Reasons not to learn Indonesian/Malaysian

[0stsee]

This thread made me feel like learning them instead

But if you don't have any reasons, why would you ever do that?

True, Indonesian is quite easy and is spoken by ove 222 million people + we can understand Malaysians, but if you don't need it, why learn it? (Rhetorical question)

[Nukalurk]

It seems you belong to those people who like to discourage people from learning their native lang.

[darkina]

This thread made me feel like learning them instead

But if you don't have any reasons, why would you ever do that?

True, Indonesian is quite easy and is spoken by ove 222 million people + we can understand Malaysians, but if you don't need it, why learn it? (Rhetorical question)

You're asking that to someone who's stubborn in learning Hungarian (15 million speakers, not close to any language (except Sumerian of course )), and that has a degree in Russian

Because it (they) sounds nice and it looks interesting. And I learn things I like, not things that are useful, that's my life story

[0stsee]

It seems you belong to those people who like to discourage people from learning their native lang.

I'm teaching two persons Indonesian, and I'm struck myself at how quickly they learn.
One of them started a year ago and he was able to converse after three months, and now he is fluent in Indonesian. He even uses words I'd forgotten myself!

Interestingly, none of them is a language freak. I guess Indonesian is so easy...

[Steisi]

I never had any reason to learn Finnish and look at me now

[0stsee]

I never had any reason to learn Finnish and look at me now

Oops, I've always thought you were a native Finnish speaker.
But you're living in Espoo. So you do have a reason to learn Finnish, don't you?

[Presto]

Those reasons are as good as for me not to learn Dutch or Finnish - those folks's English are amazingly proficient. Anyway it's totally erroneous to assume that folks here have good command of English. prefixes.

It's kind of paradoxical. If a foreign people cannot speak English well, would you still learn their language? Which (stereotyped) peoples would you think to be of this category? If a foreign people can, then what, like the Anglophone peoples and some European peoples? As I can see it, it seems like peoples who are 1) speaking "small" languages and thus have to rely more on English, 2) less economically privileged, with English being one official language or 3) speaking difficult languages seem to be of this group. (Just like people like me?)

I noticed this...I have had several swedes ask me what kind of person in Canada goes learning a language like Swedish. I didn't particularly specifically CHOOSE Swedish though, I just started picking it up listening to Swedish music and from people who did speak it and decided to stick with it as I never stuck with anything before.

Well, a bit similarly, I'd be very curious to know why non-Chinese people and non-linguists would want to learn Cantonese, because 1) its demographic base is now even smaller than Swedish, for example (except the SAR's, you could get by perfectly elsewhere) and 2) it must be then more difficult than Mandarin, for example. I'm not trying to keep it a secret code but, rather, am a bit pessimistic about it. Peoples speaking small languages have got to preserve them.

[polishboy]

people are interested only in Indo-European languages?
I myself prefer Asian languages.
Indonesia has over 2 00 millions of people.
It is 4th in the world.
Also Indonesia is delepoing fast.
The same with Malaysia.

[polishboy]

Well, a bit similarly, I'd be very curious to know why non-Chinese people and non-linguists would want to learn Cantonese, because 1) its demographic base is now even smaller than Swedish, for example (except the SAR's, you could get by perfectly elsewhere) and 2) it must be then more difficult than Mandarin, for example. I'm not trying to keep it a secret code but, rather, am a bit pessimistic about it. Peoples speaking small languages have got to preserve them.

I wanted to learn it and learned a little because of love...
but in general we were writtign in CHinese.

[Sean of the Dead]

No such thing as reasons not to learn a language..but last night I was thinking, if I have no use for and no ancestral ties to a language why would I learn it? OR, is language free for anyone?
I think its free for anyone and there is no reason why someone SHOULDN'T learn a language...even if its hard or you are poor at grasping grammar.

I feel that way too, if my ancestors didn't speak it, or live in that country, I don't feel as compelled to learn it, but with some languages I just fall in love with and want to learn them even without ancestors that did, like Icelandic, Farsi, Macedonian, and Dutch.

[TheKickInside]

I say go for it. Indonesia has a large population and enough minerals in the ground to eventually make it an economic superpower. But apart from that, I think they've got a fascinating culture. It's definitely on my to-do list.

[ILuvEire]

I used to think about its practicality, but here of all places should know that use isn't the only reason to learn a language. I pretty much learn any language that takes my fancy, as shown by my little chart-thing.

Grammar: Finnish, German, Italian, ASL
Phonology: Vietnamese, Italian, Finnish
Writing system/aesthetics: German, Vietnamese, Japanese, ASL
Use: Vietnamese, German, ASL

[Travis B.]

The main thing is that if one judges things only in terms of practicality, then one might as well just stick with English and not even bother wasting one's time learning anything else, one less actually plans on living or at least going off the beaten track a lot somewhere a given language is spoken.

[Kasuya]

The main thing is that if one judges things only in terms of practicality, then one might as well just stick with English and not even bother wasting one's time learning anything else, one less actually plans on living or at least going off the beaten track a lot somewhere a given language is spoken.

That would be true if you were to completely ignore regional lingua francas.

[Travis B.]

The main thing is that if one judges things only in terms of practicality, then one might as well just stick with English and not even bother wasting one's time learning anything else, one less actually plans on living or at least going off the beaten track a lot somewhere a given language is spoken.

That would be true if you were to completely ignore regional lingua francas.

I was being more sarcastic than anything else there about the notion of judging languages' worth learning on the grounds of usefulness alone, mind you.