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Are you shy about speaking? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Deji Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5442 days ago 116 posts - 182 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Hindi, Bengali | Message 41 of 50 01 February 2010 at 8:27pm | IP Logged | ||
Go Burgler! That's the way to go. When I first started studying hindi, I went to 3 different tutors and just ended up with a randomn word list. Then I started with David B., an American. He started conversation with me. Within two or so classes he was telling me, in hindi, about his breakup with his girlfriend--a subject about which he clearly had a lot of feelings. I was terrified by this discussion ("did he say he wanted to beat her--or he wanted to kill her--or was it he DID beat her--or,or--! ? ? ! WHICH TENSE WAS HE USING ??? And WHAT am I supposed to SAY ? ?" After this I wasn't scared to talk any more. If you are still studying hindi, go to a less popular, cheaper Indian restaurant. (The busy ones will have no time for you and in the snobby ones the don't want to speak the old deshi language). With half a chance one waiter will be interrogating you and the others will be gathered in a circle to see what you will say next. Or come to New York and take taxis all day. Edited by Deji on 01 February 2010 at 8:44pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| densou Senior Member Italy foto.webalice.it/denRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6134 days ago 120 posts - 121 votes Speaks: Italian* | Message 42 of 50 03 February 2010 at 12:33am | IP Logged | ||
it seems we are alike lol Musical quote: ...enjoy the silence... :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nescafe Senior Member Japan Joined 5411 days ago 137 posts - 227 votes | Message 43 of 50 03 February 2010 at 4:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am poor at speaking, writing, all kind of out-put. I start expressing myself in English only after I realized I could not make progress without using it.
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| lingvolingo Bilingual Diglot Newbie United Kingdom http:/lingvolingo.bl Joined 5414 days ago 8 posts - 15 votes Speaks: English*, Lowland Scots* Studies: French, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 44 of 50 03 February 2010 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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With me, it's not a matter of being shy. If I were to find a person who spoke a language I'm learning, I would try to take advantage of the situation as much as possible. It's more of a case of my mind going completely blank when confronted with those situations. Having studied Japanese for 2 years, I was delighted to find a new Asian checkout operator at a nearby store with the nametag 'Mira' who had a slight accent. I wanted to ask her if she was from Japan but I could not for the life of me think of how to say it in that moment. Of course, after I left the shop I remembered how to say it.
In a perfect world, none of us would be shy of conversing in another language with a native speaker of that language but the fear of them asking you a question and not knowing how to answer, or making basic mistakes and embarrasing yourself often gets in the way. I would say to anyone in this situation not to be so hard on yourself and let yourself make mistakes. Young children make mistakes all the time when speaking but it's only with listening and practicing speaking that they rid themselves of these errors. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BartoG Diglot Senior Member United States confession Joined 5449 days ago 292 posts - 818 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek | Message 45 of 50 04 February 2010 at 1:08am | IP Logged | ||
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Strangely, I'm more shy about speaking my best second language, French, than I am about Spanish and Italian. As an earlier commenter said, it's all about ego and pride. I can live with making an idiot of myself in one of my weaker languages. But if I'm going to speak up in French, I want to listen long enough to get myself in a French mindset because I think I should speak it correctly, not just well enough to make myself understood.
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| dolly Senior Member United States Joined 5792 days ago 191 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 46 of 50 04 February 2010 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am perfectly happy with a reading knowledge of French, because that was my goal. And I enjoy audiobooks and M6 news videos and so on. But I have no desire to travel. I'm just a bookworm.
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6274 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 47 of 50 06 February 2010 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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My ability to read L2s tends to outrun my speaking ability. I read a lot while not being particularly chatty, so that is probably why.
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| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6089 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 48 of 50 06 February 2010 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Nah, immersion basically beat the shyness out of me--when I meet Russians these days I just jump into conversation. Part of it is having confidence in your abilities, and the other part is just having enough practice where conversing in L2 is as natural as conversing in L1.
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