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Thrown into Conversation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| vikavictoria Pentaglot Groupie United States Joined 5049 days ago 49 posts - 74 votes  Speaks: Persian, English*, German, Spanish, Tajik Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 12 04 June 2011 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey All,
So yesterday, my Russian friends called (I met them a couple days before that), and they started to speak to me on the phone in Russian. Now, I have been doing Pimsleur 1 and 2 so I was not unprepared, but it was strange having to muster all my knowledge and understanding and have to speak ON THE PHONE (where voices can get scratchy and a bit unclearer than in real life, and you don't see body language) and make plans with them for the weekend. What do you guys recommend I do to make it easier to speak on the phone? In general, when I'm not speaking in English on the phone, it's awkward for me, but I hope to make it better by doing Pimsleur III and getting more vocab under my belt. Best, Vika 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jasoninchina Senior Member China Joined 5231 days ago 221 posts - 306 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 2 of 12 04 June 2011 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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It sounds like it was good practice for you. Keep doing that.
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| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6550 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 3 of 12 05 June 2011 at 6:27am | IP Logged | ||
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What did you do for your other 4 languages?
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| vikavictoria Pentaglot Groupie United States Joined 5049 days ago 49 posts - 74 votes Speaks: Persian, English*, German, Spanish, Tajik Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 12 05 June 2011 at 5:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Tajik and Persian, I grew up speaking. German, I never did oer the phone convos. Spanish was a high school gig.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5553 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 5 of 12 05 June 2011 at 10:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Oh god I'm not the best at speaking on the phone in my native language, much less so in Finnish. The fact that I can't see the reactions of the person I'm speaking to throw me off, and it's easier for my brain to discard speech as gibberish if I can't see the person actually saying the words. Good on you for surviving your first phone call though, even if it came out of nowhere like that! My first time was the same, and I did much worse. More vocabulary definitely helps PLUS you need to practice listening to the language being spoken. It's very easy to forget listening practice if you don't live in the country where your L2 is spoken, which is a bad mistake to make! Edited by kyssäkaali on 05 June 2011 at 10:18pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| unityandoutside Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6014 days ago 94 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin, Mandarin | Message 6 of 12 05 June 2011 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I find telephone to be the most difficult way to practice spoken language. The speech
is often garbled a little bit even in the best quality calls. When speaking English on the telephone, I have native knowledge so my brain just fills in the gaps. With a foreign language if I can't here all the phonemes clearly it's difficult to be confident. I can understand virtually everything said to me in Russian face to face, but I struggle a great deal conversing over the phone. And it doesn't help that I'm a bit awkward on the phone in the first place. As for practice, I've found that practicing with natives over skype is one of the best ways to get accustomed to conversing in low-fidelity situations. If you sign up here (http://www.language-exchanges.org/) as a native English speaker studying Russian, it's only a matter of time before you'll have plentiful opportunities to practice. I even had to deactivate my account because my skype account has become so crowded with people who want to do language exchange. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6550 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 7 of 12 06 June 2011 at 1:36am | IP Logged | ||
Sorry, I'm still having a hard time getting past this. You are fluent in Spanish and German, but have never made phone calls in those languages? Is that even possible these days? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| vikavictoria Pentaglot Groupie United States Joined 5049 days ago 49 posts - 74 votes Speaks: Persian, English*, German, Spanish, Tajik Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 12 06 June 2011 at 2:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Unity and Kyss, very helpful replies))
leosmith, not so much. sry :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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