Re:Best ways to learn a foreign language
by jacques_chester on Sunday June 30, 2013 @06:47AM
(#5965337)
A small thing I've noticed about seeing news from France and Switzerland.
Swiss newsreaders seem to speak more slowly. I don't know if it's a peculiar Swiss behaviour, but I wondered at the time if it was connected to the fact that Switzerland has four official languages, some of them having overlapping linguistic footprints.
To make a Swiss French broadcast accessible to Swiss Germans who have rudimentary French, it would make sense for the presenters to speak more slowly.
Meanwhile, over on France 2, the appallingly videogenic presenters of Le 20 Heures drive a swishy gallic stereotype through the paper thin limits of my understanding.
The French have this stereotype of the Swiss being slow-spoken (some go as far as to claim they are slow-witted). So it's not just newscasters, but the general public as well.
Re:Best ways to learn a foreign language
by domedefelice on Monday July 01, 2013 @12:31PM
(#5971699)
Similar to dictation but seems funnier and more challenging at the same time. Very interesting! I am going to try this
It's totally free and, when you're at intermediate proficiency, both stupendously effective and the most maddening exercise you'll ever do. (What happens when you're thrown off the deep end into a newscast about nuclear power plant issues and you're deeply out of your depth with regards to the required vocabulary? You try your best, jot down the five words every 3 sentences you actually catch, and then break out a dictionary later to figure out why houshasen and shiyouzuminenryoupuuru seem to be so key to the topic.)
("Radiation" and "pool (for storage of) used (nuclear) fuel", respectively. And there, now you understand 5% more of that conversation.)