Friday, November 10, 2006

Addicted to languages

I have to say that I'm really glad that I have a TV in Brussels, even though in the beginning I was very reluctant. The reason is simple: except for Finnish, Portuguese and Spanish-language channels, in my (very small) TV I have plenty of channels in French, English, Dutch, German and Italian, which means that I can practise those languages in the comfort of my home.

It's not that I speak any of them perfectly (there is no such thing anyway), but I really like the different doors they open, different ways of thinking and so on. As my old German texbook name said, they're bridges between peoples.

The most fascinating thing is that there's still so many to learn. I'd like to study Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Náhuatl, Yucatecan Maya...

So much to learn, so little time...

3 comments:

Chiva Congelado said...

Unos más, otros menos, pero ahí vamos. El más débil ahorita es el holandés, pero pues estoy empezando.

It is true, the 3rd is easier than the 2nd, the 4th is easier than the 3rd, and so on. It has a lot to do (I think) with the fact your mind becomes more flexible, and you are able to recognise more patterns (which from what I understand is a big part of learning languages). Of course learning related languages is a plus, but even unrelated ones might give you some practise in "learning to learn". That's why I want to move further away from Indo-European languages, to have more patterns to draw from.

Anonymous said...

no pues entonces pronto empezaré con el 4o :-D ... alemán

Anonymous said...

Vamos a ganar, bueno eso hubiera pensado, pero ya es Lunes.

De todos modos le hubiera atinado =D.

Voy a linkear tu blog para visitarlo y promoverlo.
Saludos ChivaHermano =D