Non-English Forums

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RoamingFrancis
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Non-English Forums

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if anyone was interested in non-English conversation threads. I've been an avid language learner since I was fairly young, but now I'm focused on a nursing degree and don't have much time to spend on language stuff. I miss it though, and I think the ERE forum would be a good place to have interesting conversations.

Is anyone interested? I speak Spanish and German quite well, and can converse (shakily) in Portuguese, French, Russian, and Arabic. I used to be decent at Esperanto but haven't used it in years.

Let me know if any of you are interested!

Peaceably,
Roaming Francis

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Alphaville
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Re: Non-English Forums

Post by Alphaville »

inglés o español me da igual, pero a mi francés le hace falta práctica

daylen
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Re: Non-English Forums

Post by daylen »

I do not think Jacob is a fan because it makes forum administration more challenging.

jacob
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Re: Non-English Forums

Post by jacob »

Daylen is correct.

The suggestion of non-English language practice has come up before and been shot down. It makes it harder to moderate because I have to run threads through an online translator to ensure that bad actors (there's always one) don't just switch to another language in order to flaunt the rules. Also, it's common courtesy to use the "working"-language, here English, when multiple nationalities are present.

I'll accept greetings like hola and sayonara but that's about it.

horsewoman
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Re: Non-English Forums

Post by horsewoman »

There are always private messages for that. In a thread like this, you could find likeminded people (in English obviously) and switch the conversation over to PM.
Germans like to do this in English Facebook groups, starting comment threads in German. Pretty rude, IMO.

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Jean
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Re: Non-English Forums

Post by Jean »

Maybe we could use this topic to signal our interest in making language tandem, and then use PM to exchange telegram or another messenger informations?
French is my mother language, I'de be glad to have some opportunities to speak russian or polish (which I used to be able to survive with).
I'm also interested in learning turkish, farsi and hindi, I know next to nothing in those, but if a native speaker manifest some interest in a tandem with a french speaker, I'll get to a basic level on my own so we can start.
I realise my pronuciation in english is far from widely reckognized, and I'de be open for a french english tandem too.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: Non-English Forums

Post by RoamingFrancis »

I can see how that'd make administration challenging, no worries.

@Jean @horsewoman @Alphaville I'd be interested in practicing French/German/Spanish over PM with all y'all.

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Alphaville
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Re: Non-English Forums

Post by Alphaville »

i have actually taught languages, and immersion is a big requirement for all of that. but i think that practicing via pm is very inefficient.

the language learner gets interaction with just a single person, and for the native speaker the conversation becomes akin to giving private lessons. i would either charge or pay money for lessons, because it’s work for the teacher, but unfortunately (fortunately?) it’s not something i’m either buying or selling at the moment.

maybe the right function for this thread could be to discuss strategies for learning/practicing our target languages on the internet for free.

for example, this message board is a great place to learn english if that’s not your first language, just as a side effect of discussing other subjects that interest you.

so for me, if i want to practice french, maybe i can look for a message board on a subject that interests me. e.g., french cooking, which would fit nicely into my web of goals. mmmm, french cooking!

i think the right way to go about it is to introduce yourself as someone who is not a native speaker, and if you’re sincere in your interest you will learn the common language as a side effect and people will help you in a more direct manner when you ask for help communicating something of value.

now i know almost zero german, so i can’t go to a german message board. but i could create some immersive experiences online. for example, i’ve picked up some stuff from watching bundesliga broadcasts. deep existential terms like tor and elfmeter :mrgreen:

eta: for no-pressure reading there is also wikipedia, e.g.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(Fußball)
or, more accessible to me because i read more french:
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassoulet

the big “secret” of language learning is to suppress mental translation and just inhabit the language as it appears, and find your way in/through it. that is all really— your language brain does the rest.

ps- for that reason, when reading a book, say, on kindle, don’t download translation dictionaries but use the dictionary in the target language, like a native speaking child would. yes, you might have to follow a chain of 4 or 5 definitions before you get the meaning, but you will get it in the language.

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Re: Non-English Forums

Post by jacob »

As far as I understand an elfmeter is used to detect elves. It's built into the black knight's whistle and the aim of the game is for the black knight to run around and find all the elves before someone screams tooooooor!

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Alphaville
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Re: Non-English Forums

Post by Alphaville »

it’s a great game, full of passion. an example is when the black knight’s squires celebrate their master’s deeds with colorful flag displays, and the crowd, who favors the elves, groans with suffering.

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fiby41
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Re: Non-English Forums

Post by fiby41 »

Jean wrote:
Mon Mar 23, 2020 10:39 am
.
Do you have Whatsapp? I would like to practice Russian and I have taught Hindi before.
Don't worry about your spelling. English is not a phonetic language.

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