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How supportive are the native speakers? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Taiga Diglot Groupie Australia Joined 6310 days ago 81 posts - 85 votes  5 sounds Speaks: English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Serbo-Croatian | Message 1 of 43 26 February 2008 at 2:05pm | IP Logged |
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HOw supportive are the native speakers of your target language of your efforts to learn their language ?
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 43 26 February 2008 at 10:58pm | IP Logged |
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Most Japanese I have met love being able to have conversations with foreigners in Japanese. They also carry the impression that their own language is unique and difficult, so they tend to be impressed when a foreigner has learned it to an advanced level.
(Although they are more impressed when caucasians learn Japanese than when, say, Koreans learn it.) Edited by Captain Haddock on 26 February 2008 at 10:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7077 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 3 of 43 29 February 2008 at 9:22am | IP Logged |
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Koreans are usually shocked if you speak Korean and want to know more about you. This is even more so where I live now (Donghae) than it was when I was living in Seoul.
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| qklilx Moderator United States Joined 6186 days ago 459 posts - 477 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 43 03 March 2008 at 12:43pm | IP Logged |
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The Japanese are often, but not always, shocked when I start speaking to them in Japanese. If they aren't impressed by the initial speech, using a bit of slang or a pop culture reference gets them almost everytime.
As for Koreans, andee is right. Since most foreigners, especially westerners, do not know much about Korea, if they begin speaking Korean suddenly you are a celebrity. It's easy to make Korean friends, and they become HIGHLY supportive of your progress in the language. Even moreso than Japanese people are. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6342 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 5 of 43 03 March 2008 at 3:31pm | IP Logged |
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Foreigners who can speak Mandarin at a near native level often go on various talk shows on TV in China.
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| epingchris Triglot Senior Member Taiwan shih-chuan.blog.ntu. Joined 7028 days ago 273 posts - 284 votes 5 sounds Studies: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese, German, Turkish | Message 6 of 43 05 March 2008 at 8:55am | IP Logged |
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Taiwanese people would certainly be impressed if you speak some conversational Mandarin, but I wonder if they're helpful enough. It's not that they are unwilling to help you learn, quite the contrary, but the problem is that often they want to practice their English themselves - so badly that they would forget that you're the foreigner there wanting to learn a language that's vital to your survival in a foreign country. And many people are under the impression that Mandarin is too hard to learn for foreigners, so they would tolerate a lot of mistakes - not exactly good news for learners. If you ask them to, however, I'm sure they would be glad to help you with corrections.
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| Alexandra Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 6098 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese | Message 7 of 43 16 March 2008 at 12:20am | IP Logged |
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Spanish speakers with whom I interacted in the very beginning of my studies were very supportive. The only problem was - they were too polite to tell me when I was making mistakes, no matter how much I begged them too! Only recently I have met people who are actually willing to let me know when I commit the blunders.
Same with Portuguese - very supportive, but rarely helpful when it comes to mistakes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Maddoggirl Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6156 days ago 15 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Latin | Message 8 of 43 23 March 2008 at 4:52am | IP Logged |
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The two French girls who assist us with oral work at school are lovely and can't do enough for us. They are politely corrective but never pernickety. However, that said, French people I have met outside of school never seem to be impressed by my mad French skillz. Two French women came into the shop where I work a month or so ago. In an attempt to be impressive, I said "Vous etes francais?" Whereupon one of the women stopped her conversation and snapped "Vous etes francaises!"
7 persons have voted this message useful |
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