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Sounding unnatural | ||
Tags: Speaking | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5767 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 1 of 14 05 March 2013 at 7:44am | IP Logged | ||
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I was wondering whether sounding unnatural in your target language is something that stops you from using it? I have been thinking about this recently because although I haven't written there for about a month for personal reasons, I am writing my TAC 2013 log in those of my target languages that I'm able to use in some vague way - I write mainly in German and Russian.
I've been using German in real life situations for years. Consequently, when using it I don't give any thought to whether I sound natural or not because I just assume whatever I'm saying is at least acceptable and doesn't sound too "foreign" - that it doesn't hurt people's ears. But with Russian, at least some stuff I write down, if not a lot, sounds really "English" to me, and this has been confirmed by some Russian friends - consequently I feel silly using it. I don't care about grammatical inaccuracies. My Russian could be full of non-existent case endings and invented verb conjugations and I wouldn't care a jot. I feel like sounding unnatural is an even worse sin. I know full well that this is due to a lack of exposure and the only way to sort this out is to read and listen to more Russian. My query, really, is more whether this is an uncommon feeling? That is, knowing you sound foreign and feeling discouraged using the language because of that. And maybe even feeling like unnatural use of the language is a worse sin than grammatical errors, because even I think that's bizzare. How do you, or would you, deal with that feeling? Thanks for reading and thanks for your answers :) Jack 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4658 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 14 05 March 2013 at 9:56am | IP Logged | ||
It does, in certain sense. I have usually much more input than output (I mean about 10times more, at least). This way, I know what NOT to say or write. The consequence is that I cannot express myself well in the beginning. If I have to, I am back to the very basics - talking and writing in simple sentences, sounding like a toddler. I could say more but it would sound unnatural and wrong even to me, so I avoid it. I am actively working against this trend - I find that going through phrasebooks and courses aimed on tourists or the FSI Fast courses all work well in this stage of learning. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4666 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 14 05 March 2013 at 11:13am | IP Logged | ||
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As far as speaking goes, the vast majority of people are always going to sound "foreign" simply because they don't have a native accent.
But to answer your main question, yes, it does frustrate me when I am not sure if what I have said is actually a "French way" of getting my meaning across or just a translation that may be perfectly understandable and even grammatical but is not idiomatic. Often I Google particular phrases to see if they have been used on lots of French web sites. Edited by tastyonions on 05 March 2013 at 11:15am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| 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 14 05 March 2013 at 2:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you are already at a level where you can phrase sentences in a fashion that is perfectly understandable to a native, even though a native might use a different construction, then you are clearly doing well with the language, so why be reluctant to speak?
Languages are designed to allow you to interact with people. The vast majority of native speakers you come across will not be analysing your accent for authenticity or studying your speech patterns. They will simply talk back. Life is too short. Get to grips with the basics of the language, get out there and use it. Edited by beano on 05 March 2013 at 2:44pm 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BaronBill Triglot Senior Member United States HowToLanguages.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4690 days ago 335 posts - 594 votes Speaks: English*, French, German Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Persian | Message 5 of 14 05 March 2013 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | ||
Seconded. I believe the best way to get to natural sounding speech is to use it and use it often. Nothing creates fluency like conversing with real people in real situations. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4370 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 6 of 14 05 March 2013 at 9:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I feel this primarily in writing. In speech, everything usually happens too quickly that I don't necessarily think of whether something sounds natural. I can usually tell whether it's correct, and for right now, that is acceptable.
In writing though, my big problem is that I tend to become comma-happy. I always have been, even in English (if you go and look at some of those documents written by Thomas Jefferson, where a whole page is literally one sentence because of commas and punctuation, I could probably do that if I wanted to have some fun). So my sentences in German tend to have a lot of commas and punctuation! I don't know that it's actually "wrong," at least, I can't recall getting corrections on that specific issue, but I'm never sure if I overdid it. Sometimes I will just revert back to extremely simple sentences just to avoid this problem. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mistermark21 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4613 days ago 23 posts - 26 votes Studies: Swedish* Studies: French, German, Spanish, Polish | Message 7 of 14 06 March 2013 at 12:45am | IP Logged | ||
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I know what you mean, at first i feel put off or shy speaking another language when
i'm in their country because i will sound foreign or maybe get it wrong. This feeling disappears though when you start speaking and get a response in that language. As far as accent goes, i sound like a native in Polish but i don't know very many polish words. The reason being is i learned from Poles so i wasn't aware of any accent being acquired. Don't worry about accent, it'll come in its own time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5767 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 8 of 14 06 March 2013 at 12:56am | IP Logged | ||
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That it does.
=D 1 person has voted this message useful |
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