Job Discussion Forums

[Jetgirly]

[JZer]

[veroax]

[Jetgirly]

That's why I put it in quotation marks.

[Marcoregano]

[Manaus]

I am trilingual and know that it is to my benefit as an ESL teacher. I'm American, but learned Spanish while studying in Bolivia (and then later in college in the U.S., and while travelling/working in other Spanish speaking countries in Latin America). When I graduated from college I moved to Brazil to teach ESL and to learn Portuguese.

I'm now back in the U.S. and teach ESL to adults. Most of my students are Brazilians, with a few Hispanics. I am pretty strict about English only in my classroom, but like others have stated, I will resort to Portuguese/Spanish if my student doesn't understand - after my attempts to explain/mime/write on the board. I also will make a statement in Portuguese/Spanish if it will help the student better understand my explanation (by comparing the languages for example).

[jonniboy]

Spanish to advanced level though it's declined a bit since I left there. Catalan to a lesser degree. Here I haven't really bothered with the local languages due to the decision that I don't want to stay here, but I can follow conversations okay in Latvian and speak the basics of Russian though my accent is terrible. I can produce a few phrases in Swedish and Romanian but wouldn't consider that speaking a language either, so maybe two and a half languages?

[Extraordinary Rendition]

I acquired a good bit of French while living in Morocco with a non-English speaking girlfriend for a few years (French was her second language). That convinced me that immersion is quite effective (for me, the only way to learn). Having said that, native French-speakers now complain that my French is quite flawed; not idiomatic, and my grammar, and choice of vocabulary, is annoying. So, as one poster noted, "What does it mean to 'speak' a language?". We, as native English speakers, because of the worldwide spread of English, are quite forgiving of "flawed" English. French speakers, when in their home counties, generally are not very forgiving of less than quite-fluent French.

On the other hand, I have rudimentary Spanish from my time in Morocco and Portugal, and travelling between. I can get food, a room, transportation, and even have a social conversation, if it doesn't go on too long. Do I thus, "speak Spanish"? I'd say not. But perhaps that's what constitutes "speaking" a language???

These are the questions that plague language teachers' souls...

Also, I can't even be bothered to deal with really attempting Arabic. I've lived in three Arabic-speaking countries, and the problem is the difficulty of tackiling a language with a non-Roman orthography. I can't really study with a dictionary on my own, or in real-time, very effectively without learning the orthographic system. Arabs are truly wonderful people, and they make the effort to communicate in a European language or just human-to-human, so I just don't bother; shame on me.

I've also spent many years in Thailand. Again the orthography is a huge barrier; now throw in tones. And it's a fringe language that, unlike Arabic, is worthless (outside a tiny corner of southeast Asia). Maybe next lifetime...

I'd really like to get some abuse for this post (nothing to do with my avatar, which is solely political)... possibly from some females (after all, I mentioned girlfriends and Thailand in practically the same breath) ...

[Justin Trullinger]

Okay, let me see if I can come up with the kind of abuse you're looking for.

SHAME ON YOU! LIVING AMONGST WONDERFUL PEOPLE YOU CAN'T EVEN COMMUNICATE. YOU GIVE ENGLISH TEACHERS A BAD NAME.

Or something like that? I don't know- you can't learn all the languages in the world, and we all make choices. I really don't feel like abusing you.

At least you don't pretend that it isn't your decision by saying "I'm just not good at languages" or "the locals won't really talk to foreigners." It's your choice, and you own it. Fair enough.

Most of us have lived places where we learned the language to a high level, and places where we didn't. My Spanish is pretty darn good. My Polish is terrible. Can't learn'em all, gotta choose.


Best,
justin

[jonniboy]

[jpvanderwerf2001]

You nailed it about the Russians.

[Mike_2007]

Local: Hey, you English speakers are lazy, you never bother learning foreign languages!

Teacher: (Replies almost fluently in the local's L1)

Local: Hey, no fair! Speak to me in English. I want to practise my English!

Teacher: Duh!

[Justin Trullinger]

[MELEE]

When I got my young learners training, the trainer used German on us to demonstrate classes. This particular training was 40 hours, 8 hours a day for 5 days. We had one hour each day of demo with us playing the students in a German class. It was fun, and she did not resort to English at all during those 5 hours. We all followed her instructions and played the games and I think learned a some German, which of course I've forgotten, but it was one week in 1996.

I speak Spanish and think my knowledge of Spanish allows me to use the limited time I have with my students more effectively. I try not to use it much in class. And I'm certain I could teach a group of beginners whose language I did not speak. But I do believe that knowing my students' language is an asset in the classroom.

[spiral78]

Most of my Czech was learned without the use of English - by living and doing business in a small town where there were no options I often had to resort to a dictionary in advance of completing a task, and to practice what I thought I would need to say, and what I expected I would probably hear.

When I was around someone with English capability, I found that I had lists of questions from the days without any English resources, mostly to ensure that the meanings I 'felt' were accurate enough....