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I am vs I speak | ||
Tags: Cultural Identity | Speaking | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| justinwilliams Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6700 days ago 321 posts - 327 votes  3 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Italian | Message 1 of 3 30 October 2006 at 8:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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At first, I believed that the more I would get in contact with French (native language)the slower my progress would be in the learning of English. I have to say that, in my case at least, I was right. I just feel like whenever you get to talk or listen...in your native language it just reminds you that the other one "is not your language", "it's a foreign language" because you're obviously more comfortable in your first language. It may seem trivial but I think you really have to believe the language you're learning is not a foreign language but a second language. It may not make that much sense put into words but I guess you understand the difference between those two attitudes. I met a guy who's a native french speaker who speaks perfect English. The first time I met him, he was still with his French girlfriend and I thought he had some kind of an accent. I met him again recently and I swear I couldn't have told he was a native french speaker. There's a last thing that reflects this attitude that I'd like to mention. It is that I hate when people say "ha, you're french". What's the point? I'm not French, I speak French and English. Edited by justinwilliams on 30 October 2006 at 8:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| rkunz Diglot Senior Member United States learnthatlanguagenow Joined 6836 days ago 103 posts - 101 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese | Message 2 of 3 31 October 2006 at 6:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well we all know that when you begin learning a second language, it's going to feel uncomfortable and limited compared to your native one.
In fact, I had the same problem except for two languages I was learning at the same time. For a long time, my Spanish was much, much better than my Japanese and after having to speak Japanese for a long time (like in class, etc.), it was such a relief to be able to speak Spanish since the phrases flew to my lips and I was able to express myself without having to think so hard. I don't really know what you mean though about thinking of the language in a particular way. I never really thought too hard about it, I just simply learned the language and reminded myself that one day after much practice, I would be able to have phrases come forth in Japanese just as easily as they do in Spanish. By the way, your comment about the French thing sounds reminiscent of another young fellow's comment (who studies French) who complained of the fact that he was made fun of for studying a "gay" language. Unfortunately that thread is locked now, otherwise I could have given some good input as to why we Americans think this. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7026 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 3 31 October 2006 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
I know what you mean and it's perfectly natural. I don't think that a learned language will ever feel like your native language, regardless of how amazingly fluent you might be in it.
I'm sure that not all of you think that. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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