Incentive
In general, I think foreign languages are interesting in that they allow people to think through new linguistic avenues. I also am interested in the historical context of foreign languages, how different ones developed their own grammatical quirks and unique vocabulary.
I've previously studied Spanish and Russian. I found Russian more interesting in part because of how bizarre the grammar seemed and even just how different the sound of the language is from English and the Romance languages.
I wanted to take Japanese in part because of how separated it's historic development is from those languages. It's a product of a completely new history and influenced by other languages that I know equally little about. So far, the pronunciation and grammatical structure has been quite unlike that of English but much more natural to me than Russian initially was. I'm looking forward to continue to compare the language learning experience moving forward.
I've previously studied Spanish and Russian. I found Russian more interesting in part because of how bizarre the grammar seemed and even just how different the sound of the language is from English and the Romance languages.
I wanted to take Japanese in part because of how separated it's historic development is from those languages. It's a product of a completely new history and influenced by other languages that I know equally little about. So far, the pronunciation and grammatical structure has been quite unlike that of English but much more natural to me than Russian initially was. I'm looking forward to continue to compare the language learning experience moving forward.
Will you continue forward with both Russian and Japanese?
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'll really have time to study Russian in the near future. I have enough of a foundation that I could study it down the line independently but not enough that I could passively practice it with the free time I have now. Right now I'm actively studying Japanese through class, and I could see myself continuing with it later, outside of a classroom setting. At his point, though, I'm not sure how much I will develop or use either because while I enjoy both studying both languages, it's not my main academic interest.
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