In this blogpost I discuss the difference between speaking a language vs speaking ‘inside a language’.

 

 

In this post, I share some tips on becoming fluent in a foreign language. I will also attempt to share my thoughts on the difference between speaking and understanding a language from a linguistic and literary point of view or speaking a language from ‘inside out’.

 

Sometimes people ask me “why did you say it ‘like that'”? Well, it is because ‘it feels right’. I can explain the linguistic reason behind my choice of words and phrases but what is more important is that I chose my words because I want to express, as precisely as possible, what I mean.

 

When you don’t speak a language fluently, you chose words that are ‘approximate’. I have been there. I kept on saying ‘you know what I mean?’. It was because I felt that the phrases and words I was using somehow did not convey exactly what I meant. I was hoping that the other person was a mind-reader. 🙂

 

Still, today, I spend considerable amount of time searching for synonyms.  It is because I want to find the ‘very words’ that convey the meaning, I want to say.

 

Most people study a language and learn to speak from ‘the outside to the inside’. It means that they separate themselves from the target language as if it were a foreign entity, looking at it from the outside, something they need to conquer.

 

Actually, it is the other way around. During the language learning process we need to find ourselves inside the foreign language and make it our new home. As we are learning ‘how the language thinks’, we start finding how we can express who we are and what we want through ‘this way of thinking’. This is why the saying goes “you are as many people as many languages you speak” – we think differently in a foreign language

 

Until we keep the target language ‘foreign’ or separate from us, we cannot speak it fluently.

 

If you want to ‘ lean’  English with me, get in touch by clicking on the pictures below.