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Practicing TL locally/leveling up

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
21 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
Saim
Pentaglot
Senior Member
AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5083 days ago

124 posts - 215 votes 
Speaks: Serbo-Croatian, English*, Catalan, Spanish, Polish
Studies: Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Occitan, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic (Maghribi), French, Modern Hebrew, Ukrainian, Slovenian

 
 Message 17 of 21
18 May 2014 at 12:29pm | IP Logged 
Iversen wrote:
Serpent wrote:
,As Iversen's example shows, reading stuff in L2 will
get you noticed. Speaking of that, don't deflate like a balloon if the person doesn't
happen to speak the language.


Actually I didn't deflate - the girl did when she realized she hadn't found another
Portuguese expat. And mostly people don't notice my weird choice of reading materials -
either they are busy with their mobile phones or they just try to survive the trip to
their destination.


I would've tried to follow up the conversation with a "e tu, és portuguesa? de qué parte
de Portugal?".
1 person has voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4828 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 18 of 21
18 May 2014 at 11:21pm | IP Logged 
yantai_scot wrote:
Skype is definitively looming as a next step- I know it needs to
be done but I feel my
writing is far too weak still. If I can't compose a reasonably competent short letter,
speaking isn't going to last long or be particularly intelligible.


Why should your speaking ability be dependent on your writing ability?

If you wish to speak and understand the spoken language, then practice speaking it and
listening to it.

There is no reason to believe that being able to write it better will make you a better
speaker. The skills are quite different really, and unless you are very unusual, you
learned to speak long before you learned to write in your native language.


Schools concentrate on the written language because that's an easier way for them to
teach, but it doesn't make their pupils better speakers, as far too many people here
can possibly remember from personal experience.

2 persons have voted this message useful



1e4e6
Octoglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4290 days ago

1013 posts - 1588 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian
Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan

 
 Message 19 of 21
18 May 2014 at 11:49pm | IP Logged 
I am unsure if you are like me, where I have a rather strange way of speaking, in any
language, but during conversation or oratory commuication, I pretend that I read an
imaginary script in front of my eyes, because I feel impossible to do anything if I
cannot see written words. Sometimes I even pretend that I am writing a script during
conversation so that I can see the words that I want to say, which might explain why I
almost fail all oral assignments with no script in primary and secondary school. Perhaps
you are just a very visual learner.
1 person has voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4828 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 20 of 21
19 May 2014 at 12:41am | IP Logged 
1e4e6 wrote:
I am unsure if you are like me, where I have a rather strange way of
speaking, in any
language, but during conversation or oratory commuication, I pretend that I read an
imaginary script in front of my eyes, because I feel impossible to do anything if I
cannot see written words. Sometimes I even pretend that I am writing a script during
conversation so that I can see the words that I want to say, which might explain why I
almost fail all oral assignments with no script in primary and secondary school.
Perhaps
you are just a very visual learner.


hmm...I can relate to the above in certain respects, i.e. I am pretty poor at giving
presentations / public speaking, because I need notes and then I'm still hopeless
because I look down at the notes too much.

Or if I am at a meeting, and need to make detailed technical points, without some
written help, I will be sure to forget something crucial.


However, in a more relaxed conversation, with someone I like or respect, about
something of interest to both of us, I have no problems at all, and the thought of
reading from a script (even imaginary) would be unthinkable.

Which is not to say I don't "rehearse" conversations sometimes, if I know it's going to
be tricky for some reason, or just occasionally, if it's going to be something
pleasurable, but I want to try to strike exactly the right note.

I'm talking about in my own language now, for all the above.

In another language, different rules apply(!), although I'd want to be as spontaneous
as possible, which means I'd expect to make mistakes, but also, not worry about them.
1 person has voted this message useful



yantai_scot
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4802 days ago

157 posts - 214 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German

 
 Message 21 of 21
21 May 2014 at 4:12pm | IP Logged 
montmorency, thanks. My German class continues to meet up weekly long after our term
ended to keep us going until we get back together in September. We actually plucked up
the courage to say a couple of sentences each. We understood what was being said to each
other.

I've got as far as signing up to i-talki but was having issues finding someone
affordable, at least cheaper than just getting a real person near home.

I don't have any problems with general speaking or even speaking to groups. I trained as
a teacher and once had to do a speech for 1000 people when I was over in the far east
doing tefl (in English, thank heavens!)


1 person has voted this message useful



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