How-to: Improve Your Foreign Language Skills By Being Consistent
Photo taken by me in Shinsaibashi, Osaka–street plaque featuring famous Kansai phrases
When you up your fluency in a second language, you find yourself forming more complex sentences by connecting a string of many ideas together in a single sentence. The problem with this is, it’s easier to make mistakes because it’s harder to remain grammatically consistent in speech.
For example, in Japanese there are various levels of formalities. The most common is the desu-masu form, used to talk to people older than you or those you’ve just met. I sometimes find myself slipping very quickly from this form to the informal dictionary forms because they are shorter and easier to use.
This is big mistake on my part, but rather than keep jumping around from one level of formality to another, I just continue on in the same way so as not to confuse any further the person I am talking to. I make a mental note of how I slipped up and apply it towards a future conversation.
Don’t Jump Around
Remaining consistent in speaking a foreign language will make it easier for listeners to understand you. Make sure you don’t switch around past and present tenses unless you know it makes sense. Try to stay on the same topic and not jump to things outside of the conversation unless you know you can make it work. Also, be wary of what you indicate as negative or positive. Especially in Japanese, where there are modifiers that are associated especially with negation, it would be really confusing to use such a modifier while making a positive point.
Think It Out
When you’re at a point in studying a language, you just want to hurry up and speak it like a native. This will often lead to jumbled and fragmented sentences that trail off. Whenever I do this, I feel frustrated that I didn’t stop and think out the grammar properly before I contributed to the conversation. All I did was indicate to the person I was talking to that I needed more improving–and I do.
So now I try to think out more complex sentences before I attempt them. I have never had a problem in doing this, never had a person check their watch and sigh (although in Japan people tend to leave more of a pause between their conversations anyway.) Unless you are talking to an complete asshole, most people are patient and will even help you along by providing words you were looking for but your brain couldn’t poop ‘em out fast enough.
Re-use and Recycle Key Words
One trick that I’ve applied to more complex conversations is picking up on key words and using them myself. This adds to the consistency of the conversation and shows that you are an active listener (another cultural aspect of Japanese conversation.) It will also help you learn and enforce new words.
Other Notes
This post just covers the tip of the iceberg when it comes to helping with foreign language skills. Obviously there is no sure-fire way to see to it that your consistency is absolute–I have problems with it even in English. But hopefully this post pointed out some helpful ways for those who are studying a foreign language! If you have any tips yourself, feel free to offer them in the comments.
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