Xmmm wrote:I want to learn idealized Italian
What is "idealized Italian"? I've never heard this before. Do you mean a neutral standardized version?
Xmmm wrote:I want to learn idealized Italian
StringerBell wrote:Xmmm wrote:I want to learn idealized Italian
What is "idealized Italian"? I've never heard this before. Do you mean a neutral standardized version?
Xmmm wrote:Looks like the official name is "Standard Italian" and it's the neutral standard that people use for TV, official documents, cross-regional communication etc. But apparently even in Tuscany, they don't use Standard Italian for communication among friends, neighbors, family etc.
kulaputra wrote:In the study of your L2s, how do you guys approach various dialects of a language? In particular:
1. Is it better to listen to many hours of a single dialect over weeks/months before switching to another? Or is it better to listen to them concurrently?
2. Do you focus on only being able to produce one dialect while being able to understand others, or do you try to produce multiple dialects separately (i.e. be able to fluidly code switch), or do you just let all the dialects mix?
StringerBell wrote:kulaputra wrote:In the study of your L2s, how do you guys approach various dialects of a language? In particular:
1. Is it better to listen to many hours of a single dialect over weeks/months before switching to another? Or is it better to listen to them concurrently?
2. Do you focus on only being able to produce one dialect while being able to understand others, or do you try to produce multiple dialects separately (i.e. be able to fluidly code switch), or do you just let all the dialects mix?
Two other thoughts came to mind after I replied to this.
1) In an article on the Mezzofanti Guild website (which I love) where Donovan discussed what he would have done differently when he first started learning Arabic had he known then what he knows now. He said that rather than jumping between various Arabic dialects, he should have picked one and stuck with it the whole time, then if he felt the need he could have branched out to focus on another one after reaching a decent level of proficiency. It is available both as a video on youtube and as an article on his website. Hopefully it's cool for me to link the article here (we're allowed to link other websites/youtube videos here, right?) https://www.mezzoguild.com/how-to-start ... ng-arabic/
So, I think it's probably counterproductive to focus on all sorts of variations of the language (at least in the earlier stages) and it's better to stick primarily to one region's version. In general, I think most people want to sound like a "native speaker" and by using every region's mishmash of region-specific vocab, I think the result would be pretty weird and messy. Just my opinion.
kulaputra wrote:True, but there's theory and then there's practice. In theory I agree but in practice I absolutely do mix Spanish and Mexican slang, as much as I try not to. I wonder whether this is pretty much inevitable for L2 learners not living inside a TL environment within a single region.
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