RE: Learn a new language?

[France Baril <France -dot- Baril -at- ixiasoft -dot- com>]

John Posada wonders: <<has anyone ever made the effort to learn even a
rudimentary level of language used by your peers and if so, what was the
effect on them toward you?>>

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I have missed some of this thread because of mail server issues, so I hope I will not repeat what other have said.

I have tried to learn many languages. I find it was as much fun for me as it was for others. 

I have learned numbers and months in arabic (classical and regional as arabic vary much from one area to the next), it got me closer to the girls from Morocco which made for a fun school year a while ago. I also learned to say: "I like your clothes", so I told them their clothes looked good every single day. The running gag just brought us closer.

I have learned to say hello and thank you in cantonese, which I already forgot. 

I have learned to swear as man do in vietnamese (in vietnamese you do not speak the same way to men and women, at least that's what I was told) which made my collegues laught like crazy, as they usually never hear girls use those words. I made new friends.

I have learned English which is very useful to me now for my job. 

I have learned some Spanish which I am still studying. It was useful once to negociate a contract with a team from Mexico. It also made contact with my hispano renters easier (I own a house with 3 appartments that are rented to South Americans). As most immigrants here speak three languages, I would feel "cheap" knowing "just" one.

When you try to learn, at least a minimum about others' languages, you show them that you have an interest in who they are and where they come from. You do not need to learn the whole language, although with time you might just do, but it facilitates contact and make others want to tell you more about their own culture, as culture is often closely linked to language.

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