I'm hijacked these days with a motivation which rarely fits a lazy guy of my age! It's quite interesting though, but daunting apparently! Its nothing other than the idea of learning new languages. I already know three languages with advanced proficiency level: Bengali (native), English & Hindi. Though I will falter considerably when it comes to writing Hindi, but I'm confident it will not take more than 1 month to master the writing script of Hindi, which is based completely in Sanskrit. Ohh yaah! I forgot! I had learnt Sanskrit painstakingly during my school days as Sanskrit was in our VII-VIII grade syllabus. Just imagine! how valueless it was when I find no one speaking or writing or listening in this language for the argument that language can not be learnt if its not put into its best action: speaking! Not only this flaw of the education system I have undergone, but another one also made the language learning completely ineffective: Its the way of learning English! 10 years of school education had English in the syllabus without mandating the students speaking in English! The global language was to be learnt through learning grammar and reading some literature in the later part of the school days. What faulty system it was! When I grew up and went to high school, college and institutes for higher studies where English is the only medium for everything, only then did I come close to the actual and effective mastery of this language! But amidst all the negative feedback, I would like to offer my gratitude to my school education for its few positive contribution which it did make: implanting very strong base in English grammar. I can realize the merit of that while preparing for CAT (for Indian B schools) GMAT (for global B schools)! :)
Well, that's the history of my learning non-native or foreign languages! At this stage of life ( late twenties) I'm quite an advocate for the speaking-based method for new language learning. Its the best way to learn a language particularly if its your target is primarily to able to speak in that language. The trigger to this sudden motivation or urge is working and living in a different state where the native language is not any of the languages I know. Hindi or English has enabled me to hold conversation with educated class but I found it very difficult to communicate with non-educated class like house-maid, cook, cab driver, auto driver, grocery vendor, small shop owners or the workmen in the factory of my office. Even in some situations where all the colleagues with the same native start speaking in their own language: Kannada! I find myself outlandish! I can very well demand them to speak only in English as its the official language but I think to myself: What if I accommodate? what's my loss? nothing but there will be a gain: I will be enriched more with a new language and its definitely going to be a skill! This skill not only will put me at ease in many situation within Karnataka state but will enhance my social boundary, enrich my knowledge, improve my people skill, improve my general ability to push myself for more! So here I go! It kind of dawned upon me! I started questioning myself: why did I stop learning new languages after English? when being born in India gives me so much of opportunities to learn new cultures and language without carrying my passport or visa or exchanging currency I should take full advantage of this opportunity and I am ready!
This way I first got motivated to learn Kannada. But I got flooded with motivations for more! Why only Indian languages, why not more foreign languages other than English? Aravind, my friend and colleague, has a good role to play here to intrigue me with these self-challenges. He's native Indian but went to do his MBA from IE Business School, Spain. He not only earned his degree and much saught-after international exposure there but picked up a foreign language: Spanish, which is spoken all over the world like English! My earlier notion that its enough to know English to survive this world has been challenged while having after-office chatting sessions with Aravind over a mug of beer. When I dream to see myself as a globe-trotting professional with an unquenchable hunger for knowing and interacting with different people and their culture, its imperative that I know as many languages as possible in order to enhance the knowledge! This eye-opening thought occurred to me and I set my goals of learning foreign languages one by one. Knowing different languages will also come handy while I will be in a foreign country reflecting my attitude of a global citizenship. Boosting up my goal of making myself a global citizen, my dream for travelling to different parts of the world and experiencing new culture, way of work & living fueled my interest of investing time, energy and passion into learning new languages. I will not stop learning the language of the state where I'm currently working and living but will expand my knowledge and skill by knowing different languages even if I have not been to that language-speaking country or currently living where it's spoken.
Being a management enthusiast and practicing manager I should have a structure, ground work done well before I embark upon a new project. Yaah, its a project with life time value and life long duration. Let me do the research, analysis and framework for adopting result-oriented approach to sustainable language learning! All the best to myself ! :)
Learning new languages - part II (shortlisting languages)
In order to shortlist the foreign language I must have a goal fixed. What I want to gain out of learning languages though its not bad to learn as many languages as possible. But as I dont aim to become a linguistic expert or study only languages in my life time, I need to focus on some languages which would be enough for fulfilling my aspiration of globetrotting with understanding and knowing people, their culture.
As I browsed few websites like BBC for taking tips in how to go about, I came up with my own framework for going about shortlisting the languages I would pick up as I go on.
The objective goal:
To know (conversation level) the optimized number of languages which would cover the maximum geographical areas with high business & professional relevance putting me in much comfort level when it comes to conversing with the local people, even from professional circle.
Criteria to shortlist and to achieve the goal in short-medium time duration: ( % points in brackets indicates the weight-age given to the criteria)
With these criteria, the languages will be ranked for importance and prioritization in learning.
Criteria 1: Need to categorize and group languages in languages family. languages of the same family would be easier to learn and pick up. Here is the blog on world language family to refer. Languages with same family of my known language would be given highest weight-age (1, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0)
Criteria 2: Need to come up with the list of countries for future travel ( business & professional tour, leisure, working & living on short and long term) with the language requirement details of the countries. Here is the analysis on this parameter. Countries will be classified into three categories: High, Medium & Low. The mapped languages would be given weight-age as 1, 0.75 & 0.5
Criteria 3: To come up with the list of languages with number countries its the official language. The listed languages would be classified into three categories: high, medium & low with weight-age 1, 0.75 & 0.5
Criteria 4: To refer to the UN official language list. Here is the reference. All the listed language will be given weight-age of 1.0. Non UN language would be given 0% weight-age.
Criteria 5: Languages would be ranked on the basis of popularity among students, language learners for demand as secondary language to learn in colleges, universities. Languages would be grouped in three categories: high, medium & low with weight-age 1, 0.5 & 0.0
Criteria 6: To come up with a rank of languages on the basis of cultural, historical legacy and modern influence on international trade. Here is the analysis
Criteria 7: To refer to the list of languages with number of native speakers in the world. Languages with over 100 million native speakers to be given weight-age 1.0, with 50-100 million native speakers to be given 0.75 and with below 50 million to be given 0.5 weight-age. Here is the analysis.
Using this methodology a list of foreign languages should be prepared. This list should be referred to as the top languages of high importance to learn.
Priority should be set on the basis of ranking, score on the "easy to learn" criteria 1 and criteria 2.
Well, that's the history of my learning non-native or foreign languages! At this stage of life ( late twenties) I'm quite an advocate for the speaking-based method for new language learning. Its the best way to learn a language particularly if its your target is primarily to able to speak in that language. The trigger to this sudden motivation or urge is working and living in a different state where the native language is not any of the languages I know. Hindi or English has enabled me to hold conversation with educated class but I found it very difficult to communicate with non-educated class like house-maid, cook, cab driver, auto driver, grocery vendor, small shop owners or the workmen in the factory of my office. Even in some situations where all the colleagues with the same native start speaking in their own language: Kannada! I find myself outlandish! I can very well demand them to speak only in English as its the official language but I think to myself: What if I accommodate? what's my loss? nothing but there will be a gain: I will be enriched more with a new language and its definitely going to be a skill! This skill not only will put me at ease in many situation within Karnataka state but will enhance my social boundary, enrich my knowledge, improve my people skill, improve my general ability to push myself for more! So here I go! It kind of dawned upon me! I started questioning myself: why did I stop learning new languages after English? when being born in India gives me so much of opportunities to learn new cultures and language without carrying my passport or visa or exchanging currency I should take full advantage of this opportunity and I am ready!
This way I first got motivated to learn Kannada. But I got flooded with motivations for more! Why only Indian languages, why not more foreign languages other than English? Aravind, my friend and colleague, has a good role to play here to intrigue me with these self-challenges. He's native Indian but went to do his MBA from IE Business School, Spain. He not only earned his degree and much saught-after international exposure there but picked up a foreign language: Spanish, which is spoken all over the world like English! My earlier notion that its enough to know English to survive this world has been challenged while having after-office chatting sessions with Aravind over a mug of beer. When I dream to see myself as a globe-trotting professional with an unquenchable hunger for knowing and interacting with different people and their culture, its imperative that I know as many languages as possible in order to enhance the knowledge! This eye-opening thought occurred to me and I set my goals of learning foreign languages one by one. Knowing different languages will also come handy while I will be in a foreign country reflecting my attitude of a global citizenship. Boosting up my goal of making myself a global citizen, my dream for travelling to different parts of the world and experiencing new culture, way of work & living fueled my interest of investing time, energy and passion into learning new languages. I will not stop learning the language of the state where I'm currently working and living but will expand my knowledge and skill by knowing different languages even if I have not been to that language-speaking country or currently living where it's spoken.
Being a management enthusiast and practicing manager I should have a structure, ground work done well before I embark upon a new project. Yaah, its a project with life time value and life long duration. Let me do the research, analysis and framework for adopting result-oriented approach to sustainable language learning! All the best to myself ! :)
Learning new languages - part II (shortlisting languages)
In order to shortlist the foreign language I must have a goal fixed. What I want to gain out of learning languages though its not bad to learn as many languages as possible. But as I dont aim to become a linguistic expert or study only languages in my life time, I need to focus on some languages which would be enough for fulfilling my aspiration of globetrotting with understanding and knowing people, their culture.
As I browsed few websites like BBC for taking tips in how to go about, I came up with my own framework for going about shortlisting the languages I would pick up as I go on.
The objective goal:
To know (conversation level) the optimized number of languages which would cover the maximum geographical areas with high business & professional relevance putting me in much comfort level when it comes to conversing with the local people, even from professional circle.
Criteria to shortlist and to achieve the goal in short-medium time duration: ( % points in brackets indicates the weight-age given to the criteria)
- Economies of scope & Ease of learning: Targeting those languages which are rooted in the same source as the languages i'm already proficient in (20%)
- Probable future foreign geographical areas for living and working ( short & long term) and the mapping of language with target countries (25%)
- No. of countries the language is an official language of (10%)
- Whether the language is United Nations official language (10%)
- Popularity of the language (15%)
- Languages with strong cultural legacy and trading influence in the global area (10%)
- Number of native speakers (10%)
With these criteria, the languages will be ranked for importance and prioritization in learning.
Criteria 1: Need to categorize and group languages in languages family. languages of the same family would be easier to learn and pick up. Here is the blog on world language family to refer. Languages with same family of my known language would be given highest weight-age (1, 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0)
Criteria 2: Need to come up with the list of countries for future travel ( business & professional tour, leisure, working & living on short and long term) with the language requirement details of the countries. Here is the analysis on this parameter. Countries will be classified into three categories: High, Medium & Low. The mapped languages would be given weight-age as 1, 0.75 & 0.5
Criteria 3: To come up with the list of languages with number countries its the official language. The listed languages would be classified into three categories: high, medium & low with weight-age 1, 0.75 & 0.5
Criteria 4: To refer to the UN official language list. Here is the reference. All the listed language will be given weight-age of 1.0. Non UN language would be given 0% weight-age.
Criteria 5: Languages would be ranked on the basis of popularity among students, language learners for demand as secondary language to learn in colleges, universities. Languages would be grouped in three categories: high, medium & low with weight-age 1, 0.5 & 0.0
Criteria 6: To come up with a rank of languages on the basis of cultural, historical legacy and modern influence on international trade. Here is the analysis
Criteria 7: To refer to the list of languages with number of native speakers in the world. Languages with over 100 million native speakers to be given weight-age 1.0, with 50-100 million native speakers to be given 0.75 and with below 50 million to be given 0.5 weight-age. Here is the analysis.
Using this methodology a list of foreign languages should be prepared. This list should be referred to as the top languages of high importance to learn.
Priority should be set on the basis of ranking, score on the "easy to learn" criteria 1 and criteria 2.