|
 |
One Week Challenge | ||
Tags: Time to learn | Beginner | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| fiziwig Senior Member United States Joined 4866 days ago 297 posts - 618 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 70 16 December 2011 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I would find the person with whom I was going to spend that half hour chatting and have him write the script for our chat. Then I'd have him coach me on pronunciation and give me the gist of what the sentences meant. Then I would arrange for whatever witnesses were required by the terms of the challenge, and then put on the performance.
In other words, I don't think that one could do anything more in seven days than to put on a convincing show of "apparent" fluency. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 10 of 70 16 December 2011 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I think we'd all agree that the goal you are aiming for is extreme. On the one hand, B2 may be too much to ask for a week's work -- and it certainly is for the very vast majority of learners -- but on the other, it may be more than is necessary for the task at hand. B1 may do. And I think some people, under certain conditions, may be able to pull it off.
However, since this would be an exercise in carefully planned efficiency, I'm forced to ask the language combination we are dealing with and whether the learner would have any experience learning other languages. I realize the question was likely hypothetical, but these parameters are important. Besides the obvious advantage of having studied any cognate language, the type of language you are studying and how foreign it is to the learner would have a significant impact on the type of work you'd be doing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zhanglong Senior Member United States Joined 4930 days ago 322 posts - 427 votes Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 11 of 70 16 December 2011 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Yes, I'd agree that B2 in one week is impossible.
The idea is not only to pretend to reach B2, but more importantly, how one would prepare for such an extreme situation. Other examples would be: your boss has asked you to lead a delegation to a foreign country to negotiate a deal, but there is no foreign translator available. As a language professional, how would you deal with the situation? I like the idea of managing the conversation to keep it on track to topics that you know or have previously prepared. Another suggestion would be to buy a phrasebook of some kind and become "fluent" in that before the examination. It's not an entirely hypothetical exercise; I had to do something similar in a ridiculous amount of time and had to be very creative in how to solve the problem, so I'm interested in how those who are more experienced learners would approach the situation. If you are dealing with a language that you already speak, that is one thing. If you are dealing with a language in the same language family, that is another. But if it is language with which you are completely unfamiliar, that presents another challenge altogether. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5431 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 12 of 70 17 December 2011 at 2:03am | IP Logged | ||
|
I tend to dismiss these claims about learning a language in days as idle speculation. I would like to add, however, that one can learn a lot in a very short time. Paul Noble Paul Noble offers these two-day courses in various languages. Here is what his website has to say about learning Mandarin:
"Regardless of your current level - whether you speak absolutely none or just some - our aim is to have you conversing in Chinese by the end of your two-days with us!" Now, this is not a week. Conversing in two days. Is this false advertising or is it more like playing with words? Nobody really expects to be chatting in Mandarin after two days. What exactly can you learn in two days? I guess you have to pay to find out. Edited by s_allard on 17 December 2011 at 2:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 13 of 70 17 December 2011 at 5:56am | IP Logged | ||
|
B2: Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract
topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options. Not in a week, and not in a month, and possibly not even in a season. You might be able to fake it ... I had a whole conversation in Hungarian once with a guy at the bar just be smiling and nodding and saying un-words like hmmm and ya and ahh. But that's not being able to communicate abstract ideas. I do think an experienced language learner with time and resources and a good plan would be able to make it to an elementary level: A2: Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need. It would be an incredible achievement, but at least it's within the realm of possibility. Edited by kanewai on 17 December 2011 at 7:44am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6440 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 14 of 70 17 December 2011 at 6:14am | IP Logged | ||
Is being professional by finding someone competent with the relevant languages and informing your boss firmly of the need to do so an option? The options you mention are nowhere near a B2 level, and are hardly enough to make small talk before the meeting. You can't run a meeting with that level of a language. And it's simply unprofessional to pretend otherwise. At best, if you speak a language which is somewhat mutually intelligible with the target language, you may be able to kind of get by... but that won't be through you using the target language itself. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5010 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 15 of 70 17 December 2011 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | ||
|
This thread reminds me of a czech joke. I'll try to translate it well (it is always difficult for me when it comes to jokes).
Three students are asked "How long it would would take you to learn Chinese for an exam?" A student of maths says: "A year." A law student thinks for a moment and answers: "Half a year." A medicine student asks whether there is a textbook and after getting an affirmative answer sighs: "Oh no, another of those weekends." 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 70 17 December 2011 at 8:25pm | IP Logged | ||
|
B2: Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract
topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. maybe if I know a closely related language Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. no way Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options. Not clear, not detailed, and not without a dictionary and a grammar A2: Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need. That smells like prelearned sentences from a language guide, but would not be totally impossible Edited by Iversen on 17 December 2011 at 8:26pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
