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Living abroad using 2nd language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5469 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes  Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 9 of 17 21 January 2010 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The transition from standard language fluency to spoken language fluency should be a quick one. If you actively work on it you should have it mastered within a few months. The hardest work is already done.
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| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6659 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 10 of 17 21 January 2010 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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During the first eight to ten days, you are probably very excited about being in a country where they speak your target language. Everything is new and exciting; it's not just the language but all of the other features of another culture. If you don't understand something, it doesn't bother you as much.
After those first days, you probably develop more of a routine. The novelty has worn off. If you stick with it, those rough times will also pass. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 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 11 of 17 21 January 2010 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
It's not only Spanish, it's also everything in the country itself, people have a crazy driving style, TVs are play back 20% or so louder than I'm used to, there's a lot less noise protection etc. One gets used to it ... after a while. (I shout more here in one week than I did my entire life before in Germany, I swear!) I was too lazy to actually write out 'immersion to my third active foreign language which at the beginning of the immersion ranked lower than the previous two in terms of skills' and not geeky enough to write L2.3 immersion. (= 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ChrisVincent Bilingual Tetraglot Newbie Mauritius quicklearn.t35.com Joined 5435 days ago 23 posts - 33 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: German | Message 12 of 17 22 January 2010 at 6:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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What you are experiencing is normal. There is gap between your theoritical grasp of that language and your ability to use it with another person in a two-way exchange. Your fluency in that language will improve as time goes on and the more you use it.
Can you give us more details about your level in that language prior to going to that country - for how long you have studied it, your grammar and vocabulary level, how much practice you had, etc. ? Based on that information, we will be able to provide you better feedback. I think that there is another aspect to take into consideration - the reason why you went to that country. If e.g.,you have gone there to work, you need to express yourself sufficiently clearly so that they understand exactly what you have on your mind. So you may feel that even if you are able to speak a little bit in that language and you are improving, it is never enough - for your communication to be a success in your case, they need to understand your ideas perfectly. If that so, I suggest that you learn the specific vocabulary in the field that you are trying to communicate - e.g. if you are an engineer building a dam in that country, you need to learn the vocabulary about engineering, water and dam-duilding as soon as possible (100-300 words). Don't worry if you cannot piece two words together or that your grammar is not perfect. They will understand you. You will notice a sudden rise in your communication skills. 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 13 of 17 22 January 2010 at 4:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
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After living in Finland for 4 months, I certainly wasn't fed up with hearing the language all around me everyday and all day; on the contrary, this was still one of my favourite parts about living in Finland. However, if I ever had to engage in a conversation longer than the hello's and thank you's exchanged between customer and cashier, I got frustrated pretty quickly. For the last month I had a language tandem who I at first (we deviated towards English near the end of my stay) spoke exclusively in Finnish with. She was a great girl, but I always felt kind of eager to get away from her so I could just SPEAK English. It was almost like someone was holding my head underwater and I was trying desperately to lift my head above the water. I speak English and I breathe air, I don't speak Finnish and I don't breathe water!!
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| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6034 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 14 of 17 22 January 2010 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sometimes I also get sick of English, especially after having to interact with some rude/unpleasant native speaker. When this happens I switch to studying some of my other languages. I find that 1-2 days in a week is enough to cure the negativism and make me want to work on my English more. I also love reading fiction in English, so even if face to face contact can be oppressive sometimes, reading is always a pleasant retreat. Edited by Sennin on 22 January 2010 at 5:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| crackpot Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6301 days ago 144 posts - 178 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 15 of 17 20 March 2010 at 3:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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I didn't speak much of the language in Korea but it took me two months to feel
comfortable in doing daily things like using a bank machine, the subway, etc, etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| crafedog Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5818 days ago 166 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean, Tok Pisin, French | Message 16 of 17 20 March 2010 at 6:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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I had a similar frustration when I first went to Spain to study Spanish after my (shoddy) spainish university degree. I was over-confident that because I knew a lot of verb forms and vocabulary that somehow I could understand and use the language. I didn't practise much listening back then (no movies, no dubbed cartoons etc) and I had a bad time in Spain (factors like people I travelled with, the area of Spain I went to, the crime and where I was staying played a part p.s. don't stay in Valencia). Needless to say my Spanish was terrible and I had a terrible time there.
Luckily while I was there a friend introduced me to Michel Thomas. I listened to it when I got back to England, used it to clean my Spanish up and went back to Spain the following year and had a better/more successful time. I went to Spain recently after not having spoken/studied it for 2+ years and my listening/comprehension was fine (surprisingly). My speaking was unsurprisingly rusty but was recovering. So back to the original posters issue I'd argue perhaps some of it was over-confidence (I don't mean to be rude in this assumption, I just speak from my own experience). A simple test is this; could you understand a movie in your target language before you left (one you hadn't seen before in your native language)? If the answer is no (like mine was) then that's the reason. Now if you could understand a movie before you left then I would agree with other posters on this that it's just sheer mental fatigue. Two things: 1. relax and change it up. For example, go to a movie, watch tv, listen to the radio in the language and forget about your surroundings. 2. have a few beers. As strange advice as that is, sometimes when I drink I automatically relax and it's easier to speak/hear the target language. It might be because you've lost some inhibitions or it might be because you're no longer paying attention to what you're saying (for better or for worse). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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