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Frustrating Language Learning Experiences | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4433 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 9 of 16 13 June 2014 at 11:41am | IP Logged | ||
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I have trouble slowing down. It's not a lack of empathy. Speaking's something you do everyday all day, so
habits are very deeply ingrained. Also keep in mind that it might not be "lack of articulation" so much as speaking a non-prestige dialect. I've also been in the situation of not understanding a second language speaker. It is not fun. "Sorry could you repeat that?", they repeat it... oh frick I still didn't undestand, do I ask them to repeat again? Do I pretend to have heard? Change subject? Ahhhh. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4704 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 10 of 16 13 June 2014 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | ||
As a teacher, I've been in that situation a fair few times when discussing students with their EFL parents. Recently I was trying to speak with a couple who were such nice people, but they spoke with a very strong accent, and on top of that they spoke very quietly. There is an episode of Seinfeld about a "low talker": someone who speaks so quietly most people miss what they're saying. Seinfeld just nodded and said yes to the person, without realising he was agreeing to wear a puffy shirt the next time he performed on television. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4239 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 11 of 16 13 June 2014 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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A few years ago I had a conversation with 2 other people. Someone in the group is Russian. We were
discussing the topic of religion and the word "atheist" came out. The Russian man pronounced the "a" in the beginning as a short "a" sound more like "əTHēˌist" instead of "āTHēˌist". The other man wasn't able to understand what was said. The Russian man is quite fluent in English except that he would occasionally mispronounce words in between. I've come across Chinese people who are Cantonese-speakers try to communicate with those who are Mandarin-speakers. They recognize each other as Chinese but in a conversation there would be a word / phrase in between that is difficult to understand. They would naturally explain the word in English to make sure the context gets across. When you talk to someone in a language the first time you don't know his/her level of proficiency. You'd talk normally as if the person is fluent in a language to keep the conversation going. The other day I was watching a singing show from China. There was a Black singer from Nigeria 好弟 Hǎodì who sang a Chinese song. The show host asked him politely : "老外 (foreigner), do you speak Chinese?". He replied: "我说中文的 (I speak Chinese)“。And the rest of the conversation continued in Chinese. There is a program from CCTV 4 call: "外国人在中国 (Foreigners in China). China like Japan and Korea is basically a homogeneous country with a majority of the population belonging to 1 ethnic group. In between you find people from other parts of the world who are fluent in Chinese and have families with locals. The first encounter you'd think they are tourists. When you get into a conversation, their level of fluency is as high as a native-speaker. Edited by shk00design on 14 June 2014 at 4:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3894 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 12 of 16 13 June 2014 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
I have an acquaintance who tells the story of a fellow Celtic scholar, from Brittany, who to a surprised and very intrigued crowd of scholars insisted that it was established and indisputable fact that Bretons have the most "sex". It took quite a while, and some curiosity about this particular brand of vibrant Catholic sex, before anyone in the room realised he was talking about "sects". 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4460 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 13 of 16 14 June 2014 at 2:38am | IP Logged | ||
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I've had a few situations like that on language exchange sites. In one case the guy was passing a joint around with some friends as he talked, so I'm not sure how serious he was about the whole language exchange endeavor that day.
In other cases it can result from people overestimating my level. I'm pretty good at guessing things from context and key words and giving a relatively cogent response based on that, so sometimes I will get people continuing to talk to me in machine-gun Spanish even though my level of fluency and vocabulary clearly mark me as not being a very advanced speaker... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4417 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 14 of 16 14 June 2014 at 1:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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You will meet all types of people in all countries. When a native makes no effort to tone down a heavy accent
or simplify their speech, you could always view it as a challenge. Or it might even be a compliment, if the other person thinks you are able to understand almost everything. You often see the word interlocutor popping up on these threads. Yet I don't think I have ever heard a native English speaker use this word in real life. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4460 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 15 of 16 14 June 2014 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is not a very common word but I certainly hear it used by natives. And there is no good one-word equivalent that springs to my mind...
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3702 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 16 of 16 15 June 2014 at 4:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Not me personally, but I noticed my friend/coworker doing something similar. I work at a bank at the moment and we get quite a bit of Spanish speaking customers. One customer comes in and speaks only a little English. My coworker was helping him and the customer was having a hard time understanding him (my coworker was speaking pretty fast and has a tendency to use unnecessarily big words). The customer paused in confusion, then expressed that he didn't understand him and asked him to repeat; so my coworker repeated himself at the same speed and with the same words, but louder. I thought to myself "he's not deaf, he doesn't understand you!" I told him afterward to speak slower and use simple words.
My point is, since we are all learning other languages we have that awareness - speak to others (that don't know our language well) the same way we would want them to speak to us if we are not proficient: slow and simple. It seems like a simple principle but many non language-learners don't even think about. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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