strange people
I learned English by myself, I didn't have teachers or tutors. When I got enough knowledges, I started searching of native speakers who could help me with difficult stuff I couldn't do by myself. And now I have many friends, we communicate in English and Russian, help one another and it's cool. But sometimes I'm very surprised how people learn languages.
Often people requested me on skype and we got such dialog:
- Hey, girl, can you help me with Russian?
- Sure! What kind of help do you need?
- Well... I don't know... I don't know even Russian alphabet... Can you show me letters?
- O_o Sorry? LETTERS?
- Yeah, what's a problem?
- I can give you links on very good textbooks, you can learn letters there...
- No! Are you crazy?! Why should I use textbooks if I ask you to help me?!
- Look... how do you imagine it? "Hey man, look, this is "A" letter --> A. This is "B" letter --> "Б" and 33 times in this way lol It's boring for me and takes too much time, learn it by yourselves, I can help you with difficult things when you really need help.
- Oh you are so mean! I'm surprised how you can act like that! Bye!
- ...
And it happens all the time.Tell me, maybe I do something wrong. I don't understand why people don't want to study so simple things by themselves and ask other people to spend their time for it. What's a point? Now we have so many textbooks with audio lessons, you can listen to it and learn prononciation and all this stuff... I'm glad to help people when I see that they are really interested in Russian language and they try to learn it, of course, we help each other on skype, we explain meanings of words, we check out our letters, etc. But an alphabet! Goodness, it is weird!
Well, it was my opinion, what do you think about it? Do you show letters of your language's alphabet and teach words like "you, I, he, she, it, they, a mother, a father" or you prefer to talk with people who know a basic stuff?
P.S. I'll be glad if you show me my mistakes in this text, I bet, I've made many mistakes haha
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Corrections · 8
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I learned English by myself; I didn't have teachers or tutors. When I became more proficient got more knowledges, I started searching for native speakers who could help me with difficult stuff I couldn't do by myself. And Now that I have many friends, we communicate in English and Russian, help one another and it's cool. But sometimes I'm very surprised how people learn languages.
Often people request to chat with me on skype and we get such a dialog:
- Hey, girl, can you help me with Russian?
- Sure! What kind of help do you need?
- Well... I don't know... I don't even know the Russian alphabet... Can you show me letters?
- O_o Sorry? LETTERS?
- Yeah, what's the problem?
- I can give you links to very good textbooks; you can learn letters there...
- No! Are you crazy?! Why should I use textbooks if I have you to help me?!
- Look... how do you imagine it think about it: "Hey man, look: this is the letter for "A" --> A. This is the letter for "B" letter --> "Б" and 33 times more in this way, lol. It's boring for me and takes too much time. Learn it by yourselves on your own. I can help you with difficult things when you really need help.
- Oh you are so mean! I'm surprised how you can act like that! Bye!
- ...
And this happens all the time.Tell me, am I doing something wrong? I don't understand why people don't want to study such simple things for themselves, but instead ask other people to spend (or waste) their time on it helping them. What's the point? Now we have so many textbooks with audio lessons, you can listen to them and learn pronunciation and all that stuff... I'm glad to help people when I see that they are really interested in Russian language and they try to learn it. Of course, we help each other on skype, we explain meanings of words, we check out our letters, etc. But the alphabet! Goodness, it is weird!
Well, that is my opinion; what do you think about it? Do you teach the letters of your language's alphabet and teach words like "you, I, he, she, it, they, a mother, a father" or you prefer to talk with people who know a basic stuff?
P.S. I'll be glad if you show me my mistakes in this text. I bet I've made many mistakes, haha.
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Melamory, you know, I don't like the message systems on sites at all, it's very uncomfortable for me. I prefer to write my skype ID on my profile space and I am not afraid of people haha Everybody can add me and talk to me and I like it. I just thought about things I wrote before and tried to know the other people's opinion =)
http://www.italki.com/T009515557.htm wushujosh, yeah, it's exactly what I meant - a waste of your time!
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I have the same problem with English. Some people know only 2 or 3 English words. How do you like such dialog:
(Without saying "hello")
-Your cam
-Sorry?
-Open cam
Sure I close my chat window.
I really need more practice but not such kind.
Maybe you shouldn't give your Skype ID to everybody. There are chats on all the language sites.
On the other hand I have a remarkable Spanish language partner. He is very friendly and patient. Of course Spanish alphabet I've learnt by myself. :)
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I agree with your article. What a waste of your time to teach the basics. Communicating with a language partner should be for building off of your existing knowledge as well as learning at an advanced level together.
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For me, it's more interesting to talk to people who know at least some of the language, unless I know their mother tongue, in which case I don't mind practicing that while teaching them English. :-)
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