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 Language Learning Forum : Members profiles |  | |
| Sirera Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4538 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Esperanto | Message 1 of 9 14 June 2012 at 4:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi all!
I am happy to say after three months of waiting for the manual activation of my account (kidding) that I can now post in this forum. I only found you guys a few days back, and while I was waiting, I read dozens of pages worth of content. Highlights: Don't ask about fluency, don't brag about the languages you know, what does it even mean that you "know" a language, and apparently every other post is written by this blonde girl. Anyway--while I decide if I do the next 6WC for French (which I JUST started), I had a question for the experts out there: So a bit of a background on me--I am (male) from Spain, and moved to the States in 2005, in my low 20s. I had no idea of English whatsoever (Spanish people don't know much English overall). In 2007 I was well equipped already, and by now I consider myself fluent (uh-oh). That is, I can have a conversation about anything, write creatively, listen to the radio, accents, weird US-based jokes, you name it. Even more interesting (and my point here) is the fact that I am the only Spaniard I know (or I have seen on TV or radio) who virtually doesn't have an accent when speaking English. I don't know why, but I don't. I look white-ish so people are really surprised when I tell them I am from Spain. And when I tell them, even more surprised that I didn't come here when I was five or something, due to my accent. My question is--does learning a language completely within a few years and having virtually no accent mean that I could be really good at learning others/"fake" other accents as well, or is it just because English is just easy? I am learning French since a week ago, and beyond knowing around 70% of what I read and around 15% of what I hear (because of my Spanish mostly), I'm just getting started. Anyway, I hope this is not a weird question, and I hope I don't get bombarded because I asked a stupid question or something like that. I'm new here. And I'm just a silly Spaniard. So be nice. Saludos! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Michael K. Senior Member United States Joined 5719 days ago 568 posts - 886 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 2 of 9 14 June 2012 at 4:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Bienvenidos.
The posters on the forum are some of the nicest people on the Internet. Good luck with French. And next time, post in the proper subforum, LOL. Edited by Michael K. on 14 June 2012 at 4:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sirera Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4538 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Esperanto | Message 3 of 9 14 June 2012 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Oh, I figured since this was a generic question, to post it in the General Discussion
forum. Was I wrong? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Michael K. Senior Member United States Joined 5719 days ago 568 posts - 886 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 4 of 9 14 June 2012 at 6:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There's a subforum called "Member Profiles" under the Forum Administration part of the forum. It's kind of buried and there isn't that much activity in the thread, so it's an understandable mistake.
I'm sure a mod will move this thread there eventually. Edit: Oh, I just saw the question. I thought this was just an intro. Sorry. Edited by Michael K. on 14 June 2012 at 6:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4818 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 5 of 9 14 June 2012 at 6:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hi Sirera, I don't know about the accent question, but my guess is that you will acquire the French language fairly easily and quickly, if you stick at it, and it sounds like an excellent choice for you for the 6WC. After you arrived in the USA, you were hearing English all the time, so you had a good chance to learn to speak "accent free" (not that any of us is really accent free :-) ). In order to achieve the same feat in French you are going to have to listen to a lot of hours of native speakers speaking, one way or another. So, might as well jump in at the deep end. :-) Good luck and have fun. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5041 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 6 of 9 14 June 2012 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"Silly Spaniard" :))
It could be that you moved to the US at a young enough age (during puberty, right?) to acquire a native or near-native accent. If I were to generalize based on my experience, I would say that people who moved here in their teens learned to speak with less of an accent than people who moved here at an older age. It also helps to have a "musical ear," or so I hear. Edited by espejismo on 15 June 2012 at 1:31pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5957 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 9 14 June 2012 at 7:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello and welcome, I've moved your introduction to the correct location. Not a problem - it's an easy mistake to make.
You scared me a little about waiting three months for account activation! Unfortunately the spammers out there are very aggressive and individual account activation is one way to keep most of them out of here. All the best with your language work - this is the right place to be if you want it to become an uncontollable obsession! And who doesn't? :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sirera Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4538 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Esperanto | Message 8 of 9 14 June 2012 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
I got to the States when I was 21 actually, it's been 7 years by now. That is funny though--I do have a "musical ear", if that means really good at following rhythm, following a song's vibe before you have even heard it once, etc. Maybe that helped.
Thanks meramarina! I'm new to this place but not new to forums at all, so hopefully I won't bother you guys too much :) I'm excited to get started with French--even though I have to filter out and see which lesson plan will go better for me before I start the 6WC--but excited nonetheless! Saludos! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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