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Getting people not to speak English | ||
Tags: Language Banditry | Convincing native speakers | Immersion | Swedish | Learning Technique/Method | Accent | English | German | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| heartburn Senior Member United States Joined 7212 days ago 355 posts - 350 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 17 of 169 30 March 2005 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Does anyone have a solution to this problem?
How do you get your target language speaking acquaintances to stop speaking English? You can't lie to them, and you don't want to be rude. What do you say? I work in a huge English-speaking office building with several native speakers of Spanish. I will always greet them in Spanish, but they invariably respond in English. And even if I continue to speak in Spanish, they continue in English. I've told them I'm learning Spanish, so what do I do? Maybe my Spanish so bad that they don't want to listen to it? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| manna Groupie Kyrgyzstan Joined 7263 days ago 94 posts - 112 votes | Message 18 of 169 31 March 2005 at 3:19am | IP Logged | |||||
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With acquaintances, ask them. Explain them that you want to practice your language, too. Maybe you can make a deal...
François, what I wonder is what you do if the other person recognizes your accent? Personally,– probably because of my circumstances – I find it often relatively easy to hear where someone comes from, just from their accent in the foreign language. Nice idea anyway, and definitely one I'll consider... The thing that I found to be successful, is just to keep talking the language you want to speak... they'll give in after a while. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7170 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 19 of 169 17 April 2005 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Francois, I could only laugh as I read your original post about the ´´language trick,´´ as I was forced to invent that myself. Here in Germany, the natives speak English so proficiently that I feel ashamed of my American school system for not starting us as early as they do. And speak it they will, even if you begin the conversation in German. I always have to use Spanish as my getaway language, since most here learn French or Dutch in addition to English (I live near the Netherlands and Belgium borders). Still, there´s always that instance on a bus or train when you can´t get the monologue out fast enough, and then you are singled out as the foreigner...but, to commend Souley´s point, I am quite certain that I will sniff out every native German speaker as soon as I get back to the States, so it works both ways.
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| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7381 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 20 of 169 17 April 2005 at 11:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
This trick does not work if they recognize clearly your native accent. For me it works well since my native accent is French and people would try to speak to me in English rather than, say, Italian. If English was my mother tongue and would permeate all languages I try to speak, I guess I'd try to say I'm Dutch, but it's less likely to work!
There are many reasons why these people may not want to speak to you in Spanish. Perhaps they do not want to publicize the fact that they are recent immigrants. Helping you out with your Spanish would be nice, but they may prefer to look like hardened New-Yorkers rather than straight out of the boat. I think that if you explained why you try to speak to them in Spanish (for practice) and they don't respond, it is no use insisting with them. I've done that in the past and found out people actually resented it. They felt like if their French was so bad that I felt the need to help them by speaking them in Spanish. This is especially true if your Spanish is not as good as their English. Sprachjunge, I spent a couple weeks in Germany a few years ago, with the purpose of becoming fluent in German. I was not when I arrived and must admit that the Germans you get in contact with in shops were not immensely appreciative of my efforts to speak their language. About as 'nice' as Parisians I'd say! Edited by administrator on 17 April 2005 at 11:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sierra Diglot Senior Member Turkey livinginlights.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7129 days ago 296 posts - 411 votes Speaks: English*, SwedishB1 Studies: Turkish | Message 21 of 169 25 May 2005 at 5:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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(Forum necromancy in progress)
I have the same problem. Whenever I meet anyone new, the conversation begins in Swedish until they find out I'm American, and then there is usually no convincing them to speak Swedish. On one level, I understand it- of course, they just want to practice their English. But on the other hand, I don't think it's too much to ask that while in Sweden, we speak the local language. If we were in the US, I'd happily speak English with them if they wanted to, but I only have a very limited amount of time to improve my Swedish, after which I'm sure I'll have a difficult time finding resources (Swedish being a rather uncommon language). Additionally, there's always that undertone of slight condescension. Even if I don't really think they're trying to insult my Swedish, I can't help but feel a little slighted anyway. This is the worst: Person: USA! Jag har rest dit! (USA! I've been there!) Me: Jaså? Var då? (Really? Where?) Person: Ja, vi var i Colorado och åkte skidor i några veckor. Vi bodde på en jaktstuga, aså a hunting cottage. (Yeah, we were in Colorado to ski for a few weeks. We stayed at a jaktstuga... that is, a hunting cottage). It really gets to me when people translate in the middle of their sentences. If I don't understand, I'll tell you. >:( 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7170 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 22 of 169 26 May 2005 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Sierra, I just have to second your point. The ''translation in mid-sentence move'' really gets my goat, especially since this isn´t exactly my first month here anymore. What´s funny is that often the word that gets translated is the easiest one in the sentence. And then of course when the person mentions something cultural, which could really do with an explanation, there´s none given. E.g.
Person: Also! Du willst nun Deutsch und Sprachwissenschaften auf der Uni studieren? You know, study? (So! You want to study German and Linguistics in college?) Me: Ja ... eigentlich. Aber ich fürchte, dass es ein bisschen teuer sein wird. (Yes ... actually. But I´m afraid that it will be a bit expensive). Person: Du schaffst das schon. Damals habe ich eben Bafög erhalten. (You can do it. When I was in college, I got Bafög). Me: (Hmm, an explanation of Bafög would be helpful right about now). PS Only an example. Bafög stands for das Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz, which gave university students whose parents´ income was below a certain level a monthly stipend. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7188 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 23 of 169 27 May 2005 at 2:02am | IP Logged | |||||
Strange. I'm Swedish myself and if I meet a Swedish speaking native speaker of english I'll certainly speak Swedish to him. The behaviour you've encountered seems very rude to me. If they want to practice their english with you they ought to ask you first. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| KingM Triglot Senior Member michaelwallaceauthor Joined 7196 days ago 275 posts - 300 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian | Message 24 of 169 27 May 2005 at 3:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I used to have this problem when I started learning Spanish. Almost nobody will do this, however, when your ability in their language exceeds their ability in yours. The trick early on might be to work on your accent to give the illusion of superior language skills.
Of course, this must be trickier with a language like Dutch or Swedish where so many people speak English fluently. Traveling in Mexico or Central America there are many people--plenty of them educated--who speak very little English. They are usually pleased to have a real conversation with a foreigner. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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