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Should we criticise language learners? | ||
Tags: Polyglot bashing | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6235 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes  Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 10 of 20 22 April 2011 at 4:48pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Hearing a lot of negativity can get annoying, even when it's entirely unfounded. Many people take stuff online much as they would if someone said it to their face, and many people are quite thin-skinned. Yes, the person is responsible for how s/he reacts to it. But that doesn't mean that the people who post bear no responsibility for their own actions and posts. People can have useful things to say about language learning, even if they don't know any foreign language to a high level. Ignore advice about what they haven't done - they can still have great tips for getting by as a tourist, or having basic conversations, etc. There are also plenty of polyglots who aren't at the same level in all of their languages. People tend to judge them by the ones they have in common - no matter how many disclaimers the speaker gives about his/her relative levels in the languages. This can lead to a lot of rather silly criticism. I'm all in favor of giving accurate feedback, including negative feedback. I'm also disgusted by a lot of the non-constructive negative comments that I see, including occasionally on this forum. 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 Mae Trilingual Octoglot Pro Member Germany Joined 4787 days ago 299 posts - 499 votes Speaks: German*, SpanishC2*, Swiss-German*, FrenchC2, EnglishC2, ItalianB2, Dutch, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Swedish Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 20 23 April 2011 at 1:46am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
When we're giving feedback as fellow language learners, I prefer to stick to a friendly attitude. We should encourage each other to keep improving and learning. It is better to say that someone is on the right track, than writing something à la "You're video is sh**". If he/she needs to improve, we can tell him/her in a nice way. It's not what you say, but how you say it. This is my basic attitude, even towards someone whose business is giving advice on language learning (now more than ever).
Exactly. The fact of recording a video and uploading it to Youtube implies that the author wants to know how he did. So there is nothing wrong with giving feedback. But posting a video is not just a one way street. I assume that those who write something back expect some kind of interaction with the author.
Me too. I decided not to do so. I prefer PM and Skype. (Sorry, off topic!) ;-)
That's my point of view, too. How to improve (and why?!), when everybody says you're perfect? We can always try to point sb in the right direction, even telling something like "You will do better if you practice a little bit more XYZ". But as I said before: It's not what you say, but how you say it. Edited by Mae on 23 April 2011 at 1:47am 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Budz Octoglot Senior Member Australia languagepump.com Joined 6169 days ago 118 posts - 171 votes Speaks: German*, English, Russian, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Mandarin, Cantonese, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Persian, Hungarian, Kazakh, Swahili, Vietnamese, Polish | Message 12 of 20 30 August 2011 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Moses for one really needs to do a bit of preparation. Far too many ums and ahs. If you don't know the language that he's speaking it sounds ok, but as soon as he speaks a language you already know it is soooooooooooooooo boring. And you sit there wondering why you're watching it as inevitably it's littered with errors.
But in the meantime he titles the video with some title that implies that he's going to teach YOU the language. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| misslanguages Diglot Senior Member France fluent-language.blog Joined 4642 days ago 190 posts - 217 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: German | Message 13 of 20 03 September 2011 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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No, you shouldn't criticize language learners. Criticizing methods is okay, but not when people are rude about it. Criticizing an individual is NOT okay. I was attacked on my German log and I frankly don't care, but having no manners means one of two things:
1) You're jealous and bitter. 2) You haven't been taught how to deal with people properly. I don't think that candor is a bad thing, though, even if it can offend some people. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| starrye Senior Member United States Joined 4890 days ago 172 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 14 of 20 06 September 2011 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I agree that there is a difference between a language learner and somoene who has turned their language learning into a business. Those who have created a product for sale naturally open themselves up to more pointed criticism. Not just because they have placed themselves in a position of authority, but because they are asking you for money.
However, if I were looking for mature and thoughtful comments (of any nature), youtube is probably one of the last places on the internet I would look for it. Youtube is notorious for getting a lot of trollish and offensive (overtly racist, nationalistic, etc) comments. It's unfortunate, because I really think youtube can be an excellent tool to be able to record language videos and get input from people all over the world. But I personally would never ever post a public video of myself on there. If I did, though, I would not take those trollish-type comments very seriously. My hat goes off to anyone who is brave enough to post on there. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| portunhol Triglot Senior Member United States thelinguistblogger.w Joined 6048 days ago 198 posts - 299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: German, Arabic (classical) | Message 15 of 20 07 September 2011 at 6:21am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I think Torbyrne makes a good point when differentiating between those who are trying to make money and those who are simply sharing ideas. I also think that when we make a statement either here or on Youtube, we should be prepared to defend it. I am with Mae and everyone else who advocates honest feedback without stripping people of their humanity. We can disagree without demoralizing.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6289 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 16 of 20 11 September 2011 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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misslanguages: what do you mean by criticism? It seems that you have a different concept and don't get the message of the talk here. Can you say, what is ok to you to hear:
- "You need to listen to the radio and read books." - "Your vocab is short, listen to the radio and read books." - "You have a poor vocabulary." - "You sound stupid, your vocabulary is too short." - "I don't understand you and you sound stupid." Which of these statements one can say? (Not meaning to troll :)) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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