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While learning a new language offers many advantages, it's crucial to acknowledge its potential disadvantages, such as hearing unpleasant remarks, difficulties with written forms, facing ethnic biases, potential degradation of native language skills, and the limited utility of certain languages.
Learning a new language comes with several potential downsides that are often overlooked. One significant disadvantage is the risk of overhearing negative or offensive remarks made by others who assume you cannot understand them. This can lead to unpleasant surprises and a loss of innocence regarding people's true opinions when they believe they are not being understood.
Beyond spoken interactions, challenges can arise with the written form of a language, particularly for those with complex scripts like Japanese. Even if one becomes proficient in spoken communication, the written language may require a separate, intensive learning effort. Furthermore, language acquisition does not erase ethnic perceptions or biases; individuals may still be treated as foreigners or face stereotypes regardless of their linguistic skills.
Multilingualism can also lead to a dilution of language proficiency, where both the native and acquired languages may suffer to some degree. The utility of a language is another critical factor; languages like Japanese or Thai, while beautiful, may have limited practical application outside their primary regions compared to global languages like English, Mandarin, or Spanish. Therefore, it's essential to weigh the substantial time and potential financial investment against the actual benefits and intended use of learning a new language.
Learning a new language can lead to overhearing disrespectful comments from people who assume you don't understand them. You might also face challenges with the written form of the language, which can be as difficult as learning to speak it. Ethnic biases can persist regardless of your language skills.
Yes, becoming multilingual can potentially lead to a degradation of skills in both your native and newly acquired languages. This occurs because your focus is divided between multiple linguistic systems, which can dilute overall proficiency.
Mastering spoken Japanese doesn't guarantee comprehension of its written form, which includes complex scripts like Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. This requires a separate, intensive learning effort beyond spoken fluency.
The practical utility of a learned language can be limited if it's not widely spoken globally or if you don't plan to live in a region where it's prevalent. Languages like Thai or Japanese may have less global reach than languages like English or Mandarin.
No, learning a language will not change how people perceive your ethnicity. You may still face biases or stereotypes regardless of your linguistic abilities, as language acquisition doesn't alter ingrained societal perceptions.
Consider the significant time and potential financial investment required for language learning. It's essential to weigh these costs against the practical benefits and your specific goals before committing to study.
While not explicitly stated as 'losing part of yourself,' the video suggests that learning a new language can lead to a dilution of proficiency in both your native and acquired languages. This divided focus might feel like a loss of connection to your original linguistic identity.
No, learning a language does not erase ethnic perceptions or biases. The video explains that even with linguistic skills, individuals may still be treated as foreigners or face stereotypes based on their ethnicity.
The video discusses the potential for a dilution of language proficiency when becoming multilingual. This means that both the native and acquired languages might suffer to some degree due to divided focus, rather than implying weakness.
The video highlights that even if you become proficient in spoken Japanese, the written form requires a separate, intensive learning effort. Additionally, the practical utility of Japanese may be limited outside of Japan compared to more globally spoken languages.
Yes, a significant disadvantage is the risk of overhearing negative or offensive remarks. People may make assumptions that you cannot understand their language, leading to unpleasant surprises about their true opinions.
0:03 YouTube Alex Conley here today and I got another video for you. This video is from the disadvantages of learning a new language. So, some of you might be wondering, 'Disadvantages? Oh, I thought it was all good to learn another language.' And there are tons of advantages. I discussed some of them in my previous video, 'Advantages of Learning a New Language.' But this video, I'm going to talk about some of the downsides.
0:22 So, the first, and most obvious one, is you might not like what you hear sometimes. If people perceive you to not understand their language, they can say some ugly or nasty things in your presence that you're not familiar with. You can check Reddit for some of these stories; there are some really funny and sad stories of people assuming that another individual does not speak their language and then being really embarrassed or shocked when that individual does speak their language. So, right off the bat, you know, some people just say disrespectful or nasty things and assume, 'Well, they don't know any better. They can't understand me. Oh, they're American, you know, they don't speak whatever language that I speak.' But in fact, you might. So, if you do speak another language, understand another language, comprehend another language, you may start to hear things that you don't like and you wish you hadn't understood.
1:14 I mean, yeah, there's all kinds of directions I can go in. And conversely, you know, sometimes the things aren't always negative. Sometimes you'll hear something that's humorous and you'll be glad you understood. But you might hear some things you don't like. So, something to consider before you learn another language.
1:32 Next, you may not understand the written language. So, if you're an English speaker and you're learning like German or Spanish, yeah, you'll probably be able to figure out the written language relatively easily. But if you're talking about like Japanese, like Kanji or Hiragana, good luck. It's gonna take you a lot of careful, hard work, patience, and effort to even begin to understand some of the written language, much less complex structures like books and religious texts and similar things. So, keep in mind that just because you understand the spoken language, you may even learn the intricacies of the spoken language, that's not going to always translate to the written language. And you may feel like you're back at square one trying to learn the characters and how to comprehend the nonverbal communication.
2:27 So, while you can learn another language, it's not going to change your ethnicity. So, I'm part Japanese, but in Japan, by most people's standards, part Japanese is non-Japanese, basically. Unless you are totally Japanese, you're, in some regards, just not considered Japanese. I mean, I've read stories of people that are half Japanese that have lived in Japan their whole lives that have a hard time getting an apartment because of a negative bias toward foreign people. And if you're half, you know, and you have a Western name, that's definitely going to set off some alarm bells immediately. Just because sometimes in Japan, if an individual, a Japanese individual, has had negative experiences with foreign people, they may make the assumption that all foreign people are going to act similarly to the negative experience or negative encounter.
3:19 So, keep in mind that even if you understand a new language, you're not going to change the physical perceptions and some of the biases that people may have in their own minds toward people of your background. So, when I was in Japan, I mean, I'm a fourth Japanese, but I would just tell people I'm half Japanese because trying to explain that I'm a fourth Japanese just starts to get really convoluted. And even then, people still, you know, treated me like a foreigner. So, which, you know, I was born in the United States. So, technically, even though I'm only part Japanese, I am an American. And so I was generally treated like an American, which in Japan can be a good and a bad thing. And the good part is they don't hold you to the same standards as they would a Japanese person. The bad thing is they tend to not have very strong expectations of you, which some people might be good, but, you know, it can definitely be a little bit disheartening when people expect you to do the wrong thing.
4:24 Actually, I was raised by my Japanese grandmother, so I'm actually pretty familiar with many of the social rules, the intricacies of Japanese culture. So, I actually did not break the rules too often. But, you know, that's something to keep in mind that if you even if you learn some basic Japanese, like even though I know some basic Japanese, I'm still not going to be regarded as an ethnically Japanese person.
4:53 Multilingual people tend to be weaker in both languages. So, there's this perception like, 'Oh, if you learn another language, you'll be smarter.' And there may be some benefits as far as cognitively speaking, but your original language will tend to suffer, and your new language will not be as strong as a native speaker because you're swapping between the two. Because you may use one a lot more than the other, it just doesn't seem to work as well. That's it. It seems like, for the most part, if you do learn multiple languages, it's gonna hurt both your original language and your new language.
5:34 I might, where there makes a comment often that with her Japanese friends, she has stronger English but weaker Japanese, and they often have stronger Japanese but weaker English. So, she doesn't, she's never said, 'Oh, we all speak Japanese in English perfectly.' It just, it's not the case. So, keep in mind that if you're wanting to learn another language, make sure you have intentions of making use of the language as you're learning. Make sure that you have intentions and it being worth your while, because it would not be good to have the drawbacks that you didn't realize.
6:12 So, yeah, just keep in mind being multilingual does have some disadvantages. If you're looking to be in a career or position where you primarily use one language, you may just stick to that language and try to use translation apps, hang out with local friends that are multilingual, and kind of get around it that way. Don't necessarily feel like you have to learn another language.
6:36 Finally, so this is kind of the last point that I want to make. Keep in mind that if you're learning in their language, this new language may be limited in use. So, I've mentioned Japanese. Japanese is predominantly spoken in Japan and is pretty rare outside of Japan. There's not tons of Japanese people living outside of Japan. There's some, there's certainly some Japanese people living outside Japan, but Japan's a nice place to live. It's generally speaking, a nice country to live in. It's modern, there's clean water, accommodation is at strong standards, there's public transportation, the food is good. There's not a whole lot of reason to leave Japan, especially now. Now, during World War II, it was a little bit different story. But so, outside of Japan, you're probably not going to use Japanese a whole lot. So, you may want to learn Japanese. And Japanese is a beautiful language, a wonderful language. I have some interest in possibly living in Japan at some point. So, I look at it occasionally, and I really enjoyed my visit to Japan. But I'm talking, speaking of this fully knowing that outside of Japan, the language you might not be super useful.
7:41 Whereas if you're talking about Spanish or Mandarin or English, these are somewhat global languages. These are some languages that are spoken around the world that you're not going to just have one country but that language is spoken. And, you know, kind of following up on that, Japan has around a hundred million people. So, if you learn Japanese, there's roughly that many people you can communicate with. With English, English is kind of a universal language. Most people around the world that are engaging in business, that are engaging in education, they're going to learn at least a little bit of English. Mandarin is the primary language of China, and similarly, people that are wanting to do business in China, it would behoove them to learn some basic Mandarin. With Spanish, Spanish is prevalent throughout the United States, it's prevalent in Spain, prevalent in Mexico. It's also a good language that is not limited to one country. But if you're talking about Japanese or like, say, Thai, you know, there's 67 million people in Thailand. So, your language, while it's a beautiful language, while it has plenty of utility in the country of origin, it may not be the most valuable on a large scale unless you plan to live there for a long time. And if you plan to live in a certain country for a long time, the usefulness of using it in your day-to-day life will override the obscurity of that language or the niche factor of that language. But don't feel like you need to learn a ton of words in this niche language if you're just going there on vacation.
9:19 If you're just visiting, keep in mind that it's a big time investment to learn a new language. It can be a financial investment because you're gonna want to make use of it. But I say visiting that country, if you look far from that country, air travel can be expensive. It can be expensive to take a lot of time off work when you consider wages, salary, and all that.
9:41 So, I hope these have been helpful. I do think there are some disadvantages just learning a new language. I don't think it's all negative, but I don't think it's all quite positive either. So, let me know what you think down in the comments. If you are multilingual, if you speak multiple languages, tell us about your experiences. I want to hear more and to kind of share these types of things with the viewers, the audience, and see what they have to say. So, appreciate you watching. And if you enjoy this video, give me a thumbs up.
10:08 If you enjoy this video, give me a thumbs up, subscribe, and I will see you next time.
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