to learn a foreign language, I put it to you that it\u2019s because the soul of that language is already inside you, waiting to sprout. When it sprouts, and as it grows, you get to discover a new way that you can be<\/em> in the world: a new way to interact, and a new way to express yourself, as you take steps in those new jeans, swish the hem of that satin dress, feel the comfort of the warm hoodie. Everyone knows that language learning is acquiring a skill. But few tell us that, when we truly want<\/em> to learn a language, it\u2019s because we want to explore who we already feel<\/em> that we are. You\u2019re attracted to the sound of the language or the way it\u2019s written because you see in it something that is yours: a part of you that you haven\u2019t seen yet – something that you already are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Why do I want to learn a language? What\u2019s so appealing about Japanese? You don\u2019t need to learn it. It probably won\u2019t help you develop in your career. You never need to talk to anyone in Japanese. In fact, you have no friends or family members who speak Japanese. Maybe you\u2019ve never even met a … Read More “Yearning to Learn a Language for No Good Reason”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language"],"yoast_head":"\nYearning to Learn a Language for No Good Reason - Laura-Jane Baxter: Investment Manager<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/laurajanebaxter.com\/?p=1188\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yearning to Learn a Language for No Good Reason - Laura-Jane Baxter: Investment Manager\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why do I want to learn a language? What\u2019s so appealing about Japanese? You don\u2019t need to learn it. It probably won\u2019t help you develop in your career. You never need to talk to anyone in Japanese. In fact, you have no friends or family members who speak Japanese. Maybe you\u2019ve never even met a ... 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