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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5775 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 17 of 21 18 December 2010 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I still haven't read the rest of your post (though I will) because what you just said really hurt. I do not agree at all that I need to improve my estimation of other people's abilities, bizarrely you yourself even mention several occasions where I was honest enough to agree about the achievements of others as if they somehow supported your assertion! Whatever faults I have I don't believe that to be one of them! As for you, well yes, I did think you were native...but that was hardly surprising given the level of your study and knowledge in a wide variety of fields. I have, for instance, met several foreigners who held an M.A. in English who (apart from accent) spoke flawlessly. Was I impressed? Yes. Did I think it at all relevent to my own language learning (given that my field of study was Biology and not Spanish or German)? No. I respect your intelligence and learning, but I sigh whenever I see your name because I always seem to end up being put down in some way. For the record my English was way above average when I underwent psychometric testing, but contrary to what you seem to think I recognise that I do make the odd mistake (in fact I can give you examples from this very forum where I have done just that without any prompting from anyone!). I know we disagree on the status of natives (which I assume to be the reason for your assertion), but can we please leave that now? I don't really want to argue. Please just take my word that it was never my intention to somehow imply that this guy was the only non-native I had ever seen whose English was nearly flawless; my point was to compare our cases as the level of effort seemed similar on both sides. Correct my Spanish if you have time (please), correct my English if you must (though it can be very tiresome when people do that), but as far as my character is concerned (now that we've both given our opinion) let's just agree to disagree, please. Edited by Random review on 18 December 2010 at 11:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5775 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 18 of 21 18 December 2010 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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In fact forget it, not for the first time this is really spoiling my night with the stress of wondering what you're going to reply. I'm leaving the thread so I can just relax and forget about having to defend my character/intelligence/knowledge/English/whatever the next thing is to be criticised. I'll read your response (fair's fair), but I'm not now going to add anything myself to this thread...this should not be taken by any third party as indicating that I agree with this response. I think we have some sort of personality clash and should maybe leave each other alone as much as possible. Edited by Random review on 18 December 2010 at 11:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6542 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 19 of 21 19 December 2010 at 4:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
slucido has reached a very high level with his patented method. I would enjoy talking to him sometime, if that would ever be possible. Maybe even buy him a beer for all the abuse I've heaped on him over the years. That being said, I wonder if others have reached fluency with the slucido method? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5218 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 20 of 21 19 December 2010 at 6:53am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Hey "dude" :) Please don't read hostility where none is intended. If you still see it there, blame it on my far-from-perfect command of English. In my language I find it quite harder to unintentionally hurt/offend other people, even if it's true that I tend not to be overly diplomatic. What I meant is: it seems to me that you underestimate your Spanish (I don't know for sure, but from our previous discussions you certainly know your stuff even if we disagree) and at the same time you overestimate everyone's English based on a very small sample which again you seem to overestimate (at least concerning MY skills). Why do I think so? Because even if the others and I are as good as you seem to think it is very unlikely that we're a statistically valid sample; and I know I'm far from where I'd like to be, so I believe it's more probable that you're overestimating at least me. In other words: you're probably doing better than you think, and your only 'failure' is to think that others are doing better than they're really doing. I don't think that's a very bad thing to say about anyone, but... Again, I'm sorry if you felt put down by me in any way with that; as I tried to make clear that wasn't my intention. End of apology. Friends? :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5775 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 21 of 21 19 December 2010 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I know I said I wouldn't reply, but your response was so different from what I expected that it will seem childish of me if I don't.
I understood your comment as meaning that I don't give other people credit for their achievements in learning English. If I misunderstod I apologise.
I don't overestimate you, or Slucido. I have seen enough of your writing to have a fairly good idea where you are. Neither of you are *absolutely* perfect, but then as you always point out neither are most natives (I recognise that this includes me), but you have both clearly reached a very impressive standard indeed. Now, when I compare myself with people like you I realise my Spanish has a long way to go IF I WANT TO REACH THE STANDARD I AM AIMING FOR. Your English (and that of Slucido) is roughly that standard. I do recognise that you are not really representative of most language learners...compared to the average UK learner my Spanish is fantastic (seriously); butonly because most people do so badly (in the UK anyway). The people on this forum are, in contrast, all serious language learners, like me, and the ones such as yourself who have achieved a good level of mastery in a foreign language are therefore a much more sensible frame of reference for me than the average "learner in the street". I estimate my Spanish at B2 (or at least B1). I estimate slucido's English at A2. We have put in similar amounts of effort, and I am (like him) an intelligent guy. Clearly it is worth considering his strategy.
If what you said above is correct then you have nothing to apologise for and it's my fault for overreacting (a tendency to take things personally and overreact is, as you already know, one of my GENUINE faults). I apologise. Edited by Random review on 19 December 2010 at 1:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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