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Feelings about learners of your language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5422 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 17 of 31 22 February 2010 at 6:46am | IP Logged | ||||||||
school from Germany with no knowledge of English. He speaks English flawlessly with no accent whatsoever (a student asked him why he had no accent, and he said because he "didn't like it," I thought that was awesome), I didn't believe he was actually German until he had mentioned it a few times! He has spoken in German a few times, and that gives me more reasons to say his class is my favorite :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Hobbema Senior Member United States Joined 5741 days ago 541 posts - 575 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, French, Dutch | Message 18 of 31 22 February 2010 at 7:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Well, it depends on your motivation. If you want to learn a language, and interaction and functioning with target language and native speakers, and learning about their culture is your goal, then who cares what the heck they think. You are out there honestly, mixing it up, making mistakes, immersing yourself and learning. If all you care about is what others think, and if all you care about is having perfect skills, then you are better off not learning anything and remaining quiet. Good point, though. Some people would find this situation intimidating. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Enki Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5833 days ago 54 posts - 133 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written), English*, French, Korean Studies: Japanese | Message 19 of 31 22 February 2010 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I understand what you mean. And of course it's impossible to learn the language of every area where an issue comes up. What I mean is that a person who claims to be an expert on the region betrays his ignorance by not understanding the language, as an "expert" should have deeper knowledge than the average person. IMO language is the basics of cultural and social literacy. That's probably my bias, though. Not to hijack this thread. I'd be interested what a Japanese person has to say about this topic. Japanese is an interesting case because the learners tend to be looked down upon....by other non-Japanese (eg. Otaku, Weaboo, ect). I wonder what the perspective of a native speaker is on this. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5585 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 20 of 31 22 February 2010 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I love that, it's the best. It shows me that I should be able to learn my target language to such a fluency too! Anything is possible if I want it. :) German people always have very impressive English skill, I'm not going to lie. Actually, everyone I've met has had very impressive English skill. It makes me feel bad about my target language skill. :P 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5422 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 21 of 31 23 February 2010 at 5:39am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I believe we were talking about this in another thread, but there have been times a nonnative English speaker on here has made a post and I look at it and sit there thinking "What the hell does that word mean?" I think I have figured out why this happens though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5453 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 22 of 31 23 February 2010 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Why do you think it happens? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5422 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 23 of 31 24 February 2010 at 5:26am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Because as native English speakers, we may encounter those higher-level words only a few times, while we hear slang and colloquial language all the time. On the other hand, a learner of English, unless they are totally emerged in colloquial English, will see these words and not know if they are used frequently in conversations, so they learn them. Also, knowing word X may make them seem or feel smarter. And they make more of an effort to put it into active use, where if I see a word like abhor, which I know when I see it but would only come to my mind if I had to write a formal essay or letter. After all, we don't say "I abhorred that movie" to our friends, do we? That's just something that popped into my head the other day, I might be completely wrong for all I know. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 24 of 31 24 February 2010 at 6:25am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I like to help people who come to America to learn English. I put myself in their shoes and
ask myself, "What if I wanted to have a conversation with a native speaker of my target language?" I don't laugh, I make helpful remarks, and I encourage. I would have to disagree with many of the above statements saying that Germans can speak English very well. This is usually the group of people that bother to leave Germany and go to America or Britain for more than a week or two, and jobs of international importance that require travel and the use of English. Essentially, not all Germans speak English. I've had to switch over to German too many times when I've run into Germans who can's speak English. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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