Downsides of being a language junkie?

Hello, everyone! I'm new to Reddit but I think you can help me out figuring this thing out! We always read about the benefits of being a polyglot, right? But what about the other side? I want to write a blog post in Spanish about this subject and have come up with some ideas, but I want the opinion of other polyglots out there.

Here I share my thoughts:

  • You realize there is no perfect translation (how many times have we feel frustrated because there is just no way to fully translate a phrase?).

  • You begin to have problems finding the words quickly (does this only happen to me??? It's so annoying sometimes when I'm speaking English and only French words come to mind).

  • We want to buy every dictionary and every grammar book we see, even if we don't study the language.

  • Becoming a grammar nazi in your native language (I have noticed that a lot of people only get to know their native language when their learn a second one, have this happened to you?).

  • People thinking we're really clever when they don't know how much effort we have put to study and master the languages we speak.

  • We become quite jealous with the cultures of the languages we study (I don't know if it is just me though, but sometimes I think I can understand better the reasons behind what happens in countries whose language I speak or know a bit of).

Any other thoughts? Have language learning ever brought you some kind of misfortune?

Thanks for your comments :).

Posted Aug 17, 2017, 7:43 PM UTC · edited

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