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Meeting People on the Street | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| dagojr Groupie United States Joined 5375 days ago 56 posts - 131 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 11 29 November 2010 at 12:40am | IP Logged |
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What do you do when you come across people who speak your target language?
I ask because I have come across several situations within the past few weeks where I have overheard a conversation in my target language. On the one hand, I'd love to get some practice in the language and perhaps meet some new and interesting people. On the other hand, I really can't carry a conversation in the language yet, I can only understand some phrases and sentences, and I'm wondering if it would be a little weird to try to start a conversation with a complete stranger simply because they are speaking another language - which I myself cannot even speak. I'm sure I could eek out something like "I heard that you are speaking Russian. In fact, I am studying Russian now" in my target language, but I would probably have trouble responding to any sort of reply or question they may put forward. So far, I've tried to overhear what they are speaking about (usually with great difficulty and little success), but I haven't really engaged any of them in conversation. What do most of you do in this type of situation, where you overhear someone speaking a language you are learning, but are not yet at the level where you can converse in the language itself? Edited by dagojr on 29 November 2010 at 12:41am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6489 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 2 of 11 29 November 2010 at 12:55am | IP Logged |
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I would only enter a conversation if the theme and situation made it natural to do so, and only if I could participate on a fairly reasonable level. Just wanting to learn the language spoken by somebody else would not be reason enough to mingle into their private discussions.
But I wouldn't have any qualms about eavesdropping discretely. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4916 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 3 of 11 29 November 2010 at 1:03am | IP Logged |
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Personally, I wouldn't approach strangers just for the sake of practicing, particularly if I couldn't really have a meaningful conversation. If, on the other hand, I could ask and answer simple questions and overheard them trying to figure something out about my city (I'm assuming you're in a largish city and these people are tourists), then yes, I would offer my help, explaining that I speak a little of their language and could I help?, etc.
If it's practice you're after, I'd rather search out a regular conversation partner - get together one or twice a week - and get more comfortable with basic conversation skills. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lianne Senior Member Canada thetoweringpile.blog Joined 4901 days ago 284 posts - 410 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Toki Pona, German, French | Message 4 of 11 29 November 2010 at 2:01am | IP Logged |
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The only time anything like this has happened to me, it was easy to start a conversation. It was at a get-together for a program at my school, so there was already that connection. I found out that two of the new guys in the program were from Germany, so when I started chatting with them I said "Ich verstehe ein bisschen Deutsch!" They were very excited about it and complimented my accent. But I can't say a whole lot in German so after that the conversation stayed in English. It was exciting, though!
Edit: Further thoughts: If I heard someone speaking Esperanto, I would definitely talk to them. I suppose it's because of the inherent community in being an Esperantist. We'd already have something in common, compared to me and someone I heard speaking German on the street. Edited by Lianne on 29 November 2010 at 2:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Leurre Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5211 days ago 219 posts - 372 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 5 of 11 29 November 2010 at 2:51am | IP Logged |
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Strangers are tricky if your level is still low. But I find that much better than
strangers are people you can see regularly, for just 1 or 2 minutes. For example, my barber is Russian, and we chat quite a bit (not in Russian, I wouldn't know the first thing to say!) at regular intervals. The guy at the corner store is Korean, so I always give him a little hello, 30 seconds about a basketball team we both like, etc. The taxi drivers around my house are almost all haitian, so I always make sure I ask them where they're from in Haiti, how they are etc. in Creole. Like that, I bet you could be able to find a community of russian speakers with whom you could have 'normal' interactions not as strangers but as client/host or whatever other kind of similar relationship. It helps because you actually make friends with the people after you see them for a bit. If all else fails, sabotage public transportation. Nothing gets people talking to strangers as much as waiting 30 minutes at the bus stop or being stuck in the subway ;) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6445 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 6 of 11 29 November 2010 at 3:13am | IP Logged |
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Are there any grocery stores or other shops in your area that cater to immigrants from countries that speak your target language? It might help to shop there once in a while. You may meet other people who speak your target language, or you might at least overhear that language.
It's also possible they might sell newspapers or magazines in that language. At the very least, products with labels in that language could be learning materials. On a backpacking trip to Europe years ago, one of my prized souvenirs was a small multilingual cereal box. Finally, I remember seeing a Chinese grocery store in another city that had a bulletin board. If you find a store with such a bulletin board, you might be able to post that you're looking for a tutor or language partner or conversation partner. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| RealJames Diglot Newbie Japan realizeenglish.com/ Joined 4910 days ago 37 posts - 42 votes Speaks: French, English* Studies: Japanese | Message 7 of 11 29 November 2010 at 1:19pm | IP Logged |
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SamD I think that's a great idea!
Grocery stores, I imagine restaurants too, and maybe perhaps, depending on the size of the town, international student clubs, are probably all great places to practice! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5120 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 11 29 November 2010 at 6:22pm | IP Logged |
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If you think they speak English or another common language, you can use my favourite method.
When you hear they speak their own language, you exclaim "Ahh - you speak (language X) I love that!" They will then usually ask if you speak it (and at this point it is worth while to be humble). You will go, "Oh, I only speak a few words, a few sentences, or a little - all depending on the level you are at) and then produce a sentence or two. After that you play it by ear. If they are widely enthusiastic, you can play out your entire repertoire. If they just smile politely, you say "nice meeting you/ thank you/ goodbye - whichever you can - and you walk away. It works every time. Taking their signals is V E R Y important though. I still cringe at a 30 year old memory, when I was at a Spanish disco with some Spanish friends. They were so excited to hear me speak English with a young English couple, that I missed the signals from the young girl that she wasn't interrested in continuing the conversation, and kept chatting happily with her and her boyfriend until she screamed "Sod off, you silly cow". I sure got that signal. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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