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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6584 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 33 of 73 14 November 2011 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
Actually, you have it significantly more difficult than we do. Seriously, if you grow up in a modern Western country, learning English is a piece of cake. It's not at all comparable to a British person learning, say, French. At least over here, I'm really surprised when I meet a fellow Swede whose English isn't at least conversational. I live in Sweden and apart from one Australian friend to whom I send an email every other month or so, I have no native English-speaking friends. And I still use English as much as Swedish in my daily life, if not more. The Internet is in English (there's a single website in Swedish that I use with any regularity), most software is in English, all documentation and writing at work is in English, maybe 80% of the movies in the cinema and the shows on TV is in English, my university textbooks were in English, the RPGs I play with my friends are often in English, computer games are in English, half of all advertising is in English and many of my friends use English phrases regularly in their speech. Every kid growing up in Sweden is in English immersion. Now, how many people do I know who speak French? One, and he was born in Congo. How many who speak German? None. Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Mandarin, Japanese? None none none. The truth is, we're just as bad at foreign languages as you guys are. It's just that we've got one and a half native language. So don't beat yourself up. Edited by Ari on 14 November 2011 at 7:59pm 9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| WentworthsGal Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4890 days ago 191 posts - 246 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Spanish | Message 34 of 73 14 November 2011 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ah yes Ari, you made a good point there... On one hand it's great that we know English here without having to "learn" it so we have natural access to everything using English, but on the other hand it's such a shame we don't have a different language and grow up with English as the "half language"...
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| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5768 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 35 of 73 14 November 2011 at 11:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
Oh, but unless you're talking about fights it's slight overconfidence, as long as it's paired with persistance. Slight underconfidence may just as well do the trick, if paired with - persistance. And an internal locus of control. Having too high or too low self confidence skews your judgment and makes you susceptible to failure because you can't learn from your experiences; as overflowing self-confidence makes most people attribute their own mistakes to environmental circumstances, or lack of self confidence makes them misinterpret environmental factors as their own failure. More than that, most people (especially men) in Western societies are somewhat overconfident, without that making them incredibly successful or smart in my book. Meaning, when I see somebody brag about their skills when they - he - just learnt a couple of sentences I see somebody who is very likely to never be fluent in that language. Edited by Bao on 14 November 2011 at 11:40pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| skeeterses Senior Member United States angelfire.com/games5Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6620 days ago 302 posts - 356 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Spanish | Message 36 of 73 15 November 2011 at 2:21am | IP Logged | |||||
I tend to save my wrath for those who are using their "magical abilities" to make money or seek fame. And of course, tell beginners from time to time that there is no royal road to fluency in a foreign language. Its natural for beginners to exaggerate a little bit because they just don't know the full complexity of the language before them. For example, I once came across an American girl who was taking a Korean 101 class at the community college and she told me that Korean was "easier than Spanish." And in a sense, when you're talking about the grammar and vocabulary that's used in survival books, it does look pretty easy at first. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PaulLambeth Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5375 days ago 244 posts - 315 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic, Hindi, Irish | Message 37 of 73 15 November 2011 at 4:52am | IP Logged | |||||
You've reminded me of a conversation with an Icelander in a café in Reykjavík, in which she said "I never paid any attention at all in English class. I just watched movies". Indeed I don't think I've met a Reykjavíkingur under the age of 55 who doesn't speak conversational English - I mentioned it in a video recently. In addition to what you said, essentially none of what you listed (TV, films, adverts etc.) is in anything but English in the UK, nor as far as I know in the other anglophone countries. Apart from childrens' shows in other British languages, and dedicated radio stations in expat languages (which one would never have children listen to if it wasn't their parents' native tongue), nothing that children do is in a common foreign language. I emphasize common because although there are a number of household languages in the UK spoken by recent migrants, that's not enough to generate any national bilingualism. Despite knowing this difference, I still refuse to not be amazed by English's usefulness as a lingua franca. I guess I shouldn't feel entirely guilty - it's not my fault, as you've demonstrated Ari - but nonetheless I feel slightly put out by our nation's monolinguialism, and further motivated to not be a monoglot. Back on topic then, I stand by being impressed by the level of English I hear. And I'm also impressed by native English speakers who've chosen to learn another language and gone far, and non-natives who speak not only English but another foreign language that they chose to take on themselves. Edited by PaulLambeth on 15 November 2011 at 4:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6661 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 38 of 73 15 November 2011 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm most impressed by people who have learned two foreign languages that don't seem to go together: combinations such as Swedish and Thai, Korean and Swahili.
I'm impressed by people who get the grammar right in situations where the natives often get it wrong. I'm impressed by people whose vocabulary in a foreign language goes beyond the basic words and phrases needed for conversation and technical material in their field, but also includes words and phrases that many learners (and some natives) don't use often or correctly. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5695 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 39 of 73 15 November 2011 at 4:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If I had to pick the one thing that impresses me the most in regards to language-learning, it would be those people who, no matter what their level or skills, are always modest about their knowledge - without, however, being self-deprecating. I know that many people (e.g. many of my fellow Amurricans) have spent their entire lives in a social situation which makes the learning of foreign languages seem unnecessary and practically impossible. With that in mind, I am as impressed by a complete beginner as by a super-polyglot, as long as the person in question has a reasonable and humble attitude about his or her own language knowledge.
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| DesEsseintes Triglot Newbie Ireland Joined 5184 days ago 33 posts - 68 votes Speaks: English, French*, Spanish Studies: Croatian | Message 40 of 73 17 November 2011 at 2:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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There are two things that impress me :
1) The ability to make puns in a foreign language. Regardless of the language, or of whether the person spent years in the country or not, hats off to those who can play with words and make jokes out of them. That's also quite close to my definition of "mastering a language". 2) The ability to recognize regional accents. I have this German colleague of mine who speaks French so well that she can tell me where the person she's listening to actually comes from. And so far, she's never been wrong. Now, what doesn't impress me at all : Someone who, say, was born in a country, but can speak one or two other languages because her / his parents are foreigners. Edited by DesEsseintes on 17 November 2011 at 2:48pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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