|
 |
Another language with a fellow native? | ||
Tags: Native Speakers | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4627 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 26 21 March 2013 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I once met an American guy in Germany who had moved there with his German wife. He was trying to acquire as much German as possible and when he found out I had been in the same position as him, he asked me to speak to him only in German so he could practise.
I was happy to oblige, he already spoke a reasonable amount and we were able to converse about many things. Since we were both speaking a language not native to us, it got a bit laboured at times and I'm not sure I would have wanted to do this more often. I also go to a German-speaking meet-up group which contains a healthy mix of native speakers and learners. Sometimes the situation arises where a handful of English-speakers are the first to arrive (or last to leave) and invariably the conversation takes place in English. It just seems a little strange to use another language when your native one is available. Does anyone else here use a "foreign" language with a fellow native speaker? Are there companies where formal meetings must take place in, say, English, even though everyone around the table happens to be, for example, Swedish. Obviously in mixed national groups, a lingua franca may be chosen. People who grow up in bilingual societies can probably switch effortlessly and maybe use one language for certain situations in preference to the other. Edited by beano on 21 March 2013 at 5:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6914 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 26 21 March 2013 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | ||
I've never heard about any company that fits this description (what would be the reason?). On the other hand, I've spoken English with fellow Swedes at work for example, but only for a brief moment (quick question - quick reply), and to include the third non-Swedish person. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6908 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 3 of 26 21 March 2013 at 6:33pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I started in the high school, while my friend and me were preparing for FCE. We would sometimes talk in English to each other for some extra practice - we basically used English for conversations most of which we would have had (in Polish) anyway.
At the university, English or German were often the languages of teaching, and then everyone would speak it in the class most of the time, both teachers and students, even with no foreigners being around. I teach myself a class in German these days, and I speak German mostly, even when the only non-Polish native speaker is not there. There are for sure companies in Poland (mostly Polish branches of international corporations) where formal meetings take place in English. In the company a friend of mine works for, English is officially the "working language" and employers are encouraged to speak it in all situations. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6587 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 4 of 26 21 March 2013 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | ||
Holding a meeting in English even when there are no non-Swedes present hasn't happened to me, but holding a meeting where everyone speaks English because there's one person in the room who doesn't speak Swedish happens all the time, even if there are 50 people in the room. At large meetings and presentations, the one holding the presentation will ask "Anyone here who doesn't speak Swedish?" and if at least one hand is raised, proceed in English. And all presentations must be written in English (in Powerpoint), even if they're held in Swedish. In these situations I'll have a lot of discussions with other Swedes in English, with long durations and about complicated matters. As the English level of a lot of my colleagues leaves a lot to be desired, it can make for a lot of stumbling and misunderstandings and I actually think it affects my English for the worse sometimes. I especially feel bad for my colleague from Peru, whose Swedish is excellent, but who struggles a lot with his English. Listening to him every week trying to explain in English to a bunch of Swedes (and one Indian guy) what he's working on makes me squirm a bit and feel sorry for him. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4374 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 5 of 26 21 March 2013 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I just ran into this situation when I was working on my German language document review project at work. After 8-10 hours of reading German, it became difficult to alternate between the two languages when my partner would say something to me in English (he is also a native English speaker). So I can see where it would be easier if you have an official "working" language, even if you wouldn't do that normally.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zerrubabbel Senior Member United States Joined 4605 days ago 232 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 26 21 March 2013 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | ||
|
While doing a construction project in Japan, I met two American missionaries there who I used quite a lot of
Japanese with, mostly because there were Japanese people listening in, or just for fun. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| osoymar Tetraglot Pro Member United States Joined 4741 days ago 190 posts - 344 votes Speaks: English*, German, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Spanish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 26 21 March 2013 at 11:04pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I know that Uniqlo recently made English their official internal language, despite being
headquartered in Japan. I don't know how successful that's been, however. A fellow American student who I was studying with in Munich used to refer to this sort of thing as "two babies changing each other's diapers." I agree with him that it's not the most valuable way to learn a language, but it probably doesn't hurt that much. At the very least, it's a very good idea to get over the embarrassment of hearing yourself (or other foreigners) speak your L2. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sipes23 Diglot Senior Member United States pluteopleno.com/wprs Joined 4875 days ago 134 posts - 235 votes Speaks: English*, Latin Studies: Spanish, Ancient Greek, Persian | Message 8 of 26 22 March 2013 at 12:58am | IP Logged | ||
|
I know it's kind of unusual, but this is the norm for the spoken Latin community (in the United States anyway).
Virtually everyone at get togethers speaks English natively but speaks Latin. But that's not a good example. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
