Brodie Watkins
Motivation for learning a second language

Hello everyone, 

We all have different reasons for studying a second language. If you would like, please share your experiences studying a second language. Why did you start? How was the journey? What insight did it give you? How did it shape or change your life?

As for me, my story is short. 

I started studying Japanese one year ago and despite still being a beginner I have noticed I am looking at some things through a different lens now. Especially regarding different people from different parts of the world. I have always been open minded to different people and different lifestyles, but due to my Japanese study I believe I have become more considerate and welcoming, to not only people, but also the way they think and behave. 

This can be a difficult experience to share but I believe people will find it interesting and it will give beginners of a second language a little extra motivation to pursue their language goals! 

I look forward to hearing your experiences!

Brodie  

2018年7月7日 06:36
评论 · 1
1
I started learning Korean and Japanese, my fourth and fifth language respectively due to wanting to be able to watch Korean interviews and anime without subtitles! Not only that, my best friend in university is Korean so I really wanted to be able to converse with her in Korean! It's my 5th month learning Korean and I'm more or less able to understand simple spoken conversations and reply in Korean as well :)

I picked up Japanese about a week ago. One of the main reasons why I've decided to pick up Japanese is because the grammar point is extremely similar to Korean as well. The fact that I absolutely love anime is a helping factor as well. So far I haven't had much difficulties with Japanese as I did with Korean because I've learned the hard parts through Korean. I was able to converse via text with a Japanese lady regarding BTS (a kpop idol group) a few days ago and I'm glad I was able to do it too! I definitely wasn't able to talk to anyone, much less understand anything in Korean after a week of learning it.

Overall learning a new language can be difficult initally but I suppose after getting past the basic grammar rules of the language, it's pretty much the same thing from there on out.

Overall to anyone that's picking up a new language, just be sure it's a language you really like! I was forced to study Mandarin and Malay when I grew up and I hated every minute of it. Whereas now I am learning languages that I like on my own, time spent learning is enjoyable and you will definitely pick things up faster than you would've if you were forced

2018年7月7日