cultural weightlessness

[mcjon77]

VERY VERY TRUE! Personally, I have found that the difference in my Spanish is dramatic when I am imagining myself as a Latino compared to when I find myself thinking as an American "trying" to speak Spanish. Whenever I find my Spanish skills dropping during a conversation I just step a little more into my Latino Persona and my abilities automatically improve.

[YouStoleMyTube]

@mcjon77 I do something like that in French. When I want to speak French well I pretend I'm an angry baker hitting others with Fresh baguettes.

[AMansGottaHaveACode]

i think this is great advice. i often find people are afraid to pronounce a language properly even if they know how, because it involves complete abandonment of your traditional pronounciation habits. This involves relaxation and a fair bit of "role play" so to speak, at least at first. For me, it helps to imagine myself as an almost stereotype of that nationality/linguistic group, at least at first, to get the habit of speaking in completely different sounds. Im still a beginner, but still...

[kokorodokoro]

I completely agree. When speaking Japanese (or even English) I've found myself acting rather differently than in my mother tongue. The way I express myself is changed, certain emotions get more emphasized, and so on. It just happens, and I've observed it in a lot of other people as well, but never thought about exactly why. Probably the reason is the very thing you're talking about. Also I've never felt that lodged in Swedish culture in particular, so I think you're right.

Väl talat!

[xnightxamex]

i definitely agree. even less extreme than thinking of yourself as a member of the culture, you have to at least be accepting and openminded. ive seen kids who dont do this and they cant learn basic things in another language, because they assume it must be like their culture and cant come out of that shell. maybe that doesnt make any sense but i get what youre saying, its so true.

[lingosteve]

Thanks zhangfeijp,

I might bet back to the 5,000 years of history. I thought youtube was blocked in China.

[zhangfeijp]

yes it is actually :-(

but there are ways to bypass the problem, although it's quite "Mafan" and slow...

(sorry, "Mafan" is a great word, I had to use it ;)

[YouStoleMyTube]

Don't feel I belong to any culture whatsoever so I've never come across this problem :P

[zhangfeijp]

I'm a French Canadian studying Chinese in China... It's been 2 years now, and I've always been bothered by this 5000 years of history as an argument for anything, but I didn't know why.

Now I understand thx to your video! You've made good points. To quote adelski68, "reinforces my own beliefs".

This cultural weightlessness concept is brilliant !

Keep on with the videos Steve, they're great.

[adelski68]

Kind of reinforces my own beliefs.

Thank You

[nicknc]

I agree, I'm always accused of pretending to be Japanese or Chinese...

[blythecrazy]

Thank you, Steve. That was really interesting and I totally agree with what you said. Actually, if this vid were in Japanese, I'd have shown it to all my Japanese friends who are learning English.

[shimmeringreflection]

I found that lousy English speakers in Japan would cling to the mind-constructed identity, "I'm Japanese", and believe "Japanese are not good at English", which was, of course, a self-fulfiling prophesy.

In psychology, what you're talking about is called role playing (no surprise there!): When you speak Japanese, you adopt their pronunciation, intonation, way of thinking and mannerisms etc. This is crucial if you ever want to reach native level (when you've literally become one of them).

[kerodean]

I really enjoy your videos. They really keep me inspired to learn!

[zimmermann10]

Brilhant!

[thairob]

This is such an important part of language learning, yet surprisingly doesn't get mentioned very often if at all. Thank you for bringing it to light!

[AstAMoore]

All excellent points, Steve! Thanks for sharing.

[mitchhsansom]

Spot on. Five stars.

[jonmahoney04]

Great video. Thank you.

[LoneWolf852]

Inspirational and insightful as always.

How about a digression on the Korean culture and language? :)

[acromel]

That's a really good idea.

It seems that the simplicity and elegance of hangul (compared to Japanese kanji and kana at least) is made up for by tricky honourifics - not easy to speak/pronounce either.

[schattenjedi]

you're implying that korean honorifics are more difficult than japanese ones? unlikely.

[acromel]

Well, I read that they're about the same as Japanese, from a conjugation and grammar perspective, but I've heard a few Japanese people say that the Koreans are stricter about their use and application. It may be the Koreans are just as happy as the Japanese to forgive the mistakes that foreigners make, but I'm not sure how forgiving either of them would be to mistakes made by native speakers. I just don't know.

I think I'd prefer not to make social mistakes at all - if I can :o)

[acromel]

Agreed. The more different that the target language is from one's native tongue the more important it is. I suspect that this may be what is described as `thinking in the language', where one no longer translates from one's native tongue - that's always messy. This is especially true where the target language's culture is so different - and, of course, language and culture are so entwined.

I always cringe when I hear native English speakers mangle a foreign word! Interesting, as ever, Steve.