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Getting people not to speak English | ||
Tags: Language Banditry | Convincing native speakers | Immersion | Swedish | Learning Technique/Method | Accent | English | German | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5766 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 161 of 169 16 December 2010 at 3:52pm | IP Logged |
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I have recently just begun speaking French with my girlfriend (who is half Belgian) as much as I can so I can go to Belgium to meet her family in a couple of months. Beforehand, we had been speaking mostly German and so she found it difficult and a bit strange to speak French with me at all. She wanted to help me but she was (is) someone who, once she uses a specific language with someone, she finds it difficult to break that habit and speak different language instead. So I decided that I would reply to her in French regardless of what language she spoke to me in. One day, a little while back now, after a couple of weeks of doing this constantly, she replied in French. It surprised me but it shows that persistence works wonders. Even with pretty stubborn people, as she is.
Jack 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6050 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 162 of 169 19 December 2010 at 4:28am | IP Logged |
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I agree with some who say it comes down to accent, and perhaps, confidence on your delivery. I have never had this problem in China, even before I could speak quickly, and I look typically Caucasian.
There were levels of absurdity. For example, I was on an elevator (in China) and the person asked in Chinese "which floor?". I replied simply "4". He looked astonished and blurted out in Chinese "Wow, your Chinese is fantastic!". It was a little silly, but it goes to show how surprised he was by the lack of accent. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Budz Octoglot Senior Member Australia languagepump.com Joined 6373 days ago 118 posts - 171 votes Speaks: German*, English, Russian, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Mandarin, Cantonese, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Persian, Hungarian, Kazakh, Swahili, Vietnamese, Polish | Message 163 of 169 19 December 2010 at 6:36am | IP Logged |
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Oh, don't get me started. The number of times I've said one word in Chinese - such as 'hello' and some Chinese person has switched to English and started going on about how good my Chinese is. It drives me up the wall. But this is mainly in Australia that this happens.
I think there must be more and more westerners speaking better and better Chinese in China as the last time I was there I was amazed at the number of times I'd have an interaction in Chinese and no one would comment at all. It was as if they hadn't noticed. And if this isn't happenimg to you you're probably too close to Tian An Men! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5009 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 164 of 169 17 April 2011 at 11:13pm | IP Logged |
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Oh, sorry about reviving such an old thread but it is great! I've tried some of the methods used, except for the lying about my language knowledge. Continuing in their language didn't work. Pretending not to understand is just slightly better. And I am happy to see I am not the only one with this trouble, most Czechs keep telling me it's a nonsence because "the French refuse to speak English as everyone knows".
I have met this situation so many times, mostly in France. The English answers are the most usual case but I have seen something weirder. We were in Alsace, me, my father and a friend of approximately the age of my father. We came in a restaurant and I started to speak with the waiter in French. She asked what language we prefer, offering German, Dutch and several others. I haven't understood why. The rest of the table didn't look that puzzled to start this but perhaps she just wanted them to react (my father speaks only czech and really bad English and the friend speaks only czech, japanese and a little Italian). People often seem to assume that the older people are the more educated and the ones that should speak for the group even though I am the one starting conversation in their language and I am not bad at it. More helpful were people in Spain, around Barcelona. Except for one waitress, all responded in Spanish and even repeated for me (Spanish is still very fast for me as I am not too advanced). But once I was grateful for someone speaking English. An old lady needed something which I didn't understand and she started speaking even faster, perhaps calling me any my boyfriend bad names. Sudenly a man, of whom I'd never expected it by his appearance ,came and found out that we were foreigners and defended us from the lady. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cpnlsn Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6173 days ago 22 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, French, German | Message 165 of 169 21 April 2011 at 6:07pm | IP Logged |
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I think it's a big problem as it really deter ability to
communicate. From my recent travel in Germany this was not too much of a problem. Of course it us legitimate to speak in English to foreigners both to improve your English and try to be helpful. With those putting in effort to speak your language of course one should speak that language unless communication is becoming difficult. My first advice is to persevere in the first language. Other suggestions might include pretending not to speak English, explaining you want to speak their language and so on. One other tactic is to reply in a short phrase in a dialect of the language you want to speak. This can be a good way to get across your keenness to talk their language and lack of keenness to speak English. As of course with other suggestions this can backfire if they respond in fluent dialect (unlikely though). Finally if you find yourself in the middle of an English conversation then one can interject short L2 questions that don't alter the flow of the conversation like 'ja wie sagt man das auf deutsch?' (for German). One can also just speak fast and complicated English but that's a bit unkind. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 166 of 169 21 April 2011 at 6:31pm | IP Logged |
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I wish someone could actually record (or document accurately) the way this type of linguistic rejection plays out in real life so that we may better analyze and understand it.
I think there's more to be learned from looking at why people fail than by looking at why they succeed. I suspect that when they do succeed, it simply looks like a normal exchange. But why do others fail? Otherwise, I must admit that I don't really get the problem. Usually, when I try to speak in another language, people are always supportive, even when the other person's skills are obviously better than mine. Perhaps I'm simply more persistant or stubborn than most. Edited by Arekkusu on 21 April 2011 at 6:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Budz Octoglot Senior Member Australia languagepump.com Joined 6373 days ago 118 posts - 171 votes Speaks: German*, English, Russian, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Mandarin, Cantonese, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Persian, Hungarian, Kazakh, Swahili, Vietnamese, Polish | Message 167 of 169 22 April 2011 at 1:11am | IP Logged |
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Yeah... a lot of exaggeration going on here I think. Of course now and again someone will want to speak English... but there are plenty of other people out there who can't speak a word of English... why not hang out with them??
As for throwing in some dialect as someone suggested... well, all I can say is that it's not much of a suggestion. And if it's a dialect that the other person doesn't even understand... it would be a pretty inappropriate thing to do anyway. In fact the other person might think that you speak it fluently and are just trying to show this person up - Ha, I'm a foreigner and I speak a dialect of your language that you don't... Though more often than not I suspect they'd just continue in English and start explaining why it is that he/she couldn't be expected to speak that dialect. I second they query... where exactly does this insistance on English happen? These people need to hang out in different places... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cpnlsn Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6173 days ago 22 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, French, German | Message 168 of 169 22 April 2011 at 4:55pm | IP Logged |
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Well I just threw in dialect as a suggestion cos it works for
me - every once in a while. There are negatives of course like you might end up lumbered with a very strange conversation. Anyway it's worked well for me in the past. You if course need some words to say but being attentive to spoken language forms as well as written forms is part of the fun of being in the country where the language is spoken. But really the key thing is having some ways of handling such a situation if it arises. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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