When did your L2 start sounding normal (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

When did your L2 start sounding normal
Tags: Epiphany
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

11 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

Thor1987
Groupie
Canada
Joined 4735 days ago
65 posts - 84 votes

Studies: German

Message 9 of 11

05 February 2012 at 5:55pm | IP Logged

LaughingChimp wrote:

mrwarper wrote:

It doesn't really take a lot. After just ten or
twenty hours of German classes, a student of mine told me he obviously couldn't
understand 99.9% of what he heard, but he had no big problems isolating words in speech,
or identifying not overly long compounds. To him it didn't sound as unintelligible
gibberish any more, but rather as a stream of unknown words. He wasn't particularly good
at languages and he was still struggling with German sounds.

I think you misunderstood the question. The effect described by Thor1987 comes long after
you learn to recognize the sounds. It takes hundreds of hours at least.

Exactly, it's a concept that's pretty hard to explain but I think you get what I mean.
1 person has voted this message useful

Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6598 days ago
9753 posts - 15779 votes

4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, Finnish^C1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

Message 10 of 11

05 February 2012 at 7:08pm | IP Logged

LaughingChimp wrote:

It takes hundreds of hours at least.

Depends on what you do. I'm still new to Danish so after it everything sounds so familiar :D
1 person has voted this message useful

KimG
Diglot
Groupie
Norway
Joined 4978 days ago
88 posts - 104 votes

Speaks: Norwegian*, English
Studies: Portuguese, Swahili

Message 11 of 11

05 February 2012 at 10:14pm | IP Logged

I got two L2's, English and Portuguese, for me, English gradually turned more normal after I finished school. English never was my best subject back then, but I had use of the language, watching TV, reading some, etc. Suddenly, one day I just got it.
In portuguese, I'm closer to that stage than I though possible when I started learning it 2 - 2.5 years ago. Think I'd need to use it more, much more for it to get completely "normal", but I'm way farther than I though I'd get on my own, without any Portugal/Brazil trips, etc.

1 person has voted this message useful

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