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Best reactions to learning a language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| jamesharris Diglot Newbie Germany myspace.com/james_b_ Joined 5980 days ago 22 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: French, Russian, Dutch | Message 1 of 33 08 October 2013 at 12:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi folks,
I recently returned to the UK after ten years living in Berlin, Germany. My German is very fluent, but I have to say I often met with Germans who had a problem speaking it with me or insisted on using English even though my German was established as good. I also met plenty of nice Germans who gave me compliments on my command of their tongue. It's fair to say then that speaking German with native German-speakers gets a mixed reaction. In contrast, I've always found Russians very excited about my attempts to speak Russian with them, even though my Russian is still basic. I've had the same thing in Holland with Dutch. I wondered which language had got you the most positive reaction when you as a learner have tried it out on native speakers. Cheers James Edited by jamesharris on 08 October 2013 at 12:32am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4689 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 2 of 33 08 October 2013 at 12:27am | IP Logged | ||
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The MOST positive reaction would have to be when I said "thank you" in Arabic to someone at the airport who clearly wasn't expecting any Arabic from me. He lit up and practically shouted, "you speak our language!" This was in a very superficial way true, I suppose, but I did not get the same kind of joyous response when haggling in the market, on the other hand.
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 3 of 33 08 October 2013 at 12:37am | IP Logged | ||
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For first impressions, I've received equally small but positive reactions from native speakers when using BCMS/SC, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak. I can't recall an instance when I got an especially memorable positive reaction though.
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| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4623 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 4 of 33 08 October 2013 at 2:10am | IP Logged | ||
That's interesting. I must say I've encountered very little resistance among German people with regard to speaking their native language. I've spoken with a huge range of people from trendy young students to elderly farmers. Maybe it's because I underwent intensive "training" in a small village in the former communist part of Germany where speaking English was simply not an option. Perhaps my speech became sufficiently Germanified to prevent natives immediately labelling me as an outsider. I think the language used at the outset of a new encounter has a big bearing on how the relationship will proceed. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| freakyaye Senior Member Australia Joined 4839 days ago 107 posts - 152 votes | Message 5 of 33 08 October 2013 at 3:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Possibly James you were just speaking to busy people?
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| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4890 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 6 of 33 08 October 2013 at 4:33am | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder how many of the reactions we get are to our own personalities rather than our
language skills? I've had positive responses in places with 'bad' reputations, and less positive reactions in places that have 'good' reputations. Paris I (Level: beginner). Pained expressions, as if I were scraping my nails against a chalkboard. North and Sub-Saharan Africans (Afro-Parisians?) were much more patient than the native French. Paris II (Level: mid). Overwhelmingly positive. I got a lot of support, people were patient, and I was ordered to study more so that I could hold deeper conversations when I returned. Arabic I, Jordan (Level: beginner). Fantastic responses. People were very supportive. Arabic II, Egypt (Level: beginner). No one gave a crap in Cairo, they just kept trying to run cons and games on me. Indifferent to pleasant responses in Aswan, Luxor, and the Sinai. Turkish (level: advanced beginner). People were often surprised at first, then became a bit blasé. The reaction was: "You speak Turkish? Amazing." And then they'd switch to Turkish with me, which was great, but without the 'hand holding' I got in other places. Spanish (level: advanced beginner / lower middle). People were great in the Yucatan, Chiapas, and Guatemala. In Mexico City they assume you speak Spanish, so don't expect any compliments. In Cusco, Peru almost no one would speak Spanish with me, which was weird, because my Spanish was probably better during that trip than during any other. 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vogue Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4255 days ago 109 posts - 181 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian | Message 7 of 33 08 October 2013 at 5:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Arabic II (High beginner level): The response in Jordan was amazing even as I stumbled
through. I only had one incident where someone didn't even try to understand me (a cab driver, and the cop he asked to "translate" understood exactly what I was saying). However, everyone was amazing, and loved it when I used slang. They were also all amused that I didn't speak MSA, but instead their dialect. So, no complaints here. Spanish (Advanced): In Spain, I just tended to speak English because I wasn't very good at Spanish at the time. However, usually when I did speak Spanish people were encouraging. When I moved to Honduras no one spoke English, so people had to deal with my Spanish whether they liked it or not. Didn't receive nearly as much encouragement in Honduras, because it was taken for granted that I must speak Spanish. And, indeed, by the time I left, I spoke Spanish very well. Italian (Beginner-Advanced): When I first went to Italy and was a beginner, people were patient and let me make sentences on my own and talked slow. I got a lot of 'why are you learning our useless language?' questions, but they were very nice to me. When I returned I was intermediate working my way up to Advanced. Some people, for some reason, were stubborn about speaking English with me (they wanted English practice). However, other than that I never had any problems - and usually a lot of encouragement. However, 2 days before I left, I was talking to someone, and he didn't realize I was even foreign until I asked him to repeat himself. And I realized at the end the people in stores didn't think I was foreign either (when my Dutch friend spoke to them in Italian they were excited, when I did they made that face like; 'of course you can'), so no complaints, but no encouragement there either. :) Hungarian (not even beginning level): When I went to Hungary I picked up a few words in the first couple of hours I was there (thank you, and I could order food and drinks). The Hungarians thought it was great. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5131 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 8 of 33 08 October 2013 at 5:50am | IP Logged | ||
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I've always found Thais to be very accepting. I can't recall a single situation since reaching basic fluency where Thais have switched to English or some other language. No enthusiastic reactions, though, just normal conversations. I assume enthusiastic reactions are generally reserved for beginners.
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