Re: OT: Icelandic help

I can understand spoken Italian with little difficulty, and mostly read written
material, but, being out of practice, can't comfortably produce much
spontaneously in either speech or writing. On the other hand, I can read
Portuguese quite easily, but understanding it spoken gives me fits.
My mom, who's learning Spanish, has a terrible time understanding a Honduran
friend of ours, and even I, who've spoken it for twenty years, have to turn up
my listening speed with him! She has a much easier time with a Chilean friend,
even though there are marked lexical and phonetic differences between our
Chilean friend's dialect and the Mexican and southern US dialects normally
spoken where we live.
I speak some Arabic and a little Russian; in both those languages the speaking
speed seems much easier on beginners than in Spanish. In Arabic, though, that
advantage to learners is probably erased by the bewildering phonemic,
morphological, and lexical variety among spoken dialects, which is probably the
most daunting I've ever run across.
Krista

----- Original Message -----
From: caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>
Date: Monday, May 5, 2008 7:03 am
Subject: Re: OT: Icelandic help
To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU

> >"Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...> wrote:
>
> >*Everyone* normally speaks very fast from the perspective of L2
> >speakers (or non-speakers) of their L1.
>
> This has not been my experience with Spanish.  I lived for a time
> in
> Central America when I was in the Peace Corps.  I had difficulty
> understanding the Hondurans, but when I went next door to
> Nicaragua I
> had no difficulty whatsoever.  I was amazed that at my first
> contact
> with a Nicaraguan, a cab driver, I was able to understand him
> perfectly.  I doubt that all the Nicaraguans with whom I spoke
> slowed
> down just for me.
>
> What I find interesting is that many people don't know how to slow
> down.  I'm always saying, "más despacio."  They may think they've
> slowed down, but I don't hear a difference.
>
> >I've never understood all the people who say they can listen
> >and get the gist of something but can't say anything themselves; I've
> >always had the opposite problem.
>
> I'm with you on this one.  I can pretty much say what I want to
> say,
> but don't always get the gist of what someone is saying to me.
>
> Charlie
>

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