Nowadays, and it will never be enough said; languages are important. The world will soon have no borders, people go to live abroad more and more because the world offers so many opportunities. Some people seek for those opportunities and decide to study languages. If english is the world language, some languages remain poorly known and only ask to be studied. That is why we study languages. But, still today, people say it is « useless » to study them. « What are you going to do with that ? You can't find a job with only a language. » For sure. You can't find a job only because you speak english, korean or whatever. It is indeed important to have other capacities and that is the strenght of language students. While people master economy, business or communication, we, master the same thing, but also, offer ourselves the opportunity to work everywhere in the world. If you want to be a translator ; you have to know about the subject you are translating. If you want to be an english teacher, you have to know how to teach, and that works for every profession.
However, this is not the main subject of my article. I was going to write about something that touches me particularly as a student in Korean at a language faculty in Paris. The question is « Is being a fan of one country's popular culture a valid reason to learn a language ? » It is well known that you get easily critisized at my university when you say you love korea's pop culture and you are learning korean. Off course, only kpop and drama geeks go to study korean, every crazy anime addicts and j-rock lovers study japanese and every Tokio Hotel fans study german. Stop it, i'm laughing so hard.
Well, even if that was the case, then what ? Would it be a shame ? SHOULD WE feel ashamed ? No way. Every reason is valid to study whatever you want to study. You do not need to justify all of your decisions. My point is that it is hard to study a language. It requires determination, but mostly, « obsession ». You need to be obsessed with it, live that language, everyday. How else can you learn something ? I believe that if I wasn't obsessed with american pop rock bands, I would never have taken out my dictionnary and start translating the lyrics. I didn't understand half of it, because i didn't know anything about the english grammar, but that is how, once i got the basics, learnt faster than the others. At that time, my point wasn't to learn english, but to understand the lyrics. That way, I learnt english without even realizing and it was fun and easy. Find your obsession, and stick to it, because that is what is going to make you learn, that is what is going to make the difference with others. It can be a celebrity, music, movies, dramas... whatever, just find it. Learning a language will never be more fun and easy, trust me.
Every reason to learn a language is valid. As long as you have the opportunity to do something that allows you to take a step closer to your dream, don't hesitate and do it.
About my obsessions ;
To be honest, until now, i have been hiding my obsessions. It is only recently that i realized it was what was going to make me learn faster. My obsessions list counts the drama Full house take two, B1A4 and some crazy personalities.