Any experiences? At home or abroad.
My recent experience:
Tried to talk to someone and it was going well until they said 2 sentences really fast and I had no clue what they said.
I must’ve looked confused, trying to mutter something, ANYTHING! What were the words I’m supposed to say?! I forgot the polite “sorry, could you repeat that” in every language I know.
They caught me off guard, damn it. Then came the killing blow: “English?”.
In my moment of weakness I submitted and gave them a nod. From there on we were talking as equals, but my pride had taken a hit. I was defeated. I must go back to my books and duolingo and hide until I have courage again.
(Sorry for the dramatic text, wanted to make a boring interaction sound bit more interesting)
One compelling theory I’ve seen for why children learn languages so absolutely quickly, is there in a completely positive environment, where every single person around them encourages them to learn, and any mistakes are seen as cute and meet with more encouraging. There is no shame in a child’s language acquisition.
Adults… Have more roadblocks :)
Glad your getting out there!
Makes a lot of sense. I definitely am self-conscious about it and therefore have roadblocks. But my inner child tries to tear them down and I get nice interactions like this :)
Thanks! I do my best!
When I was a student in Japan, there was one professor that insisted on taking his classes, a mix of natives and exchange students, out to drink. He said when you’ve been drinking, you don’t worry about mistakes and it’s very good for learning language. Pretty sure he was an alcoholic, but couldn’t blame him as he was hibakusha.
“Have a beer” was standard advice from upperclassmen when I was a foreign language major in college. Of course, the drinking age then was 19 and only loosely enforced, so we could go to a bar. But it was the best advice for beginners to get over their nerves.