Learning Languages vs. Studying Languages
So my little brother was being especially snarky little brother-y the other night while we were cleaning the kitchen, as I was telling him how I was really interested in learning Lithuanian. His immediate response to this comment was “Why don’t you master the other 80 languages you study before you start learning Lithuanian?” I responded to him in a way that surprised even me, for a second: “I don’t study every language that I do because I want to achieve fluency. Sometimes I just do it because I appreciate the beauty of the language.”
And I realized, as I said it, that it’s true. I’ve been learning Spanish for four years, and I am absolutely in love with the language. I want to continue furthering my working knowledge of the language for the rest of my life, and I wish to pass the language onto my children in the future. But that’s not the case with every language that I study/have studied. For example, I love Chinese, but my love for it comes more from a grammatical standpoint than from a communicative one.
To me, every language is uniquely beautiful. I love Finnish vowel harmony. I adore the mutations in the Celtic languages. I am inspired by the intricacy of Chinese’s measure word system. But just because I study a language, does not mean I have to learn it. I’m a language learner, it’s true, but I think at heart I am more of a linguist. I appreciate languages because they demonstrate to me what the human mind, vocal tract, and hands can achieve, and that is why I will continue to study multiple languages, perhaps dozens, at a time. But I will only attempt to learn the languages that I really connect with.
tl;dr - I’ve decided to differentiate between learning a language (that is to pursue it to a communicative end) and studying a language (simply learning about the language and acquiring a knowledge of its phonology, morphology, and syntax).
Also (I guess this goes without saying but I’ll go ahead and add it): These are just my thoughts and opinions, and you are more than welcome to disagree with me! If you have something to add, please feel free to reply to this or message me :)
This is why Linguistics is the study of language. It’s why linguists study languages but do not necessarily speak many of them.
When I carry around my Cantonese grammar for syntax homework purposes:
Friend: Ooh! Are you learning Cantonese? Was there even a Cantonese class at our school? Me: Um no on both accounts. I’m analyzing Cantonese grammar but I don’t speak it at all. Friend: ? Me: Welcome to linguistics.
This is a very important distinction to make: I enjoy reading about the grammar and phonology of, say Yimas, but I don’t want to be able to speak it.













