You’ve studied your phrasebook, you’ve practiced your greetings, you’ve even drilled your verb conjugations.
You are ready to prove yourself as a language learning master!
But there’s a slight problem! You speak English.
Ever since I started learning other languages I have encountered a handful of specific and repeating issues when speaking with other language learners. It seems that learning a foreign language as a native English speaker can bring about problems that are completely unrelated to your chosen language!
Below are my top three characters that I have met when learning a new language..
The Over Praiser
This person is a speaker of your target language. They know you are learning their language and are excited to help you learn. Great! You meet with them for a coffee and you greet them with a simple “hola/bonjour/guten tag” and they come over all dewy eyed!
Any word you utter in your target language is greeted with praise. As an English speaker, the notion that you are learning another language is almost as foreign as the language you are learning.
The main issue here is that the other person is either so pleased or impressed you are even attempting their language, possibly due to the assumption you as an English speaker fail at all foreign language learning, that they never correct your mistakes. Maybe they don’t want to discourage you, or hurt your feelings but in the long run it can be damaging to leave mistakes uncorrected.
Solution – Tell them straight. “I am learning (insert language here) because I want to reach a certain level. Please can you correct my mistakes as I make them” Take your learning seriously, don’t allow yourself to be cuddled and lulled in to thinking you’re done learning because your mistakes aren’t pointed out either. Keep practicing!
The English Learner
English is an international language, there is no getting away from that. It’s the most widely learned second language and is an official language in over 60 countries. Wherever you go in the world you are very likely to meet an English learner.
Being able to help someone improve their English is both kind and rewarding as well as pretty easy if you are a native English speaker. But what happens to your target language? When you combine the other person’s desire to practice English and the fact falling back in to English is a lot easier for you than practicing your target language it becomes easy to “forget” about having an equal language exchange.
Also from personal experience I have found that speakers of your target language may sometimes switch to English if they see you struggling to communicate. They may think they are being helpful but unfortunately it can stop your language practice in its tracks, and knock your confidence at the same time.
Solution – Be firm but fair. When you get in touch with another person because you are learning eachother’s language make sure you set some ground rules. Divide time equally between the two languages. Be persistent. Keep talking or replying in your target language and eventually people will stop trying to “help” you by speaking English instead.
The Stereotype Believer
There are many unforgiving stereotypes relating to the British people. A lot of these are true! We drink a lot of tea – true. We complain about the weather – true. We refuse to learn another language and expect everyone to speak English? That one is NOT true (at least not for ALL English speakers)
But why does this cause British foreign language learners a problem?
Take me as an example. I have a decent level of Spanish. I understand most day to day conversations (though I may not be able to join in) I have several Spanish speaking friends who know that I am learning Spanish.
Yet due to the fact I am a British language learner it seems their assumption is I am terrible at it, or at least unable to pass beyond very beginner stuff. 18 months in to my learning, one friend is still explaining to me that the waiter asked if I would like ice – even though I have shown her my Spanish degree coursework that I am working on right now.
Solution: Keep learning, keep listening, keep joining in. When my friend speaks Spanish around me with the assumption I don’t understand, I join in. Her response? “I was speaking Spanish, you are not meant to understand! I am impressed!” Be proud of your knowledge of a foreign language and fight stereotypes at the same time!
The Harsh Teacher
This one is a little bit different. Finally you have found yourself a language partner, a native speaker of your target language who not only wants to practice English but also knows how seriously you want to learn their native language. Great!
Sadly what starts off seeming a great opportunity turns a little discouraging. There seems to be very little praise or encouragement instead you are constantly corrected on forgotten accents or a missing capital letter for nouns. It can be frustrating to feel you are making more errors than progress.
Solution: Keep with it! Try not to be too discouraged and realise each mistake is a possibility for improvement. Your exchange partner only wants to help you improve and likely means no harm or upset by their comments. Maybe it’s worth mentioning that you are feeling down about so many errors and they will be more aware of encouraging you too!
Finally, learning any language is as challenging or enjoyable as you make it. It really doesn’t matter your native language or target language as long as you are passionate enough about learning to keep pushing forward in the face of any challenges and obstacles!
Binny xx
Binny Learns A Language! 