Re: When do you start to stop learning?

From: Kevin Wayne Williams (kww.nihongo_at_verizon.nut)
Date: 08/15/04 

Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2004 10:18:16 -0700

Cindy wrote:

> Travers Naran wrote:
>
>
>> I've known people who've been learning & using English for 20 years or
>> more and still aren't fluent.
>
>
> Are you talking about me?

Probably in a general sense he is. Specifically, I doubt it. Your
English seems pretty typical for someone that has learned English as a
second language during adulthood: you are usually able to get your
points across, you grasp some idioms well and miss others completely,
and you use a simplified grammar when writing. You frequently make small
grammatical errors. You have some Japanese specific phrasing, and you
struggle with "a", "an", and "the." You occasionally use spoken forms in
writing, and probably use written forms in speaking. Nearly every Asian
I encounter that needs English in their daily life reaches somewhere
around your level of fluency and stays there. To get past it requires an
intense level of study that most people find not to be worthwhile.

If I achieve your level of English fluency in Japanese, I will be proud
of myself.

> It's OK to be fluent of course. But it's a
> big turn off when those fluent people start talking about manga and sex
> and so on. You know what I mean?
>
> Additionally, I notice that you will be mistaken fluent if the topic you
> are discussing is a regular and repeated one because you are used to it
> and have practiced many times enough. Therefore, if you let me talk
> about such as the Beatles, Paul McCartney, Mozart, WWII, Hiroshima,
> Nagasaki (by the way, happy war-end day!), and so on. I may sound
> fluent. If I am forced to talk about physics and such, I am doomed in
> both languages.

Happens to everyone. Job-related words and words that show up in the
kind of fiction you prefer become comfortable, and you tend to use them
correctly. Once you get out of that area, speech quickly becomes
uncomfortable and stressful.

KWW

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