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What makes some people good at languages? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Wings Senior Member Ireland n/a Joined 6352 days ago 130 posts - 131 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 65 of 91 13 October 2007 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Zhuangzi, You’re right it does no good to stereotype, nobody could say for instance, “you need to be extroverted to be good at languages”, that would be absurd, Linguamor said: “All human beings are "gifted" at learning languages.” You learned your native language whether you where extroverted or not, extroverts may be perceived to be better talkers, but that’s because they just talk more, a quieter person could be just as eloquent with language if given the chance to express themselves, whether their own or one that is borrowed. I hate to stereotype, I hate to pigeon hole, square peg square hole, use what ever cliché you like………. Pot kettle black, because I’m as sure as the fact I’m Irish and I like potatoes and Guinness, that I’ll be told I’m contradicting myself, but, I said before, what can I do to become a better language leaner- not what stereotype do I fall into – and is it the right one for learning languages.
1.) method 2.) listening skills 3.) comprehension skills 4.) What order, if I can’t decipher one word from the next do I need to work on my listen skills? Or just keep on learning words and hope that the comprehension comes later, or is this a waste of time until I work on my listen skills???????????? I can’t understand because I can’t hear the words, is someone who is better at languages, just someone who’s a good listener, or someone who gets the ingredients just right. 5.) Not, I think I need to be square peg, because it’s a square hole. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| audiolang Diglot Senior Member Romania Joined 6318 days ago 108 posts - 109 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Romanian*, English | Message 66 of 91 13 October 2007 at 11:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Who said that introverts have to be shy?
As far as I know extroverts can be just as shy,anyway it wouldn't matter because you learn the language from books not directly from people. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6313 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 67 of 91 14 October 2007 at 12:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Now that's an interesting statement. I suppose the first language - Latin, other than English, I learned, I did indeed learn from books. When I undertook to learn the next, I learned from folk song records and from conversation and only tertiarily from books. When I tackled the next, I used the same approach. Books are an adjunct...
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| audiolang Diglot Senior Member Romania Joined 6318 days ago 108 posts - 109 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Romanian*, English | Message 68 of 91 14 October 2007 at 3:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Cool, I would like to hear more on your conversational experiences. Edited by audiolang on 14 October 2007 at 3:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Wings Senior Member Ireland n/a Joined 6352 days ago 130 posts - 131 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 69 of 91 14 October 2007 at 3:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I like the way Zhuangzi put it in the last post, he hit the nail on the head.
I hope we’re not going of in a tangent here, but give us a quick biographical sketch Earle, in relation to language learning in you life. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6701 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 70 of 91 14 October 2007 at 11:45am | IP Logged | ||
I would not say that it is false, just that the statement may be too simplistic. The fact is that one of the most relevant persons you can communicate with is yourself. When I have tackled a new language I don't like to try to communicate with others before I'm sure that I can at least keep a silent discussion with myself running in my head. It doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to be totally fluent, but if I can't even think in a language there is no idea in trying to speak with anybody else. Which is one of the major reasons that I don't like being taught in a standard classroom setting. Of course this phase shouldn't last too long, because you need to submit your utterances to others to get their reaction, otherwise you will just accumulate 'frozen errors' and unidiomatic ways of expressing yourself. Besides having to speak to somebody is a major motivating factor. But there is no reason to believe that you can keep up a conversation with others if you can't do it with yourself. Edited by Iversen on 14 October 2007 at 2:57pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6313 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 71 of 91 15 October 2007 at 12:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Very good, Iversen. I use exactly the same technique. When I'm faced with an opportunity/challenge where I know I will have to communicate, I rehearse mentally various branches the conversation may take. It really helps. In German, I'm fluent enough that I think in German without aforethought, and sometimes speak it inadvertently to my wife, who speaks English and French, but no German. And, Wings, as soon as I get past our US tax deadline, I'll have time to post about my own language learning experience. BTW, my mother's maiden name (and my middle name) is "Boyd," so we're not so terribly distant in heritage...
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| Wings Senior Member Ireland n/a Joined 6352 days ago 130 posts - 131 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 72 of 91 15 October 2007 at 4:14am | IP Logged | ||
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Iversen and Earle, tank you, you’re both right you can start communicating on your own first, it doesn’t have to be with anyone else. The statement was a bit simplistic, and I don’t think it accurately represents what xtremelingo was trying to say, although eventually to get to a more advanced level of communication you do need to communicate with others. Starting off though, you’re better off trying to assimilate the language, at least the basics, in your head first.
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