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How supportive are the native speakers? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Le dacquois Diglot Groupie France Joined 5647 days ago 54 posts - 69 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, German | Message 17 of 43 24 June 2009 at 9:42am | IP Logged |
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I think people will only correct you according to their own personal experiences. I know one old lady who doesn't correct me all that often in French. Sometimes, I'm even aware that I've made a mistake but she just smiles and listens. She'll only do it if it's really and truly necessary because it's a very important point (like if I had said "beaucul" and not "beaucoup")
However, when we speak Spanish together the corrections come thick and fast, so much so that conversation just grinds to a halt. I get everything from pronunciation to grammar, to explanations of certain idioms, etc. It's frustrating because my Spanish is not THAT terrible. My Spanish friends understand me and while I appreciate corrections, it can get annoying if it's constant and destroys all conversation. So, I think I understand why she does this. 1. She was a school teacher all her days 2. She knows NO English 3. She speaks good Spanish I think she feels less confident about correcting my French because she doesn't speak a word of my language, but with Spanish she feels she has the right because it's neither hers nor mine and she speaks it better than me. My gf corrects me occasionally but reluctantly. It's simply down to her personality, i.e she just can't be bothered most of the time unless I bug her. She will correct me if I say something insanely silly though. Her mother never corrects me. But then again, she is very hard of hearing and doesn't hear what people say in French, so she's probably afraid to ask me to repeat because she doesn't want to look stupid in front of everybody else who heard exactly what I said. I can see that sometimes she hasn't heard a word. I think it depends a lot on who you're talking to. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Linguistics Diglot Groupie Finland Joined 5628 days ago 59 posts - 62 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, English Studies: German, Finnish | Message 18 of 43 29 June 2009 at 6:48pm | IP Logged |
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I think my Finnish friends are much more comfortable correcting my errors and discussing my grammar-related questions through the internet than doing so face-to-face. Guess that leaves them time to come up with some reasonable reasons other than just to say "That's the way it should be!"
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| jimbo baby! Senior Member United States Joined 5977 days ago 202 posts - 208 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* | Message 19 of 43 06 July 2009 at 5:49am | IP Logged |
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The native speakers that I meet are sometimes surprised that I can even speak a few words in the target language. I used to think of it as a compliment but now I think it's more condescending even if they don't mean it that way. I think they expect Anglophones to be monolingual and not make any effort to learn a foreign language. They seem to be supportive but they still switch to English sometimes because they want to be helpful or maybe they want to practice their English. I don't mind that too much right now because I'm still in the early stages of language learning.
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| Toufik18 Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Algeria Joined 5744 days ago 188 posts - 202 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, Arabic (classical)*, French, English | Message 20 of 43 15 July 2009 at 1:46am | IP Logged |
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I speak on behalf all (or most of) Arab natives, we LOVE to hear our language spoken by a foreigner ! We belive that Arabic is very unique and hard to learn to fluency, so we are always shocked and amazed by someone who speaks it fluently er even basic fluency .
I remamber one time I saw a Chinese ambassador in Quatar was speaking classic Arabic (wothout a dialect) very smoothly, I was so amazed that I watched the hole interview even though the subject doesn't intrigue me by any means (Petrolian trading) . So as an Arab, I say we are very supportive by ANYONE from ANYWHERE who can speak Arabic, and even more if he (she) speacks a dialect . 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5811 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 21 of 43 15 July 2009 at 3:16am | IP Logged |
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Toufik, when you say classical, do you mean pure Qu'ranic Arabic or fusha?
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| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7015 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 22 of 43 15 July 2009 at 11:09pm | IP Logged |
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Please keep this discussion on-topic. I've just spent far too much time removing posts about call centres and the theft of Australian land. If there are any further digressions the thread will be closed. Thanks.
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| Iolanthe Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5641 days ago 410 posts - 482 votes Speaks: English*, DutchC1 Studies: Turkish, French | Message 23 of 43 27 July 2009 at 3:46pm | IP Logged |
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I find Dutch people have an attitude of 'oh it's cute that you're trying' and humour me a little but when it comes down to it, they'd rather talk to me in English and I think they feel a little smug about it too. One time I had a little problem in a supermarket where I couldn't figure out how to get the veggie weighing machine to give me a label and first two older people came up and then tried to explain to me in English and then another woman was walking past, must have heard them struggle to explain in English and then re-explained to me in perfect English with a neutral accent. I swear she just wanted to use the opportunity to show off her perfect English to an English speaker xD
I've come across a lot of Dutchies who've spent time in London. Which, at first I found surprising but it makes sense as it's such a huge and prevalent city and they're the ones who are completely fluent and have a nice toned down accent. But seriously, it's a bit discouraging when everyone is bilingual except you and your boyfriend sometimes comes out with words in your native language that even you can't define O_O 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| rosa-primavera Newbie United States Joined 5153 days ago 4 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 24 of 43 21 October 2010 at 9:49pm | IP Logged |
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While at work, I heard a couple speaking to each other, and heard the word " Da." As I am studying Russian, I asked
the husband if he was Russian. " No," he said, " I am from Romania." Luckily, I knew how to say " Buna ziwa." He was really impressed, and even taught me a couple new phrases, like " Buna dimineata." His wife and him even gave me 6 lei! It was a really neat encounter, and they seemed like very smart, friendly people. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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