The Barrier of Free Flowing Conversation
#MandarinMonday was/is a nice idea and I hope it doesn’t die completely. Over on Tea Break, @1980_ examines why the concept has fizzled out in recent weeks. One particular point that I can associate with, and not just in relation to #MandarinMonday, is the difficulty of free conversation for those studying a second language.
At the start of every class my teacher says to us, “Spend a couple of minutes talking amongst yourselves in Chinese.” My mind goes blank and suddenly I have nothing to say. It’s the same whenever I find myself amongst a group of Chinese. It’s not that I don’t want to talk, it’s just that I simply don’t know what to say. I can picture it now, my mind racing through the vocabulary I know, trying to pick out anything new to say. After all, you can ask someone their name only so many times.
But why is this? Is it that, in the early stages of learning a new language, we are required to scale back our thought processes and try and speak like a child again? Or is it just that we don’t know just how much we really do know (D. Rumsfeld would understand)? Part of me believes that we think too much. Perhaps I need to stop thinking and just start speaking.
Have you come across a similar mental block and, more importantly, do you have any advice for those of us trying to overcome it?
I’ve been thinking about this in recent weeks, too. Maybe we could take a cue from ChinesePod and have prompts. Whether one person does it every week or we all toss out ideas, it might get things started. For example: What did you learn this week? What are your hobbies? What did you do last weekend?
On the other hand, prompts are just another thing for us to try to think up, so I’m not entirely certain it’d solve the problem.
I think it definitely is a mixture of lack of familiarity and adult blocks of not wanting to make mistakes / be embarrassed / look like a fool etc.
When I first learnt Mandarin I was hanging out with a bunch of native speakers at university (hardly at all with my mandarin classmates) and so I got very familiar with the sound and feel of Mandarin. I didn’t speak much but it did improve my comprehension. And I could ask about things I heard.
When I went to China to study more I also choose to hang out with native speakers and others who didn’t share English as a first language more than with my English speaking classmates. In a way this forced me to get over all my inhibitions towards speaking Mandarin and just get on with giving it a go. I made lots of mistakes and got quite artful in describing what I meant with a limited vocabulary.
Ever since then I have been quite at ease in giving speaking Mandarin a go in most circumstance. BUT, I still find that if I am put on the spot and someone wants me to speak solely in Mandarin, especially to someone I don’t know, then my mind can go completely blank like you describe! So I think it is mostly related to the social situation rather than the language learning per se.
“Spend a couple of minutes talking amongst yourselves in Chinese.” is a very general instruction given in classroom settings for beginner and intermediate language learners. I would suggest the teacher to use a theme-based approach to facilitate the ‘chat/practice time’. For example, asking students to bring a few photos of their family pictures and use them as a medium to share with their classmates. There are a number of objectives for this exercise: (1) Prior to attending the class, the students can prepare the vocabulary words that are needed to introduce their family members and what they do. (2)The students get to practice ‘introducing a person to others’ (This is my wife…her name is….she is a….) without asking each other over and over what their names are etc. (3)It is related to their real life experience.
As for conversing in social settings with native speakers of the target language as a beginner or intermediate learner, there are two perspectives to answer your question: (1) Listening and reading are receptive language skills whereas speaking and writing are productive langauge skills. The receptive language skills need to be developed to a threshold level before one’s productive language competence start to flourish. So in a way, a foreign language learner of an early stage is like a child in social settings with native speakers-you get to listen mostly, not much talking. It is a natural learning stage to go through. It is not practical to hold an expectation of having a conversation flow at this stage of learning. And yes it is frustrating because the difference between a child and an adult learner is that adults usually have content knowledge of whatever the conversation topic is carried out. (2)Having said that, there are occasions that the beginners can experience the conversation flow with native speakers. It all boils down to finding the common interest that both share together. If you always hang out with the same group of Chinese, for example, you could find out what interests them and you learn to acquire new words that will help you to chat with them on a certain topic. Again, a theme-based approach before one’s Chinese competence is high enough to chat from one topic to the other. For example, doing a project together such as preparing a meal usually helps to facilitate the conversation flow.
I was in Fuzhou about a month ago, and went to “English Corner” (by the big statue of Mao), where a group meets a couple of times a week, just to practise English with each other. (It was great fun, especially as the only foreigner, people were very keen to chat with me!)
One one technique I saw people using was that one of them mentioned a word – any word – and then second person had to come up with any word that was then triggered (no matter how tenuous the link), and that was what the first person would then start talking about.
For example …
* piano – keys – “I hate it when I can’t find my keys …”
* fish – bones – “My spine still hurts from when I had an accident …”
With a bit of practice, they seemed to be able to trigger a whole range of conversations.
Prompts is a great idea and one that I have considered. The trouble is that by choosing one (or more) topics for discussion, you are instantly alienating those who haven’t reached that level or covered particular vocabulary. Would you like to suggest a topic for next weeks #MandarinMonday? Does anyone have any objections?
Making an effort to put yourself in situations conducive to language learning is definitely something I need to work on. On the flight back from China last month, my wife and I discussed (only half jokingly) the idea that next time I should fly to China several days ahead of her, just to “see how I survive.” Every time we go, I find she does almost all of the communication. There are benefits to this, in that I get to see a side of China that isn’t necessarily possible without speaking the language, but it isn’t making the best use of prime 中文 practice time.
The number of native Chinese speakers that I/we know in London seems to be decreasing by the day as they all opt, for one reason or another, to head back to China. They all have their own reasons, but I get the feeling that this is part of a trend, the reasons for which are unknown.
Your point is a good one and, now that you mention it, we are often given a topic to discuss. If one of us has just returned from holiday we are asked to question him/her on it. If the last lesson was on giving directions for example we need to give directions to get home. Sometimes though, we do have the opportunity for free practice. I don’t necessarily see this as a bad thing as it is has really started to highlight aspects of my Chinese that are improving faster than others.
Recently back from China, I have a great example of your second point that I think illustrates it perfectly: Dinner-time conversations with the in-laws. In the early days, my wife used to translate everything, almost word by word. She’d return from “holidays” exhausted. These days it is markedly different, and not only because my Chinese has significantly improved. I’ve managed to persuade my wife that I am actually happy to sit there and just listen. It’s great fun to try and pick out phrases I know, to repeat words I don’t understand and generally just absorb the conversation. I am always surprised at how much I can pick up.
Then, there are times when I’m left alone with the in-laws. We have great fun trying to communicate, in part, because we never seem to shy away from complex topics (I will never forget trying to explain how geotagging worked). I never thought about it at the time, but in trying to explain complex topics you can find some amazingly creative ways to express yourself. It took a while, but we both thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.
Thanks for the insightful comment, the more I think about it, the more I can relate to what you say. It is not necessarily a bad thing to have the mind of a child. It challenges us to be creative in the way we express ourselves, a good skill even in our native language.
Greg, thanks for stopping by. What an absolutely brilliant suggestion. I guess #MandarinMonday is our very own techie version “Mandarin Corner”.
I really like the idea of bringing the word association game in to the process and am going to suggest it at my next class. Will definitely post about it if it takes off.
I think prompts or themes each #MandarinMonday is a good idea.
Maybe we need to decide on the theme a couple of days in advance to give people a chance/opportunity to prepare