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Hurdles to speaking languages fluently | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| BiaHuda Triglot Groupie Vietnam Joined 5355 days ago 97 posts - 127 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Vietnamese Studies: Cantonese | Message 33 of 42 09 October 2010 at 2:38am | IP Logged | ||||||||
There have been alot of good responces here. I think that what has been helpful for me is having a sense of humour and yes drinking beer. If you are can make friends with people in your target language and socialise with them it is surprising how quickly you will learn things. I used to nod my head in agreement when I didn't understand things, but eventually I figured out this was a poor strategy. Once i was able to overcome my shyness and started asking questions I made alot more progress. Beer is in fact good for this, nothing like a good old fashioned booze up to get rid of your inhibitions. On the subject of jokes and double entendres. I would think that joke take a pretty advanced level of understanding, just because alot of times they don't literaly make sense. You know your doing good when you can laugh at a joke in your TL. It boils down to this: once you've got the basic textbook bit down you need to start using the language. Talk alot, being able to use the languge in it's natural form will go alot farther than a perfect accent. It will be unlikely that you have the opportunity to use any canned phreses: "Can I pay for this with a travellers cheque?". Not a whole lot of oportunity to use that little gem unless you plan on spending alot of money? Don't be afraid to make mistakes and be able to laugh at yourself when you are the brunt of the joke. Once you get this down your quids in... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Old Chemist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5165 days ago 227 posts - 285 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 34 of 42 09 October 2010 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Good advice, BiaHuda, I once knew a charming German teacher who used to enjoy a drink and didn't mind muddling her languages when she became tipsy. I suppose as well novelty helps to get people off plateaus. Buy yourself a new book, get a DVD in the language you want to learn; I've found reading short stories a real pleasure and they often expand your view of the world. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| BiaHuda Triglot Groupie Vietnam Joined 5355 days ago 97 posts - 127 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Vietnamese Studies: Cantonese | Message 35 of 42 10 October 2010 at 2:15am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Good one Old Chemist. I can't help but feel that you have already answered your questions. It would be a great laugh to meet you and chat away in a foreign language. German perhaps?
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| Old Chemist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5165 days ago 227 posts - 285 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 36 of 42 13 October 2010 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Yes, that would be good - perhaps you could teach me some Vietnamese and you could wince at my very bad Spanish! It's a relief to know there are lot people out there who enjoy languages as much as I do. Most people I have met - and I suppose this is an attitudinal hurdle, if you end up feeling they are right - seem to think it is a waste of time to attempt to learn any language, "They all speak English, innit?" I think this is one reason why the English are reputedly not particularly welcome abroad, I know it's a cliche, but there are a certain number of English speakers who imagine the best way to communicate abroad is loudly and slowly - in English. I have always thought it just good manners to try to speak a little in the native language and sometimes - although not always - have been rewarded for the attempt. I have already mentioned the joke, somewhere on the forum about the man who says to his friend "I'm writing a book," to which the friend replies: "I'm not either" In this thread, actually, now that's why I find it difficult to remember vocabulary - a bad memory - or was it all the port I drank years ago to drown my ... um and to help me learn ...er I suppose talking about something is a very easy way of avoiding doing it. At the moment, because I enjoy the banter here, I am on the forum rather than doing what I should be, which is shoving all the waste paper you collect as exam certificates to send off to a British official body which wants to know everything about me and to receive a CV I haven't updated in years. Thank God for red tape, what would the European Union be without it?! Edited by Old Chemist on 13 October 2010 at 1:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5951 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 37 of 42 13 October 2010 at 11:13pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I started making progress in this area after starting to do tons of echo work. I got the idea for this in a forum thread which mentioned this link; http://www.nativecoach.com/index.php?section=staticpage&page =aboutus Basically I echo, or shadow, until comfortable with a specific phrase as mentioned in the link. Mind you, am still working on this though thinking in my L2 is slowly getting better. My progress has not been as dramatic as what is mentioned in the link, however the progress has been good enough that several native speaker friends noticed. One native speaker, after initially meeting me and chatting for a few minutes, asked if I was from Taiwan ...I am studying Mandarin, have a lot of native speaker materials made for the Taiwan market and am ethnic Chinese. Good luck! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Old Chemist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5165 days ago 227 posts - 285 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 38 of 42 03 November 2010 at 8:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thank you, snowflake. I agree with you, what has been most effective for me has been repeating what I want to know and trying to imagine myself actually there. I don't like grammar, although I can follow it, because most of the material seems ridiculously out of date or the tedious "If I won the lottery I would..." stuff. I feel a grammatical approach is very unnatural for me and it seems extremely artificial.
I think you do end up being able to think in your target language, but it can take a little while. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6264 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 39 of 42 03 November 2010 at 11:09am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Beer is useful in all kinds of situations. Alan Turing's father was courting his mother in some restaurant or other, and in advance told the waiter, "Bring beer and keep bringing beer until I tell you to stop."
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| Old Chemist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5165 days ago 227 posts - 285 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 40 of 42 03 November 2010 at 12:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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A delightful story, if perhaps apocryphal? I certainly think - a link here between beer and hurdles - one strong feature of my personality is distractability, which means I jump from subject to subject without concentrating. Well, that's not quite so: I have a very strong, focussed attention on the thing I'm doing and not on the wider picture. Why am I boring you with this? Because I think it has had consequences for my language learning. I can concentrate on the minutiae, but find planning for the complete task in hand much more difficult. I wonder how I ended up as a manager, considering planning and administration are my weakest areas! It is something we all have to work on, our weak points or they will surely hinder us in our progress towards any goal. Edited by Old Chemist on 03 November 2010 at 12:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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