- Anki x2
- 2 AnCap Videos
- Translate one Meme
- 2 Sections Portuguese Textbook
- 5 minutes of @Mises_Brasil AoD
- One Chapter of Guerra e Paz (I-4)
- 2 Pronunciation Videos
On simple topics I know well, reading for understanding isn't as difficult as it probably should be, and the same for listening to topics I know well in videos. For example I was able to follow along with the first half of an AnCap video today about the differences between Capitalist and Communist theories of Value in relation to common household goods. I was actually able to learn something from the video, which I found cool.
I continue to have the same issue here that I did in both Spanish and Japanese, but don't have in English -- getting back on track when I feel confused. Once I get derailed I just guess I don't have the level of skill to correctly reorient myself. Since I'm somewhat hard of hearing, this is an absolutely essential skill for me in English that I use everyday.
By way of example, I often work in the shitty type of restaurant where you take orders over headsets. For the first 2-3 weeks I struggle to the point of being completely non-functional. This is because I can't really hear people. But in that sense, I can actually almost never hear people IRL anyway, not the way they are actually speaking, how other people would hear them. So basically I am learning to learn how to guess for these 3 weeks. After that, I am a superstar, and can turn any "OIDFgophoq periotgf" into a "#17 no sauce, extra ketchup" -- I just have to be able to know what words someone will probably say in some context, so I can match the parts I do hear to what they're likely to be saying. I also do a lot of error-correcting type behavior in English, like partial restatement, two or three types of rephrasing, etc.
Given that fact, I probably really need to work one-on-one with a tutor to develop these skills, or they're not going to get any better. The only issue I can see is that they seem like high level skills, and I'm not even sure I know how to explain to a tutor what I'm even talking about.
English, being my native language, I'm strong enough to know when I'm not quite understanding something. When I talk with my boyfriend I can see him not usually being able to notice it and me noticing it pretty quickly, when in either direction we are having a misunderstanding. I assume if I were able to speak Portuguese, our positions would be reversed. As a point of amusement, I do better with noticing miscommunication in Japanese versus Spanish because I find the body language more reliable in Japanese.
My Question--
I want to try to explain again, first because I'm exhausted, but also because I want to be clear about the type of skills I'm talking about, that I use multiple times in most conversations throughout the day:
- Reparative prompts that signal to speaker that I couldn't quite hear -- "Hmm?" "huh?"
- Physical gestures that show I couldn't hear/understand -- head tilt, confused face, point to my ear, incline my good ear towards them
- Subtle phrases to get someone to explain more -- "oh?" "is that so?"
- Partial restatement to get more context -- "you went to the store?" "it was expensive?"
- Rephrasing -- "when I went to the store" -> "When you went shopping"
- Partially retelling a story using different words to prompt correction if I'm misunderstanding the point of the story -- "When I went to the store, I was bit by a dog" --> "You got attacked by a dog while shopping?"
I can see how this is a complicated skill, but how would you explain what this is? Would I do best to just show this list of examples? I tried to list them in the order that I think is simplest to most difficult. Would you roughly agree with the order? I think probably 1-3 are reasonable at a low level, and maybe 4. It seems like 5 and especially 6 would be difficult at a low level because of lack of vocabulary and grasp of connotation.
AFAIK I never brought this up in my previous logs about Spanish or Japanese, more than in passing bc it's a bit embarrassing So any advice is appreciated.