|
 |
Language Bragging | ||
Tags: Show-off | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5113 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 9 of 58 07 November 2010 at 1:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Maar dat lijkt mij nou juist de lol ervan. Ik vind het wel een leuk idee. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| daniel95 Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5003 days ago 18 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish | Message 10 of 58 07 November 2010 at 1:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think it is best to try and be modest about languages by not saying you're fluent but by highlighting the skills. So one could say 'I'm quite good at Mandarin speaking and listening but I need to work on my reading and writing.' That way you show that you have worked hard but still have a way to go. Or if you have a huge list, pick your favourites and end with 'and I like to study a few others'. I hate how people, particularly English, are amazed by even a bit of linguistic knowledge. They think you're superhuman, but in reality I just want to tell them that actually, I'm not, I've just worked hard. And also that they too have talents that I am in awe of. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5544 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 11 of 58 07 November 2010 at 2:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
Penso che sia una molto bella idea, ma immagino che sarebbe difficile realizzarla, che è assurda, perché siamo entrati in questo forum per imparare le lingue straniere ma la maggior parte delle discussioni è in inglese. Ma suppongo che avrebbe bisogno di molto più moderatori per vigilare sulle discussioni. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| nebojats Triglot Groupie United States Joined 4974 days ago 89 posts - 120 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Thai Studies: French, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Italian | Message 12 of 58 07 November 2010 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
In my experience, most people who boast about their language skills turn out to be underwhelming. Conversely, the few people I know who have achieved near-fluency in a second language don't brag about or even hardly acknowledge their abilities.
The most delectable case of schadenfreude is seeing a "fluent" speaker get absolutely destroyed by a native speaker. Have you ever noticed bragging between students of a second language? Sometimes I think learners act like competitors, searching for any advantage to show off superior knowledge and then pedantically explaining to others what they just missed. I find this sort of behavior widespread, incredibly annoying, and counterproductive. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5789 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 13 of 58 07 November 2010 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
The really annoying one is when you're introduced to a bragger as someone who speaks the same language as him, and he says something that you don't understand in the language, then refuses to repeat it.
Whenever it's happened to me, I've been pretty sure that the other guy wasn't very good at the language, but stands their all smug saying how you don't speak the language. I normally just let it slide and mark it down as one more person I don't want to talk to. But if it happens again I'm just going to start talking the language at full tilt and embarass the other person. It only seems to happen with the common languages in my experience (French and Spanish, in my case) and I should be able to just demolish them now. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| gogglehead Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 5853 days ago 248 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 14 of 58 07 November 2010 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
A horrible occurence is when a "speaker" of language X feels the need to thrust their "knowledge" of said language in your face. Not too long ago, in a bar here in England, I was conversing in Italian with an acquaintance from Sicily, whose grasp of the English language was almost nil. I was speaking away, oblivious that a guy (a local lad who, at every opportunity, informs everyone of his "fluency" in German, and with a reputation in the neighbourhood of being a bit of a tw*t) had approached, and was standing at the shoulder of the Sicilian guy. Suddenly, and in mid-conversation, he butted in "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?", and stared directly at me! Although I understood what he said, I pretended not too, and fixed him with a look that said "You're a complete c***". I kind of know what this total tool was trying to achieve,for, in his insecurity, and longing for recognition of his "talent", he was offended by my use of a foreign language alien to him, and felt the immediate need to validate himself. The conversation had nothing to do with him, and nothing to do with German.
But I have noticed, not just in this forum, but out in the world, that those who brag, tend to be at a lower level of skill in their languages, and that truly skilled Polyglots tend to play down their abilities. I know I could be generalising, but that is my impression. I just wish I was fluent in German, then I could have REALLY embarrassed this guy! 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6481 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 Personal Language Map | Message 15 of 58 07 November 2010 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I don't visit bars if I can avoid it, and that probably saves me from most of those situations (and from meeting most of those types that have to show off in the way described by Gogglehead).
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| gogglehead Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 5853 days ago 248 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 16 of 58 07 November 2010 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
I kind of wish that you had been there Iversen, the guy wouldn't have had a clue what he was letting himself in for! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
