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Claiming to Speak a Language - Pet Peeve | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5670 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 9 of 164 03 December 2009 at 8:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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Does it really matter how other people evaluate their own language abilities? To be fair, it is true to some degree that they do "speak" the language. Just like somebody who says "I play golf" or "I play the guitar". It isn't necessarily a claim that they are at a world-class level.
The way I see it is that we are not in competition with anybody. Rather than getting bent out of shape about it, why not just be happy that other people are interested in language learning? 23 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5678 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 10 of 164 03 December 2009 at 8:40am | IP Logged | |||||
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Some time ago I changed my profile to say that I am studying Persian as opposed to being
able to speak it. Personally, I think this problem occurs at two levels. On one hand, you have people who are only in the language learning business for ego boosts. I agree that it is somewhat grating when these people claim to speak a language. On the other hand, you have people who really mean well, but have not been able to test all of their competencies; they simply don't know what they don't know. I think everyone goes through this stage and should be given some leeway. 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Shadow1984 Groupie United States Joined 5490 days ago 53 posts - 57 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 11 of 164 03 December 2009 at 9:45am | IP Logged | |||||
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I was out at the club once and this person was hitting one me and they said that the spoke 5 languages fluently to impress me. Needles to say, I was amazed,and I started speaking the little German that I knew because they said they spoke that language, but they did not understand when I said Sprichst du Duetsch? They must have been really drunk or just didnt know the language but after saying that they spoke five languages, I thought to myself wouldn't that be cool if I could speak that many languages. I think that experience was one of the motivating factors to push me to learn the languages I am trying to learn now.
I really don't mind if someone would say that they speak so and so language or X amount of languages. They are only lying to themselves. I can see where some people come from when they say they are bothered by it, but it doesn't bother me at all! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 164 03 December 2009 at 11:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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Those people who claim that they can speak a language after having learnt a few set phrases are first and foremost cheating themselves. And if I don't have to interact with them then it really doesn't matter much to me. But interaction between people depends on a certain level of trust, and can you really trust somebody who claims to speak a language but can't? Would you buy a used car from a person who claimed to speak Spanish, but who only could say "Olé" and "Cerveza"?
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| XGargoyle Bilingual Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 5957 days ago 42 posts - 93 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, EnglishB2 Studies: GermanA2, Japanese, Russian | Message 13 of 164 03 December 2009 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It is certainly annoying when people claiming that they speak 5 languages are given the job position you're also applying, and the balancing factor of being hired is that they speak more languages than you (even if such additional languages are not required for the job).
Basically, their "fluency" only allows them to say "Hola, ¿que tal?" and "Muchos gracias" (yes, the mistake is intentional), yet they are given the job because their resumé contains extra lines on the language section. I don't mind people cheating to themselves and then look like a fool. I just can't stand when people cheat to earn a benefit and get away with it. 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 14 of 164 03 December 2009 at 1:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Some people genuinely don't understand what it takes to be able to "speak" a language.
They think that because they have have memorised a few hundred words and some phrases they are ready to go out there and be taken seriously by native speakers. In such cases the person is not a liar, just inexperienced or stupid. This happens in all walks of life though - Last year I went skiing with two friends who had said that they could ski (downhill). Their definition of "skiing" was to be able to stand on a pair of skis in the beginners slope. My definition included being able to ski fast, in reasonable style, in any slope. We could not ski together. I was rather irritated until I realised that none of them had actually lied on purpose. They thought they were better at skiing than most other people they knew here in England who can't ski at all. This is completely true. This can be applied to anything: Who is good at computers or understands computers? There are hundreds of different ways to answer the question. Depends on what you include or not. That said - Here is one thing that is annoying: People who claim in their CV that they can speak certain languages. I have caught out a few such people. Anyone should be able to understand that it is not possible to use Berlitz German for business purposes. ETC! PS - Scandinavians, do you think it's lying for us to say that we speak the other Scandi language on our CVs - I am in two minds about this. Edited by cordelia0507 on 03 December 2009 at 1:20pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6784 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 15 of 164 03 December 2009 at 2:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
I totally agree, the people who wrote "they're only cheating themselves" should consider this. Some people just haven't given much thought to language. They could probably go to a foreign country, speak a few phrases, and the locals are too nice to correct them. So it seems like everything is in order.
Yes. If you don't speak it you don't speak it. I remember once I was looking into going to college in Sweden and they had this language test you had to take. So I tried it online just to see if I could do it (I was fairly confident) and I was clueless. It's true we understand each other's languages well enough to communicate, but that doesn't mean you speak the language, it doesn't mean you know the words. You can't just put on a Swedish accent and use Norwegian words, that doesn't make it Swedish. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| M. Medialis Diglot TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Sweden Joined 6358 days ago 397 posts - 508 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Russian, Japanese, French | Message 16 of 164 03 December 2009 at 2:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I read somewhere that 80 % of the swedes thinks they are better drivers than 50 % of the people. (evidently, quite a few must have over-evaluated their skills)
I think all people (and that probably includes you and me) need humbling experiences from time to time, in order to realize how far you actually can get in any area. I like the following quote from the composer Michael Land, when he describes Beethoven's accomplishments: "a mountain in the distance … no matter how much ground you cover, it's always just as far away". That's how I view language learning, and I'm not sure how far I need to get before I'd dare to say that I actually speak a language. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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