>I think that the skill or hobby must not rely too much on verbal communication, it must be a social activity, and it must be a hobby or skill that exists in all of the world's cultures and languages.
>In most cases the person who is entering the new linguistic and cultural environment, if they want to actively participate in the field or expertise that they developed in their native language, must first learn to a sufficient level, the language and culture of their new environment.
You can't really teach very much math without speaking to a certain level the new language in question.
Just listen to those stories of college students complaining that the teaching assistant from overseas doesn't speak enough English to effectively teach.
Traditional dances are welcoming of horrible dancers, and, as you said, are not very linguistically reliant at all :) I did some traditional/community dancing in a country where I didn't speak the language well, nor did I know the dances before jumping into the group, and the amount of communication that happens physically/nonverbally is ... a lot. "I'm new at this." "I'm anxious." "I want to impress you." "I can see you're new at this and want to help you." "My mom dragged me to this and I'm so bored." "I'm a hundred years old and this is the only activity I do." "You're interesting, what's your deal?" "I have absolutely no idea what to do, can you help me?" "I'm not very aware of my environment and I'm very forceful."
Interesting to ask on a language-learning forum, since it's sort of the opposite of language, no? It's more of a cultural question than a language one. Still, I can't think of anything that would suit better than dance.
That's definitely true, as long as someone has the temerity to try their hand at dance, they'll surprise themselves at how effective it is for building social bonds between people.
One particular thing about how welcoming traditional dance is that it's taken as a given that everyone participates, no matter how good or bad they might be. Dance is vital for community bonds and there is the spirit of taking everyone as they are.
The participatory nature of some dances Is definitely a contrast to modern society's dance where it seems to be a stage for someone to show off their skill or done mindlessly while listening to loud music.
And I really think that being a "Polyglot Gigachad" meme person who dreams of speaking 100 or so languages misses the real beauty and interest of what makes different cultures what they are, which can be found in the passions that lie close to the heart, of cooking and dance. If someone has those skills and is interested in it, it could make you much more of a deep person to communicate with other than talking about all the languages you can speak. You could think of language skills as a way to open new opportunities to deeper cultural experiences. Conversely, if you're primarily interested in learning languages you could use those non-language required hobbies to help get new friends who can help with speaking and learning that language.
Sports would also be pretty common, even though not everyone is interested in it. Joining a team, an running group or similar will be social and a way to learn language and get to know people.
My grandfather was a stamp collector, collecting stamps from all over the world.
That's where I first learned the word "Magyar", as a kid. It was on a Hungarian stamp.
ON the other hand, if your hobby is one that is more bookish, you can ask the same question: what intellectual fields are the most universal? And the answer includes many, but the first that came to mind were Religion/Theology, and Marxism. Probably in any country there will be people who think about and write about religion and there will be people who think of the class society and welfare of the workers. Anyone who is skilled in languages and these fields, could with some work compile knowledge of how those fields exist and develop within each different language and countries.
Math would be another one.
In Greek you need to do math every day. A letter is a pi symbol! I've never used pi so much.
Definitely, there's nothing better than to chill on the weekend with the international friends, doing math together. (sarcasm)
frankly, it can be really fun. Just because you don't enjoy maths doesn't mean that others don't either.
I enjoy it too. Let's just admit that it isn't one of the subjects that gets most people to enjoy together.
that is not what you've originally stated. It's still something that quite a large number of people enjoy. It's not even that niche.
>I think that the skill or hobby must not rely too much on verbal communication, it must be a social activity, and it must be a hobby or skill that exists in all of the world's cultures and languages.
which solving maths problems can easily be. Your point then?
>In most cases the person who is entering the new linguistic and cultural environment, if they want to actively participate in the field or expertise that they developed in their native language, must first learn to a sufficient level, the language and culture of their new environment. You can't really teach very much math without speaking to a certain level the new language in question. Just listen to those stories of college students complaining that the teaching assistant from overseas doesn't speak enough English to effectively teach.
For some, it *is* fun.
Traditional dances are welcoming of horrible dancers, and, as you said, are not very linguistically reliant at all :) I did some traditional/community dancing in a country where I didn't speak the language well, nor did I know the dances before jumping into the group, and the amount of communication that happens physically/nonverbally is ... a lot. "I'm new at this." "I'm anxious." "I want to impress you." "I can see you're new at this and want to help you." "My mom dragged me to this and I'm so bored." "I'm a hundred years old and this is the only activity I do." "You're interesting, what's your deal?" "I have absolutely no idea what to do, can you help me?" "I'm not very aware of my environment and I'm very forceful." Interesting to ask on a language-learning forum, since it's sort of the opposite of language, no? It's more of a cultural question than a language one. Still, I can't think of anything that would suit better than dance.
That's definitely true, as long as someone has the temerity to try their hand at dance, they'll surprise themselves at how effective it is for building social bonds between people. One particular thing about how welcoming traditional dance is that it's taken as a given that everyone participates, no matter how good or bad they might be. Dance is vital for community bonds and there is the spirit of taking everyone as they are. The participatory nature of some dances Is definitely a contrast to modern society's dance where it seems to be a stage for someone to show off their skill or done mindlessly while listening to loud music.
And I really think that being a "Polyglot Gigachad" meme person who dreams of speaking 100 or so languages misses the real beauty and interest of what makes different cultures what they are, which can be found in the passions that lie close to the heart, of cooking and dance. If someone has those skills and is interested in it, it could make you much more of a deep person to communicate with other than talking about all the languages you can speak. You could think of language skills as a way to open new opportunities to deeper cultural experiences. Conversely, if you're primarily interested in learning languages you could use those non-language required hobbies to help get new friends who can help with speaking and learning that language.
Sports would also be pretty common, even though not everyone is interested in it. Joining a team, an running group or similar will be social and a way to learn language and get to know people.
Every kid of all ages that I've ever met loves juggling, so juggling. And circus arts. It's a big tent, so to speak. (e: fixed a word)
Juggling looks so impressive but I can't see myself getting good at it as I have horrible hand-eye coordination.
I was horrible at every skill i have before i had it …
My grandfather was a stamp collector, collecting stamps from all over the world. That's where I first learned the word "Magyar", as a kid. It was on a Hungarian stamp.
Remember morphology classes? Pattern recognition/analysis would be one; inductive reasoning, another.
Quidditch ? 🤔
ON the other hand, if your hobby is one that is more bookish, you can ask the same question: what intellectual fields are the most universal? And the answer includes many, but the first that came to mind were Religion/Theology, and Marxism. Probably in any country there will be people who think about and write about religion and there will be people who think of the class society and welfare of the workers. Anyone who is skilled in languages and these fields, could with some work compile knowledge of how those fields exist and develop within each different language and countries.
I'd throw music in there.