# Total immersion language programs



## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

JamesGerard said:


> So it very much depends on where you are living. One could get by reasonably well in any of the colonial cities without a vehicle. Oaxaca, Morelia, Guanajuato, for instance.
> All of those cities have very good immersion programs too.


What's an immersion program? Nothing to do with swimming lessons, I guess .


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## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

Immersion program is when you study a foreign language at a school in a country where it is the native tongue and you live with a local family. That forces you to use the language all day, every day - hence the term immersion.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

circle110 said:


> Immersion program is when you study a foreign language at a school in a country where it is the native tongue and you live with a local family. That forces you to use the language all day, every day - hence the term immersion.


Of course!


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## tijuanahopeful (Apr 2, 2013)

Which means that you learn it faster.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

circle110 said:


> Immersion program is when you study a foreign language at a school in a country where it is the native tongue and you live with a local family. That forces you to use the language all day, every day - hence the term immersion.


I think it refers to anytime you live all day in the language you are learning. There are immersion language programs for non-English languages in the US. The Middlebury summer language schools and the Monterey Defense Language Institute come to mind.


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## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

TundraGreen said:


> I think it refers to anytime you live all day in the language you are learning. There are immersion language programs for non-English languages in the US. The Middlebury summer language schools and the Monterey Defense Language Institute come to mind.


That's interesting. Although, I'll bet it is harder to enforce 100% usage of the language being learned when the immersion is taking place in a country where it is not the de facto language. 

I did 2-week immersion courses twice a year for several years when I was learning Spanish and it was so cool (but difficult at first!!) to keep using it in normal daily life situations after spending 5 hours in the classroom. But it was great enforced practice and I wound up learning so much more.

During each of the first 3-4 immersion trips I did I reached a bizarre "brain-freeze" point about a week into the immersion. My brain locked up and was unable to think or process anything in Spanish, almost as if I was an utter beginner. Then after a day or so, my brain would "thaw out" and I'd have lifted my level of Spanish a small notch from where it was before the freeze. I have spoken to several others who had immersion type experiences who had something similar happen to them. 

Sorry to pull the thread off topic... back to cars!


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

circle110 said:


> That's interesting. Although, I'll bet it is harder to enforce 100% usage of the language being learned when the immersion is taking place in a country where it is not the de facto language.
> 
> I did 2-week immersion courses twice a year for several years when I was learning Spanish and it was so cool (but difficult at first!!) to keep using it in normal daily life situations after spending 5 hours in the classroom. But it was great enforced practice and I wound up learning so much more.
> 
> ...


I moved the language stuff to its own thread, so no need to feel guilty anymore.

I had a friend who studied Vietnamese at the Monterey Defense Language school for a year. He told me that they really did live in the language 24 hours a day.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

To me the serious immersion programs as in the case of the person learning Vietnamese is pure torture.
I was involved in an experimental program in France in graduate school to teach French to people in 6 months. The students did not have any way to speak their own language with any one and never had French before. What we found out is that the best learning is done during the first 45 minutes of a class and then the attention span diminishes and the return on the effot goes down and bown as the day goes on. The students had 6 hours of classes that varied the exercises every 45minutes and then live with locals, shop with them , went to movies and so on.
As someone says people go through brain freeze and it is an exhausting way to learn a language, Everyone eventually tunes out,
The students could not have a in depth conversation after 6 months but they could function in a daily life type of language. You have to be young and really motivated to do this.
I would not wish that type of program on my worst enemy.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

citlali said:


> To me the serious immersion programs as in the case of the person learning Vietnamese is pure torture.
> I was involved in an experimental program in France in graduate school to teach French to people in 6 months. The students did not have any way to speak their own language with any one and never had French before. What we found out is that the best learning is done during the first 45 minutes of a class and then the attention span diminishes and the return on the effot goes down and bown as the day goes on. The students had 6 hours of classes that varied the exercises every 45minutes and then live with locals, shop with them , went to movies and so on.
> As someone says people go through brain freeze and it is an exhausting way to learn a language, Everyone eventually tunes out,
> The students could not have a in depth conversation after 6 months but they could function in a daily life type of language. You have to be young and really motivated to do this.
> I would not wish that type of program on my worst enemy.


A pocket French to English dictionary? No? Simply ask for the correct spelling and you can follow along. It takes time but is the only way to get your feet wet in that situation, otherwise it would be futile. Alan


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## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

I have a customer who is the science teacher at a K-8 French immersion school.

French is her second language; she's from Cameroon, and her first was the native language there. English is her third. Because the schools in Cameroon are taught in French, everyone learns it.

So, she's teaching 600 kids, over the course of each week, in her second language, when they vary from no to a lot of training in that language. She lived in Paris while in grad school, so she has the "proper" accent. 

If we could all have a second language starting at kindergarten, as she did, and as her students do, what an amazing gift that would be!


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## Guategringo (Nov 9, 2012)

citlali said:


> What we found out is that the best learning is done during the first 45 minutes of a class and then the attention span diminishes and the return on the effot goes down and down as the day goes on. The students had 6 hours of classes that varied the exercises every 45minutes and then live with locals, shop with them , went to movies and
> I would not wish that type of program on my worst enemy.


That same type of total immersion is used in Spanish schools throughout Guatemala. When I lived in Antigua, my wife and I rented a large home and rented out rooms to Spanish school students. We met with the Spanish schools and were told we could not speak English to them or reply to their English except on Sunday's. The schools teach one hour one-on-one classes. after an hour the students were given films to watch that were in Spanish with English subtitles and then after an hour of that returned to one-on-one teaching. Classes were five hours per day.

That went on five days a week. One night during the week the students had dinner out with their teachers and on Saturday morning the entire school would go to the market and other places to learn to intercommunicate in real life situations.

Generally after two weeks the students were able to speak to my wife or myself in fairly good Spanish. We had an American Airlines pilot, a female student from Iceland, many U.S. students and even ones from China, Japan, Mongolia and Africa. This system works well and is considered one of the best in all of Latin America.


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## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

GG, that sounds like what my son and his wife experienced. They lived with a family in China during their Peace Corps orientation. Of course, they could speak English to each other, but tried not to.

They became very close to their Chinese "parents". They even returned to visit them at the winter break, and my son was really excited to get to ask them some of the questions he didn't have the Chinese words for when they lived there.


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## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

Guategringo said:


> That same type of total immersion is used in Spanish schools throughout Guatemala. When I lived in Antigua, my wife and I rented a large home and rented out rooms to Spanish school students. We met with the Spanish schools and were told we could not speak English to them or reply to their English except on Sunday's. The schools teach one hour one-on-one classes. after an hour the students were given films to watch that were in Spanish with English subtitles and then after an hour of that returned to one-on-one teaching. Classes were five hours per day.
> 
> That went on five days a week. One night during the week the students had dinner out with their teachers and on Saturday morning the entire school would go to the market and other places to learn to intercommunicate in real life situations.
> 
> Generally after two weeks the students were able to speak to my wife or myself in fairly good Spanish. We had an American Airlines pilot, a female student from Iceland, many U.S. students and even ones from China, Japan, Mongolia and Africa. This system works well and is considered one of the best in all of Latin America.


I did programs like that in various schools in Mexico, Costa Rica and Spain. The general idea is just like Guategringo explains but the specifics change from school to school. I found that I had more success in the schools who do 4 hours a day instead of 5 or even 6. In those heavier class load schools I always signed up for an hour of cooking class so as to not have so much hard core scholastic time every day. 

Because I was working at the time, I could only do two week stretches and I was just hitting my stride when the two weeks were up and didn't really want to quit and go home. Outside of that 24-26 hour brain freeze period I mentioned, I really enjoyed the experience and got a lot out of it. I made friends in every place I studied and I still am in contact with most of them. The ones from Guanajuato, where I studied in 2002, are still good friends and are now part of our social circle! 

I met some people at those schools who were doing 6 or even 12 month programs and they were very happy with the results and had passed through the burnout stage long before and now felt that they were at home just like a college student gets used to living in a college town.

I don't know about those immersion schools where the language is "forced" to be used; they may really be torture like citali says, but the in-country with host family experience is totally different and very stimulating and effective.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

citlali said:


> The students could not have a in depth conversation after 6 months but they could function in a daily life type of language. You have to be young and really motivated to do this. ... I would not wish that type of program on my worst enemy.


I studied Spanish, initially, as part of a 4-weel Total Immersion Program, in San Miguel de Allende, GTO in the early-1990s. As a true "beginner," I found it excruciatingly difficult. I was in a classroom 8.5 hours a day, 5 days a week, and I lived amongst a family none of whom spoke English. After 4 weeks I couldn't put 5 words together to form a sentence. Following the 4-weeks I embarked on further study, primarily in a one-on-one basis with an excellent tutor and also with the owner of a hugely popular language program for expats in SMA. Three months of study in total, and I set-out traveling Mexico on second-class busses. In its entirety, the 6 months of study/travel was rewarding and provided me with a foundation on which to build my Spanish language skills in years which followed.


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## mes1952 (Dec 11, 2012)

Those type of programs are great for a basic foundation but in order to continually improve your language skills you need to be exposed on a regular basis to people speaking Spanish. I have been doing that since my 2 years in Mexico by becoming friends with those who only speak Spanish (not bilingual) and I watch most of my news on Spanish speaking TV and have 3 novelas that I am addicted to which has really help improve my Spanish.


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## Guategringo (Nov 9, 2012)

mes1952 said:


> Those type of programs are great for a basic foundation but in order to continually improve your language skills you need to be exposed on a regular basis to people speaking Spanish. I have been doing that since my 2 years in Mexico by becoming friends with those who only speak Spanish (not bilingual) and I watch most of my news on Spanish speaking TV and have 3 novelas that I am addicted to which has really help improve my Spanish.


In my case it was owning a business where no one spoke English except for my partner and he was constantly traveling throughout Central America. I therefore had to learn and learn quick. I love to watch novelas as well. I found watching the News in Spanish after watching it in English helped as well. Of course it did not hurt that no one in my wife's family except her spoke English!!! What is even more ironic is even though she speaks fluent English I did not know that when we met and we started speaking in Spanish and have never stopped.


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## Marishka (Feb 1, 2009)

Longford said:


> Following the 4-weeks I embarked on further study, primarily in a one-on-one basis with an excellent tutor and also with the owner of a hugely popular language program for expats in SMA.


Just curious--are you talking about Warren Hardy? I did levels 1-4 of his courses on my own. I especially enjoyed the game cards that came with the kits and also _The Soap Opera of Carolina_, a bilingual reader/cd for intermediate level students.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Immersion for young kids works a lot better than for adults, their brains and ears are like sponges and do not have st shortcuts yet. They can reproduce the sounds because their hearing is better and the brain has not shut down what it is not familiar with yet. After 12 or 13 you can forget it. 
I have never met a person who speak a foreign language without an accent if they have learned that language later in life.
Do not kid yourself, people from Cameroun y speak French with a strong foreign accent. They are fluent but as a French person I can tell immediately that French is not their first language but so what if the kids can learn to be fluent who cares what kind of an accent they get? 
In learning a language there is way too much emphasis on the "correct accent" if people can function in a foreign culture that should be sufficient.


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## Guategringo (Nov 9, 2012)

citlali said:


> Immersion for young kids works a lot better than for adults, their brains and ears are like sponges and do not have st shortcuts yet. They can reproduce the sounds because their hearing is better and the brain has not shut down what it is not familiar with yet. After 12 or 13 you can forget it.
> I have never met a person who speak a foreign language without an accent if they have learned that language later in life.


I learned Spanish at age 30 and in two months living in Mexico have had numerous people on the phone say to me "Eres Guatemalteco verdad." (I live 20 yers in Guatemala) I was even at a bar in Queretaro sitting down when someone heard me talking to a friend and asked me if Antigua was similar to Queretaro. I say sitting down because I am well over six feet tall and if I were standing people would certainly known I was not a Guatemalan.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Guategringo said:


> I learned Spanish at age 30 and in two months living in Mexico have had numerous people on the phone say to me "Eres Guatemalteco verdad." (I live 20 yers in Guatemala) I was even at a bar in Queretaro sitting down when someone heard me talking to a friend and asked me if Antigua was similar to Queretaro. I say sitting down because I am well over six feet tall and if I were standing people would certainly known I was not a Guatemalan.


You are definitely an exception to the rule that over the age of 12 or so, it's almost impossible to learn to speak a foreign language without an accent. Perhaps the comments about your being Guatemalan have more to do with turns of speech and vocabulary common to Guatemalan Spanish than to the fact that you have no accent. Or maybe you're just a genius with languages!


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## Guategringo (Nov 9, 2012)

Isla Verde said:


> You are definitely an exception to the rule that over the age of 12 or so, it's almost impossible to learn to speak a foreign language without an accent. Perhaps the comments about your being Guatemalan have more to do with turns of speech and vocabulary common to Guatemalan Spanish than to the fact that you have no accent. Or maybe you're just a genius with languages!


Why is it that everyone doubts someone if it is not common? I am far from being a genius, but as I mentioned to you Isla on another thread, I grew up hearing Italian all the time in my home.. that could have something to do with it, but how come its seems everyone on this site seems to doubt someone's word? Have you all lived in Mexico so long that that the Napoleonic - eveyone is guilty until proven innocent - has rubbed off?


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## circle110 (Jul 20, 2009)

I have to agree with Isla Verde. I have yet to meet someone who learned a language after 12-13 years old that doesn't carry some accent from their native tongue. I can always hear it even if it is very mild after a lot of years of using the second language.

That is not a bad thing. I concur with citali that if you speak clearly there is nothing wrong with a bit of an accent. In fact, it can be a very pleasant sound.

I always appreciate it when native speakers tell me that my accent is "leve" (light) or "neutro" (neutral). They can't tell where I am from initially because I have worked very hard to eliminate as much English inflection from my Spanish as I can. They often guess France or Germany or some other European country. 

However, wherever I go in the Spanish speaking world, they still know that "I'm not from these here parts". In Nicaragua many people thought I was from Spain simply because I had an accent that they didn't recognize. Unfortunately for me, I think their mistaken impression was more due to their lack of experience rather than my "phenomenal" Castilian accent.

Edit - I wrote this post before I read Guategringo's reply to Isla Verde. 
GG, it may be that you are the exceptional person that can completely eliminate any influence of your native tongue in your pronunciation that late in life, but you have to understand that that is literally a one in several million skill. The overwhelming majority of the multi-language speakers never do it.


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## PanamaJack (Apr 1, 2013)

I have lived here for 40 years and sometimes I can fool people some of the time, but never for very long. However, my father, who was a diplomat for the U.S., for years and years could fool anyone and everyone, so it is possible.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

PanamaJack said:


> I have lived here for 40 years and sometimes I can fool people some of the time, but never for very long. However, my father, who was a diplomat for the U.S., for years and years could fool anyone and everyone, so it is possible.


It is. But the fact that your father (a diplomat, how interesting!) and Guategringo have achieved this lofty linguistic goal shouldn't discourage expats working hard to learn the language who have an accent when they speak Spanish.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

Isla Verde said:


> It is. But the fact that your father (a diplomat, how interesting!) and Guategringo have achieved this lofty linguistic goal shouldn't discourage expats working hard to learn the language who have an accent when they speak Spanish.


My ex wife had the hardest time pronouncing the "th" sound, many years to get it right. I have a hard time with some accents, still. I have to read the word and keep aware that I had it wrong for many years before I stop. 






"TH" sound video is pretty imteresting for ESL teachers. Alan


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## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

Hmmmm.

My sister, who taught French, and lived in Paris for three years, made a tape with information for highschool kids who'd be living in France as exchange students. A Frenchman who listened to it, tried to place her accent, and finally decided that she was a Parisian who'd spent time in the US.

Her first exposure to French was at 14, and she didn't go to France till after she'd graduated from college.

My daughter, whose first exposure to Italian was in college, regularly puzzles people who don't know her background. If they hear an accent, and they don't always, they aren't at all sure where it's from, and the US is NEVER the first, or even the 5th guess. Usually it's another European country where people are blond and fair.

I don't know if it's genetic, or just because they both so love the language they adopted, and the people in the country they grew to love.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

You make my point she has an English or American accent in French and she learned the language at 14 ,her spoken French may be perfect but you cannot fool a native speaker. 
Sometimes people think I come from Germany, in Germany they think I come from the US but the Mexicans always guess I am French.

Some people are very good but I have yet to hear someone who learned French as an adult and can pass for French.

Loving a language or a country has unfortunately nothing to do with it. I love Arabic but I will never be able to learn it.


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## PanamaJack (Apr 1, 2013)

Isla Verde said:


> your father (a diplomat, how interesting!).


Yes, Dad work for the Department of State or is it the State Department for over 35 years. He worked in Bolivia, Mexico, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, El Salvador and Washington

He pressured me on a daily basis to study at Georgetown after I graduated from BC, but I saw how diplomatic work was tough on the family. Mom did not travel with him for the last 8 to 10 years. He had a great retirement package but family life was....and the fact is my four years in Boston were lovely, but Mexico was home and I missed it.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Guategringo, many words will let people know you learn Spanish in Guatemala so that is easy for people to make the jump.
You may be one of the exception but sorry to say they are very few exceptions. 
I have a graduate degree in linguistics from the Sorbonne and studied exactly that aspect of languages,
We worked on a project with the University of Oxford and we did tapes to study accents and other aspects of languages. We never used any one from the tapes who was not a native speaker or who had been exposed to foreign languages or had been abroad. 

We did extensive studies on accents and it is extremely rare to meet someone who has learned a language after 12 or so and does not have an accent it is just a fact of life.

This does not mean than a person cannot speak like a native but the accent gives them away.
I am speaking about accents not idiomatic expressions or words which are easy to pick up.

I have studied the problem and have a graduate degree to prove it . What are your qualifications ?


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I met one person who escaped this : this woman speaks 8 languages like a native .
I travelled with her a lot and met people who were native speakers of all the languages she spoke ,they all told me she was from their country,
She is an Iraqui who was born in Belgium . Her parents were diplomats and travelled in many countries, her mother told me she would pick up a language in a couple of years wherever they went., she spoke Arabic, French , English, German, Greek, Italian ,Spanish and Farsi.
Some of these languages she learned as a child the others as a teenager , she had an incredible ear for languages. 
Her sister who was 2 years younger could only speak Arabic, French and English and she had a strong accent in English. She was raised speaking French and Arabic. Abilities vary widely even within a family but we are all humans and the brain and ear taking short cuts is something we all suffer from.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

I've had Mexicans tell me I speak their language very well. When I mention I have a ****** accent, they admit that's true but hasten to say that what they meant was that I speak Spanish correctly. And that seems to be very important to them.


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## Guategringo (Nov 9, 2012)

citlali said:


> I have studied the problem and have a graduate degree to prove it . What are your qualifications ?





citlali said:


> I have studied the problem and have a graduate degree to prove it . What are your qualifications ?


Did not know I needed to prove my qualifications to express an opinion on this forum, did I miss that in the fine print? 

Not sure what you are looking for me to say other than what I stated earlier, two people who heard me speak on the phone thought I was from Guatemala? Yes, of course it was due to the way I spoke for example I used coche to describe a pig and it is used as a car here in Mexico. In Guatemala they use pues, si and in El Salvador it is si, pues. However, if they heard my accent it would not matter what words I spoke, they would know I was not from Guatemala. HOWEVER, they said, "I understand, you are from Guatemala right, not Mexico......"

No sense beating a dead horse, I know it is very rare for someone to be able to speak without an accent after having learned a language as an adult. All I am pointing out is that it can happen

One more comment about your comment. Dropping titles, in this case a masters degree, does not impress me. This is a forum for expressing opinions and helping out others who share a common bond - expats. 

How naive of me, I only thought Brits were full of themselves, now I have evidence the French are as well or do I need a masters degree in international affairs to say that?


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## PanamaJack (Apr 1, 2013)

citlali said:


> I met one person who escaped this : this woman speaks 8 languages like a native .
> I travelled with her a lot and met people who were native speakers of all the languages she spoke ,they all told me she was from their country,
> She is an Iraqui who was born in Belgium . Her parents were diplomats and travelled in many countries, her mother told me she would pick up a language in a couple of years wherever they went., she spoke Arabic, French , English, German, Greek, Italian ,Spanish and Farsi.
> Some of these languages she learned as a child the others as a teenager , she had an incredible ear for languages.
> Her sister who was 2 years younger could only speak Arabic, French and English and she had a strong accent in English. She was raised speaking French and Arabic. Abilities vary widely even within a family but we are all humans and the brain and ear taking short cuts is something we all suffer from.



As I stated earilier in this thread, my dad was a diplomat and his parents traveled for the U.S. government as well. He worked for the U.S. in many locations and lived with his parents in at least 10 countries. The majority being Spanish speaking, but Italy was also one. That might be way he could speak so well that he was able to fool many mexicans while working at the U.S. Embassy here in D.F. But I know it is very very rare for someone to accomplish the feat, just as your friend did.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Guategringo said:


> How naive of me, I only thought Brits were full of themselves, now I have evidence the French are as well or do I need a masters degree in international affairs to say that?


Please just comment on the contents of a particular post, not on the person posting it. 

Remember #1 of this Forum's Rules:
Please treat others here the way you wish to be treated, with respect, and without insult or personal attack. Personal attacks will NOT be tolerated.

Thanks.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

No need to try to divert the subject to the Brits or the French they have nothing to do with the subject at hand. 
The point is that you are not qualified to tells us if you speak a language like a native. 
An unrelated native can decide that, you cannot. 

This said, you maybe one of the few who can achieve that. If that is the case you are just one of the lucky one.


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

Isla Verde said:


> You are definitely an exception to the rule that over the age of 12 or so, it's almost impossible to learn to speak a foreign language without an accent. Perhaps the comments about your being Guatemalan have more to do with turns of speech and vocabulary common to Guatemalan Spanish than to the fact that you have no accent. Or maybe you're just a genius with languages!


There are some scenes in movies about people getting caught trying to pass as native speakers, the ones I remember right now are Inglorious basterds, and one other with Christopher Plummer and Harrison Ford, I don't remember the name.
I agree that it would be the hardest thing to pass as a native when you are not
For one reason or another, people would know
Has nothing to do with one's complexion; Eg. Mr Obama


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

GARYJ65 said:


> There are some scenes in movies about people getting caught trying to pass as native speakers, the ones I remember right now are Inglorious basterds, and one other with Christopher Plummer and Harrison Ford, I don't remember the name.
> I agree that it would be the hardest thing to pass as a native when you are not
> For one reason or another, people would know
> Has nothing to do with one's complexion; Eg. Mr Obama


A lot of what makes up the "accent" of a language has as much, or more, to do with the rhythm of a language as do its individual sounds. That's one reason why people who are musically talented, especially singers, can often pick up the spoken form of a language rather easily.

I'm puzzled by your reference to President Obama. After all, he is a native speaker of English, and a highly-educated one at that.


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

Isla Verde said:


> A lot of what makes up the "accent" of a language has as much, or more, to do with the rhythm of a language as do its individual sounds. That's one reason why people who are musically talented, especially singers, can often pick up the spoken form of a language rather easily.
> 
> I'm puzzled by your reference to President Obama. After all, he is a native speaker of English, and a highly-educated one at that.


My comment about president Obama comes because in some threads I've read remarks regarding people' s complexion or physical characteristics trying to relate those with nationality or language; some posters saying that someone does look very "mexican" or "american" " for example


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

GARYJ65 said:


> My comment about president Obama comes because in some threads I've read remarks regarding people' s complexion or physical characteristics trying to relate those with nationality or language; some posters saying that someone does look very "mexican" or "american" " for example


I get your point, but there is no one way to look "American" - we come in all sorts of colors!


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

Isla Verde said:


> I get your point, but there is no one way to look "American" - we come in all sorts of colors!


That's what I mean!
The same happens with mexicans, italians, french, etc


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

GARYJ65 said:


> That's what I mean!
> The same happens with mexicans, italians, french, etc


That's how, if I keep my mouth shut and dress better than usual, I can sometimes "pass" for Mexican  .


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

Marishka said:


> Just curious--are you talking about Warren Hardy? I did levels 1-4 of his courses on my own. I especially enjoyed the game cards that came with the kits and also _The Soap Opera of Carolina_, a bilingual reader/cd for intermediate level students.


Yes, Warren Hardy. Before Warren expanded, started the school, etc., he offered (iin the early 1990s) some group classes in a small apartment and was also available for one-on-one classes. I found him to be a wonderful teacher and I think just about any expat from the USA who's lived in SMA or spent much time there has studied with him and his language program over the years. Many people don't know that Warren was, when he first arrived in SMA, an accomplished artist/painter; beautiful works which were available for sale in galleries. The 'game cards' are a wonderful learning tool and I still travel with and study with them.

Warren Hardy Spanish


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## kito1 (Aug 4, 2012)

I had a young friend in Nicaragua who started to learn English at 17. If you spoke to him on the phone you might try to figure out what part of the USA he was from. He seemed to have a bit of a southern California accent (bit of a surfer dude thing) if I had say what it was closest to. He DID watch lots of American TV growing up and even though he could not understand what they were saying he was fascinated by it and would watch for hours at the time. 

Last November he moved to France to be with his girlfriend and when I spoke to them last she said he had become almost completely fluent in less than 6 months although he did have an accent. I wonder if it will ever go away and he be able to speak French without it as he does English? Anyway, I think he was one of those people who are naturally gifted at learning languages. 

I also know of a man who was born in Iran but moved to Bethlehem at about 5. His parents were Iraqi and Iranian and spoke both in the home interchangeably. He grew up speaking Farsi, Arabic and Hebrew once he moved to Bethlehem. At 12 he was sent to a Paris boarding school where he learned English and French. Later as an adult he moved to Botswana and learned Swahili, which he said was very close to Arabic. Just a few short years ago, he decided to learn Spanish and is now fluent. He is 65. 

I went with him to an international festival in Raleigh a couple of years back and as we walked around he could easily switch between all of the 7 languages without any issue. I asked him how he did it and he said he couldn't explain it to me.... anyway, I wonder if he too is a natural at learning languages or if he just was exposed to so many at such a young age that it just comes easier to him. 

Oh and by the way, the last example, he definitely speaks with an accent in English, not really sure of the other languages.


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