Language Trainers Blog

I’ve written a lot about trying to listen to as much language as you can, whether it be in real life, or (even better) in a format that you can listen to more than once, and hopefully read along with.

I’m lucky to have a language teacher who has a very pleasant voice and manner of speaking, so when she records texts for me, it’s never a chore to listen to (although I do sometimes have to talk myself into listening to lessons rather than music or podcasts in English). However, I’ve heard a lot of people whose recording voices are almost painful to listen to, and I would struggle to make it through the few minutes it would take to listen to an article.

One particular example was an audiobook version of a book I’d already read and liked. The narrator had a grating accent and manner of speaking that emphasised all the wrong parts of the sentence and set my teeth on edge. I had to stop listening after less than a chapter.

I’ve found that I am more judgemental of speakers of my own language, though. I tend not to notice accents so much with foreign languages, and I’m not advanced enough yet to know if they are pronouncing things wrong. I haven’t found a foreign language speaker that I can’t listen to yet, which is probably a good thing!

Have you ever had to switch audio off because of the reader?

For the most part, the kind of foreign language you learn is practical or theoretical.  The kind of things you’ll need to know to get around a foreign city, write a meeting agenda, or buy fruit at the market.  Getting into complex literature usually takes a pretty high language level, but what about kids’ books?  Surely they’d be much simpler?

High school student Charlie Anderson has written a great piece about reading her first piece of children’s literature entirely in French.  She discusses the very valid point that even when written for kids, literature has a totally different style and language from conversation and formal language.  Even if you know all of the individual words, sometimes the phrasing is confusing, or you may not have any idea what’s going on.

If you are finding yourself stagnating in your learning, or want an extra challenge, pick up a storybook in your target language and see how well you do.  It’s not as easy as it may seem!

Full article: Reading in a foreign language no ‘petit’ task.