Learning(s), language(s) and stereotypes(s)

Are you learning a new language currently? If yes, these questions are for you.

 

What is the link between learning a language and the results according to stereotypes? How could the cultural aspect influence the learning process? Your answers will allow me to start a reflection on this. Thank you in advance!

 

Learning(s), language(s) and stereotypes(s)

Gender

Nationality

  1. indian
  2. indian
  3. indian
  4. indian
  5. indian
  6. indian
  7. indian
  8. indian
  9. indian
  10. indian
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Age

Mother tongue(s)

  1. hindi
  2. telugu
  3. malayalam
  4. bengali
  5. tamil
  6. malayalam
  7. malayalam
  8. telugu
  9. bengali
  10. marathi
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Current grade

What is the language you are learning now?

  1. english
  2. french
  3. english
  4. english
  5. english
  6. english
  7. arabic
  8. hindi
  9. malayalam
  10. french
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In what context?

In what way are the courses organized?

Would you say that this language appears

Why?

Other option

  1. the accentuation is variable. the pronunciation of certain sounds that do not exist in the languages i know, or differ slightly, without me being able to grasp the nuance (and even less to reproduce it).
  2. the alphabet is different
  3. huge vocabulary and pronunciation
  4. there are tricky tones for pronunciation in chinese that i have a hard time remembering which to use and when.
  5. it doesn't have much to do with my mother tongue.
  6. pronunciation is still easier than french :))
  7. similar to the other languages i've learned (french, latin)

Before starting this new language, what was your perception of it?

  1. the language would be elegant.
  2. it was very difficult.
  3. no
  4. formal and requires great skills
  5. i thought it was very difficult, but it is not.
  6. i found it easy before starting.
  7. speak anyway.
  8. very difficult to learn the language.
  9. much needed
  10. representations due to what i had read about lithuanian: a difficult and archaic language (without knowing exactly what that means), of great interest to linguists (without knowing exactly why). others: i thought it was a language close to russian, or at least having borrowed many words from russian.
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Do you agree with this: A foreign language implies stereotypes

Did you hear any information around you, whatever it may be, about this foreign language that you are learning now?

Among this information, are there stereotypes, in your opinion? If yes, which ones?

  1. no
  2. no, stereotypes should not be neglected.
  3. no
  4. no stereotypes
  5. no
  6. none
  7. no
  8. we should define more precisely what we mean by stereotypes. here, socially shared opinions regarding different characteristics of a language: its beauty or ugliness, its level of difficulty, its poetry...? i would say that the points concerning the difficulty of lithuanian and its lexical proximity to russian were stereotypes.
  9. i heard things like 'this language is useless, only spoken in russia' - wrong. 'they (russian people) would pay you a lot for you to speak their language' - wrong, more and more are speaking english and even french, but it is true that they pay a lot for any service you provide them.
  10. no
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According to what you know about this foreign language, are these stereotypes justified?

Why? If yes, will you share it with other people?

  1. no
  2. i don't know.
  3. i don't want to share.
  4. yes and no. yes: lithuanian is a difficult language: it depends on the aspects, but some do indeed pose a problem for me. i would say that there is still not enough didactic reflection regarding lithuanian as a foreign language to "make the pill easier to swallow." no: it is a very different language from russian, and i differentiate the two languages better every day. however, there are similarities in the way sentences are organized, for example, in relation to time. the grammar of both languages does indeed present similarities.
  5. porque eres quien eres
  6. if you want to achieve a somewhat higher proficiency in english, it's really not easy.
  7. to let them know the truth
  8. the diversity within this language, the different dialects and sociolects, does not allow for much generalization. people around the world use arabic in many different ways. one could rather draw distinctions based on the different areas where it is used. for example, it clearly shows the differences in language use in places when one compares arabic in north africa and the middle east.
  9. it is a hard language, and french is worse, i think: if you learn lithuanian, it is quite easy because there are no exceptions in the rules!
  10. how should stereotypes be justified?
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Do you know any other foreign languages? If yes, which one(s)?

  1. english
  2. no
  3. no
  4. hindi
  5. no
  6. no. only english.
  7. no
  8. yes. english
  9. english
  10. english and spanish. a little italian and serbo-croatian, and a tiny bit of turkish and hebrew.
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In what context was it?

In what way were the courses organized?

Briefly describe your impressions of the learning methods you received and the outcomes today.

  1. na
  2. no
  3. listening and reading and writing
  4. it was through audio tapes. it was easy, but to become fluent you need more exposure.
  5. learning a new language becomes easy if we listen to the conversations of people speaking the same language.
  6. continuous speaking of the language we want to learn will help a lot.
  7. i am fluent in the language.
  8. teachers and textbooks
  9. there is no better way to learn a language than by going to a country. i used to have good english teachers, but i hated learning this language until the day i went abroad. we focus too much on grammar in school, but we should focus more on listening comprehension because it is when you hear an expression (that comes from a local) that you try to use it afterward.
  10. it was interesting.
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Thank you for your answers. Free comments or remarks here!

  1. na
  2. no
  3. you're welcome!
  4. none
  5. a language involves stereotypes: this sentence doesn't seem very clear to me. stereotypes about the language itself? about its speakers? or do you mean that each language "contains," "carries" its share of stereotypes?
  6. what is the purpose of this questionnaire?
  7. i prefer language learners to start learning a language first from its grammar. knowing grammar makes it easier to learn how to speak or write in that target language.
  8. good luck, francis!
  9. sorry, i haven't got the time to give you more in-depth answers. hopefully, i did not make too many mistakes in my english. i would also like to remark that you assumed that one can learn only one language at a time and did not take into account the possibility of your interviewee learning two or three languages at the same time (students in high school, for example, or majoring in one language while minoring in another at university), which leads to the question of whether they have a tendency to favor one over the other and why. why choose the language too? (which helps remember the ideas you had when you began learning the language.) furthermore, you only seem to wonder about the current language we are learning but are not very interested in those we've already learned, even though those are the ones for which you can already see the results, especially when it comes to stereotypes. i know that in my case.
  10. there are more genders than male and female; please include an "other" option.
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