Not becoming fluent in chosen language(s) by end of your degree.

OP

Definitely continue to degree level, it's not all about becoming fluent, you should genuinly enjoy the subject and you'd probably regret it if you didn't take it.

I'm a terrible perfectionist and I still beat myself up about every little mistake I make (I just started work yesterday where I work in a room where everyone except me and one other girl are native German speakers and I'm constantly speaking and writing German thinking "God I bet they think I'm crap!". I've not been overly confident this week because of the high standards I set myself. I don't think it will impede you though as long as you learn from your mistakes, put in the hard work and don't agonise other things too much. I'm doing ok at least!

Thank you!!

Hannah-dru,honestly,thanks for all the answers youve given to various threads I've made about german with other languages,you've given the confidence to keep going with a language I honestly love.Degree level here I come!(Choosing unis this year..eek!)

Reply 21

hannah_dru

2

Original post by OddThings

Hannah-dru,honestly,thanks for all the answers youve given to various threads I've made about german with other languages,you've given the confidence to keep going with a language I honestly love.Degree level here I come!(Choosing unis this year..eek!)

You're welcome :smile:

I hope you enjoy degree level as much as I did, good luck choosing unis! It can be quite a hard decision.

Reply 22

wes

10

Original post by xmarilynx

How do you define fluency? :holmes:

Because I think most people would say that the level you have, given that you've lived, worked and studied in Paris years, is fluent.

I would say that it is:
Orally, being able to hold a conversation on any subject you could talk about in your mother, without comprehension problems on either side and without the fact that you are speaking a foreign language slowing you down or making you hesitate. Accent doesn't really matter, so long as it is not a barrier to communication (mine definitely is :p:

).

In writing, being able to write a text just as long as in your first language, using a wide variety of vocabulary and impeccable style and idiom, reasonably quickly and making few mistakes that a native is unlikely to make.

Reply 23

*Supernova*

1

Original post by hannah_dru

Definitely continue to degree level, it's not all about becoming fluent, you should genuinly enjoy the subject and you'd probably regret it if you didn't take it.

I'm a terrible perfectionist and I still beat myself up about every little mistake I make (I just started work yesterday where I work in a room where everyone except me and one other girl are native German speakers and I'm constantly speaking and writing German thinking "God I bet they think I'm crap!". I've not been overly confident this week because of the high standards I set myself. I don't think it will impede you though as long as you learn from your mistakes, put in the hard work and don't agonise other things too much. I'm doing ok at least!

Thank you!!

Just gave you pos rep because I read your post and realised that's exactly how I feel, regarding perfectionism and looking around imagining that every native I speak to thinks I'm crap. I don't really know why we feel like this, or what can be done to change it. I don't know about you, but I feel it makes my language worse because as I'm speaking I'm telling myself I'm no good, or that the person I'm speaking to thinks I'm no good, so I get all nervous. :s-smilie:

From having come across a few of your other posts in this forum (and going by your degree classification - congrats!), you're obviously really good, so I was interested to read you don't think you are and that you set yourself high standards. So what do you do to get round it? Just try and convince yourself you are really good? Or do you just try not to think about it too much?
Sorry for the looong post.

Reply 24

hannah_dru

2

Original post by *Supernova*

Just gave you pos rep because I read your post and realised that's exactly how I feel, regarding perfectionism and looking around imagining that every native I speak to thinks I'm crap. I don't really know why we feel like this, or what can be done to change it. I don't know about you, but I feel it makes my language worse because as I'm speaking I'm telling myself I'm no good, or that the person I'm speaking to thinks I'm no good, so I get all nervous. :s-smilie:

From having come across a few of your other posts in this forum (and going by your degree classification - congrats!), you're obviously really good, so I was interested to read you don't think you are and that you set yourself high standards. So what do you do to get round it? Just try and convince yourself you are really good? Or do you just try not to think about it too much?
Sorry for the looong post.

Thanks

It's not that I don't think I'm good, it's more the way my company works and the fact that they're very blunt when it comes to translations and your mistakes. It can be quite a knock to my confidence but I mostly try and shrug it off and take on any advice I'm given.

Reply 25

soy_david

2

It takes time to become fluent. Time and effort.

I was talking to someone who was learning English a few months ago, and I asked if it was difficult because it's different to the languages he already knew. He said 'The stupidest man in England speaks English fluently; it just takes time to learn.'

Not becoming fluent in chosen language(s) by end of your degree.

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