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Advice on speaking with a native | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Claudine Newbie United States Joined 4243 days ago 1 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 1 of 8 05 August 2014 at 3:48am | IP Logged |
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I have the benefit of being able to speak with a native to work on my German. Better still, it's my mom! I won't go into the slew of reasons that I grew up with a native German for a parent and am not fluent as an adult. Suffice it to say I am hoping to rectify that situation now.
My mom has recently retired and lives close to my job. We speak on the phone sometimes in German but I will be able to spend a few hours a week with her now doing nothing but speaking German. Speaking is my weakness. I can read and understand quite well but trying to form the sentences myself is rather difficult. I am looking for advice as to how to proceed. Should I have her work on the vocabulary that I am learning at the moment or should we just speak of everyday things like we normally would in English? For example, I am working on some medical terms. Should we spend the time acting as if one of us is ill and the other is a doctor? I love this website and have shared it with many others. I am very grateful to have so many language junkies that share my passion and help each other! Vielen Dank! 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Sizen Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4329 days ago 165 posts - 347 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Catalan, Spanish, Japanese, Ukrainian, German | Message 2 of 8 05 August 2014 at 4:21am | IP Logged |
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I was in the same situation as you. My father is a native French speaker but we only
spoke English when I was little. About two years ago, when I decided to work more on my French, I told him that I just wanted to speak French with him from then on. And that's what we did. When we started I was already able to understand about everything he said, but I really wasn't even conversational in French. Now, a couple years later, I'm able to communicate pretty comfortably in French with him on a daily basis. I never really forced us to practice any special kind of conversation; we never did any role-play either. When I had something to say to him, I said it. And when I had nothing to say, I kept quiet. That's just my way. I have to say that a lot of my ability to speak has not come from conversing with others, though. That's only helped me improve the speed at which I talk. The thing that helped me the most was making sure to immerse myself in French as much as possible every day so that when the time came to talk, I was already in "French mode" so to speak. My father and I have a good relationship, but it's not like we have deep conversations on existential topics every day, either. We share a lot of interests, but not all. I do share stories about what I'm doing and explain the things that I'm interested in to him, but I've also had to look for others to talk to about different subjects that don't interest him as much. I don't know what kind of relationship you have with your mother, so you'll have to adapt accordingly. Two tips: 1. Just let it out. You're going to be making a lot of mistakes, but she's your mom. She's not going to care. My father never has. In fact, I think he really likes hearing me speak French even when I'm struggling. 2. Talk about what you want to and try not to strain your relationship. If she's up to it, do some exercises every now and then. If she enjoys doing the exercises, great! Do them more often! Otherwise, you can maybe find a tutor or some German-speaking friends to help you with more specific problems. Just remember, she's not a tool: she's your mom. Have fun! :) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3897 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 3 of 8 05 August 2014 at 4:23am | IP Logged |
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If you have someone to speak with, by all means practice speaking, especially if it is your weakness. Get comfortable not just with speaking, but communicating. Learn key phrases like (maybe you know them already) "Wie sagt man <word>" or "Was bedeutet das?"/"Was bedeutet <word you didn't understand>?", "Sprechen Sie bitte langsam", "Ich verstehe nicht, könnten Sie das wiederholen?", and so on. Keep a notepad with you so you can write down certain words or points that you want to look at/study later. Try to keep the conversation in German as much as possible; use hand gestures or draw pictures to communicate your point/ask about something if you don't know how to say it. Fall back on your English only as a last resort or if you need something clarified. Maybe on your downtime you could write out some sentences or a story and have her look it over as well. If you want to do the doctor/patient thing then go for it. I'd say it would be a good idea to do something like that with any common situation (doctor visit, talking to a waiter at a restaurant, talking to a taxi driver, making hotel reservations, etc.)
It would be great to also have her help you out with some grammar points and vocab and such, but having someone that you can practice speaking with face-to-face is a luxury many language learners don't have (well, not without hiring a tutor) so take full advantage of it. Also, try looking into Pimsleur German. I found that it greatly enhanced my speaking ability. It made me very comfortable with conversational speaking, I highly recommend getting your hands on it. Viel Glück! Edited by soclydeza85 on 05 August 2014 at 4:25am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5226 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 4 of 8 05 August 2014 at 11:43am | IP Logged |
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I wouldn't rely to much on your mother to teach you grammar (formally at least). Most native speakers know when something in a language "doesn't sound right", but very few could tell you why.
“I’m smarter than you’re” isn't correct because you can't use an ordinary weak form of an auxiliary verb at the end of a verb phrase. Most natives will just say it sounds wrong. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4434 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 5 of 8 05 August 2014 at 5:25pm | IP Logged |
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Somebody like myself who spends more time outside Asia and maintain a high fluency in the mother-
tongue requires effort by watching TV shows and listening to radio programs in the language. With Chinese, keeping up with the spoken language isn't an issue. Remembering characters tend to be the issue. The key to keeping up is exposure to a language. A few years ago our family used to go into local video stores and find all kinds of Chinese program DVDs. Now there is Tudou network online where we can watch Chinese language programs. I am sure you can find videos in German or most languages online for free. Learning Chinese in school involve reading a lot of Chinese Classics literature written centuries ago. At some point you start reciting sayings by Confucius and other great teachers who lived in the past. It's like studying Shakespeare to learn English which gets rather boring. I tend to pick up words & phrases by watching TV shows including variety / talent shows, reality shows, TV dramas, documentaries. My mother has a bigger Chinese vocabulary but on the other hand, I know more computer terms in Chinese than she does. Recently I started watching a program call: 北京新发现 (Bejing New Discoveries). The show is all about the latest in electronic gadgets including iPhones, download apps, etc. I can pick up about 80% of the content on the first run. My parents who grew up before the computer age would have trouble even with the basics like hardware, software, download and upload in Chinese. I don't think the dictionaries they use from the 1960s have terms like text message 短信, blog 博客 or chat room 聊天室. When it comes to modern medical terminology, people tend to switch to English (Latin) terms because the doctors here are more familiar with the ones they studied in medical school. At 1 time Chinese people would regard their parents as the ultimate source of knowledge. Nowadays people tend to rely more on the Internet to look things up. When it comes to words & phrases and their correct usage, I tend to rely more on Google than my parents. Edited by shk00design on 05 August 2014 at 5:28pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5156 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 6 of 8 06 August 2014 at 9:59pm | IP Logged |
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This topic is so inspiring, not only regarding the learning process itself, but also on how languages can strenghten up the familiar relationship! Some parents may regret not teaching their language so I bet it is both a relief and sense of accomplishment seing their children get back to them and learning the language with so much interest.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4999 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 7 of 8 08 August 2014 at 7:47pm | IP Logged |
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Well, what helped me the most to prepare for speaking Spanish in Spain for a month (and about a very wide range of topics even though I still make tons of mistakes) was a combination of a few things:
1.High listening comprehension. Really, speaking with someone is a DI(!!!)alog. While you can start with limited vocabulary and grammar and push 200% results out of it, if you are creative and brave enough, they are not going to limit themselves and you need to understand in order to keep yourself in the flow and to absorb the most. And you need to understand even at normal speed. So, tv series and movies are your best friend to get you closer to this goal. The same applies to talk shows, discussions on the radio etc. Audiobooks and music are a nice start but they are far too slow for this goal. And, I've noticed that large amounts of listening have much higher impact on speaking ability than large doses of reading, even though this might be more individual. 2.Do your own exercises out loud. Read something, repeat after audio, after you favourite tv character, do your grammar exercises out loud. This will strengthen the correct knowledge through your ears and you will automatize the correct way to form sentences. Thinking or whispering won't do. 3.Prioritize. When you see you need this or that grammar or vocab concerning this or that to better express yourself next time, study it even at the expense of your previous plans. This way, you can improve really rapidly in the key areas. A normal grammar book (with or without exercises) and a dictionary (perhaps a vocabulary overview and a verb book as well) are going to be much better friends on this path than a classical course. Courses introduce things in an order the author likes for various reasons which can have very little in common with the real importance of the things in real life. 4.Differenciate between things that are best done on your own and things better done together. There is no need to annoy a native speaker with grammar (the more that as someone already said, they usually don't remember the rules anymore, they just apply them automatically) as you can study it more efficiently with a book. Instead, just talk about anything that comes up. Have fun, stretch your limits, learn on the go. You have a great opportunity to both improve your German and have nice time with your mum, it sounds awesome, enjoy :-) Edited by Cavesa on 08 August 2014 at 7:48pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4999 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 8 08 August 2014 at 7:50pm | IP Logged |
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Heh, I was gonna write that for another thread, which is in the next tab. But it can stay here as well...
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