Why do I have the perception that native speakers speak very fast?

General discussion about learning languages
Whodathunkitz
Green Belt
Posts: 416
Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2016 7:40 pm
Location: UK
Languages: English (N), Cebuano (basic spoken daily, best L2), Spanish (beginner, but can read), Esperanto (beginner and not maintained). Sometimes dabble with Dutch, Serbian, Slovak, Czech, German and Arabic.
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Re: Why do I have the perception that native speakers speak very fast?

Postby Whodathunkitz » Sat Nov 11, 2017 6:29 pm

Cainntear wrote:What you need to do is tap along with every single syllable. You won't be able to do this by beating with one hand -- it's just too fast (unless you're a fiendishly good drummer, in which case, knock yourself out!)

Instead, use either two fingers or two hands and tap them alternately with each syllable (I find two fingers easier than two hands, particularly at speed). 1No 2pue-1do 2ha-1cer-2lo 1a-2ho-1ra.

As it gets more natural, you can move from physically tapping something to just twitching your fingers -- you're just using muscle-rhythm as a sort of metronome for your brain. (And everyone has muscle-rhythm, or they'd fall over when trying to walk.) Once your brain's learned the rhythm, you can stop.


Thanks I'll give it a go. I think cebuano is probably machine gun spanish rather than perplexing English.

But I seem to remember someone saying cebuano varies to make it more lyrical.
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