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What makes some people good at languages? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| xtremelingo Trilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6085 days ago 398 posts - 515 votes  Speaks: English*, Hindi*, Punjabi* Studies: German, French, Arabic (Written) | Message 57 of 91 12 October 2007 at 5:22am | IP Logged |
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Extroverts are more likely to practice their language, even in situations where they make plenty of mistakes compared to Introverts that might prefer to stay to themselves. Language is a study of communication, you really can't become proficient in communication, if you don't communicate often with others.
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6070 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 58 of 91 12 October 2007 at 5:37am | IP Logged |
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I feel that, in learning to speak a language, the one thing you cannot afford to be is shy. You will make mistakes and run some risk of being laughed at, if the people you talk to are not particularly sensitive. Extroverts are more likely to take that kind of thing in their stride, and to actively seek conversation opportunities. Introverts are more likely to be discouraged.
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| owshawng Senior Member United States Joined 6684 days ago 202 posts - 217 votes Speaks: English* | Message 59 of 91 12 October 2007 at 11:07am | IP Logged |
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How about natural ability plus desire plus working at it? Just like anything else sports, math, sciences, sales, some people are naturally gifted and by working at it can become a high performer. Others who aren't naturally gifted but have the desire to learn can become proficient as well, it might take them longer.
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| Linguamor Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 6416 days ago 469 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 60 of 91 13 October 2007 at 12:28am | IP Logged |
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All human beings are "gifted" at learning languages. What makes some people better at learning languages is an understanding of what type of language learning environment is optimal for learning a language. Some people seem to have an intuitive understanding of this. Others have to figure it out.
Edited by Linguamor on 13 October 2007 at 12:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| padrebob Newbie United States hablo-un-poco.blogsp Joined 6070 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean | Message 61 of 91 13 October 2007 at 7:16am | IP Logged |
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It's pretty complicated, really.
I find embarrassment dreadful and was too terrified to speak most of the time when initially picking up Spanish. And I can have absurdly dramatic reactions to stress, particularly social stresses. But I reached a point at which I threw myself into daily Spanish study, and my daily effort has been producing fruit so far. I'm also acrophobic but was the first one of my group of buds off the plane when we went skydiving. I can't say that in my case confidence and courage are synonymous, because for me the confidence just wasn't there when I took the plunge. I committed to learning Spanish while expecting to fail! I guess I just decided to make a fool of myself if that's how it worked out. Fortunately, it seems I was mistaken. My native English and I have gotten along quite well as long as I can remember, though. So in my case, it's entirely possible that an affinity for language has helped balance out expectation of failure & dread of resulting embarrassment. Other factors have also come into play, though. Due to many years of hard work and some good fortune, I've become a middle-class North American with sufficient disposable income and personal time to devote to the process. Additionally, every tiny bit of progress in learning Spanish has felt rewarding to me. I learn a new word, or complete a new lesson, or carry out a successful transaction in Spanish, and some internal pleasure response kicks in. It's some kind of high resulting from the learning progress instead of from smoking a joint. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| KingM Triglot Senior Member michaelwallaceauthor Joined 6989 days ago 275 posts - 300 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian | Message 62 of 91 13 October 2007 at 7:49am | IP Logged |
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I think you can overcome the embarassment. It helps to remind yourself that when you meet a foreigner you think more highly of someone who tries than someone who refuses to speak even a word of your language. You don't look down on them because they make mistakes.
I think the most important thing is motivation. You need to maintain effort over months and years in order to learn a language. Even twenty minutes a day will accomplish a huge amount, but there's no way you'll continue to sustain this effort unless you're highly motivated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Wings Senior Member Ireland n/a Joined 6152 days ago 130 posts - 131 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 63 of 91 13 October 2007 at 8:10am | IP Logged |
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Linguamor, What is your optimal language learning environment? I don't know how to define the learning enviornment I'm in.
Xtremelingo,Your argument that “Extroverts are more likely to practice their language, even in situations where they make plenty of mistakes compared to Introverts that might prefer to stay to themselves. Language is a study of communication, you really can't become proficient in communication, if you don't communicate often with others.” Has swayed my thinking a little, to become proficient in communicating, it makes sense that you need to practice communicating. Would anyone disagree? I’m interested if anyone has a different opinion on this, perhaps from experience—I can’t speak for myself. However, I most stress Extrovert does not = good learner. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zhuangzi Nonaglot Language Program Publisher Senior Member Canada lingq.com Joined 6826 days ago 646 posts - 688 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese, Swedish, Mandarin, Cantonese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Russian | Message 64 of 91 13 October 2007 at 3:04pm | IP Logged |
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a)extrovert, confident, talkative
b)or hard working, musical, good at math c)introverted, quiet, shy, taciturn a is a Spaniard, b is a Japanese c is a Swede now hwho is a good language learner? Eough with the stereotypes. You just have to want it and believe you can do it 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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