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When a language doesnt sound right to you

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FrenchLanguage
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5736 days ago

122 posts - 135 votes 

 
 Message 1 of 11
06 April 2010 at 1:16am | IP Logged 
Hello everyone,

I think Ive mentioned this some time in the past. I do not have this problem with English (never had it in any way), but one thing I've come to realize is that even though I like French a lot, sometimes I have phases when I sort of think it sounds weird listening to it and speaking it.

Please dont get me wrong, I dont have these moments that often (mostly overlaps with times when I'm in a depressive mood or burnt out from college - maybe they'll be gone completely when Im done with college)...like I said please dont get me wrong, there are actually more moments when I enjoy the sound of French a lot ;-).

However, this is something that would keep me from moving to France. I cant imagine speaking French all day every day and making it my main language so to speak.

Does anyone else know of this problem? I'm thinking of moving to another country after college and wouldnt mind learning a new language, but it'd better be a language where I'll hopefully never come across this problem (e.g. English).

I've been hoping the reason might be that French and German sound so different from one another, whereas English and German sound sort of similar.

Anyone know the feeling?

1 person has voted this message useful



ManicGenius
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5481 days ago

288 posts - 420 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese

 
 Message 2 of 11
06 April 2010 at 1:29am | IP Logged 
Every day when I studied Mandarin in college :-P

Don't give up hope though, eventually those phases will pass. (That's why they're called
phases!)
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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 3 of 11
06 April 2010 at 2:03am | IP Logged 
FrenchLanguage wrote:

However, this is something that would keep me from moving to France. I cant imagine
speaking French all day every day and making it my main language so to speak.

How do you find any motivation to learn the language when you are reluctant to speaking
it?

Personally, it's the opposite: the idea of speaking another language full-time is really
attractive and I'd move just to do that (well, if it wasn't for the job, the kids, the
wife, etc.).

Edited by Arekkusu on 06 April 2010 at 2:07am

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datsunking1
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5585 days ago

1014 posts - 1533 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French

 
 Message 4 of 11
06 April 2010 at 4:02am | IP Logged 
Arekkusu wrote:
FrenchLanguage wrote:

However, this is something that would keep me from moving to France. I cant imagine
speaking French all day every day and making it my main language so to speak.

How do you find any motivation to learn the language when you are reluctant to speaking
it?

Personally, it's the opposite: the idea of speaking another language full-time is really
attractive and I'd move just to do that (well, if it wasn't for the job, the kids, the
wife, etc.).


Between you and I have a secret desire of busting the door down when I come home from work (Instead of "Honey, I'm home!") It's "Honey! Pack your bags we leave in the morning for [insert exotic foreign land] :D

I'm really weighing my options with this. A part of me wants to enjoy life with my family and explore the world. Money wouldn't even be an issue to me, I don't really care. (What I mean is a job I truly enjoy > money)

I can only hope that I can live my dreams.
1 person has voted this message useful





Iversen
Super Polyglot
Moderator
Denmark
berejst.dk
Joined 6703 days ago

9078 posts - 16473 votes 
Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan
Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian
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 Message 5 of 11
06 April 2010 at 9:24am | IP Logged 
If you moved to France you would be surrounded by people who spoke French 24x7, so it would stop sounding weird to you after just a few days. And then you wouldn't be able to imagine why you thought it would be a problem.

If English doesn't make the same weird impression on you now it could be a result of the pervasiveness of English even in Germany (outside the German television, of course). So if the sound of French is your only problem about moving you shouldn't let it block you.
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Bao
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5
Joined 5766 days ago

2256 posts - 4046 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 6 of 11
07 April 2010 at 4:08pm | IP Logged 
FrenchLanguage wrote:
Please dont get me wrong, I dont have these moments that often (mostly overlaps with times when I'm in a depressive mood or burnt out from college -

That.

I tend to have this feeling all the time when I'm mentally exhausted. It goes away with a bit of rest. (And it makes me mishear things in awesome ways.)

When you're tired, exhausted, burnt out etc this means that your self regulatory ressources are used up for the time being and you need rest to be able to concentrate well again/make good decisions, plan etc.
Now, just some days ago I read an interesting article about a study that showed that the perception of sounds as phonemes also draws on this ressource.
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FrenchLanguage
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5736 days ago

122 posts - 135 votes 

 
 Message 7 of 11
07 April 2010 at 11:22pm | IP Logged 
@Arreksu(sp?): I'm not learning or studying French anymore..I can already speak it..I only started having this slight problem during the last 2 years or so (makes me wonder if it's really nothing but the burn out thing now that bao mentions he knows the feeling).

It's also not there all the time, and simply maintaining my level of French hasn't been too hard (watching a DVD or two once a month...chatting with someone in french on the web once a month rather accidentally)..havent really lost any of it (must say I'm fairly surprised myself how easy it has been to maintain my grasp of French)
1 person has voted this message useful



Vinlander
Groupie
Canada
Joined 5821 days ago

62 posts - 69 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French

 
 Message 8 of 11
08 April 2010 at 5:04am | IP Logged 
I'm guessing here but i think you might be talking about tranny syndrome. You here a language, to your ears it sounds familiar, just like a tranny, however your brain goes limp when it can figure out the mechanics. With french my brain trys to make it like English, because on the surface they sound similar. However in reality there very different when it comes to internal structure. So my brains when hearing it constantly feels like a dog pretending to be a cat.

I find french it so wacky to learn. I like German alot more because on the surface, it's completely different and novel. Yet when you internalize it, it's closer to English.

I donno if that helps but that's my 2 cents.


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