Quote:
Originally Posted by BKeeper
Language is an amazing thing. I have found that the same person speaking a different language seems to reveal a slightly different personality.
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That's interesting. I had a professor for a French course tell me once that I had a wonderfully crisp and concise writing style (in French) and I was completely floored. I guess I don't know enough of the fancy words, so I was, by default, direct and to the point.
Verencat has seen of the kiddie writing I do in French; I teach small children and prefer to use my own materials. I would not hold that up as an 'example' of my French writing by any means because I am greatly constrained by what vocabulary is used by the curriculum I teach with (they don't use 'vous' at all, for example) and age of my audience (the level of repetition I use is fairly heavy) but certainly it is a more measured and thoughtful process than my English writing; I think about every word fairly carefully. If someone were trying to 'assess' me based on my French writing and did not know I was not a native speaker, I can't imagine what they would conclude
People have also told me that I am a linguistic anomaly. Most second language learners prefer to read than to speak (I guess because they can take their time and use a dictionary) but I prefer speaking because I can choose only the words I know
My one obstacle to breaking the 'intermediate barrier' is the verb issue. I get unreasonably hung up on verb tenses when I read. It it not enough to just recognize the meaning of a verb, I have to stop and decode what tense it is in and translate it. I actually have sufficient vocabulary to read most books, but the verb tenses trip me up every time. It's why I am trying to read more in French. I want to get better at it and I want this problem to improve so I can be fully 'bilingual.'