Quote:
Originally Posted by pilotbob
Zelda, I am extremely impressed by your understanding of English. Are all people in France as fluent? Is this all from study or did you actually live in an English speaking location for many years to get so good at it.
What surprises me so much sometimes is non-native English speakers that are so fluent in written English but when speaking with them, or listening to them, they strugle. I always assume it is due to most if not all of their use and study of English to be with written word. Not that this is bad, I can't read/write any other language (unless you count the many computer languages that I am "fluent" in).
I never understood why my high school spanish teacher always emphasized pronunciation and being able to hear/speak the language as the first thing to learn before reading/writing it. Now I think I get it.
BOb
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I think what has kept me from speaking some of the languages that I understand, is the fear of sounding foolish.
I don't know why that is ... I've always thought people speaking English with an accent sounded ... I don't know ... smart/sexy/interesting ... pick your own word. You get the idea. Yet, I always thought I would sound positively idiotic trying to speak Spanish/French/German ... so I stopped trying. Now, I can still read in them (albeit with some difficulty as I get older and have less opportunity), but I've really lost the ability to think on my feet and speak in anything other than English.