DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 16 hours ago
I’ve almost never been in a situation where speaking Spanish was gamechanging…
So yea they’ve been teaching Spanish for like 2 years in middle school, never retained much except basics like uno dos tres cuatro cingco seis… and me llama pizza, and me no hablo espanol…
since I never got to use it outside of class
But yes I agree, its cool to have another language, but then it again you just lose it anyways since you never have the opportunity to use it, most people will never use it.
Also its about a person’s will
I remember school used to make me read boring shakespeare shit or the oddyssey, yeah I just can’t… soooo boring
Same logic with language learning…
Honestly I have more chances of using Chinese (I’m ethnic Chinese living near a lot of Asians) than using Spanish… so yea there’s that
And an average non-Asian that never goes to Chinese restaurants probably don’t need to learn any extra languages at all.
Also a lot of countries teach English because its a lingua franca so I think English speakers just expects others to be able to communicate anyways and so theres a less of an incentive to learn anyways.
Oh btw my high school does requires two credits (aka: two years) of learning a foreign language…
So guess what:
I chose the easy way out and just picked Chinese since I already knew it from two years of school in China 😎 (you can boo me all you want but who wouldn’t just do this for an easy A?)
They actually put me in Spanish at first but all the kids (I know its “high school” but people still act like “kids” so I’m gonna use that word) were misbehaving that I was just like why not just switch to Chinese, a language I already knew LOL
I’m glad I did make the switch, so comfy there lol, literally everyone behaved better (cuz no mishaving kid is gonna choose the hardest language, they’d probably be trying to change out of that class)
starlinguk@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Speaking another language is game changing, it doesn’t matter which language it is. It’ll make it much easier to learn another language, for example, because you’ll get a better grasp of grammar. In fact, that grasp of grammar will help you speak your own language better.
You’ll also be more likely to treat people who speak a different language as people rather than things.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 12 hours ago
Conversely, I sort of have a superiority complex because I’m bilingual, so I sort of¹ silengly judge Chinese Diaspora that cant read Chinese and Speak either Cantonese or Mandarin.
(¹Not that much, like I don’t treat them any worse, I just a “I have more linguistic knowledge than you 😏” moment, and silently “patting myself on the back”)
When I first came to the US, I got discriminated upon by ABCs (American-Born Chinese) for not speaking English… (like do they expect me to know a language the moment I step off a plane? the fuck?)… so that’s probably why I think the way I do.
Even my cousins, who were born in and grew up in the US, didn’t wanna talk to me… like I could just feel the silent treatment and like were so cold to me.
I remembers the kids in school that I “vibed” with the most were Cantonese-speakers.
Didn’t feel like I could confidently talk to ABCs, like its just couldn’t really “vibe” with them until like more than 4 years of learning English… Like even when I already grasped the basics 1/2 years in… I still didn’t feel like I’ve mastered it…
Honestly it’s sort of a ego thing.
Every time I wanna kms, I remind myself that I’m bilingual and most people only know one language, so I just put off the thoughts. Cuz my next incarnation, I might not have this opportunity to be bilingual again. (My knowledge of Chinese isn’t actually that good, but its better than most ABCs, who can’t even read basic characters)