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Epiphany | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Thantophobia Groupie United States Joined 4972 days ago 49 posts - 66 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 1 of 7 29 January 2011 at 5:51am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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The slightest bit of knowledge that you think you're never, ever going to use, you will
use it. I didn't find this just in language. Whenever I learn about something I didn't know before in history class or something, I start noticing references to it everywhere. Things are much more common than you make them out to be in your mind. I've been learning Japanese Kanji, and I think that I will rarely use most of these words, but then I go to some actual Japanese book and I see them everywhere! It reminds me of one thing a person said in Spanish class . . . he went to a place where Spanish was spoken (I don't remember where) and he said he rarely had trouble with grammar concepts we learn in class because it didn't really come up. I therefore think it doesn't take a very advanced knowledge of a language to communicate with others in that language. There should be some sort of mark of what level you have to be to communicate about the majority of things easily. I don't think it really takes much. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5770 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 2 of 7 29 January 2011 at 6:51am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
TID=24783&PN=2">Nonsense. p.s. What on Earth is wrong with links on this forum? Spaces always show up in the url address. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5130 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 3 of 7 29 January 2011 at 9:05am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I totally agree with lichtrausch.
While this might be true for some bits of knowledge, most of the things that you think you'll never ever use, you actually will never, ever use.
Only if you and the person that you're talking to are OK with Tarzan speak. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5576 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 7 29 January 2011 at 9:08am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Use the 'link' icon above the text entry field. OP, I have to say that I disagree. First of all, it doesn't take much to be able to have conversations with native speakers about most topics - as long as the native speaker is willing to engage in foreigner talk and bear the brunt for the both of you to keep the conversation flowing. Then, it's no surprise that you notice newly learnt items all the time. The reason you're surprised is that you had some misconceptions about their frequency. Basically, people ignore the things they can't understand as long as they can get away with ignoring them. But there's no way to measure the times you've ignored something! Just yesterday I realized that in a song I've been listening to for years, the word やがて was used. If you had asked me before, I would have guessed that I never had heard the word before I learnt it consciously two weeks ago. By the way, my experience with Spanish speakers is that the majority is extremely patient with foreigners. I was rarely corrected directly, either, so I would guess that some people might end up believing that they are actually really good at Spanish when they talk to native speakers. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5036 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 5 of 7 30 January 2011 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Mmmh.
Stereotype Tarzan-like communication is certainly possible (better than nothing), but equally certainly not desirable (worse than something) as you need to communicate at higher levels. So, please. Every bit of knowledge you get is potentially useful, depending on situations. You never can tell, although you can get pretty good at guessing over time. If you're good enough you can spare yourself some crap and learn the good bits. However, most people are (or start off as) incredibly bad at this--they simply don't perceive that potential and discard not only useless things, but a good deal of useful stuff as well; that's why they ignore whatever they can't understand as long as they can get away with it: they think 'I'll never bump into this again, so why bother to learn it?'. Amazingly frequent among language (I'd say most kinds of) learners, and incredibly stupid. One myth I have to debunk regularly. Unfortunately the best method I've found when someone (a student) tells you 'oh, this is too XYZ. I won't possibly need it ever in my life.' is to say 'ok, lets pretend you understand this thing perfectly. How? with this (very good) translation. Now, are you telling me there are any 12-years-olds that wouldn't know such-and-such, or that you would be impressed by any foreigner that knew it? Come on'. That sparks some epiphany moments, sometimes. However, improvement suggestions are welcome :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5821 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 6 of 7 30 January 2011 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Exactly! I always demonstrate this point with "small world". You work in a big city. You walk past hundreds of people you don't know every day. Within a week, you've walked past thousands. Then one day, after a year of living in that city, you see someone you went to school with. "Well, well," you say, "fancy running into you here. It's a small world, isn't it?" The many thousands of people you have encountered are ignored, because they are meaningless to you. But that one guy among thousands is so significant that you notice him. That's how the human brain works. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5191 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 7 of 7 31 January 2011 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
The Forer or Barnum effect. Made a lot of fortune tellers rich. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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