How Learning Languages Changed My World View
My Newsletter: benjaminantoine.substack.com
Learning a foreign language is an experience like no other. It is a skill that cannot be learned in solitude. It is something which has to be practiced in public with other people and requires a degree of human connection. It gives us a unique perspective into a different way of thinking and feeling.
In this video I detail some of the biggest lessons I gained from language learning and how it can help us in the realms of critical thinking, finding meaning, and making sense of the world around us.
Chapters
00:00 - You are never too old to start
01:56 - When a language dies a way of understanding the world dies with it
02:23 - Character Amnesia
04:28 - Critical openness
05:36 - Cynicism
06:59 - Avoiding the path of least resistance
#languagelearning #worldview #livingabroad
Morning all. Have you found that learning a language changes the way you see the world or is it just me?
Yes! And it is not just you! What happens if you give Chinese three-four weeks to resurface? Is there something in Chinese that still could fascinate you - the nature, the old poems, a love? Is politics a huge put off?
@@DNA350ppm I would probably call myself a pragmatist. I no longer have any contact with Chinese (I did before the pandemic) and so because of that am o longer in “the cultural current” so to speak. I am sitting on the river bank observing from a distance and that’s when skills and knowledge deteriorate.
For sure! Enables one to understand cultural nuances more....
@@skywalker7778 totally 👍🏻
@@britingermany Sitting on the river bank and let the river in which one never steps twice pass by. Great image! I tried to learn a bit Russian because of Dmitri Hvorostovsky's classical songs, but the political course of Russia made me less and less interested - I also had some idea that I wanted to understand most people around Sweden, thinking of Russian as a lingua franca to the east. Now I don't like to think of how tragic the situation is in eastern Europe and especially Ukraina and how helpless I feel.
I have just moved to Hamburg from the UK and I'd say wondering around like a toddler is accurate! It's so easy to stay in your apartment all day but I know I will feel hollow if I do 😅 Big fan of your vids, not just because they were Germany themed but because of the ideas you generated within them. Vielen Dank! ❤
All the best with getting settled there. I hope you are being treated well 😃
@taconumnut @@britingermany HH is a beautiful city and you can make great friends easily, because we do have cliques but don't exclude others. We love to help people, mean it when we ask "Wie geht's dir?" and will follow up. Check out the Wilhelmsburger Energie Bunker (for an overview of the city), Stade/Altes Land during spring/blossom season (it's gorgeous), smaller clubs (e.g. Übel&Gefährlich, Hebebühne, Fabrik, Knust, etc.), join Sportspaß or the Hochschulsport to make friends, and best Franzbrötchen are at "Kleine Konditorei" (several shops in Eimsbüttel) or Franz&Friends at the Hbf Südsteg (that rhubarb topping, that just gets everywhere. 🥰). Maybe the museum for Hamburger Geschichte will at some point get back into the "Franzbrötchen Wettbewerb", where you can eat and rate them all day.
Wow! Was looking forward to this post so much and as usual its wisdoms surpassed all expectations. In Africa there is a saying in French "Every time an old man dies, a whole library is burnt down" This made me deeply consider memory & recall matters of languages. Thank you as always und Liebe Grüße ❤
That’s a great saying and another reason why we should share our insights with the world. Maybe we can save part of the library that way 😉
@skywalker7778: you nailed it!
I grew up bilingual and remember the joy (at 4) of finding out that I could sometimes speak "in code" to my mother so that others would not understand what I was saying. Not too long after the excitement at decifring the letters on shops and books and magazines and lyrics of songs opened the pandora box. Learning 4 other languages later on in life was always like " figuring out the code" for me, an adventure! (I had so much fun about 7 years ago when I tried to learn the georgian alphabet before a two week trip to Georgia and then in Tiflis tried reading the signs. ) Then there is the language of poetry, a source of emotional riddles. We chose to raise our child bilingual so that she would have no problem speaking to all family members on both sides. When she learned a third language at school it was easier for her, and now with all the internet applications it helps her keep up with what sh learned. PS noticed the name change of your vlog.
Yes it does have a certain element of mystery to it. I think either you’re intrigued by it and want to decipher the code, or you find it annoying and just want people to speak a language you understand 🤣. Yes I changed the name because in the next few months I won’t be making videos about germany and so I thought the name didn’t fit anymore.
Thanks for this video. It certainly has triggered some memories! I went through all the struggles with the Chinese language a couple of dacades earlier, when there was no internet, no language learning apps, and only huge printed dictionaries to look up unknown characters and words. Nowadays you just point your smart phone's camera at something, and get an instant translation - albeit not always correct. After spending a year studying and traveling in China in 1987/88, I had a hard decision to make: Persue a career related to China and Chinese? In hindsight, especially with current political developments, I am glad to deciding against that, although I often regret to have spent so many years of my life learning Chinese and Japanese. But in the end, it's not wasted time, and I would be a different person, had I not come out of my comfort zone and spent that time in China. At almost 60, languages are still a passion and an exciting hobby for me. At the moment I am exploring Norwegian with the help of the little green owl, and I thoroughly enjoy it.
That sounds like we had a similar path for a few years at least. I also came to the final decision not to pursue a career related to China (although I did actually use it for the first few years after moving to Germany). The way I look at it is, it helped me learn German and I would pick up any other language quicker now because of the experience gained learning Chinese. Good luck with the Norwegian. Why did you choose that language to focus on?
@@britingermany Thanks! About Norwegian: We spent three weeks there on vacation a couple of years ago, and I prepared by starting the duolingo course, which is quite long and comprehensive. Firstly, it is probably one of the easiest languages for German native speakers. Then, once you know some basics, you get reading comprehension in Swedish and Danish for free. I recently ordered something from a Danish internet website, which was in English. The order confirmation mail was in Danish, though, and I was amazed that I could understand 80% directly, and guess the rest. Also, last year in Finland, I could read a lot of the bilingual Finish/Swedish signs in the southwest of the country. Very rewarding! I wouldn't dare to speak much, though...
@@hartmutbohn that sounds great. It’s those moments where you like…oh this actually makes sense😀👏
Thanks so much for this video - as ALWAYS a great experience! I moved from the US to Germany a good two years ago, and with OK German, I thought I should start in on refreshing the French that I learned (and forgot) almost 40 years ago. Wrong choice at the time, and wanting to focus on German, I put my French efforts on hold for a while. it paid off, and I believe the time is right to dig out the language course I purchased and get serious about truly acquiring French. Thanks so much for inspiration, Ben: as always, your thoughts gave me a something to think about!
Glad to hear that and if you have the "headspace" and will to get back into it I think it can be life changing. France is really not far away so you could always coming it with a short trip away 😉
Thankyou very much for such an interesting video!!! I can't imagine what topics you will talk about in your future videos. This one is interesting and deep. I am going to listen again... there is a lot in it. What great thought you have put into it! It is 9.3O pm in New Zealand. Thanks Brother.
Thanks a lot for your support. How funny, It's 9.30am here. We are on opposite sides pf the world.
@@britingermany I did watch again, but words come up all over the screen. I truly am amazed at how you have put this together. Each piece of film... and your talk is so easy on the ear... such a beautiful accent and such thoughtful, original ideas. No ums or ahs, it is perfection to me. Another great thing for me is how much you have left for me to think about. I wish I had taken more interest in languages in my life, startiing with Latin & French. I and the whole class used to wag Latin classes. Nowadays I love the Maori language. I can resonate a bit with your comments at the beginning. When Maori people speak in Maori, all the horrible words seem to be said in English. Maori people have taught me an entirely new way of thinking and being, and the concepts make up their beautiful words, like manaakitanga, kotahitanga, koro, moko, pono, po marie, kia kaha, are few I know. But when I read captions on Maori TV programmes I feel the beautiful, spiritual way of thinking and the deep connection to nature and the environment. I feel a similar thing when reading the translation of Russian songs. I have looked at the Chinese way of writing "to listen". If blows me away with its' depth and comprehensive design and beauty. It is like the beautiful Chinese people I used to know doing Falun Gong. I also love hearing about any Hebrew words, they also enthrall me. What a great way to increase broadminded thinking, and understanding of others. Yes, this, not polarization is needed. I will try to act on this very important thought. Well done, for your creation here. And you seem so lively amidst your creativity, a happy soul, spreading wonderful ideas. Thankyou. Ata marie.
Thank you Benjamin. Sharing your detailed, in depth, personal insights is a gift you possess.
Well that's nice of you to say. Thanks for watching
It took me 17 years of living there for me to gain a rudimentary use of Hungarian. I was never interested in learning languages either. But my children all speak at least 2 or 3 languages. I hope they find it valuable. But they don’t know what it’s like to be ‘stuck’ with only one.
Currently I learn French. I learned it at School. I like to Spende time in France. You are absolutley right when you say , to learn or perfect a language is Ehen you practise it in the correspodnding country. I try to do. Ich bewundere Sie für Ihre guten Deutschkentnnisse als auch ihre Kenntnisse in Mandarin. Ihnen einen schönen Sonntag ☀️
Vielen dank Ina. You too 😀
Linguistic relativity: I guess, it is a thing for some people (e.g. Feli from Germany feels this way), but I don't feel different when I'm speaking another language. Learning a second language: You need to have an intrinsic motivation. When I was a child, I wanted to learn English because I had two American friends my age who visited their grandparents (one were neighbors the other was a coworker of my father and his wife) every other year in the summer. They spoke almost no German and I started out with no English but gradually over the years, my English became better. My husband was obsessed with English because of the music he listened to. My sons grew up with American friends visiting regularly and whereas the two daughters spoke decent to perfect German because of visiting a German school their parents had more difficulties as they both worked at the base or with families in the Army/Airforce respectively. They did their shopping mainly on base and didn't have too much contact with Germans besides our family. So my kids understood at a young age that language is key to communication. They both are very good at English, one is even better than my husband and I. He is very interested in Japanese because of anime and has been studying on his own (incl. writing kanji, katakana, and hiragana) for the past eight years. Recently he started corresponding with a Japanese friend of my in-laws in Japanese to improve his skills. TLDR: If you've got a goal, you'll be successful in language learning.
Yes totally agree. Intrinsic motivation is everything. If you force yourself or you are forced by someone else to learn something you will end up hating it.
Interesting video. Thanks for this. I did German O Level and French A level at school. Funnily enough I did not have that much interest in German. I have now lived in Germany for nearly 3 years and my German is fluent. I do think it is different learning a language as an adult because your general knowledge is better and you want to be able to talk about more complex topics. In that respect I have progressed much faster because I have been more motivated to talk to native speakers about other things.
Congrats! That’s a pretty fast progression
Hi. thanks, but I did quite a bit of work on it before I moved over, so not quite as fast as that. I don´t think it would be possible to get from 0 to C1 in 3 years. @@britingermany
Great content as usual!
Thanks
I like this essayistic, sincere questioning of different phenomena of life and the philantropic twinkle in your approach. And the 'outsourcing of brainpower' is a really accurate term of what is happening right now when we prefer DeepL or Chat GPT doing the wording processes for us. Very convenient but maybe also reducing the experience of deeper and multi-faceted understanding ...
It's pretty crazy that we've arrived at a situation where we often need to seek out discomfort.
@@britingermany ...definitely - and my spelling error seems to illustrate the topic: of course it has to be 'philanthropic' ... =}
Good Morning ! I m in my forties and startet learning french again, although i ve no talent. :) But I saw so many things I don’t understand in France. I agree that you feel a bit like a toddler without a proper amount of language. Its hilarious. Allways stay curious !:)
Well done for starting that up again. I have been meaning to get serious with either Italian or French but so far I haven’t committed to it.
Thanks for not bashing us teachers. 🤣 We aren't perfect and just people, but most of us do our best. Personally, I love my "Landeskunde" classes, in which people are just curious how everything works and why Germans do this and that. And first time you'll have them put down their phone and tell them to write the information from the board rather than taking a picture, most pupils are shocked as hell, if I'm serious. Yes Digga, I am (and no, not 100 yrs old), because "Durch die Hand in den Kopf" and also those copyright laws and such. And the second shock, when you explain "well, I kind of understand what you mean, because I do speak English, but no we don't say it like that." Followed up by "How many languages do you speak?" (Well, "fluently" two, "getting by" 2 more, took 2 more in school/uni and forgot most of them, structural linguistic class like an analysis of 3 more. Just writing an essay on one.) and the awkward stare starts. 🤣
Excellent contemplative video - I agree with everything you say. I reckon you've left out a few things though: 1. Your Chinese mates (or in my case wife), mock your early efforts mercilessly, and it's actually quite discouraging. 2. The real test is when you start dreaming in your new language, no? 3. Not being cynical, but once you've mastered it you realise that some things are universal so a cab driver in Chongqing has pretty much the same on his mind as his London counterpart. That was quite the letdown for me....but you are definitely right, some languages do re-wire your brain. Most of the time in a good way.
Well seeing as I didn't have any Chinese mates until I moved there they were actually quite impressed with my few words. bear in mind I was in Tianjin which to Chinese standards was pretty provincial. I think it was a city of only around 10 million and there were not many other foreigners there. There was a lot of wide eyed pointing and laughing...that much is true 😉
I get people pointing and laughing at me everywhere I go. Your accent is pretty good for Tianjin - not too 'piraty'. Tianjin winters. Ouch. When I first moved to China, my neighbours would walk into my apartment unannounced just to see how a foreigner lived, just to wander round and check things out. It was great with 2 children though - free childcare from a few hundred million Ayis@@britingermany
Your German is pretty good. Keep your video up mate, i really enjoy it and wish you all the best.
Thanks a lot. I appreciate it 🙏
Linguistic Relativity is absolutely a thing. When speaking / writing / thinking English, I absolutely am almost a different Person - same with Spanish - from my baseline German Personality in many ways.
Isn’t it funny how that works?! Glad I’m not the only one who feels this
In fact I don't adapt to that degree, I'm the same, I feel the same, but I often use my languages in different settings/contexts, but in the same setting I can in principle use any of them and feel as the same person. One should absolutely take advantage of displaying the different features one has, and let them play out!
As an ex-linguist and language teacher, I have a bit of a different perspective on language learning. First, the genuine interest or lack thereof in school. It _is_ on the teachers. I don't think I've ever seen a child who was genuinely interested in the process and mechanics of learning a language. I mean, it's theoretically possible, but I've never seen it. So expecting children to just be interested in learning a language is BS. However, what children _can_ be interested in is something that can be expressed in a language. Films, comics, video games, etc. It wouldn't kill school teachers to add a purpose to the lessons. And make it something age appropriate and interesting for the class instead of "but it's a classic". When, already being a teacher, I remembered things like my 6th grade English teacher making us read _The Great Gatsby_ or, on the opposite side, a 9th grade English teacher making us, a group of teens in the middle of I'm-so-adult stage, sing children's songs, honestly, I wanted to strangle them. Granted, there's no guarantee your students would be interested even if you do everything you can, but it wouldn't kill the teachers to at least try. It's also the same problem with other subjects, especially math. Second, I have a problem with the toddler metaphor, especially when certain people build their entire "methodology" around it. When literal toddlers learn their first language, they don't have much background knowledge or any kind of pre-existing language structure in their head. They are building their worldview _and_ the way language lives in their heads from scratch at the same time as they're learning the language. Adults, and even older children, who are learning a second language already have a number of complex systems in their heads as well as a crapload of background knowledge. Pretending they're learning a new language the same way as young children is the same as taking a pre-existing picture and starting to draft on top of it, or building an extra floor onto a building while pretending that the roof and lower floors do not exist and ignoring all of the piping and other pre-existing infrastructure. I do get that a learner might _feel_ like a toddler at some points, but the metaphor becomes problematic when the teachers start using it literally, and some do.
Hello there and thanks for your thoughts. Yes the best teachers are able to tease out or expand a persons interests. And I say this because some of my peers did enjoy languages and even went on to study them at university it just didn't click for me at time. I was just using the toddler analogy as a metaphor of course it's not the same.
😂 When at school more than 45 years ago English was mandatory from 5th to 9th grade. I was not interested at all. My argument was that I was born in Germany, being raised in Germany and that I have no plan to leave Germany and since German was the language spoken there is no need for me to learn any other language (yeah - I was lazy 🤫). But live had different plan for me. At the age of 21 I was send by the companies worked for to render mechanical services for machinery in the USA. That was scheduled to be just one year but I was almost 2 consecutive years there and many times on and off later for days or weeks. Learned most of my basic English skills then at work and watching TV. Over the years I gradually learned more reading technical and later contracts, at some time started reading books in English as well. It was a gradual process of emerging into the language and even though I am living in Germany I still take advantage of understanding English by reading different newspapers and magazines in English on daily / weekly base from different countries. I also lived almost 5 years in China but besides basic skills to tell the taxi where to go and get something to eat and drink I did not succeed in learning more. But I like the Chinese culture and food so much that even now I crave for authentic Chinese food 😂. Another language I learned is Spanish and it all started by falling love with a South American girl. My wife for 27 years is not the one I initially fell in love with but at 22 years old back than I simply was not grown up enough but more than a decade later things fell in place. But, and this I have to admit, I have not managed to manage Spanish to the level that I did for English. But it is as I said - I am lazy and since South America is not where I travel for business (or to be precise only ever other year at most) the natural encounter with the language is limited mainly to family, friends, casual talks but not politics nor contracts or technical / contract language. However, each and every bit of any foreign language that I manage to remember helps me getting a smile on peoples faces and makes my experiences in different countries to be overwhelmingly on the pleasant side.
5 years is a long time in China. That’s amazing! Sounds like you learn through necessity which is similar to me. That’s why I advocate total immersion. It’s difficult to learn something if you have no use case for it
@@britingermany I guess China was just a bit to heavy leaning on the working… 12-14 hours work days where not unusual (but the intensity of it was different- will say a lot time was spend on communication and not the actual task), traveling within China at least 2 out of 4 weeks and usually 2 weekends where busy with work / travel / meetings. Hence the initial idea of having 1 on 1 classes twice a week was quickly changed to one’s a week and than suspended totally as I did not have the energy of doing daily homework of 30 minutes which is the bare minimum needed to progress any in learning Chinese..
@@wr6293 wow that sounds seriously intense!
@@britingermany It was. Very intense, time consuming and also plenty of dining and even more drinking. In hindsight a bit much drinking but I mainly kept to beer and avoided the higher percentage spirits but still… Anyway, I am old enough to remember that drinking (even excessive) was part of German culture with friends, neighbors and also with business partners. So the same was true for China. Have not been in China for about 7 years but I heard that the drinking has cut back a bit (same as is true for Germany I think starting mid 80’s). Well, for me I stopped drinking alcohol for couple of years now simply because even just one beer gave me a hangover 🤭. Anyway, I enjoyed visiting China for many years (since mid 1990) and have loads of good memories
@@wr6293 ahhh yes the dinners. Always way more food than anyone could eat. And the baijiu! Had my fair share of that
Really motivating! Grüße aus Frankfurt :D
thank you and grüße zurück 😀
With English it is easy. I learned it for 8 years at school and needed it all the time for hobby und job (reading and writing, now hearing). But I rarely speak it and so I'm not so good at it. I learned French for 4 years but was really bad with it. I know enough grammatic and can speak understandable but I'm lacking the vocabulary. Each time before visiting France I hear some audio language course to get into it again. I even tried Japanese for 2 semester at the VHS, but with little effort. Only some months after that I had forgotton nearly everything.
The main thing is practice and implantation. I think English is easier than most languages be side it is everywhere and easily accessible.
Very good. Speaking several languages will build up a cognition reserve to get dementia later in life, than those that just speak their mother tongue. Yes practising a second language, you'll get a different perspective on things, given you even care. As always use it, or loose it, eg handwriting. How aweful to unfold paper maps, when Google is so much convenient or navigation devices to get around.
Yes I have to admit that I think google has got me there. I even did the Duke of Edinburgh expedition (an extra qualification which you can do in school). Part of it is learning how to navigate wild terrane using a compass and a map but google maps are just too convenient.
I'm close to 1000 days into learning Japanese, "just for fun". It's eye opening and explains so much about the social contracts of their culture. Not learning to write the chinese characters aka japanese kanji 漢字 actually took a big load of this challenging language. I'm fine with using IME to write, invest the saved time into speaking, grammar and vocabulary. The technology is here, let's make use of it. お疲れ様でした、また次に動画ですね ;)
Cool. Why did you choose Japanese? A particular interest in the culture?
@@britingermany Been there twice, always regretted not being able to talk with people. Everyone was so nice, next time I'm able to voice my gratitude. Love the food and pop culture too.
Wittgenstein said: The limits of my language stand for the limits of my world..language opens doors...everywhere..in my opinion
agreed👍🏻
The better you speak German, the less hair you have😊
🤔🤔