What do you about speaking practice and roommates?

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sporedandroid
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What do you about speaking practice and roommates?

Postby sporedandroid » Sun Mar 10, 2019 5:16 am

Just wondering what people do. I’m thinking of blasting some generic music while I do some of my more bizzare speaking practice like shadowing/chorusing. For other speaking practice I could probably pass it off as a phone conversation. Even if I can’t, I think that’s a more acceptable way to practice a language. I don’t want to explain to people what shadowing is. I hate explaining myself in general.
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Re: What do you about speaking practice and roommates?

Postby Iversen » Sun Mar 10, 2019 7:20 am

Would chorusing/shadowing not become even more annoying with generic music on top of it?
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Re: What do you about speaking practice and roommates?

Postby DaveAgain » Sun Mar 10, 2019 9:05 am

sporedandroid wrote:Just wondering what people do. I’m thinking of blasting some generic music while I do some of my more bizzare speaking practice like shadowing/chorusing. For other speaking practice I could probably pass it off as a phone conversation. Even if I can’t, I think that’s a more acceptable way to practice a language. I don’t want to explain to people what shadowing is. I hate explaining myself in general.
I think you should just tell your roommate what you're doing.
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Re: What do you about speaking practice and roommates?

Postby Axon » Sun Mar 10, 2019 9:16 am

A lot of my shadowing and chorusing was on the other side of a thin wall from my roommate's room, and I simply did my best not to do that while he was home. I did do it occasionally while he was there but it never caused an issue - sometimes I'd do speaking practice aloud while doing the dishes and there were never any complaints. We were also good friends and that of course had an impact.

Assuming that your schedules don't line up well and you can't change the relationship you have with your roommate so that they're fine with it, I would do more out-there practice while taking walks. I wouldn't just play music in the hopes of masking it.

Just like there are a lot of hidden moments for quick review throughout the day, there are also a lot of hidden moments for most people when they're "alone." You may be able to come up with a routine for yourself that involves brief moments of shadowing or self-talk: while you're walking, for example, or while taking out the trash.

Or you might have to put speaking practice on the back burner for a while. From a combination of recurring throat/mouth problems and my job requiring me to speak a lot, I don't do regular speaking practice very much if at all by myself. Instead I schedule occasional exchanges and try to speak my languages "in the real world." But I've done more listening than ever because of this limitation, and I've come to enjoy how that routine works for me.
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Re: What do you about speaking practice and roommates?

Postby sporedandroid » Sun Mar 10, 2019 11:26 am

Axon wrote:A lot of my shadowing and chorusing was on the other side of a thin wall from my roommate's room, and I simply did my best not to do that while he was home. I did do it occasionally while he was there but it never caused an issue - sometimes I'd do speaking practice aloud while doing the dishes and there were never any complaints. We were also good friends and that of course had an impact.

Assuming that your schedules don't line up well and you can't change the relationship you have with your roommate so that they're fine with it, I would do more out-there practice while taking walks. I wouldn't just play music in the hopes of masking it.

Just like there are a lot of hidden moments for quick review throughout the day, there are also a lot of hidden moments for most people when they're "alone." You may be able to come up with a routine for yourself that involves brief moments of shadowing or self-talk: while you're walking, for example, or while taking out the trash.

Or you might have to put speaking practice on the back burner for a while. From a combination of recurring throat/mouth problems and my job requiring me to speak a lot, I don't do regular speaking practice very much if at all by myself. Instead I schedule occasional exchanges and try to speak my languages "in the real world." But I've done more listening than ever because of this limitation, and I've come to enjoy how that routine works for me.

Right now I’m avoiding speaking practice and really focusing on becoming passively intermediate/somewhat fluent, so I’ll be able to make listening practice more fun and frequent. So a lot of sentences and active listening practice. At the moment I live with my parents and I don’t feel I get enough privacy as they love to barge into my room. They don’t even know what language I’m learning. I choose to keep it secret because they’re helicopter-ish parents and I know any involvement my parents have with my hobbies kills my motivation. Once I move out with roommates maybe I’ll have a no questions or comments about weird shit I do in my room allowed policy. My parents love to comment on or ask about EVERYTHING, so I feel like I have zero privacy. I can’t even bring linguistics books home without annoying comments.
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Re: What do you about speaking practice and roommates?

Postby devilyoudont » Sun Mar 10, 2019 8:00 pm

My basic solution is to have no shame about anything.
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Re: What do you about speaking practice and roommates?

Postby garyb » Mon Mar 11, 2019 10:24 am

I like the no-shame solution in theory but in reality it always feels weird... especially if one of the housemates is a speaker (native or not) of the language. I've lived with a few Italians, and in the better cases I did manage to convince them to speak their language with me, but I sure as hell waited until they were out before even thinking about pronunciation practice. Even Skype calls felt awkward. I'm aware that most of this was just in my head though, and I feel similar for things like practising guitar and singing at home when my flatmate is also a musician. I'd never have judged their English when I overheard it, but obviously in an English-speaking country the situations aren't comparable.

I've put on music while doing self-talk before, but for a more focused activity like shadowing it would just be a distraction.
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Re: What do you about speaking practice and roommates?

Postby Lemus » Fri Mar 15, 2019 1:24 am

Is there a reason you can't just whisper? I have to think that it is the movements of the mouth that matter, not the volume.

I personally do my Pimsleur Farsi lessons while out walking and I only whisper to myself. I have to imagine the other people on the street would get irritated with me otherwise. Maybe really speaking would be better, but I would rather err on the side of politeness.
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Re: What do you about speaking practice and roommates?

Postby sporedandroid » Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:33 am

Lemus wrote:Is there a reason you can't just whisper? I have to think that it is the movements of the mouth that matter, not the volume.

I personally do my Pimsleur Farsi lessons while out walking and I only whisper to myself. I have to imagine the other people on the street would get irritated with me otherwise. Maybe really speaking would be better, but I would rather err on the side of politeness.

I guess I could try whispering and talking quietly. I guess I can do mouthing for pimsleur type exercises, but I think I need to use my voice to practice prosody since whispering erases melody.
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Re: What do you about speaking practice and roommates?

Postby yossarian » Sat Mar 16, 2019 12:28 am

I do this when I'm walking someplace or in the park.
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