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Language Learning & Introversion | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 57 of 61 14 May 2014 at 4:26am | IP Logged | ||
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The Assimil users here are far from 95%, I think.
Besides, at least for me Assimil is an exception among audio courses, since it minimizes small talk and presents tourist phrases in a creative way. ("and how much does seawater cost with a discount?") 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 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 58 of 61 15 May 2014 at 1:34am | IP Logged | ||
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As one of the more productive message writers here I can give you a few clues to how I manage to write so much:
1) I do a limited amount of small talk during the lunch break and when I'm with my family or acquaintances, but I save a lot of time by not succombing to that vice in between such intentional meetings 2) I mostly do two things at the same time. Right now I watch a program about the Gemini program on TV while I'm writing this 3) I have pauses on my job where I can snatch a few minutes to write things here 4) I don't have a mobile phone (no babble, no SMSs) 5) I dont get a 1000 emails daily because I avoid sending 1000 emails 6) I read fewer books in Danish than I did before I entered the HTLAL trap 7) Being a proud introvert (though with sufficient communication skills if need be) I don't mind writing instead of meeting people Edited by Iversen on 15 May 2014 at 1:42am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6083 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English*, Czech*, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch | Message 59 of 61 29 October 2014 at 12:45am | IP Logged | ||
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I am an introvert and I have a hard time actually forcing myself to speak a foreign language with native speakers. I prefer to speak English, because I am afraid of making mistakes or not understanding what they are saying... I am especially afraid when I am in a group where I am the only non-native speaker... I always get a sense of relief when an English speaker joins and people have to start talking English.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4621 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 60 of 61 29 October 2014 at 1:13am | IP Logged | ||
But surely your first attempts to speak English were full of mistakes? Making errors is a natural part of the learning process. Most native speakers simply don't care. If your meaning is clear they will talk back. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4443 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 61 of 61 29 October 2014 at 5:53am | IP Logged | ||
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One of the ways of becoming fluent in a language is to interact with native speakers. There are people
who are not very outgoing and tend to socialize within their own groups. Speaking is a good way to learn since other native speakers can pick out your mistakes and correct you. You can also listen to the radio to news reports, talk show and pop songs. Anything that has a lot of dialog. Reading a newspaper or magazine is a bit too passive. You can learn to construct grammatically correct sentences but it is a good idea to balance it off with listening including TV, radio and other people talking. 1 case scenario I tend to bring up over and over again. I know someone who is Cantonese-speaking living in Canada and took Mandarin classes for 6 months. People who are brought up with Cantonese as a native-language have an advantage learning Mandarin because they know how to write the Chinese characters already. It is the pronunciation that is different. His wife is fluent in both Cantonese & Mandarin and socialize with both groups easily. He would attend a lot of dinner gatherings where Mandarin would be spoken. However... After 6 months he stopped taking language classes and got further ahead than the basic greetings 你好 nǐhǎo (How are you? Bonjour) and 谢谢 xièxie (Thank you, Merci). He was in an environment which was ideal for success but what went wrong? Although he would attend dinner parties where there were many Mandarin speakers, one must not forget he is living in Canada. The official languages here is English & French and not Mandarin. He hardly ever listens to radio / TV programs in Mandarin. At dinner parties he would rely on his wife to do the translating between Mandarin & Cantonese or simply switch to English when the other people in the conversation can speak English sufficiently well. I've attended dinner gatherings with many people from Africa. They would speak Swahili among themselves. Even if I am studying Swahili, I'm in Canada. Many Africans here would speak to their children in English and not their native tongue. Unless I make efforts to speak Swahili, just being with native speakers would do nothing to improve my skills in that language because they can all speak English. Being an extrovert is 1 thing, if you are not in a country where the people are not fluent in English at all, you have to make the extra effort to speak a language to become fluent. Otherwise, there is a tendency for you to speak English and not the language you are learning. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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