Jan 6, 2010

The Second Tongue: Communicating in a bilingual relationship

                                          
I haven’t a clue what you are saying.
Que me dijiste?
What did you say?
No te entiendo. Que dices?
I don’t understand. Please repeat.
That’s not what I meant at all.

These are parts of dialogues from couples suffering from “The Second Tongue.”

13 comments:

  1. The topic was very interesting, because that explain about very common problem in the relashionships between people who are of differents countries.

    Well, i have an history, no is about my life or my experience but is a history about a friend, she is peruvian, and actually she is married with an english man, and they are happy with their relationship until now, and they are married since 2007, that is mean they are married for 3 years.

    But this history is too particular because, she has never spoken english, and he has never spoken spanish, but their comunication is good, because they are experimenting with another language, like italian or portugees.

    It's funny but is real

    ReplyDelete
  2. # Anonymous says :
    11 March, 2010 [ 08:07 ]
    Well, I agree. What the author expresses in his article is a big truth. I know many foreign people (not Spanish spoken people) who comes to this country with a very bad Spanish knowledge but in their trips they find their significant other in this country. That’s because there are many HOT people in Peru I think, or maybe many people who want to travel abroad…haha. However, the problem in most of the cases is the same: the communication. At the beginning everything is good, because the language they use is the language of love (kisses, caresses, and, you know!), but the problem comes later in time, when they need to express their feelings and ideas…well, luckily I’m not in that situation.

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  3. # anonimo says :
    12 March, 2010 [ 07:14 ]
    the topic was very interesting, because that explain about very common problem in the relashionships between people who are of differents countries.

    Well, i have an history, no is about my life or my experience but is a history about a friend, she is peruvian, and actually she is married with an english man, and they are happy with their relationship until now, and they are married since 2007, that is mean they are married for 3 years.


    But this history is too particular because, she has never spoken english, and he has never spoken spanish, but their comunication is good, because they are experimenting with another language, like italian or portugees.


    It's funny but is real

    ReplyDelete
  4. The article describes a classic and potent problem in any relationship, "COMMUNICATION"; this appears not only in relationships with a person with a different native language than us… although clearly the problem is intensified by cultural and educational differences.
    In my opinion, the most important things in a relationship of the type described or another one are:
    1. - The desire to express a feeling or idea (Trying to not feel despondent by not finding the right word to express, because is more important denote the importance of the idea or feeling to the partner ... It’s the gist of the communication), and
    2. - Showing empathy to the partner (The empathy allows us to be sensitive to the expression of our partner and give them the confident to keep trying and searching the right word to express themselves)
    If they both cooperate, they always can rise above the conflict and put aside the misunderstanding.
    Anonymous

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  5. this topic is truee, I think so, is very common see a people with this problen
    ,is a very big problem when one of them will not learn or understand the other language. The marriage require communucation becasue come the problems and the couple separate

    my uncle live in usa since have 20 years old but until now he never had been married becasue he said that not understand english very well and English women also,
    but Until now he has 65 years old and he live alone

    ReplyDelete
  6. this topic is truee, I think so, is very common see a people with this problen
    ,is a very big problem when one of them will not learn or understand the other language. The marriage require communucation becasue come the problems and the couple separate

    my uncle live in usa since have 20 years old but until now he never had been married becasue he said that not understand english very well and English women also.
    but Until now he has 65 years old and he live alone

    ReplyDelete
  7. this topic was interesting , many people like to learn another language for traveling , business or love , most of people want lo learn to find the true love , but its dificult if both of them cant speak fluently the second tongue . I think, its very important the communication to start a relationship , they have to speak very well for understandind each other.
    always happened but with effort ,the comunication and the love will continued...

    ReplyDelete
  8. the topic of the second tongue was very interesting and funny for the video.
    sometimes for some people is difficult learning a new language because the pronunciation is different in each language therefore the people that speak a new language have to be patient if she/he want to speak in the right way.
    also, i think that exist another ways of communication if a person want to talk with a person that don't speak the same language, maybe they can try to talk with another language that they have in common

    Guilliana Martinez

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  9. Well the video is very funny and real too.
    this video is reflected in reality much.
    we always feel more comfortable speaking our first language, but speak another language demands us a challenge that we need to overcome.
    also is very important, because it will help us a lot in our live and in our career too. we will have more facilities than others that only speak one language. Its very important.
    finally, I think it is easier for us to learn english to a frenchman or a brazilian

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  10. This video is funny, but also between the humor you can see how difficult is for these frenchman to speak english, this is a common problem, not only for french people, also for all the persons who want to learn a language completly diferent of their mother language, and even if you know very well the english, the most people often don't talk like a real american,but despite of these people are always trying to improve their english because it is a very important language.

    Claudia Benites

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well the video is very funny and real too.
    this video reflects much reality
    we always feel more comfortable speaking our first language, but speak another language demands us a challenge that we need to overcome.
    Also is very important, because we will have more facilities abroad. And more opportunities than the others taht only speak one language, taking about jobs, communication,etc.
    Finally, I think we have to learn english easier than a french or a brazilian people.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think that it’s an important issue, definitely learning another language is very difficult so it takes time to learn it. You talk to another native are difficulties, which I think we must have patience for both sides. A few years ago, I travelled to USA, I having knowledge of English, but I was very difficult to talk to my manager and my friends because I didn’t understand what they said because they spoke too fast, my friends began to talk more slowly to understand both. It s was a wonderful experience and learned to speak and think in English. My advice is that if you travel or meet another native is to have patience to express what we say to get an understanding.

    Atte.
    Maria Livano Vargas

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  13. I think this video and the topic show the typical problem when someone is learning another language. Learn a new language is not easy, we have to be dedicated and persistent. At this time the world is so globalized that it's necessary to learn another language, we need communicate with the rest of the world. But the real objective is be natural and feel comfortable when we talk to another person. We have to know that we need to be patient and if we learn from the experiences and mistakes I'm sure that learn another language will be one of the most rewarding experiences in our lifes.

    ReplyDelete