Re:The Mystery of People Who Speak Dozens of Languages
by pmoriarty on Thursday August 30, 2018 @03:24PM
(#17879904)
"Fail, fail, fail - and laugh about it."
One not only needs a tolerance for failure, but a tolerance for humiliation. Some native speakers will treat people with a poor grasp of their language as if they were children or idiots.
I've definitely acquired a lot more empathy for people who struggle with English once I tried my own rudimentary language skills in other countries. These people who have difficulty putting together a few words in English might actually be far more intelligent and educated than the native speakers they're trying to communicate with, yet they're often looked down upon.
This is the norm here in Morocco: Lots of people speak a Berber dialect as their primary language, followed by Arab and French (both compulsory in education). Not only are most able to participate in 3 communications in their 3 languages, they also practice code-switching a lot - it's not uncommon to have all 3 languages in a single sentence.
> Just throw away all concept of deadlines for progress and fluency and enjoy the failure and process.
The second part is, IMHO, the most important: Fail, fail, fail - and laugh about it. One does walk away from "talks", both parties laughing and "agreeing", with both parties being aware that communication failed completely.