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Interview in German, and major language realisations

| 25 comments | Category: mission

My time in Berlin has come to an end! It has been an amazing experience and I will write a post soon about my time in this fantastic city. On Sunday I fly to Budapest – my new home for the next few months!

But first, I thought you would be interested in seeing this video interview. I have been interviewed before in videos in English and even once on the radio in Spanish, but this time was in German! Check it out:

The first few seconds of this video are in Irish, and the rest in German. We continue after this segment and talk in Irish, English and Spanish and I will upload that part of the interview soon – to see it, subscribe to my Youtube channel.

Marcus Ó Conaire, who interviewed me, launches his language learning website, Fealsún (http://www.fealsun.org) this Autumn along with an internet broadcast archive, ICM-Rundfunk. More information can be found prior to launch  at http://www.cesi.ie/digiteach-icm. Best of luck with that, Marcus!

Accent reduction

Since I decided to focus on doing well in my C2 exam, I did not work on reducing my accent to the extent to pass off as a German as I had initially planned. This would have required me to have been focused entirely on speaking well, which I wasn’t. You will notice in the interview that I am still not 100% confident with my German and hesitate and “umm” quite a bit. Despite that, after four months of non-intensive conversation (due to more intensive and less useful studying) I think I have improved my spoken German considerably!

One reason I suggested singing as a useful means of improving your accent is that it can come across more obviously when you sing loudly (as mine clearly was in my silly music video!) and this makes what you need to work on more clear to anyone helping you. I didn’t get singing lessons in German this time, but I still attempted to self-correct my tones, rhythm and pronunciation in German as best as I could.

One thing I did was to rely temporarily on my closest rendering to a French R since I didn’t put the work into my German one. This meant that people would rarely take me as a native English speaker based on how I spoke, and this reinforced what I usually do and helped convince people to constantly speak to me in German. So, for the entire three months of the core of the mission I never spoke English with a German (unless other foreigners with no German were present).

I took it easy in my final weeks though, and Berliners got a taste of some Hiberno English from me, since I will need a break before my next monstrous challenge!

In general, I highly recommend that people focus on trying to reduce their accent. It puts way less of a distance between you and the other speaker and even though I still make lots of grammar and vocabulary mistakes, my level “seems” better than someone who would have a greater focus on these aspects, simply because the way I speak it sounds better.

For English speakers, pronouncing the letter R differently is a priority. This one sound alone produced as a typical English R can sound like an open invitation for anyone to speak English with you. Even just a few hours of intensive training can give you a much more convincing R and tempt people less to use you as free English practise if you happen to be abroad.

Lesson learned: stop bloody studying so much!

As if it wasn’t drilled into me enough in my time leading up to the exam, I have continued to realise even in the last two weeks that over-studying and passive learning are not effective ways to ultimately speak a language. I have been attempting to get a start on my Hungarian, but I have made a pitiful amount of progress from studying.

The language has no context for me other than lists of words in a book right now and it may as well be a dead language spoken thousands of years ago that I’ve been reluctantly assigned for some school project. Some people may be very motivated to make great leaps of progress in a language from course materials, but that never worked for me, and I know from the dozens of e-mails I get a day that it also doesn’t work for many many other people who attempt to learn languages.

Spoken context is always the key!

What I should have done for these two weeks was to seek out Hungarian speakers, both the community in Berlin, and those online, and get straight into speaking the language with studying augmenting this. Not being in the country that speaks the language is no excuse; I actually learned the majority of my Portuguese while living in France before I ever even moved to Brazil thanks to meeting up with Brazilians via the communities in the Orkut social networking site.

Studying can of course seriously augment and be a crucial aspect of your language progress, but without social / human context you may never be truly motivated enough or have the passion required to reach fluency at a practical rate. Underestimating the importance of this passion and thinking that just investing a stupid amount of hours into studying, thinking this is enough to put you ahead, is a big mistake to make.

Any language trapped in a book is as good as Mathematics, Geography or History. The only reason I did well in Maths in school is because I’m a Maths-nerd. I’m not much of a language nerd, so without the right human-based context that involves the language in its natural use, I simply have no motivation to try to seriously learn it. I’d argue that this is the case for most people.

Of course, all of that will change on Sunday for me when I have a whole environment pressuring me to make progress in my next language. Rather than seek out an English-speaking bubble to “protect” me, as most expats seem to do nowadays (it’s sad but true, and universal) I will embrace this pressure and go with the flow.

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Did you like the video? Agree/disagree with the points I made? Any other thoughts? Share them in the comments below and don’t forget to share this post with your friends on Facebook!

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Comments: If you liked this post or have anything to say, please leave a comment! I love reading them :) You don’t even have to write in English! I will reply to all comments in any language listed on the right with the flags.
Just keep in mind that I’ll delete any comments that:
1. Are unnecessarily nasty and mean to me or any other commenter or otherwise totally inappropriate.
2. Are irrelevant to the particular post they follow, or leave a link to a site that is totally irrelevant or are clearly spam. If you have a general language learning question, please ask it in the forums.
3. Use a commenter name of a business or brand instead of a human being or a spammy temporary disposable e-mail service, or a clearly fake address.
But that’s not you, so don’t worry! Can’t wait to see what you have to write… don’t be shy!! :)

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  • Katie

    Very cool.

    I think it all depends on how you study. If you do it well, it’s not a waste of time at all.

  • David

    Great job on the German excursion, Benny. Impressive.
    The words come to you quickly.
    Not the typical pauses whil waiting for the appropriate words, wording, to surface.
    How about your retention? Languages always need to be reinforced and used.

  • http://theicode.com Brian

    Benny, Great tip on how pronouncing differently than the basic English native speaker will prevent so many people from jumping into English with you. Do you have any tips on how to pronounce certain letters in French differently so that when I speak French with others they don't drop into English? I can speak French well, but French people are always dropping into English with me when I speak their language – and it's frustrating because I really want to practice my new language skills.

  • http://www.fluentin3months.com/ Benny the language hacker

    I found that the French, especially Parisians, were reluctant to help me for cultural reasons rather than my actual level of the language. I wrote about what I learned to this end here.
    The best thing you can do is sit down with a native French and tell them to correct every aspect of your pronunciation, or get a private singing teacher as I did in Rio :) Any tips I can give you might not be relevant to your current level, it's best to get a native to point you in the right direction!

  • http://www.fluentin3months.com/ Benny the language hacker

    Right. But “doing it well” involves lots of actual PRACTICE with the study being a small part of your time investment in a language. In that case study augments your progress. I don't see how doing it super well locked in your room with no practise can lead to any actual useful spoken level of the language unless someone is already an experienced language learner.

  • http://www.MyBeautifulAdventures.com/ GlobalButterfly

    You sounded fantastic Benny!!! Growing up around Germans, I can confidently say that. CONGRATS!!!!!

  • http://www.fluentin3months.com/ Benny the language hacker

    Will be working really hard on retention of my German and will discuss that later ;)

  • http://www.fluentin3months.com/ Benny the language hacker

    Thanks! :)

  • Katie

    I think it depends on where you are, and I have no idea how you study languages. I know you were using LingQ and SRS, but I don't know how you were using those two things. The best-case scenario would be total immersion in the country, and I think you've got that nailed. BUT! There are ways to do it outside of the country, but you seem to equate studying with something negative, and it doesn't have to be that way at all.

  • http://www.fluentin3months.com/ Benny the language hacker

    95% of energy put into study and little or none into speaking is a major reason why so many people don't make spoken progress in a language. My negativity expressed on the blog is due to the fact that I meet SO MANY PEOPLE who have gone through the study-focussed approach and gotten nothing out of it. It's not because they aren't smart enough, but that is what many of them think.

    If someone has no other options, then studying a lot is a step in the right direction, but most people in major cities or with an Internet connection have ample opportunities to practise almost any language.

    • Katie

      I misread you. Yes, studying by how you define it is pretty awful, if you mean studying a textbook and vocabulary lists. It’s a good thing you’re going to Hungary, because there’s no way you’d learn it that way!

      But yes, I understand that people do study languages that way. And they really should knock it off.

  • http://howlearnspanish.com/ Andrew

    Getting singing lessons in every country you go to is brilliant, I'm going to do that when I start traveling.

    Do you use language exchange sites like Mixxer much? I've always thought that those were sort of groundbreaking in that they allow you to get fluent by speaking with natives without ever having to leave your house, let alone visit the country (not that you shouldn't, point being that it's not required anymore and allows you to get fluent in a language prior to ever setting foot in the country where it's spoken).

    Cheers,
    Andrew

  • http://www.anomadslot.com Antonia

    Enjoyed watching the video, really fun! I forget who pointed me to your blog, but I'm inspired. I'm off to India soon so I've decided to learn Hindi in 3 months using a combination of methods. I already know devanagari from studying Nepali and Sanskrit. For learning the basics of Hindi, this site was recommended to me: http://taj.chass.ncsu.edu/lessons.html. I'm currently in a part of Australia where there are tons of Indians so I'll have no trouble finding native speakers, Bollywood movie rentals, music and books. I've always picked up languages quickly in my travels around the world but I've never put in the time and effort to actively try to become fluent in a short time. I'll be using your blog as my guide and inspiration….thanks Benny!

  • Prossim4

    I look forward to your thoughts on that subject. It seems if you learn it as a second language that it never sinks to that part of the brain where it is unforgetable. But even native speakers can eventually lose their language.
    Singing would be a lot of fun and beneficial. In karaoke settings, I´ve seen people with very apparent irish accents when they speak, sing Jonny Cash perfectrly.

  • Peter

    Benny,

    How do you have the money to do this? I mean, if I could get on a jet and go to the counties of the languages I wanted to learn to speak, believe me, I would. I know you can still do it without being in the country, but I don't understand how you can constantly be on the go… do you work?

    -Peter

  • http://corcaighist.blogspot.com Corcaighist

    You can tell that you are new here and seem not to have read any other posts. He's a freelance translator. Works by email, no need to go to the/an office.

  • http://www.fluentin3months.com/ Benny the language hacker

    Thanks Corcaighist! :)
    @Peter Best to read my about page! I work like a dog sometimes and mention on the blog that there have been two occasions where I have been trapped indoors for a month straight including weekends working – that's actually to pay off a debt that has nothing to do with my travel expenses. I didn't win the lotto. What I'm doing is extremely affordable and living abroad is cheaper. I worked for almost 6 years with jobs on location that I found on arrival. In the last few years I have been working online and that simplifies things a lot. Either way of working is just as possible for everyone else.

    When you say “if I could get on a jet” it sounds so exotic and unobtainable, but my ticket to Berlin only cost me €40 and last I checked Ryanair do have other customers that work…

  • http://www.fluentin3months.com/ Benny the language hacker

    Thanks Antonia! Best of luck with your Hindi :) Make sure to update me on your progress over the next 3 months!

  • http://www.fluentin3months.com/ Benny the language hacker

    Language exchange sites have a lot of potential, but to be totally honest I have never really used them. I use websites as means to meet people in person rather than to get their Skype details. I realise this is not something everyone would be ready to try, so I'd encourage people to practise online in the comfort of their home just as quickly, since it's just as much a conversation as an in-person one is (only I prefer to have the pressure constantly on me with no minimise window option :P )
    I got to a very good level of Portuguese while living in France by contacting Brazilians by the social networking site Orkut (Google's answer to Facebook, extremely popular with Brazilians) and then meeting them up in person. In some later mission I will attempt to learn a language in 3 months without even being in the country it is spoken to prove that travel is not what makes the overall difference.

  • Marcel

    Hey Benny,

    I liked the interview very much. I wanted to drop a little tip in regards to pronounciation: If you say “lernen” I'd recommend pronouncing the first “e” more like an “ä” than an “ö”. At the moment it sounds very much like “to learn”, which is also perfectly fine.

    Keep up the good work.

    -Marcel

  • Quokka

    You reached an impressive level within a short amount of time. I am however wondering whether you could talk about different topics at the same pace.

    Whenever you've accomplished a certain level at one language, do you think you're especially good at chatting about language learning or can you easily apply what you've learnt to lots of different topics (in “real time”)?

  • http://www.fluentin3months.com/ Benny the language hacker

    Language learning comes up regularly in conversations with me, but I tend to talk about whatever. I don't think a video about me talking about Germany's progress during the world cup would be as interesting to watch!
    Obviously learning a language to talk about learning languages is a stupid reason to do it in the first place. I chat up girls, give tours of the city, talked about technology and blogging, about being a vegetarian and many other things that happened to come up. I would talk about any of these things and many more in exactly the same level of comfort as in that video.
    If it's about politics, shoes etc. then I will not be comfortable talking and would not have the same level of fluency.

  • http://howlearnspanish.com/ Andrew

    Sounds good, you should sequester yourself to your bedroom and get from zero to completely fluent without ever leaving, just to show the naysayers.

    After that, I'm afraid you will have to resort to ever more drastic stunts, such as learning a language while standing on your head or running naked through a public park.

    Cheers…and good luck,
    Andrew :D

  • Captain Banned

    Yes, certainly study without practice is very limited. However, from this line — “The language has no context for me other than lists of words in a book right now” — I’d suggest that you have a particularly dull and ineffective course. Unfortunately I’ve never studied Hungarian, so I can’t recommend any alternatives!

    Please don’t dismiss all study based on a bad course book or two!

  • AB

    I’m German and while I could hear, that you are not a native speaker, I wouldn’t have guessed that you are English at all! I felt that the pronounciation of the long and stressed “e”, e.g. in “desw_e_gen” gives you away the most, hope that helps.