Also, eine die wichtigste Dinge in Deutsch zu lernen sind die längste Wörter, zum Beispiel…
As we head back into the school season, at least in the US, many students will have to
fulfill their two years of foreign language, which many of them will move on, and forget
about.
Learning a language is hard, and for many, it might even seem pointless, but not only
is learning another language a key to a bigger part of the world, it’s also really good
for your mind.
And besides, it’s not like it’s that hard, right?
Rinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz war ein alterer Gesetz in der Bundesstaat
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, und es bedeutet…
Okay, bad example.
Why do we learn languages that aren’t our own?
Travel?
Making friends in a local community?
Acting pretentious whenever the name of something foreign is brought up [call an Über]?
Well, perhaps, those are all valid reasons, but regardless, a lot of people just… don’t
seem to be able to learn another language.
But why?
Now, in this video, I’ll be talking more to my Anglosphere audience, as most of you
in continental Europe probably don’t need to be told how to learn a second language,
let alone why.
A likely reason for this is because of how much more linguistically diverse Europe is
than North America or Australia, where you can pretty much get away with just English.
So, to someone from those countries, it might not seem as if there’s much of a reason
to go to the effort of learning another language, and indeed, with more and more people in more
and more places learning English anyway, it might even be harder, as opportunities to
learn other languages shrink.
But that doesn’t mean English speakers should just give up and wait for everyone else to
learn English…
Mom, just in case you’re watching.
First off, that’s kind of rude.
Second, there are about 1.5 billion English speakers out there, just 360 million of which
are native speakers, which sounds (and indeed is) impressive, but you remember how the world
population is kind of bigger?
It turns out, the world population is more around 7.5 billion, about equivalent to the
population of every country put together.
So that’s around 6 billion people who still don’t speak English, and though there are
3-7 thousand other languages that people speak, which sounds daunting, it’s not like you’ll
have to learn thousands of languages and dialects just to talk to a majority of the world’s
population.
More like 10 or 20, but still.
Also, there are still more than plenty of pockets of the world where you really can’t
rely on your English, like here in Berlin, where the S- and U-Bahn announcements rarely
have English translations, so if you don’t speak any German at all, good luck in this
situation!
[Eingefahrener Zug auf Gleis fünfzehn: S3 nach Erkner, über Friedrichstraße, Ostkreuz]
By the way, if you want to pick up some quick German right now, the announcer said that
the arriving train, on platform 15, was the S3, heading to Erkner, via Friedrichstraße
and Ostkreuz.
You’re welcome, now back to the video.
Languages are an incredibly useful tool for cross-cultural communication, but they’re
also a great way to think in a way you normally wouldn’t.
For example, in languages like English and German, we have the directional words “left”
and “right”, but also the accuracy-measuring words “wrong” and… “right”, so if
you’re right-handed, or your country drives on the right side of the road, is it the right
side, or the “right” side?
Okay, sure, they’re not always good thoughts, but that was just an example, since plenty
of other languages don’t draw a comparison to these words in this way.
In fact, speaking multiple languages can help with pathfinding, problem solving, and task
switching, which, if you have to switch between multiple languages on a regular basis, probably
isn’t too surprising.
In fact, before the 1960’s, it was thought that bilingualism was more of a handicap for
kids who had to speak more than one language, as they would have to remember more words
for the same things.
Don’t worry, though, those studies were completely wrong.
Learning another language can even delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and Dementia, but I
would definitely recommend this video from Joanna Hausmann for more info on that (actually,
I linked a bunch of good videos to watch in the description below).
There was another thing I think was important to talk about here: machine translations,
specifically what CGP Grey said in his first Q&A, when he only had 500.000 subscribers
(they grow up so fast!), specifically, where he said he would trade out the foreign language
classes for computer programming, slightly sarcastically justifying it with how good
computers will get us a decent universal translator, anyway.
At best, I’m skeptical about this notion.
There’s a reason why Google Translate doesn’t always work out so well, despite being one
of the best in the world, mainly things like cultural things, and sentences that strongly
rely on context, which the user rarely gives, let’s be honest.
Human language, perhaps unsurprisingly, is a very, well… human thing, and every language
(at least every naturally-formed language) has minor inflections, exceptions, and taboos
that speakers kind of just have to know about, and can vary, depending on context.
Will the computers outpace us someday, and actually create a perfectly accurate universal
translator?
Perhaps, AI is getting better and faster day-by-day, and are definitely destined to do better at
tasks that we could ever do, but I wouldn’t give up any languages courses to wait for
that to happen.
Now, I realize there are probably a lot more of you interested in how to learn another
language, rather than why you should, which is definitely a good question.
Okay, let’s have a bit of real talk here.
I really don’t want to turn this video into some kind of advice video, like “7 Amazing
Tips to Learning Languages that You Won’t Believe!”, or something like that.
However, any tips for learning a new language, whether they be to practice often, or to spend
a year abroad speaking the language, they all revolve around one central component.
It’s really the same advice I’d give to anyone wanting to start a YouTube channel.
One word: persistence.
I mean, let’s say you want to learn Turkish; just ask yourself, why?
(And then ask yourself “neden”, because that’s good practice!)
But is it because it sounds kind of cool?
Well, it does, and maybe that might motivate you to learn through all the grammar, but
learning a language takes time.
At best, total fluency takes years.
I can speak Spanish and German, not fluently, I will admit, but enough to sustain a good
conversation.
But why?
Well, my dream is to study here in Berlin, and back in Portland, Spanish is actually
a really useful language!
What I’m saying is, it’s not always opportunities to learn languages that help, but interest
and a good enough reason to motivate you to endure all those years of learning.
However, what they say about total immersion is absolutely true.
Now, if all of this just doesn’t sway you, and you, for whatever reason, just don’t
want to, or can’t, learn another language, that’s fine!
Seriously, I’m not here to shame you, or anything, for being monolingual.
I also think you probably just haven’t been trying hard enough, but that doesn’t make
you a bad person, or anything.
What I’m really saying is that learning another language is always worth a shot, and
if you still, for the life of you, just don’t want to, that’s still fine.
Unless it’s because of racism, but that’s seriously a whole new problem.
Thanks for watching this video, and if you enjoyed it and/or (preferably and) found it
informative, please be sure to give it a like, share it with anyone you know who’s interested
or disinterested in learning another language (which I guess means everyone), and subscribe
to learn something new every Sunday!