Re:The Race to Save 'Contact Languages'
by rightbyte on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @07:47AM
(#24352282)
I rate myself as speaking OK English and have worked alot speaking english to non native english speakers but I still feel any non trivial discussion in English are about half as effective and much more exhausting. I will probably never get used to it.
Re:The Race to Save 'Contact Languages'
by 082349872349872 on Wednesday September 02, 2020 @08:04AM
(#24352385)
I admit I was only thinking about reading and writing[1], but I know what you mean about exhausting. That does slowly go away with use.
Speaking comfort (judging by my circle) generally takes a couple of years of immersion. Now that we have large quantities of video online[2] in the popular languages, listening comprehension should be far easier to come by, but speaking is always the difficult part.
The two best ways I've found to learn to speak are (a) trying to get some real world task done, and (b) drunken pub convos. Note that in both these cases perfection is secondary to communication.
[1] Dijkstra ("EWD") had a better written english than many native speakers.
[2] In countries where I'm amazed at the local command of english, it's often because their TV ran english programs undubbed.
That said, agreed that there's probably more progress necessary for a true creole. (What language do people normally speak on vacation? Many of tourists who come here try english if they're not entirely comfortable in a local language.)