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I think I am in the minority, in that I can fairly quickly pick up the ability to express myself in a foreign language, but have great difficulty tuning my ear to understand it.
Which to me, makes perfect logical sense. I learn a vocabulary of a few hundred words and basic syntax and grammar, which is easily understood by a native speaker when I piece them together, but a person speaking to me uses mostly words I don't know and grammatical constructions that I don't know, and talks a lot faster than I can reconstruct in my mind..
Yet, somehow, my traveling companions understand everything people say, but have to nudge me and tell me to ask the questions. My wife says that is because she already knows pretty much what they are going to say, because she can read body language, which I cannot do because I'm autistic.
I'm the same way, mainly because my hearing is damaged after years of playing in bands onstage. Especially in noisy environments. Once I know the sentence structure and a couple hundred nouns, verbs and objects, I'm off and running.
I think I am in the minority, in that I can fairly quickly pick up the ability to express myself in a foreign language, but have great difficulty tuning my ear to understand it.
Can you express yourself or you just think you can express yourself? By definition we're not the best judges when it comes to our ability to speak a foreign language.
Speaking and especially reading is way easier. I can pronounce French and German quite, well, acceptably and they sound correct in my head. Can read some French, German and Dutch, but understanding speech is quite difficult.
When a person is learning a language, it is typically easier for them to form sentences and start talking about themselves on their own but then when someone responds they will not be able to understand what is being spoken to them. This is because when they are speaking, they are able to use the vocabulary they already know, but when it is spoken back to them they might not know the words or grammar being used.
However, take someone who knows Spanish for example. If someone speaks Italian or Portuguese to them, it's likely they will have a decent understanding of what is being spoken, but they would never be able to respond back in those languages unless they have somewhat studied the language.
Can you express yourself or you just think you can express yourself? By definition we're not the best judges when it comes to our ability to speak a foreign language.
When I say things, people act like they understand, and give me answers to what I think I was asking. If that is anything to go by.
I can understand French well enough but can't even begin to speak it. But that's just because I grew up hearing it all of my life.
But, I know in Spanish and German, I can make simple sentences that work, but native speakers aren't simpletons with their own language so it's difficult for me to understand. I have noticed in Spanish that I can pick up things more and more all the time though. That's from self-immersion.
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