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Another one bites the dust... | ||
Tags: Discouragement from learning | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Alexander86 Tetraglot Senior Member United Kingdom alanguagediary.blogs Joined 4982 days ago 224 posts - 323 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, Catalan Studies: Swedish | Message 1 of 12 13 May 2011 at 3:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey everyone, just thought I'd say this...
I was in the pool today doing my usual swim, keeping fit et al and I heard some Spanish. Naturally, because I'm a language geek, I was excited! Spanish, here? Cool! So after a few more lengths I swam over and said.. "oye, sois espanolas?" "Si, you speak a little Spanish?" I was SO disappointed! They immediately switched to English, even when they had a thick accent, hmmf! Oh well, I can only keep on trying, right? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 2 of 12 13 May 2011 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | ||
So did you keep on trying with them? R. == 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 5227 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 4 of 12 13 May 2011 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Maybe they're used to people not being actually conversational, or...
If you quoted your dialog faithfully I guess their English is probably less than wonderful (accent aside), but you didn't make any mistakes in your admittedly short first try. So, I'm guessing you had a noticeable accent and they thought "what the hell, I may not be very good, but I sure do better than this guy", as it commonly happens with beginners. Did you try again and found the actual reason? Keep trying, man! Be stubborn, and you may succeed some time :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 5 of 12 13 May 2011 at 6:10pm | IP Logged | ||
Maybe they just grabbed the opportunity to practise their English? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 6 of 12 13 May 2011 at 6:36pm | IP Logged | ||
There is high unemployment in Spain just now, and a lot of people are coming to the UK to improve their English to make their CVs stand out. However, most of them find themselves stuck in a circle of Spanish friends with practically no opportunities to talk to native English speakers, so when they get the chance, they jump at it. This can be frustrating for learners of Spanish, but it doesn't need to be -- it's an opportunity. These people are crying out for English speaking friends, and they will be more than happy to engage in "tandems" or "intercambios" with anyone who is willing to help them learn English in exchange for some help with Spanish. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Alexander86 Tetraglot Senior Member United Kingdom alanguagediary.blogs Joined 4982 days ago 224 posts - 323 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, Catalan Studies: Swedish | Message 7 of 12 13 May 2011 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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@hrhenry - I did keep on trying but English continued flowing
@szastprast - My Spanish accent isn't perfect no, but it wasn't a dig at them... I was just wondering why they switched immediately... @mrwarper - mira, no es que sea un nativo pero tampoco soy "ab initio"... @Cainntear - too true, I know a few Spaniards who have come here on Erasmus and then are surprised that they have not learnt any English when all they do is hang around with Spaniards. Mind you the same thing happens with French and Italians... I've tried to make intercambios but in the end they don't seem interested even when they've come here to learn English!!! But I'll try harder =) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 8 of 12 13 May 2011 at 9:52pm | IP Logged | ||
Maybe I'm being naive, but maybe a direct "¿Podría practicar mi español un poco con vosotras?" would have helped. At least you wouldn't have had to dance back and forth between English and Spanish. Or maybe you would have gotten a direct "But we'd like to practice our English with you!" in return and you all could have gone from there. In any case, Spaniards are some of the most friendly and outgoing people I've met, all over Europe. R. == 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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