The closest thing I have come to being multilingual is through my studying of Spanish. I would not consider myself fluent in Spanish in any sense of the word. Taking Spanish since the third grade I am on my 10th year of learning the language. I think because I have never been fully emerged in a place for a long period of time just speaking Spanish I am not fluent. I love Spanish, but I can defiantly understand more then I can speak. The later part in my Spanish education I have been in classrooms where only Spanish is spoken. I have always been able to understand what my teachers are saying with out much confusion. If someone told me I had to teach a Spanish class you would be able to tell that I am not fluent in Spanish. I have sat through over 1,000 Spanish classes and have understood so much in all of them but I would not be able to duplicate how the classes went. This is an idea that Canagarajah speaks about when he says, "We understand more languages then we can speak" (5). In my own personal experience I have found this true. If I could speak everything that I understood I would be fluent in Spanish. That’s obviously not the way it works! I would say that I am very close to being fluent in my understanding of Spanish but not close at all to being fluent in speaking. I have friends that have told me very similar experiences with other languages. My one friend understands a lot of Italian because his grandmother and mom speak it but he cannot speak Italian besides a few words and phrases. Another friend of mine understands Chinese very well. He told me that his mom will speak Chinese to him and he will reply in English because he does not know to speak it. This whole idea that Canagarajah brings up is very interesting to me. That fact that your brain can take in and understand a language more effectively then you can speak it is very thought provoking. I wish I knew how it all worked! The mind is an interesting place especially when it comes to language!
4 Comments
Jalyn
1/30/2015 05:12:53 am
Erica I feel your pain. It's extremely hard to have a balanced skill level in speaking, writing, and listening. You obviously soar at speaking. I used to be the exact same way. My grandma would tell me to "Hyaku!' hurry up! I never tried translating it I just knew oh I better get goin. She would tell me something quickly in Japanese and I used to answer in English as well. In Japanese classes, I used to be afraid to speak in case I got something wrong because I didn't feel fluent. I will tell you, after studying Spanish for 10 years, you definitely can take speaking to the next level. "I have never been fully emerged in a place for a long period of time just speaking Spanish I am not fluent" <--- what you need to do is go study abroad! I didn't feel confident speaking until I went to Japan. Don't be afraid to speak, because if you mess up, the worst that will happen is they will correct you, then you'll get it right the next time :D We definitely " understand more languages then we can speak" like Canagarajah says. I agree with him there. However, it makes it all the more fun to speak, so I say keep truckin on and go for it!
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Jenna Maizes
2/1/2015 01:54:11 am
I can relate because I have also been learning Spanish since third grade, but still feel like I don't speak it fluently. I think that if I were to spend a semester abroad in a Spanish speaking country, then I would be able to fully understand that language and culture. I also agree that it is easy for people who speak Spanish perfectly, to hear our American accents, and understand that we are not fluent.
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Brandon Amirian
2/1/2015 11:26:39 pm
Erica, you say that even though you’ve been learning Spanish for 10 years, you still do not feel you are fluent in the language. As someone who has learned Hebrew in school all my life, I can tell you that there were times that I felt the same way as you. Once I went to Israel, and I saw how well I was able to speak in Hebrew and use almost no English in my conversations. I think you need a similar experience, such as a study abroad program or just a vacation to a Spanish speaking country. It is outside the classroom where you are really able to see how well you are able to speak a language.
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Jacob Ardis
2/2/2015 05:45:04 am
During my learning experience of French in high school, I felt a similar way. I could follow what the teacher was saying roughly, however when it came to speaking it was a complete disaster. What I find interesting about when Canagarajah's makes the comment about understanding more languages than we speak is that not only does it apply to languages we study but also, as in the example of M.I.A.'s music video that Canagarajah brings up, we can understand code meshing from languages we've never even been formally exposed too.
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Erica FischerWriting about things happening in English 101 at Emory University. Archives
April 2015
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