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L2 pseudo-savantness | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| rodrigoau Triglot Newbie Australia Joined 3636 days ago 19 posts - 52 votes  Speaks: Macedonian*, English, Spanish Studies: Italian, Turkish | Message 9 of 11 04 May 2015 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||
French is like that. Having studied the structure of the French language and taking advantage of my fluency in Spanish, I can read journal articles in French, especially those related to the field of history fluently and without major difficulties. Then I go and listen to a french music video on youtube, and when I try to read the comments below the video I am lost and unable to understand basic statements. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5432 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 10 of 11 04 May 2015 at 1:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think @basica and @garyb have hit the nail on the head. It all boils down to what the language learner has been
exposed to. First of all, the highly colloquial and often slangy spoken language is rarely taught in language classes. Secondly, most language learners initially have no need for this kind of language. The problem arises, as we see in the posts here, when the language learner is thrust into situations where there is the need to interact with native speakers in an informal way. The solution to this problem is of course massive exposure to speaking with native in informal situations. We have certainly all noticed that the best speakers of a foreign language are those who have spent time around native speakers, especially in some form of immersion. Let's also keep in mind that there is the opposite of the situation described here. It's certainly possible to be at ease speaking the informal language and not being able to read or write. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4446 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 11 of 11 04 May 2015 at 8:45pm | IP Logged | ||
Chinese people would occasionally insert 4-character proverbs into their speech. The frequent use of proverbs reflect a person's education. And if you are not familiar with a proverb, it's difficult to guess the meaning unless you know which of the 4 characters are used since there are often different characters that sound the same. In news broadcast, TV documentaries you often hear different proverbs in use. There are few Chinese words you find in technical / scientific journal that became common such as 基因 (gene which is an English loan word). When you go shopping in a supermarket you see 基因食品 you know the food is supposed to be organic (no GMO, free of synthetic fertilizer, pesticide, etc). The more technical words tend to sound foreign and un-Chinese that you can tell when you hear them. Recently I watched a few history documentaries in Chinese and heard some new words: 金字塔 jīnzìtǎ for an Egyptian pyramid, 幽浮 yōufú for an UFO and 尼安德塔 Ní'āndétǎ for Neanderthal man. Besides the word for pyramid, the other 2 words sound totally foreign that you wouldn't normally remember them in your Chinese vocabulary. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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