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)
Those are very interesting experiences, thank you for sharing!
I’m not a native English speaker but I don’t usually struggle understanding others speaking English EXCEPT for Scotts when they speak in their normal speed. I often have to ask them to slow down for me.
I’m impressed by your language set. Chinese, English, and Spanish let you speak to a huge portion of the world! Maybe I should pick up Spanish as well… This all reminds me of my favourite quote related to languages:
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world” - Ludwig Wittgenstein