Jump to content

If you could trade away the language of your home country/ where you live...


Recommended Posts

If you could give up the language of your home country/ where you live in exchange for the ability to fully comprehend/speak/write  three other languages would you do it? By giving up your knowledge of the language where you reside, you would now be unable to comprehend that language at all, except for the most minuscule and simple terms and this would essentially last you until the day you die. Also, although you will be able to fully comprehend and write three other languages of your choosing, you aren't getting any free money so if you don't have enough cash to move countries and you take up this deal, well GL. For more exciting purposes, let's add that you are only presented this question one time, and you must answer on the spot knowing you will never have this same opportunity again. 

Personally living in america, I'd take this deal. Giving up my knowledge of english, I'd take spanish, dutch and (of course) japanese. No idea what I'll do about my job, but seen plenty of people that get buy without knowing any english so hopefully I'd make it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Taking a look at how much I despise and frown upon my native country, I'd take the deal lightning-fast

I wouldn't need Finnish for anything, and instead would probably take French, Russian and Japanese, so that I'd get by splendidly almost anywhere and because these languages interest me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, the first part of the deal is a bit extreme. Not many people can even imagine giving up their own language and cultural identity, you're basically giving up a big part of who you are. As for my top 3 languages to learn, Japanese is a no-brainier, second I'd go with Urdu and then probably Turkish. I do meet a lot of Indian/Pakistani people on a daily basis, and they're kinda everywhere in the world lel, so learning Urdu definitely sounds like the best idea. I'm also really interested in Turkish culture and the history of the Ottoman empire and that kinda stuff, so I'd probably learn Turkish despite how unpopular the language is w

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, babiker said:

Well, the first part of the deal is a bit extreme. Not many people can even imagine giving up their own language and cultural identity, you're basically giving up a big part of who you are. As for my top 3 languages to learn, Japanese is a no-brainier, second I'd go with Urdu and then probably Turkish. I do meet a lot of Indian/Pakistani people on a daily basis, and they're kinda everywhere in the world lel, so learning Urdu definitely sounds like the best idea. I'm also really interested in Turkish culture and the history of the Ottoman empire and that kinda stuff, so I'd probably learn Turkish despite how unpopular the language is w

^ If we're just talking three languages, Japanese, Thai (my dad's side), and then I would be stuck between Chinese and Korean.

German or Swedish would be cool too. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Giving up English and my American heritage would be too difficult. If I were younger, maybe, but I am turning 26 in a month and since school is finished for me, I don't see a reason to give up my native language. Not only that, but as a teacher who knows that after the age of 5 learning a language is never quite the same, I wouldn't risk it.

As an English speaker, I can teach anywhere in the world at all sorts of levels (elementary, middle, and high school + college) and learn the language while living in a new country. As a non-native speaker, it will be a lot more challenging to find a country that needs me to teach that language.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, spademan said:

Personally living in america, I'd take this deal. Giving up my knowledge of english, I'd take spanish, dutch and (of course) japanese. No idea what I'll do about my job, but seen plenty of people that get buy without knowing any english so hopefully I'd make it.

DUTCH... Dutch..... why would you want to learn such an useless langue?? 

I would give up my native(dutch) langue for English, Japanese and Russian, so I can kurwa all the way. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like you can't make up for english. I mean, I could give up spanish (my first language) but I dont think I could give up english. Too many good books too many opportunities. I already have 3 languages anyways (spanish english and japanese). I wouldn't get enough out of it so no.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wouldn't take it either. English is too useful. I couldn't give up the world's lingua franca. Any other language and you're screwed if you want to travel or consume most media, as the first language someone would translate to would be English.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With Portuguese i can already speak to not only other Portuguese but quite a lot of Spanish speakers as well, and with English I can pretty much go anywhere in the world and be understood. The only language I think would be nice to learn is Chinese, but I wouldn't trade my native languages for it, I'd rather learn it myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going to go ahead and say no. You're losing the language most prominent where you are, and most won't be able to move to accommodate the language change, so that sounds like a big problem. Also, why do that when I can become fluent in three languages while retaining the knowledge of my native language just by spending time studying them? Sure, you'd instantly be fluent in the languages, but I think it's more worth it in the long run to just spend the time learning, it also feels more fulfilling that way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No way.

  • My native language being English, to lose that would be a shit to say the least.
  • I enjoy learning language, and learning it comes with finding out all the quirks it may have. Part of this is an appreciation of the language itself, and part of this goes some way to helping myself learn other languages within that language group.
  • If I accepted, I'd probably go for Finnish, Hungarian and Mongolian without really thinking, and then be thinking 'aaaaah shit' for the rest of my life.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, AaronIsCrunchy said:

No way.

  • My native language being English, to lose that would be a shit to say the least.
  • I enjoy learning language, and learning it comes with finding out all the quirks it may have. Part of this is an appreciation of the language itself, and part of this goes some way to helping myself learn other languages within that language group.
  • If I accepted, I'd probably go for Finnish, Hungarian and Mongolian without really thinking, and then be thinking 'aaaaah shit' for the rest of my life.
4

You must have something wrong in yer head to be willing to learn Finnish without being a native

My condolences :sachi:

But seriously speaking, don't

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think will not give up my own Indonesian language skill, although if I given a chance to master another language, my first choice would be Japan (As long as I didn't need to sacrifice my Indonesian language skill). But I think I'm not really need this as of now, although mastering another language sounds nice though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would totally give up danish, not out of contempt, mind you. I still have some national pride left.

The languages I would choose would probably be german (Duel me to the death, Texas), Italian (Beacuse why not?) and english. It would be easy to continue living in Denmark and generally Europe, since english is basically the lingua franca of Europe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Asonn said:

DUTCH... Dutch..... why would you want to learn such a useless language?? 

My thoughts exactly.

 

The second part makes me lean towards no, because who knows what kind of immediate problems would accompany it

 

I do think it's very human to think of your own language as boring and useless, but as @babiker said, your own language (and culture) is a HUGE part of who you are and how you think and act

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...