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Mormons and Language Learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7146 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes  Studies: Uzbek | Message 33 of 35 18 August 2014 at 7:51pm | IP Logged |
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While a bit reluctant to bring a seven-year-old (!) thread back to life, I thought this might be the place to list the following link, which describes in some detail what the language learning process is like for Mormon missionaries (in the specific case of Mandarin Chinese):
http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/45603-languag e-learning-and-mandarin-mormon-missionaries/ Edited by daristani on 18 August 2014 at 8:39pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4660 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 34 of 35 03 September 2014 at 8:06pm | IP Logged |
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I met two Mormon ladies in the grocery store yesterday. My wife was in a section that has popular novels and magazines and these two ladies approached her and start talking to her in Spanish... which NEVER happens. They were asking about one of the books my wife was looking to buy.
It was obvious they were not native speakers and I noticed their badges which were written in Spanish. I asked them about their language school and did they think they were going to some exotic Spanish speaking country to only find themselves in Houston Texas. They laughed and said the school was around 8 weeks long and very intense. They felt prepared but have to speak and study with as many people as possible. It was interesting. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4446 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 35 of 35 05 September 2014 at 1:00pm | IP Logged |
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This isn't a new topic. I posted a similar topic a while ago.
Yesterday while walking down the street in Kowloon, Hong Kong, came across 2 conservatively dressed young men (typical white shirt & grey pants) LDS missionaries. They only said the basic greeting: "nei ho", the Cantonese equivalent of "ni hao" 你好 in Mandarin. As confident as they may sound, it was impossible to tell their proficiency based on 1 word /phrase. Likewise if you're in Spain and 2 LDS men say: "buenos dias", it would be impossible to tell a person's proficiency unless you get into a serious conversation. Their level of proficiency in 8 weeks is rather questionable. Their language training may be enough to allow them to settle in a foreign country and ask for directions or go to a local store or market to do their shopping. There are 2 singers in China from Nigeria. The younger Haodi 好弟 said in front of a TV audience that he needed 8 months to become fluent in Chinese while learning to sing Chinese songs. His older brother Haoge 郝歌 (original: Uwechue Emmanuel) took just as long and their abilities to write Chinese characters besides their adopted Chinese names is still iffy although their level of conversation is very close to a native-speaker. Based on personal experience, I was in Taiwan for a summer language exchange program with 6 weeks in a Mandarin class. I found that the people who are already very fluent in spoken Chinese and got assigned to higher class levels did much better while those at the beginner level retained next to nothing besides some basic greetings. The beginners would always be out shopping with others who are fluent in Mandarin and therefore had very few opportunities to start a conversation. How far can a LDS missionary learn in 8 weeks? Being fluent in spoken Chinese is already an accomplishment. It would take at least 1 year to become fluent in reading & writing some basic Chinese characters... never mind reading the Bible or the Book of Mormon in Chinese. Edited by shk00design on 05 September 2014 at 1:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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