Comments on: Is Your Native Language a Help or a Hindrance?

By: John Fotheringham

John Fotheringham — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:16:32 +0000

While I think Rosetta Stone is highly overrated (and highly overpriced), I quite like the fact that it helps build a direct connection between concepts and their sound in the target language.

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By: amoritzbrain

amoritzbrain — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 22:53:14 +0000

I agree with Carole that your native language can definitely help you learn. If you think of total immersion software programs like Rosetta Stone, these totally leave out the help that using your own language to figure things out provides.

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By: John Fotheringham

John Fotheringham — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 22:01:08 +0000

I completely agree, Robby. Unless you are training to be translator or are interested in comparative linguistics, translation to and from one's native tongue (and between second languages) is a major impediment to reaching fluency.

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By: @englishharmony

@englishharmony — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 15:11:44 +0000

I think all the issues described in the article arose from a single fact – Schwe Son was required to translate. It surfaced many times throughout the article that he tried to grasp concepts in the target language through his native tongue etc. I think that nowadays many language teaching experts agree on learning the target language using that language only (once you're past the basics). That way the student is required to think only in the target language.

In the last few paragraphs Antonio describes how the student used English to translate Vietnamese phrases. That's even worse!

I think the right approach is to make the students aware that there's no need to translate and put the target language's words and phrases in their own. They rather have to think in abstract terms and just accept that a particular phrase in Vietnamese describes a particular action without questioning how exactly it would sound in Chinese, for example.

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By: Carole

Carole — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 21:49:59 +0000

You're right, the knowledge of one language can be of great help AND sometimes it can be a hindrance. If you learn that 'butter' in Italian is 'burro' and you are seated at the table with Spanish speaking people and ask them to hand you the "burro' (donkey in Spanish) they'll have a good laugh. You can also have a terrible mix up in Croatia if you think you hear Spanish/Italian when they say "dva puta" (2 times). I remember the surprised look on my father's face when he said 'yes, yes' in Dutch (ja, ja) and the Croatian shopowner handed him a box of eggs. Et cetera, et cetera….

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By: John Fotheringham

John Fotheringham — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 21:43:04 +0000

I can't speak for Antonio, but I his think his point was not that "knowing one language will NEVER help learning another", but that linguistic interference between certain languages often offsets the supposed advantages allotted by related vocabulary or structures.

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By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:49:14 +0000

I don't agree that languages are so unique that knowledge of one never bleeds over to help you with a related one. My Spanish learning has lead to me picking up a bunch of Catalan and even being able to read and understand a lot more italian and French. I guess there will be advantages and disadvanteges to knowing a similar language previously.

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