How to Choose Which Language to Learn Jak si vybrat, který jazyk se učit

Hi there, Steve Kaufmann. Dobrý den, Steve Kaufmann. Today I want to talk about how to choose a language to learn. Now, if you enjoy these videos, please subscribe, click on the bell for notifications. Nyní, pokud se vám tato videa líbí, přihlaste se k odběru a kliknutím na zvonek zobrazíte upozornění. If you follow this on podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify or elsewhere, um, please leave a review. Pokud to sledujete na podcastech, Apple Podcastech nebo Spotify nebo jinde, zanechte prosím recenzi. It's always appreciated. Vždy se to cení. Es wird immer geschätzt. Know how to choose the language to learn. Vědět, jak si vybrat jazyk, který se chcete učit. Well, first of all, you know, this is to me, a very interesting subject because most people who are learning a language didn't really choose that language. No, za prvé, víte, toto je pro mě velmi zajímavý předmět, protože většina lidí, kteří se učí jazyk, si tento jazyk ve skutečnosti nevybrala. I start with the situation in Canada where it's, because Canada has two official languages. Začnu situací v Kanadě, kde to je, protože Kanada má dva úřední jazyky. If you are in the French language system, you're going to learn English. Pokud jste ve francouzském jazykovém systému, budete se učit anglicky.

And if you're in the English language, school system, you're going to learn French. Uh, how motivated are the kids to learn? Uh, jak moc jsou děti motivované učit se? ええと、子供たちはどのくらい学ぶ意欲がありますか？ Did they choose those languages? Vybrali si ty jazyky? I think that in reality, probably the kids in the French school system are more motivated to learn English than vice versa, because English is so much more important than the North American context than French. 実際には、おそらくフランス語の学校制度の子供たちは、英語がフランス語よりも北米の文脈よりもはるかに重要であるため、その逆よりも英語を学ぶ意欲が高いと思います。 Kids in the French, in the English language, school system are not tremendously motivated to learn French, which is a big reason why they don't do very well. Děti ve francouzském, anglickém jazyce, školním systému nejsou extrémně motivované učit se francouzsky, což je velký důvod, proč se jim moc nedaří. フランス語、英語、学校制度の子供たちは、フランス語を学ぶ意欲があまり高くないため、うまくいかない大きな理由です。

If you live in the United States, probably Spanish is the language that you're most often asked to learn. Pokud žijete ve Spojených státech, pravděpodobně je španělština jazykem, který se od vás nejčastěji požaduje, abyste se naučili. あなたが米国に住んでいるなら、おそらくスペイン語はあなたが最も頻繁に学ぶように頼まれる言語です。 So the first thing I would say is that if the language learner has the opportunity to choose the language to learn, there's a greater likelihood that they will do well. Takže první věc, kterou bych řekl, je, že pokud má student jazyka možnost vybrat si jazyk, který se bude učit, je větší pravděpodobnost, že si povede dobře. ですから、私が最初に言うことは、言語学習者が学習する言語を選択する機会があれば、彼らがうまくいく可能性が高いということです。 So that's number one. So I have always said, or have often said that it's unfortunate that let's say in Canada, kids are told to learn French, that it's their obligation to learn French somehow, because it's an official language.

If they had the choice to learn whatever language they wanted and if they were then able to learn that language, they will subsequently always be able to learn French because once you have learned one language, you have the confidence, you know how to do it and your brain is a little more flexible. 彼らが望む言語を学ぶことを選択し、その言語を学ぶことができれば、その後はいつでもフランス語を学ぶことができます。なぜなら、1つの言語を学んだら、自信があり、その方法を知っているからです。そしてあなたの脳はもう少し柔軟です。

You're going to find it easier to learn another language by and large. 概して、他の言語を学ぶ方が簡単だとわかるでしょう。 So I think in our schools, we would be better to give the kids a choice. ですから、私たちの学校では、子供たちに選択肢を与えるほうがよいと思います。 Now it used to be that, you know, if a school doesn't have, like, you can't give the kids the choice of any of 10 languages, because then we would need to have teachers of each of those 10 languages and the schools can't afford to carry teachers of all these different languages. 今では、学校に10の言語のいずれかを選択させることはできません。その場合、10の言語のそれぞれの教師が必要になるためです。学校はこれらすべての異なる言語の教師を運ぶ余裕がありません。 That's no longer a factor because nowadays there are so many language learning resources available on the web, including teachers online, including, uh, audio books and movies. And, uh, you name it, LingQ of course, that if the schools had the teachers who were knowledgeable about how to learn languages, uh, via the internet, that's all they would need. そして、ええと、もちろん、LingQと名付けます。学校に、インターネットを介して言語を学ぶ方法に精通した教師がいれば、それだけで十分です。 They wouldn't need to have specific teachers for each language. They can even find those teachers online. So it would be great if in schools, people were given the choice.

Now, assuming we have the choice, which language should we learn now? The next, so my whole thing about language learning is get rid of the obligations. 次は、言語学習についての私のすべてのことは、義務を取り除くことです。 So the first sort of obligation is the school system says you shall learn English or French or Spanish or whatever the case might be and give people choice, give the kids choice.

Second of all, very often, uh, parents of immigrants are very keen that their children should learn the call it ancestral language, sometimes called the heritage language. 第二に、移民の両親は、子供たちがそれを継承語と呼ぶこともある祖先の言語と呼ぶことを学ぶべきであることに非常に熱心です。 I'm also against that. 私もそれに反対です。 If that works, if the parents speak with the kids around the house in that language and the kids pick it up, that's great. それがうまくいけば、両親が家の周りの子供たちとその言語で話し、子供たちがそれを拾うなら、それは素晴らしいことです。

Or if our grandparents live together with the kids and they speak the language and they pick it up, that's great. But if that's not the situation, uh, I'm not tremendously in favor of sending the kids to Chinese school or Russian school or, you know, Persian school, uh, to learn that ancestral language, unless the kids are interested. しかし、そうでない場合は、子供たちが興味を持っていない限り、私は子供たちを中国語学校やロシア語学校、またはペルシア語学校に送ってその祖先の言語を学ぶことに大いに賛成していません。

Uh, it may be that the kid whose, whose family was Chinese speaking might be more interested in Spanish or some other language. ええと、その家族が中国語を話していた子供は、スペイン語や他の言語にもっと興味があるかもしれません。 And so always, I favor the idea of letting people choose the language that they are most interested in. So then how do you choose which language to learn? People are going to be more successful if they're motivated. やる気があれば、人々はより成功するでしょう。

So, you know, if you feel a tremendous interest in the culture of a particular country, If you have relatives because you come from a certain country and you want to communicate with those relatives, uh, if, uh, you saw a movie, if you're interested in anime, in other words, wherever you have a motivation, uh, that's the language you should learn. ですから、特定の国の文化に大きな関心を持っていると感じた場合、特定の国から来たために親戚がいて、それらの親戚とコミュニケーションを取りたい場合、ええと、ええと、映画を見た場合、あなたがアニメに興味があるなら、言い換えれば、あなたが動機を持っているところならどこでも、ええと、それはあなたが学ぶべき言語です。

Uh, even if it theoretically is hard, uh, it doesn't matter. You should go for the language you're most motivated to learn because that motivation will carry you through the difficulties. その動機が困難を乗り越えるので、あなたはあなたが学ぶことに最も動機づけられている言語に行くべきです。 Uh, and as I said, in other videos, you know, the initial period is you're learning few, you know, new words. You're able to understand some things, but the path to sort of genuine, comfortable communication in the language, you know, is a long one. あなたはいくつかのことを理解することができますが、あなたが知っているように、言語での本物の、快適なコミュニケーションのようなものへの道は長いものです。

And therefore you need to have this, this motivation to sustain you. したがって、あなたはこれ、あなたを維持するためのこの動機を持っている必要があります。 So I would very much favor learning a language you're very interested in over one that you think might be more useful because once you've learned one language, it's easier to learn another language. ですから、ある言語を学んだら別の言語を学ぶほうが簡単なので、もっと役立つと思う言語よりも、興味のある言語を学ぶことを強く望んでいます。 So go for the one that you're likely to succeed in, and you're more likely to succeed in the language that you're very motivated to learn. ですから、あなたが成功する可能性が高いものを選びなさい、そうすればあなたはあなたが学ぶことに非常に意欲的な言語で成功する可能性が高くなります。

Okay. Um, other considerations, obviously, if you know related languages, if you know a related language, if you know Spanish, you might want to go for... spanish or French or Portuguese or Italian, because obviously if you have success again, that's going to encourage you to continue or at the very least to stay with it.

So I have tended to want to do that. だから私はそれをやりたいと思う傾向がありました。 I learned Russian. Then I went from, uh, Czech and then Ukrainian and then Polish. And because I knew Spanish, I wanted to learn Portuguese and Italian, the so-called low hanging fruit. So, uh, obviously we, we like to push where there's the least resistance. だから、ええと、明らかに私たちは、抵抗が最も少ないところにプッシュするのが好きです。 One consideration is your degree of motivation, obviously. 一つの考慮事項は、明らかにあなたのモチベーションの程度です。

And I think that's the that's paramount, but another consideration is how easy is it going to be for you to learn that language? それが最も重要だと思いますが、もう1つの考慮事項は、その言語を簡単に習得できるかどうかです。 Now, if you are not interested in the language, even if theoretically it's easier, you're going to have a tough time learning it. さて、もしあなたがその言語に興味がなければ、たとえ理論的にはもっと簡単だとしても、あなたはそれを学ぶのに苦労するでしょう。 Because I repeat in my experience, motivation is the biggest consideration, uh, in choosing a language, um, Obviously the things that make it easier could also include the writing system.

You really have to commit to learn a language where the writing system is different. Uh, it's a lot tougher because reading is such a big part of language learning. And when we're dealing with a different writing system, even if we learn what the characters represent and so forth, it's always harder for the brain to, to read in a different script.

At least that's been my approach. Uh, because if I spent 75 years, not 75, but if I spent most of my life reading in the Latin alphabet, my brain is very used to the Latin alphabet. ええと、75年ではなく75年を過ごしたとしても、人生のほとんどをラテンアルファベットで読んでいたとしたら、私の脳はラテンアルファベットに非常に慣れているからです。 No, no matter how well I can read in Chinese or Korean or Japanese or Russian, I will never feel as comfortable in those alphabets as I do in my own alphabet. いいえ、中国語、韓国語、日本語、ロシア語でどれだけ上手に読めても、自分のアルファベットほど快適に感じることはありません。

And the same is true in reverse. そして、同じことが逆に当てはまります。 If you are a Japanese reader, speaker, or a Persian speaker or Chinese or Russian, then you're always going to be more comfortable I think in the language, in the writing system that you've spent most of your life reading. あなたが日本語の読者、話者、またはペルシア語の話者、あるいは中国語またはロシア語であるなら、あなたはいつもあなたが人生のほとんどを読んで過ごしてきた書記体系で、私が思う言語でより快適になるでしょう。 So motivation is number one, but then how difficult is it going to be? ですから、モチベーションが一番ですが、それではどれほど難しいのでしょうか。

And so there is this tendency to want to go for something that's, you know, um, easier. ですから、もっと簡単なものを探したいという傾向があります。 Now I should, one final thing, and, and this is probably what ends up being the main reason why people learn a given language, you know, in the real world is because it's useful. 最後にもう1つすべきことですが、これが、現実の世界で人々が特定の言語を学ぶ主な理由になるのは、おそらくそれが便利だからです。 So, you know, English tends to be the language that's, uh, studied the most around the world because it's been perceived to be the most useful.

Uh, now there are people who say Chinese is going to be useful because it's such a huge country with a, you know, huge economy. Uh, so that's, uh, you know, if you consider that to be useful, but if you are a, if you want to work in Germany or you want to work in Japan, or you want to work in Brazil, then there are reasons why in those scenarios, those languages or in other similar situations, wouldn't be the most useful. ええと、それは、ええと、あなたがそれが役に立つと思うなら、あなたが知っている、しかしあなたがドイツで働きたい、日本で働きたい、またはブラジルで働きたいなら、そこにはこれらのシナリオ、それらの言語、または他の同様の状況で、最も有用ではない理由。

So usefulness obviously is a big factor. したがって、有用性は明らかに大きな要因です。 Uh, but if, if you find that, that if you are convinced that that language is going to be useful, but you're not genuinely motivated to learn it because you don't like it, you may find it difficult. So in an ideal scenario, you can combine the useful. したがって、理想的なシナリオでは、便利なものを組み合わせることができます。 Things that motivate you. あなたをやる気にさせるもの。

If you can combine the usefulness and, and, and pleasure, you have the best of both worlds. 有用性と、そして、そして喜びを組み合わせることができれば、あなたは両方の長所を持っています。 And particularly if the language is, you know, if you're an English speaking person learning French or Spanish, it's written in the same alphabet. A lot of the vocabulary is in common. Actually, if you are combining pleasure with use utility and it's not too difficult, you should have an easy time of it. 実際、喜びと使用ユーティリティを組み合わせていて、それほど難しくないのであれば、簡単に楽しむことができます。

Right now I'm learning Persian and Arabic. I've learned Chinese. I've learned Russian. I've learned, uh, Japanese. So if you are motivated enough, you will overcome all the other obstacles. So I hope that's helpful in how to choose the language to study, to learn. Thanks for listening.