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Advice on living with someone learning a first foreign language Autor de la hebra: IPtranslate (X)
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Nicole Schnell 
Estados Unidos
Local time: 18:26
inglés al alemán
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In Memoriam | What an insult. | Apr 12, 2011 |
Tom in London wrote: I don't know about the Germans. Perhaps they shoot you. 
???
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| I agree with Tom in London | Apr 12, 2011 |
Try some way of pointing out the mistakes but without making it a point of embarassment. Ingrained mistakes are VERY difficult to unlearn. My father and mother spent 30 years saying "informations" and "I am interesting" instead of "I am interested" - I was too young when they learned it to point out their mistake, but later on there was no way of fixing it Your boyfriend will ultimately appreciate the effort, but try to make it fu... See more Try some way of pointing out the mistakes but without making it a point of embarassment. Ingrained mistakes are VERY difficult to unlearn. My father and mother spent 30 years saying "informations" and "I am interesting" instead of "I am interested" - I was too young when they learned it to point out their mistake, but later on there was no way of fixing it Your boyfriend will ultimately appreciate the effort, but try to make it fun and not too critical.
[Edited at 2011-04-12 09:25 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London
Reino Unido
Local time: 02:26
Miembro 2008
italiano al inglés
I made the mistake of making a joke. It will not happen again.
[Edited at 2011-04-12 09:29 GMT]
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| In my opinion | Apr 12, 2011 |
I used to teach adults most of them around 40-60 years old French in Sweden. Some of my conclusions where that you have to be really careful not to hurt their feelings and encourage instead of correcting everything. I agree with those who said don't correct unless you don't understand. And perhaps if you just cant help your self but actually do understand what is getting at add an "but I understood perfectly what you ment, good!"afterwards.
And be patient it takes corrage to open o... See more I used to teach adults most of them around 40-60 years old French in Sweden. Some of my conclusions where that you have to be really careful not to hurt their feelings and encourage instead of correcting everything. I agree with those who said don't correct unless you don't understand. And perhaps if you just cant help your self but actually do understand what is getting at add an "but I understood perfectly what you ment, good!"afterwards.
And be patient it takes corrage to open ones mounth in a foreign language as an adult. I have experienced this myself. I moved to Latvia about a year ago it wasn’t until sometime this winter that I actually voluntarily started to try to speak. I now have a café I go where I feel comfortable enough to try to speak to the staff in Latvian and if they don’t understand then I know I can switch to English.
Heinrich Pesch wrote:
Its up to him if he wants to learn or not. Many immigrants stick to their native language and are happy in their own community.
True. Some of us also end up in situations where we have little contact with the language spoken in the country working for international companies where the working language is English.
Actually where I used to work the company offered a language class a couple of times a week but it is hardly enough to really learn. And being in a situation where you just have moved to a new country and started a new job your brain is rather tired.
Now that I am freelancing it’s like a vicious circle. It’s hard to find Latvian friends because you don’t speak Latvian and it’s hard to learn because you don’t have Latvian friends. Sorry for the side track. Btw any Latvian reading this feel free to contact me! ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London wrote:
I made the mistake of making a joke. It will not happen again.
Or we will tie you to a chair and won't let you go until you have eaten 5 kg of Sauerkraut and two dozens Bratwurst... with no beer to help!
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Tom in London
Reino Unido
Local time: 02:26
Miembro 2008
italiano al inglés
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote: Tom in London wrote:
I made the mistake of making a joke. It will not happen again. Or we will tie you to a chair and won't let you go until you have eaten 5 kg of Sauerkraut and two dozens Bratwurst... with no beer to help!
That's hardly a punishment, Tomás. I like Bratwurst and Sauerkraut. And I don't like beer.
We seem to have wandered off-topic.....
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Nicole Schnell
Estados Unidos
Local time: 18:26
inglés al alemán
+ ...
In Memoriam
Tom in London wrote: Nicole Schnell wrote: Tom in London wrote: I don't know about the Germans. Perhaps they shoot you. ??? ... the Germans have no sense of humour. I will IMMEDIATELY withdraw my remark and will never joke again.
If you would make this joke about us Americans where everyone is allowed to run around with a gun like a pack of tampons in your purse, it would be funny. To Germans, where running around with a gun is strictly prohibited and against the law, any stupid joke about guns and shooting will be perceived as the five-hundred trillionth hint regarding the Nazi era. So, where's the humour again?
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Nicole Schnell
Estados Unidos
Local time: 18:26
inglés al alemán
+ ...
In Memoriam | Which brings us back to the topic :-) | Apr 12, 2011 |
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote: Tom in London wrote:
I made the mistake of making a joke. It will not happen again. Or we will tie you to a chair and won't let you go until you have eaten 5 kg of Sauerkraut and two dozens Bratwurst... with no beer to help!
Why it is so important to learn a foreign language darn' quickly. Step 1: How to order a beer!
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wonita (X)
China
Local time: 21:26
| Language is more than just a tool with which you express ideas | Apr 12, 2011 |
When I think about a certain person, my brain always switches to the language in which we spent our time together. For me language has lots of connotations, it reflects the life I’ve lived, the environment I’ve experienced and my emotion attached to certain things.
The language you have talked is also a reason why your partner is fond of you. To speak to him in a different language is similar to establish a new relationship.
He needs time for a new partnership wit... See more When I think about a certain person, my brain always switches to the language in which we spent our time together. For me language has lots of connotations, it reflects the life I’ve lived, the environment I’ve experienced and my emotion attached to certain things.
The language you have talked is also a reason why your partner is fond of you. To speak to him in a different language is similar to establish a new relationship.
He needs time for a new partnership with you. ▲ Collapse
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Nicole Schnell wrote: Why it is so important to learn a foreign language darn' quickly. Step 1: How to order a beer!
And after 5 kg of Sauerkraut, you need to learn the language to understand the explanation of how many fingers you need to raise in order to get two beers/three beers.
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Tom in London
Reino Unido
Local time: 02:26
Miembro 2008
italiano al inglés
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote: Nicole Schnell wrote: Why it is so important to learn a foreign language darn' quickly. Step 1: How to order a beer! And after 5 kg of Sauerkraut, you need to learn the language to understand the explanation of how many fingers you need to raise in order to get two beers/three beers.
and which finger to raise if you only want one.
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Nicole Schnell
Estados Unidos
Local time: 18:26
inglés al alemán
+ ...
In Memoriam
Bin Tiede wrote:
When I think about a certain person, my brain always switches to the language in which we spent our time together. For me language has lots of connotations, it reflects the life I’ve lived, the environment I’ve experienced and my emotion attached to certain things.
The language you have talked is also a reason why your partner is fond of you. To speak to him in a different language is similar to establish a new relationship.
He needs time for a new partnership with you.
A new language can create quite a gap in communication between two people.
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IPtranslate (X)
Brasil
inglés al neerlandés
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PERSONA QUE INICIÓ LA HEBRA | Thanks a million | Apr 12, 2011 |
already to all of you who took the time to respond and show me that this is not the first time that people are confronted with this kind of situation!
By the way: another German joke (told to me by a German colleague who - even after having told it a million times - still thought it was funny):
How do Germans eat mussels? They knock on them and shout "AUFMACHEN!"...
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Nicole Schnell
Estados Unidos
Local time: 18:26
inglés al alemán
+ ...
In Memoriam | Or like this: | Apr 12, 2011 |
IPtranslate wrote:
already to all of you who took the time to respond and show me that this is not the first time that people are confronted with this kind of situation!
By the way: another German joke (told to me by a German colleague who - even after having told it a million times - still thought it was funny):
How do Germans eat mussels? They knock on them and shout "AUFMACHEN!"...
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| same situation here | Apr 12, 2011 |
Actually I am in almost the same situation as your partner. I've moved recently to Holland, I generally have no problem learning languages, but there is something about this one I think one of the problems is that all languages I know are from different language families. It would be certainly easier for me to learn Dutch if I would know German. Anyway, my partner is native Dutch, I am native Romanian. We started our relationship ... See more Actually I am in almost the same situation as your partner. I've moved recently to Holland, I generally have no problem learning languages, but there is something about this one I think one of the problems is that all languages I know are from different language families. It would be certainly easier for me to learn Dutch if I would know German. Anyway, my partner is native Dutch, I am native Romanian. We started our relationship using English. Now I am trying to spend as much time as possible learning Dutch. I am a freelancer, I stay home and full immersion is really complicated in my case. It would be different if I would be employed and I would be therefore "forced" to speak Dutch all the time.
Anyway, when I am speaking to other Dutch people, I am using Dutch. People say my Dutch is getting better and better. So I really don't understand why I don't speak Dutch to my partner. We start saying something in Dutch and then switch to English. We know we shouldn't, and we say from now on we use only Dutch and then first time I don't understand something or can not express something, we go back to English. It is only about being patient and strong, I think. So probably I don´t have these qualities
So I would say you both should really speak only English (and we should really speak only Dutch ). Just make sure that you use Portuguese again when your partner is good enough in English. I think at least one native language should be spoken in a relationship. ▲ Collapse
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