Chove's Log

[SGP]

The level of the language does not matter. For me, the most important was to break a psychological barrier. And I managed it, I can speak, at least with my language partners, without a problem. But often I miss a necessary word and stop midst of a sentence. I hope to improve that gradually by learning new vocabulary.

Still trying to figure out why people would be ashamed of using Basically Errorless but Still Tarzanesque Speech. By that I mean not mixing up words like "I" and "you", while also simplifying some things, like using the infinitive.

[SGP]

What's with textbooks that don't have the answers in the back? How am I supposed to know how wrong I was?

If this was a real question (I cannot read your thoughts ), then the answer isn't too difficult, I'd say. You are supposed to know it by first doing the exercises (if you do them), and then verifying it by re-reading the grammar explanations.

[SGP]

One of my favourite things about languages is learning how things work, which is why I have some books on languages I don't plan on learning just to browse the grammar and see how stuff happens. Which actually can be useful when it's something related to a language I'm learning, because it can show me patterns that exist in families and sometimes a new way of explaining something suddenly makes sense of a bit I've been struggling with. Like how I finally learned what cases are for when I looked at Latin for a week or two and now I can more or less understand cases.

As for reading books for those purposes, doing something similar. As for reading about a language that isn't being learned to understand another one, I maybe never thought about this approach before. And as for an (e.g.) English native learning what cases are for, I am well aware that this happens all the time. But I personally cannot relate... don't know how it feels like , because of having grown up with That Other Sister Tongue.

[chove]

I just had a Skype Polish lesson via italki, it was the first time I have done something like that. It was good! She said I pronounce it well, which is good because that's a thing I have worried about. I will probably book another lesson with the same teacher, she seemed nice and it wasn't too scary once I got going and had to concentrate on my Polish.

[cjareck]

I just had a Skype Polish lesson via italki, it was the first time I have done something like that. It was good!

Nie taki diabeł straszny, jak go malują (the devil’s not so black as he is painted; literally it is "terrible" in Polish)

[SGP]

I just had a Skype Polish lesson via italki, it was the first time I have done something like that. It was good! She said I pronounce it well, which is good because that's a thing I have worried about.

How did you get to that level? I.e. what did you do to achieve this degree of pronunciation?

[chove]

what did you do to achieve this degree of pronunciation?

I'm pretty sure there was a lot of flattery involved on her part! All I really did was listen to a lot of beginners' podcasts and repeat things out loud.

[chove]

I've booked another Polish lesson for next week, with the same tutor. We'll see how it goes.

[SGP]

what did you do to achieve this degree of pronunciation?

I'm pretty sure there was a lot of flattery involved on her part! All I really did was listen to a lot of beginners' podcasts and repeat things out loud.

Generally speaking, without singling out any particular teacher:
I'd say that I am not sure how helpful this kind of flattery (if it really was like this) would be. The teachers couldn't predict how their comment will be understood by their students. What if they caused the impression of the pronunciation/level of knowledge/... already being much more advanced than it really is?

As for me personally, if I had a teacher of that kind (direct Skype teacher/...), then I would try to consider the different Possibilities of Intended Meanings. But if I would get my teacher wrong when something like this is said to me, I do think that it could hinder my learning process. A long time ago, I considered my pronunciation of a particular language more advanced than it really was. That prevented me from even thinking about improving it.

#FactualLevelStatement #SGP'sUsualApproachOfSpeakingAboutLanguages

[StringerBell]

A long time ago, I considered my pronunciation of a particular language more advanced than it really was. That prevented me from even thinking about improving it.

That's a really interesting way to think about it; this idea that ingenuine (<<< I might have just made up a word there, that spelling looks really weird to me) flattery could actually cause more harm than good never occurred to me before.

Anyway, Chove, I'm sure your pronunciation is probably pretty good. What kinds of things were you able to talk about with the vocabulary you know? Did your tutor speak only in Polish? Were you able to understand her?