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Help me to have a real “native language" | ||
Tags: Heritage Language | Native Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5651 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes  Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 9 of 18 15 October 2012 at 7:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Majka
Can I do it in Russian or French? I am willing to move to these countries if necessary. Both Russian and French have also all the materials which you mentioned in your post. I would rather die than to face English again! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6705 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 18 15 October 2012 at 8:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Of course you can do the same things in Russian or French, but for many people English is the "number one" second language (e.g. due to the available resources, "importance" etc.), and maybe you won't surpass the level of English in any other language, no matter how much time you spend on them. I won't, that's for sure. Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 15 October 2012 at 8:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5651 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 11 of 18 16 October 2012 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | ||
Personally, I have met a private Japanese teacher who is a Singaporean. His level in Japanese have surpassed both his English and Chinese. He is able to use and understand the different forms of register(keigo etc.), accent from different parts of Japan and have successfully guided many students to pass the JPLT N1 or N2 levels. He did told me that it took him 2 years of intense study (I am unsure whether he did join Japanese courses)to reach the standard old JPLT 2 and passed it. After that he spend some years working in Japan (thanks to his certificate) and passed the old JPLT 1 there. During his stay in Japan, he always travel around in the country and mix with the locals. He returned about 5 years ago and started his teaching career. He is very passionate with Japanese and he still go to Japan every 3 months. I believed that if I put in the effort and managed to immense in the language, I will be able to reach a decent fluency. Furthermore, my passion for Russian (and the Slavic languages) is on par with the teacher`s passion in Japanese. Unfortunately, I am struggling with my life now and have to wait for opportunity in order to fulfil this dream. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 4813 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 12 of 18 16 October 2012 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Am I the only one here to think there is something very wrong with QiuJP ?
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5651 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 13 of 18 16 October 2012 at 5:02pm | IP Logged | ||
Can please speak up your mind? I have Aspegers' and I cannot understand your intention in writing this post, which is out of point. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5651 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese | Message 14 of 18 16 October 2012 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I didn't lie. I really have problems with my L1s (English and Chinese) no thanks to the authoritarian government and its education system (which should be called the
brainwashing system). And I am not the only victim of this system. I have voted against this government in the last election, but they remain in power. Since I can't change things, I might as well try to improve myself for the next stage of life and my languages are important component of the plan. Unfortunately, the government and the jerks I met in my earlier part of life has virtually killed my interest in improving my L1s. On the other hand, I have a strong desire to learn other languages especially Russian (which is to me like finding your long lost mother) and French (the sweet memories in France and my short but sweet second love). Under this context, no matter what language(s) I choose to take will be tough one. I have two languages which I am almost native but I have bad memories with and two languages which I need to learn more but extremely motivated to commit. After some of the suggestions posted earlier in this thread, I tried to create word list based on Random House 60000 word menu and a SAT vocabulary trainer using Iversten's method. But it was so hard, and I felt that I was back in the dark ages in my secondary school days.(I used to memorize long list before my exams and still did not done well.) So I give up after 20 minutes and do my Russian word list using the same method. I actually stayed on until I need to sleep. From here, I realized that I need that motivation to keep me going if I am ever to have the same result as the Japanese teacher I mentioned earlier. This is why, in my subsequent posts I seemed to have contradict myself, by making statements against the advices. I seek your understanding and can we continue the main focus from here? Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5058 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 15 of 18 16 October 2012 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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QiuJP, I'm just trying to help. You've asked for advice and this is my take on what you need to improve. I do not intend this to be hurtful or condescending in any way. It seems to me that you are saying that the Singapore educational system with its focus on English, neglected your mother tongue, Mandarin, to such an extent that you don't feel competent in Mandarin. Yet the English language instruction also left you less than fully competent outside of work and school in English, despite having been educated in the language.
I can only assume that you were not exposed to the avalanche of English language media that, say, the Scandinavians and Dutch are exposed to on a daily basis. My assumption would be that you mostly used English at school and for school work but when you came home you lived your outside school hours in Mandarin. So as a result, this left you with fluent conversational Mandarin but deficient in advanced vocabulary that you should have learned naturally at school- had you been taught your subjects in Mandarin. Your English instruction gave you advanced vocabulary for academic subjects and your job but left you deficient in conversational and cultural language. Why not try this for six months- study, for example, biology in Mandarin using wikipedia and other resources for a month for an hour a day every other day switching academic subjects every month. The next month study "sociology" in Mandarin. Next month study "history" in Mandarin, etc. Try Wiki Junior Mandarin to start. For English watch two episodes of, for example, "Friends" (with English subtitles) for an hour a day every other day. Switch your English language media around as often as you like and try to watch something that you like. Try to find a native English-speaker for a Mandarin English language exchange once a week to practice using English outside the professional environment. I think you will see rapid improvement given your good base in both languages. You just need to polish what you already have. What the Singapore educational system didn't give you, you are going to have to give yourself. How can you learn to express yourself at a high level in Russian, French or Japanese if you aren't satisfied with your native languages? My advice is to stop studying your other languages for a short time. Put them on pause for just a few months. With a good base in your native languages you can then leverage that to help you with the other languages in which you are interested. I'm not saying stop learning your other languages forever- just for a little while. Just concentrate for a little while on your Mandarin and English until you are happier with your level in each. Then start your language learning back up.
Edited by iguanamon on 16 October 2012 at 9:35pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4926 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 16 of 18 16 October 2012 at 9:52pm | IP Logged | ||
That's a good attitude to have regardless of your current level in any language. Since you're posting here, I'm going to assume that you now realize that the government and earlier schooling should have no affect on your current independent learning. There's no reason you can't improve both your Mandarin and your English with a positive attitude. And, if I can be more candid, I would think that Aspergers would be an impetus to further improve your native language, whether you consider it Mandarin or English. At least with my albeit limited contact with other people with Aspergers, the goal of "perfection" isn't paralyzing, rather it pushes them forward to improve. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 16 October 2012 at 9:52pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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