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Mixed-language interview | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5670 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 5 08 April 2011 at 3:55pm | IP Logged |
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The following video is currently being talked about here in the Czech republic, It is a
skier talking about his success in a competition. In theory, the interview is in English, but the skier mixes English, German, and Czech. We could, of course, mock him, and feel superior, yet I get something else from the video. Specifically, that his lack of linguistic ability hardly matters, since the interview is still more or less understandable. I see this as a fine demonstration of somebody getting their point across, even with limited language skills. Interview with skier 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| seldnar Senior Member United States Joined 7133 days ago 189 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, French, Greek | Message 2 of 5 08 April 2011 at 5:10pm | IP Logged |
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I like the video. It reminds me of all those times when I was first learning French and Chinese and couldn't put a
whole sentence together. Nevertheless, I was able to make myself understood. This is a necessary step on the way to fluency. If one doesn't do what this guy is doing, then the alternative is silence. And I think we all know silence is not going to take you any closer to fluency. In those early years, I would feel exhausted after having to speak for more than a few minutes in my target language. The guy in the video looks as if he's thinking the skiing was much easier. :-) I know how he feels. edit: to fix spelling error Edited by seldnar on 09 April 2011 at 2:24am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| JFman00 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5530 days ago 20 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 5 08 April 2011 at 7:57pm | IP Logged |
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For me the biggest goal of language is to communicate, and the skier does that with the
tools he has available. I don't find code-switching to be heinous by any means, and among comfortably multilingual people, I don't see anything wrong with using whatever language feels most appropriate. I remember seeing a similar video of a Dutch football/soccer player switching back and forth between Dutch and German as he pleased. I'll always find the mental gymnastics that occurs when fluently bi/multilingual astounding, and second the idea that in a utility situation, code-switching is preferable to silence. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5694 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 4 of 5 09 April 2011 at 2:02am | IP Logged |
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I feel bad for this guy struggling to communicate, because I know how frustrating that can be, but he does a really admirable job and doesn't give up trying! Why couldn't they just interview him in Czech and then get a voiceover, though? I found myself thinking "He's clearly a world-class skier, why should he have to be a polyglot too?" He's achieved enough to be impressive already. :)
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| cpnlsn Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6174 days ago 22 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English*, French, German | Message 5 of 5 10 April 2011 at 7:45pm | IP Logged |
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It's quite funny to listen to and you really feel for him. Still
we've all been there. Moral of the story is it's better to communicate by whatever means than to stay silent. It might also give us some insight into how some languages have developed through contact with other languages or dialects. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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