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Passive Fluency | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Mtargem Pentaglot Newbie Czech Republic Joined 6412 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Slovak, Czech*, English, Italian, Polish Studies: Dutch, French | Message 25 of 33 25 May 2007 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
That would be me, I think. I currently study French (at work) but I really don't like the sound of the language. Since I also know I will not be required to speak the language but rather understand its written form, I'm quite content with learning the grammar and vocabulary just to acquire a passive knowledge. I think I already understand a lot when reading but have a hard time understanding the spoken French, not mentioning speaking (I can put together a sentence but only after some thinking). So, yes, I deliberately decided to focus on the passive understanding (of the written French) rather then spending my time getting cramps to my facial muscles when butchering the language I don't like. (My apologies to all the francophiles out there.) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Polyglot2005 Senior Member United States Joined 7187 days ago 184 posts - 185 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 26 of 33 25 May 2007 at 8:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The French in Action videos seem like a good way to gain a solid grounding in passive fluency. I have been debating whether to really learn one language (speaking) and solely focusing on listening comprehension in another language.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 27 of 33 26 May 2007 at 11:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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| MissMyChris Newbie United States Joined 6437 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 28 of 33 26 May 2007 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm not sure that's true for most English speakers. Most of the people I know would have no idea what they were looking at, much less what was being talked about. True, most of us folks who like to learn languages would be able to make those types of connections, but I don't think the average English speaker could do that. At least not the average American - maybe it is different in Britain. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6469 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 29 of 33 26 May 2007 at 2:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
Writing or adapting sentences for exercises and texts for lessons. Nothing more. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6438 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 30 of 33 26 May 2007 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'd say that a native English speaker who speaks any other Romance language should be able to do so, even if they're not particularly interested in languages. I suspect that non-Romance languages would also help, but to a lesser degree. My mother is a native English speaker, and far from a language enthusiast, but she has learned Italian to a usable level. She's also occasionally read ingredient lists out to guests who speak both Italian and French, who then express surprise that she's taken up French - because she didn't notice that she was reading the French one instead of the Italian, because they happened to be quite similar. I think the critical factor is whether someone is able to look for the 'gist' of an article, and pick out the bits that they know. With English and French, I'd expect even people who have never seen a non-English language to be able to pick some out with at most a little prompting, because there are so many cognates. The only thing that I could reasonably see stopping someone is the realization that the paper is in English, followed by a willful "I don't understand this language!" and refusing to really look at it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cymro Triglot Groupie Wales Joined 6453 days ago 76 posts - 98 votes Speaks: English*, Welsh, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 31 of 33 27 May 2007 at 11:50am | IP Logged | |||||
Absolutely. I was told of an exceptional example of this recently. One of my languages as you can see is Welsh. It is an endangered celtic language that was lost to my family when my grandfather failed to pass it on. So I went to classes to study it. I am now fluent enough to occasionally pass for a native speaker. ( Because I grew up here I speak English with a pronounced Welsh accent which makes this easy.) I was at a translator friend's birthday party recently. I should first explain that, sadly, only about a quarter of Welsh people can now speak their own language and they are nearly all natural bilinguals. Because of this any simultanious translation is nearly always Welsh to English There were several other translators there and they were talking about their work. The subject turned to the most remarkable person. A woman who was a professional simultanious translator but only did Welsh to English because amazingly she couldn't speak Welsh! They all knew her. I would imagine that she stuck out like a sore thumb since most of the translators would always speak Welsh to each other. She was excellent at her job though. So it must be possible. Edited by cymro on 27 May 2007 at 4:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tsp_uk Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6659 days ago 30 posts - 33 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English* Studies: Korean | Message 32 of 33 27 May 2007 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmmm in some way I have experienced some passive fluency, I speak Cantonese at home, English for daily use outisde of home, and I can listen to the Hakka dialect but not speak it. My mum speaks the Hakka dialect to her side of the family, growing up I would always hear my mum talking to relatives on the phone etc.... So most of the time i understand her conversations but can't speak it.
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