Why is spoken language so hard to understand?
blog.duolingo.com
Why is spoken language so hard to understand?
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Re: Why is spoken language so hard to understand?
#2"I have been learning Spanish for over three years now ... However, I really struggle with understanding spoken Spanish."
In this person's case, it could be that they've spent three years on duolingo instead of practicing listening to native Spanish speakers.
I've been learning my target language for two years and have no difficulty understanding it when spoken. Over that time I have listened to hundreds of hours of podcasts, audiobooks and TV shows.
Re: Why is spoken language so hard to understand?
#3"I have been learning Spanish for over three years now ... However, I really struggle with understanding spoken Spanish." In this person's case, it could be that they've spent three years on duolingo instead of practicing listening to native Spanish speakers. I've been learning my target language for two years and have no difficulty understanding it when spoken. Over that time I have listened to hundreds of hours of…
Yeah, in my experience you get out exactly what you put in. If you want to be good at listening to people, then you need to spend your time listening to people. So this seems like a good hint that Duolingo is pretty different from actual people.
Re: Why is spoken language so hard to understand?
#4"I have been learning Spanish for over three years now ... However, I really struggle with understanding spoken Spanish." In this person's case, it could be that they've spent three years on duolingo instead of practicing listening to native Spanish speakers. I've been learning my target language for two years and have no difficulty understanding it when spoken. Over that time I have listened to hundreds of hours of…
It doesn't matter their method of study, the question is legit nonetheless. Spoken language is harder to learn.
Re: Why is spoken language so hard to understand?
#5My theory is that people will use the minimum 'whistles and clicks' to communicate with each other, so when there is a lot of shared context (shared society, culture, mannerisms etc) that does much of the heavy lifting for communication. For example there is the English I (unconsciously) use when speaking to English as a Second Language people, and a much cut down English for talking to native speakers that is apparently unintelligible to non-native speakers.
Re: Why is spoken language so hard to understand?
#6My theory is that people will use the minimum 'whistles and clicks' to communicate with each other, so when there is a lot of shared context (shared society, culture, mannerisms etc) that does much of the heavy lifting for communication. For example there is the English I (unconsciously) use when speaking to English as a Second Language people, and a much cut down English for talking to native speakers that is appare…
This. Be kind to new speakers of your language by (a) waking up your points of articulation and enunciating more clearly, and (imho) (b) pausing a bit between clauses. Maybe stir in techniques like placing the topic of the sentence at the beginning: "My goofy cat, I had to call the fire department to get him out of a tree yesterday."
Correlate for writing: deploy commas strategically and effectively.
Re: Why is spoken language so hard to understand?
#7"I have been learning Spanish for over three years now ... However, I really struggle with understanding spoken Spanish." In this person's case, it could be that they've spent three years on duolingo instead of practicing listening to native Spanish speakers. I've been learning my target language for two years and have no difficulty understanding it when spoken. Over that time I have listened to hundreds of hours of…
It doesn't matter their method of study, the question is legit nonetheless. Spoken language is harder to learn.
Is it? I have studied languages at school and using apps and never really achieved any fluency or understanding of spoken or written language.
I lived in Spain for a bit over 3 months when I was a young man and became fluent in spoken Spanish. To the point I started thinking in Spanish but never noticed when that happened.
So the method of learning really does seem to matter, at least for me.
Re: Why is spoken language so hard to understand?
#8"I have been learning Spanish for over three years now ... However, I really struggle with understanding spoken Spanish." In this person's case, it could be that they've spent three years on duolingo instead of practicing listening to native Spanish speakers. I've been learning my target language for two years and have no difficulty understanding it when spoken. Over that time I have listened to hundreds of hours of…
It doesn't matter their method of study, the question is legit nonetheless. Spoken language is harder to learn.
It's not harder, it just requires different type of fitness. For example, there is a very good and highly effective, although intensive, way to learn to speak Dutch - Delftse Methode. There they focus on building speaking skills by, surprise-surprise, a lot of speaking, training and remembering standard situations. I think, there may be similar methods for other languages.
Re: Why is spoken language so hard to understand?
#9> We don't notice how much adapting and adjusting our brain has to do in our own language, but in a new language, we have to re-learn those sound boundaries, for potentially dozens of new sounds.
Some examples from Japanese and English:
Japanese distinguishes between short and long vowels and between short and long consonants in a way that English does not. For example, the words kata, katta, and kātā (where ā indicates a long a) are pronounced differently and have different meanings (“shoulder,” “bought,” and “Carter,” respectively). Native English speakers learning Japanese as adults will often think at first that all three words sound the same (kata). Even after they become aware of the differences, they may still have trouble recognizing them in continuous speech.
Similarly, English makes phonemic distinctions that do not exist in Japanese. The most well known is that between r and l, so that, for example, “grass” and “glass” can sound the same even to fluent Japanese speakers of English.
My first language is English; I moved to Japan at the age of 26 and have lived here for 40 years. Although I speak, read, and write Japanese fluently, I still sometimes mishear words in spoken Japanese because, despite much study, effort, and experience, I have not fully acquired all of the phonemic distinctions.
Re: Why is spoken language so hard to understand?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't matter their method of study, the question is legit nonetheless. Spoken language is harder to learn.
Is it? I have studied languages at school and using apps and never really achieved any fluency or understanding of spoken or written language. I lived in Spain for a bit over 3 months when I was a young man and became fluent in spoken Spanish. To the point I started thinking in Spanish but never noticed when that happened. So the method of learning really does seem to matter, at least for me.
So you spent 16*90 = ~1440h practicing spoken Spanish. I do believe that if you spent the same amount of time but focused on written Spanish you would acquire a richer vocabulary.