Cool or Trendy Languages

[WechtleinUns]

So, how much does the "cool" factor determine the aquisition of a language? Are you more likely to learn a language that is considered "cool" than useful? Out of Chinese/Japanese/Korean and German/Russian, which do you think is most highly regarded by your native countrymen?

Also, is there a way to make a conlang appear "chic" to non language fanboys?

[Pthagnar]

Also, is there a way to make a conlang appear "chic" to non language fanboys?

most definitely not.

[Astraios]

Languages aren't cool or trendy unless you're a language fanboy already.

[Radius Solis]

1. The "cool factor" only applies to language nerds and fans of various fictional things. Otherwise people learn languages mostly only when they have to, and only as much as they have to.

2. That's five languages, not two.

3. Yes. The time-tested method is to make it look like either Quenya or something Germanic.

[tubragg]

1. The "cool factor" only applies to language nerds and fans of various fictional things. Otherwise people learn languages mostly only when they have to, and only as much as they have to.

I partly disagree. Yes, people mostly learn languages when they have to, but I know several non-nerds (unless you count any fascination in languages as nerdery, but then most people would be language nerds) who have taken language classes mostly for the fun of it. They might not get anywhere near fluent, of course. Anyway, in those cases I think the cool factor does come into play.

Out of the languages mentioned by the OP, I would assess the cool factor where I live (Stockholm area, Sweden) like this: Japanese still slightly edges out Chinese, both way ahead of Korean (which you would mostly need to be a genuine nerd to even consider. Or adopted.). Russian possesses a cool factor in some circles, unlike German, which is still more studied due to tradition and usefulness. Generally East Asian languages are considered a lot cooler than European ones.

Others may disagree with my estimate, of course.

[Thry]

Also, is there a way to make a conlang appear "chic" to non language fanboys?

most definitely not.

? Making them like the conworld it's spoken in of course... Dothraki? Draconic?
Maybe not "chic", but cool or powerful most definitely

[Salmoneus]

1. The "cool factor" only applies to language nerds and fans of various fictional things. Otherwise people learn languages mostly only when they have to, and only as much as they have to.

I disagree strongly. Being able to speak multiple languages is itself generally considered cool, and some languages more than others - you've really never encountered the idea that people able to speak French is sexy?

2. That's five languages, not two.

3. Yes. The time-tested method is to make it look like either Quenya or something Germanic.

Better method: become a sex-god rockstar, filmstar and athlete, and then get your band to write songs in the language, get your teammates to get tattoos in the language, and put in lots of injokes in your films.

[Pthagnar]

1. The "cool factor" only applies to language nerds and fans of various fictional things. Otherwise people learn languages mostly only when they have to, and only as much as they have to.

I disagree strongly. Being able to speak multiple languages is itself generally considered cool, and some languages more than others - you've really never encountered the idea that people able to speak French is sexy?

so is having big tits

are there really that many people who learn french as adults because it will make them sexier? when i think of somebody who is being told "oh you speak french, so sexy!" then i would expect that is because:
a) they are actually French (which is sexy because fuck a foreigner) OR
b) they lived in France for a while and so had to learn French (which is sexy because... that is daring?) OR
c) they got a degree in French (this isn't sexy, actually, but such people usually fall into another category q.v.) OR
d) they had a French governess or went to a French language school in England or something equally bourgeois (which could be sexy i guess)

none of which is:

z) they decided one day to learn French because French is so cool

[Chuma]

Japanese way cooler than the others, among people I know. For making conlangs cool, using them in fiction is the most obvious way - Tolkien and Star Trek are still considered a little geeky, but they're pretty mainstream these days.

[Vuvuzela]

I think it's not which languages you speak, but how many, that impresses people. Observe:
"I speak isiZulu, isiXhosa, Italian, Arrernte, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Korean, and I guess a bit of West Greenlandic, though I'm not as conversational as I used to be."
"Get away from me, loser!"
"I speak ten languages."
"You seem like a worldly person whom I may or may not choose to have sex with. But I'm completely hypothetical, so what do I know?

[Thry]

It depends on who you're trying to impress, and how you say it:

i.e. if I go into a bar and scream I SPEAK SINDARIN people will go with "yep, nerd detected"
if I tell a girl which is not into conlangs a cool sentence she likes and tell her, "that's elvish", she can be like "cuuuute".

[linguoboy]

I disagree strongly. Being able to speak multiple languages is itself generally considered cool, and some languages more than others - you've really never encountered the idea that people able to speak French is sexy?

Yeah, but only insofar as this is considered indicative of overall suavity and sophistication.

Being able to speak French because your parents used to take you there on vacation: sexy.
Being able to speak French because you were writing a dissertation on Deleuze until you dropped out of grad school: not sexy.

[din]

It depends on who you're trying to impress, and how you say it:

i.e. if I go into a bar and scream I SPEAK SINDARIN people will go with "yep, nerd detected"
if I tell a girl which is not into conlangs a cool sentence she likes and tell her, "that's elvish", she can be like "cuuuute".

It won't be the elvish that'll make her think "cuuuute"--she probably already thought that and is like "aww, that's slightly weird but he's comfortable enough to share that weirdness with me, so aww (I hope it doesn't get too much weirder)."

[Thry]

I think the problem here is the No True Scotsman fallacy: what if she didn't mind conlangs and elvish, without being a freak, is that even possible? It's a bit like, I'm gay and I can say a chick is hot and I'm still gay, but do the opposite and you're no true hetero hohoho.

The fact is, we're not divided in discrete even fine categories but rather in continua of likes and dislikes that make each person unique in what they consider cool and can and cannot stand. And that also applies to the aversion or affinity for things we categorize as nerdy.

[din]

Hey, I brought up the phonetic alphabet in one of the first conversations I had with my now-partner, and hey, it worked.


(or at least, it didn't deter)


So who knows.

[Thry]

And your boyfriend isn't geeky?

[Bob Johnson]

So, how much does the "cool" factor determine the aquisition of a language?

People will learn words and phrases, but not the whole language. "Tres chic!"

Out of Chinese/Japanese/Korean and German/Russian, which do you think is most highly regarded by your native countrymen?

People seem to be ignoring this.. I'd say Japanese and German, though neither German nor Russian are particularly popular. Korean has a following among RTS gamers but it seems to be limited to them. English speakers find the Chinese languages too difficult compared to Japanese and Korean.

[WechtleinUns]

I like how the criterion for "cool/trendy" seems to be, "able to get you laid." :3

[Thry]

I like how the criterion for "cool/trendy" seems to be, "able to get you laid." :3

It follows smoothly from the premise, "sex is cool".

[din]

And your boyfriend isn't geeky?

Okay, you win.

[Boşkoventi]

I like how the criterion for "cool/trendy" seems to be, "able to get you laid." :3

Isn't that pretty much the definition of "cool"?

[Qwynegold]

Out of the languages mentioned by the OP, I would assess the cool factor where I live (Stockholm area, Sweden) like this: Japanese still slightly edges out Chinese, both way ahead of Korean (which you would mostly need to be a genuine nerd to even consider. Or adopted.). Russian possesses a cool factor in some circles, unlike German, which is still more studied due to tradition and usefulness. Generally East Asian languages are considered a lot cooler than European ones.

Others may disagree with my estimate, of course.

I disagree. *raises hand* I think Korean is growing very quickly. But who thinks Russian is cool? And there are a lot of people who have a thing for German. Idk, like a fetish for German military uniforms and stuff, and so they think the language is also cool.

[WechtleinUns]

Sex is for pussies.

[Qwynegold]

Didn't you quit this forum?

[brandrinn]

People do learn a bit of language for the cool factor, but it's rarely the language itself that has all the cool. For example, the number of white kids who study Japanese is way higher than the number of white kids who study Korean, despite Korean being the clearly superior language. Why do they do this? Is it because they like non-past grammatical markers and dislike phonemic aspiration? No. They do it because they think (wrongly) that Japan is cool, not Japanese itself. They imagine a land of giant robots and blue-haired women who will have sex with them somehow, and they express their enthusiasm for this East Asian Elysium by shouting "Yokatta ZeeeeeEEEEEE!!!!111" and calling each other Steve-kun.