Receptive skills: Speaking and Listening
These two units have made me reflect on my own situation as I’m learning Dutch. Usually speaking is seen as the final barrier to becoming fluent in a language. It can be frustrating not being able to find the words but you try and get by. Either you guess the word, try to describe it, mine, say an English word in a Dutch way, or try a French word as it may be right.
I find it’s quite difficult at social events to follow conversations. There can be too much noise interference, whether it’s music blaring or other conversations going on at once, so the message can be totally destroyed.
When trying to listen carefully to every word, it’s so hard to predict where people may be going, so that you can’t interrupt and participate in lively discussions. This of course can make social events seem long and drawn out. I can usually figure out the topic area and who agrees or disagrees with who, but it’s hard to get the conclusions and find out peoples real opinions.
I guess I spend a lot more time reading body language and facial expressions. I’m sure over time things will improve and hopefully this experience will make me more compassionate towards language learners.
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