When do you usually start conversing regularly?

[tarvos]

Before I was ready for decent conversations, I had to settle for indecent conversations.

Don't get all excited. By "indecent conversations," I mean that I would just exchange a few chunks of meaning, a few phrases here and there. A guy has to start somewhere.

Us girls just giggle

[Serpent]

Out of these I picked "never", but my actual answer is "when I need and/or can". I don't worry about practice, but I do prefer to feel ready when I go to the country in question. (otherwise I generally use English, like I did while changing flights in Amsterdam and Prague last year) Readiness doesn't mean perfection though, and generally it has more to do with input than output.
In my mind I also don't really make a distinction between oral and written conversations.

[Cavesa]

Yes, the world "regulary" is the problem. In that case, I can only click on "never".

I start speaking with other people as soon as an opportunity or need arises. In some cases, it is after a few weeks (German, Italian). But speaking regularly means paying regularly and I am not a millionaire. And I don't even believe speaking asap at all costs is the ideal:

In theory, I only start after I feel my pronunciation of the new language's sounds is good enough that if I start to speak to people (and not just repeat words or sentences to myself), any subpar pronunciations that be become ossified (and thus very hard to change later), are ones I can live with. I don't have any problem with those people who want to speak from day 1, but to me the great risk there is just getting used to poor form in pronunciation which then becomes near impossible to change (which I think is part of the reason adults almost always have an accent in a foreign language). So if they just want to speak but their pronunciation is disastrous I don't quite understand what is gained by rushing.

Yes. Exactly. And it is not just the pronunciation.

I can't remember who has recently writen this and to which thread (any I apologize sincerely to the author), but it was something like "I am getting very good at speaking bad Russian". The advice "just speak and speak" that is all over the internet now is simply not that awesome and riskfree.

[garyb]

I used to be in the "as early as possible" camp but now I believe in waiting at least a few weeks or months as you get the basics down first, and then gradually adding in more and more conversation. As a beginner or low intermediate, a conversation every so often is great for gauging progress, making the language feel more real, and identifying your most important weak points. But it's also not very fun or productive conversing when you can barely express yourself, and I think the majority of language learning time at this stage is better invested elsewhere, not to mention that native speakers tend to be less willing to indulge you.

At a more advanced level, I believe in lots and lots of conversation (if your goal is being able to converse well, of course), but even at that I find that if I do just conversation then my pronunciation starts to get worse and worse so I need to balance it with work on that.

[moo]

When I started learning Polish i started to converse really soon in as there were so many great options for language partners. With French, as it's more mainstream, all the good ones are already taken haha But with French the accent and pronunciation are a lot more difficult so maybe that is a factor too, I want to be good, not perfect but good when it comes to pronunciation so i'm gonna leave it a while to converse.

[amadeus1991]

It took me about 2 years to be speaking english fluently during a conversation. Each time you listen to someone who speaks his/her native language you will learn from them

[Dylan95]

As soon as possible.


If that means using a dictionary or google translate as backup, whatever. It definitely helps as long as I'm actively paying attention to the language.

[iAnonGuy]

I went with three months to a year. Earlier than that, you don't have the vocabulary or basic grammar to conduct a decent conversation, unless you are taking part in some well-directed crash course.

Many people who took 2 years of French or Spanish in HS can probably start having small conversations after 3 months or so. Some, immediately.

I know there was a 10-15 year gap between HS and when I started seriously learning French again. Almost all the grammar I learned was still there. I still knew how to conjugate verbs in the Present, Passe Compose, Imparfait, and Futur. I still knew a lot of basic verbs, both Regular and Irregular (and how to Conjugate them). I still knew Pronouns, Many Prepositions. Word Order was still there. I knew how to count. How to give dates. Etc. I did a an in-person placement exam with Alliance Francaise and did incredibly well.

The only issue I had was that of phonology, which is quite normal, and vocabulary. Vocabulary is easily learned in conversational context, and actually better (and more efficiently) learned that way.

I also think that how well you learn foreign languages has something to do with your concrete grammar knowledge with your native language. Anglophones who are bad at English Grammar and aren't familiar with the language of linguistics are going to struggle more with case systems.

If someone has learned English well in HS, then all you have to do is tell them "this case is for the DO, and that case is for the IO" and they get it. Those that didn't, need to be taught the grammar of - basically - two languages at once. This is part of the reason why HS Foreign Language classes in the US tend to be ineffective these days. The French and Spanish teachers are spending half of their time going over English grammar to enable the students to understand how the grammar of those target languages work.

This becomes more and more of an issue, when you move to verb tenses, etc.

I remember studying Old and Middle English in HS English IV. We had to read Jeffrey Chaucer in the original Middle English, and Beowolf with Dual Column Old and Middle English (no Modern English translation). When you get acclimated to that, the word order differences between English and Scandinavian languages (and German, to a fairly large extent) isn't that huge of a migration. If your grammar knowledge is good, then German cases simply aren't a barrier. It significantly lightens the load IRT foreign language learning.

[William Camden]

I am sure you can start saying things within a few days. But you need a passive vocabulary of some size to understand or have a chance of understanding the response in the L2. You do not get that passive vocabulary in a few days, or even a few weeks.

[reineke]

"What it is often forgotten or ignored is that spontaneity is the equivalent of automatization of grammar and vocabulary use across a very wide range of contexts. Hence, to scaffold spontaneity, one needs to get the students to produce the target language fast and accurately across a wide range of contexts through tasks which involve systematic recycling and repetition of core language patterns."

"...how can one hope to develop spontaneous speech without listening ? The often unintelligible pronunciation and intonation patterns that language students exhibit in their speech is due exactly to this widespread and deeply engrained bad habit of teaching students to speak without adequate modelling through listening. Such modelling is imperative for spontaneous speech to happen. "

https://gianfrancoconti.wordpress.com/2016/10/29/