On learning a language
Learning a new language as an adult an interesting experience. I have not really taken any formal lessons (outside of 6 weeks of 1 lesson per week when I first got here - which were useless). You don't really notice any progress from one day to the next, but here and there you pick up new words in passing, some connecting are made, you understand a conjugation. Suddenly you find yourself capable of asking where the bathroom is and passing for a hopeless foreigner who is butchering the language. Hey, that is a big step up from being incomprehensible. It is only when I think back to my ability a year ago that I can think "yeah, I am getting somewhere". Because to be blunt, when I try to listen in on a bunch of Swedes chatting, I still get next to nothing. I can formulate sentences by carefully planning them out in my head, using circuitous phraseology to get around a word I don't know. I can pronounce them with enough ability to be understood. But if the answer includes 3 or more key words I don't know, then I am stuck with "Jag förstor inte..." - I don't understand. That happens a lot. To improve you have to be ruthlessly unembarrassable. Say things that you know are stupid, because chances are good someone will correct your mistake and you will learn something. Don't be bothered by stopping someone in the middle of a sentence to ask what a word meant. Most of all, just keep talking regardless of how bad you are.Anyone in need of an attitude adjustment only needs to move to a foreign nation. Egos get deflated quickly when you go to the pharmacy, ask for some cream for your muscles and the girl gives you Preparation H with a quizzical look.
posted by Jeff @ 4:20 AM
2 Comments:
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I know exactly how you feel :( I've only been in Sweden for a month or so, but I was in Germany for a longer time before that. My German is pretty good, but my Swedish is non-existant.
You mentioned that trying to speak in a language you don't have experience in is ego-deflating. It is, but not nearly as much in Sweden as in Germany. People are so much more understanding here! In Germany you are actually mocked to your face sometimes if your accent is bad or your word order is sad. Swedes are so polite that sometimes they'll just smile and not say anything if you say something completely non-sensical. Nice, but maybe not 100% conducive to learning fast!
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