Do Jehovah's Witnesses Learn Languages Easier?

[webmagnets]

Do Jehovah's Witnesses Learn Languages Easier?

http://www.foreignmemory.com/2009/12/do-jehovahs-witnesses-learn-languages.html

Check out this blog post I did.

Please, lets not turn this into a theological discussion. that is not the point here.

[Erbse]

This guy is a witness himself. I doubt he is the right person to observe this matter. And if I look at my uncle, a witness as well, no he is not particular strong in learning languages (is this enough to prove the theory wrong?). But he is really busy learning the holy bible by heart.

[webmagnets]

Yeah, this isn't a scientific study. It's more of an opinion piece with a few points of advice for anyone learning a new language.

[tony1343]

I find it ironic that the title is grammatically incorrect. It should be "more easily" and not "easier."

Overall, I found the article to be very interesting, but the title is misleading. Jehovah's Witnesses might be more successful in language study because of their increased learning opportunities. But I'd leave it at that.

On another note, Mormons might have an even bigger advantage since they travel abroad to spread their religion for two years, and so are completely immersed in the foreign language.

[webmagnets]

Thanks. I fixed the title.

But I don't think that the title is misleading, because it asks a question. It isn't making a statement.

p.s. - Some Witnesses do travel. My wife and I spent a year and three months in Ecuador.

[Cactus543]

I don't see the point of this?

If two people with equal intelligence and learning capabilities both begin learning a foreign language at the same time, and one has more resources than the other, than the one with more resources will clearly progress at a faster rate..

Whether the person with more resources is Atheist or Catholic will make no difference.

Put the person with less resources in the target language's country and they will progress faster than the Jehovah's Witness with more resources.

Also who's to determine that more resources = faster learning rates?

Someone studying solely with Pimsleur and a book on how to read and write the 3,000 most common characters would be just as likely to reach fluency in the same duration as the Jehovah's Witness.

Giving a beginner student of Mandarin Chinese a bible riddled with pinyin and they have no knowledge of the sounds of the language and are listening to a preacher speak in Mandarin wouldn't exactly aid them. Church vocabulary isn't something most people use on a daily basis. It'd essentially be the same as the people who learn Japanese just from watching anime, extremely specialized vocabulary.

[Artem]

Personally, I think no specific group of people learns a language faster (based on something like race, religion, nationality, etc). It is an individual effort. There are some people who naturally learn really quickly, but they are few. Most people who learned a language are brave dedicated souls, who are willing to be ridiculed by their foreign peers for years to come

It's the same way I don't buy that Koreans, Japanese and other Asian language speakers can learn Chinese faster and easier. That's just an excuse people of other cultures make when they can't compete.

[webmagnets]

I didn't say that JW's learn faster. I asked if they learn more easily?

I don't think you read the first paragraph of the post (after the scripture quote).

[abcdefg]

I know for a fact that Scientologists learn Chinese amazingly well because I saw a Tom Cruise movie this summer in Kunming in which he was speaking flawless Mandarin. Come to think of it, so was the entire foreign cast. Guess they were all Scientologists.

[Artem]

What's the difference between learning a language faster and learning a language easier?

It seems one would equal the other. If a language is easier for me, I would acquire it faster. If I learn a language faster, it must be easier to learn for me. Regardless if it is easy based on availability of resource, similarity to other or whatever else.

[webmagnets]

I think you are right Artem. Easier is probably the same as faster in this context.

I guess my main point was that neither my headline nor my article claims that JW's are superior language learners, just that they have a good set of circumstances that are conducive to learning a language .

[Artem]

I agree that they have plenty of resources available to them, I just think similar resources are available in similar quantities to everyone else.

Hence I don't think it's easier for them than another demographic. (I guess you could argue that someone with no internet access and no money to purchase books, would find more resources in a religious environment than otherwise).

Though I do think you bring up good points.

[webmagnets]

Thanks.

[renzhe]

It's the same way I don't buy that Koreans, Japanese and other Asian language speakers can learn Chinese faster and easier. That's just an excuse people of other cultures make when they can't compete.

...and the fact that Koreans and Japanese already know over 2000 Chinese characters, and your average European knows zero.

It's only the most difficult part of the Chinese language...

[Artem]

Average Korean doesn't know that many. Particularly those below 30, who are the more likely demographic to be learning Chinese right now.

The characters for Japanese are derivatives of traditional characters, with completely different reading and often different meanings. If anything I'd find it confusing, to have to ignore what you learned in your language. Looking at a character and associating a brand new reading with it, and sometimes meaning, would make it harder for me than learning from scratch.

I also don't agree that characters are the hardest aspect of the language. For me it was definitely grammar and word collocation.

EDIT:

Sorry don't mean to hijack the thread, if more discussion is needed, can split it into a separate thread.

Edited January 4, 2010 at 12:06 AM by Artem

[wushijiao]

I think the reasons given in the article are actually pretty valid. I can't speak to Jehovah's Witnesses per se, but I know from my experience in Chile (and to a lesser extent in China/HK), that many religious people can learn languages faster and better than their counterparts.

I'd say it's due to:

1) Having the desire and confidence (boldness, if you will, rooted in faith, or a desire to proselytize) to speak.

2) Having a large circle of native speaker friends from the church (many expats struggle to make native speaker friends, let alone groups of friends who are native speakers, which puts you into the "in group" in how native speakers talk to each other. Most of my Chinese conversations, in contrast, were with people on a 1-on-1 basis).

3) Lots of input, and comprehensible input. I'm not a Christian, but when I was in Chile, I stayed with a very religious family, and I went to church with them a few times. During the sermon, the minister read from parts of the New Testament in Spanish. Since I already knew the meaning of the passages, it was easy to understand the words. Also, you had someone speaking while you could look at the text (transcript, if you will). People sang songs (again, we had the words in front of us). During the sermon, of course, there is a certain amount of repetition, as there is from service to service. In other words, a sermon is a great opportunity for obtaining comprehensible input, and matching auditory and reading skills.

After the service, I made chit chat with the people there (more input), and then we went to a BBQ where everybody chatted and talked in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere (input + low levels of anxiety, pressure to "perform" in the language).

So, I would absolutely agree with the points made in the article.