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C2 possible without living in country? | ||
Tags: Class Learning | Self-Study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4099 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 17 of 20 14 August 2013 at 2:15am | IP Logged |
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I accidentally made several typos trying to type the example, as well as some mistakes
that I did not see, as the "shall wish delivery" should be definitely "shall wish to have a delivery", but yes, there are often times that choices of words or sentence structure, whilst grammatically correct, may sound slightly odd to native speakers. And there are many that I can find in English, even though I do not know why they sound odd. The first example, however, would be something that I would write, and I have written like that in reports before. But I deliberately wrote the second paragraph as an example of how someone could write something grammatically correct and be fully understood, whilst simultaneously sounding slightly odd both in speech and on paper. I am not sure how to improve on this being a self learner and/or living outside of the country of the language (or even within it). I suppose that if a friend notices these odd choices of words, they can advise the speaker, but I imagine that some might simply overlook it since they understand or that they think that it is not a large error. And I think the CEFR requires at least 70%, if I remember correctly, in each part of the test. So one could make errors down to 70% (that percentage would be a first class degree in the UK, but I am not sure if the CEFR is designed to that high a level), and lose 30% of the marks in each part of the exam and pass. I suppose this "awkward" speech would be in the deduction of marks (whilst the candidate could still pass this way anyway). Edited by 1e4e6 on 14 August 2013 at 2:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 3982 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 18 of 20 14 August 2013 at 8:57am | IP Logged |
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Yeah, I know a couple of sisters in Vietnam who are fluent English speakers without ever living in an English-speaking country. Their home language is Cantonese, and their main language is Vietnamese, but they basically said that they agreed to speak English to each other from the age of about 4. Their dad speaks English (don't know the level, but I don't think he's fluent) but their mum doesn't, so they mainly practiced with each other. Interestingly, the younger of the two has the better accent (although we're talking about the difference between perfect and almost perfect), which may reflect the fact that she had more practice from a younger age. They also attended English schools where they were taught by native speakers, and they've both worked in jobs where they regularly communicate in English (one was my teaching assistant and the other worked for a Western bank). Another big factor is that they both have a big interest in English-speaking culture and media. Their English is actually better than their Cantonese.
So yes, you can. Although starting from an early age obviously helps. Edited by I'm With Stupid on 14 August 2013 at 9:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| casamata Senior Member Joined 4071 days ago 237 posts - 377 votes Studies: Portuguese | Message 19 of 20 14 August 2013 at 10:27am | IP Logged |
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My answer to the OP. Yes. I have two skype buddies that have never gone abroad to an English speaking country but have amazing accents (like Luca-level),great grammar, and extensive vocabularies and knowledge of slang. One just practices a LOT, thinks in English all the time, and is a musician. I have a theory that musicians tend to have better accents than non-musicians based on the people I've met!
The other started speaking English when young even though he didn't really learn the grammar that well until as an adult so his accent is very, very good and he doesn't have to memorize pronunciation rules because he just speaks and it sounds right. He's also an English major, teaches it, and LOVES it, so that helps. But to reach a very high level in a language without going abroad is going to take a lot of motivation since you aren't really "forced" to speak it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4431 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 20 of 20 14 August 2013 at 11:18am | IP Logged |
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I think there's a lot of vocabulary that you only really soak up by living among lots of native speakers. I've met people from abroad who speak perfectly-constructed English but they lack certain words that almost every native speaker would instantly know.
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