Knowing vs Speaking a Foreign Language

Most of us know that there is a big difference between “knowing” vs “speaking” a foreign language.

Sometimes friends talk about the foreign language they studied in school or college.

They may acknowledge that they have not kept up with the language, but then say: “I could still get myself understood when I'm in that country.”

Well, I'm not going to tell them, but I have bad news: You won't be able to make yourself understood. “Speaking” a foreign language requires practice, even for very simple things.

I know – I've been trying to learn Dutch for several years know, mainly by doing the very limited Duolingo program (Gamesforlanguage does not have a Dutch course).

Dutch shouldn't be that difficult for me. My native language is German, many Dutch words have the same Germanic root, and Dutch grammar is much easier than German grammar.

I can read and mostly understand Dutch conversations and podcasts when I know the general topic. But speaking it fluently is still very difficult.

Recently, Ulrike and I have started a ”Dutch language day”, a day when we only speak Dutch. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

(Ulrike speaks Dutch fluently, having gone to school for two years in the Netherlands as a child. While her vocabulary started out as being somewhat limited, she always made a point of speaking Dutch with her sister, cousins and friends.)

On our “Dutch days” she'll correct both my mistakes and my pronunciation. Because Ulrike learned Dutch as a child she sounds like a native to Dutch speakers.

I also know that I'll never be able to speak Dutch without a German accent. But that is okay.

Public Figures with Foreign Accents

For Americans, there are wonderful examples of well-known public figures who came to the US as teenagers or adults and whose English could not be called anything but “fluent” - although their accent may still identify them as non-natives.

• Henry Kissinger was 15 when he came to the US in 1938.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger was 21 when he arrived in the US in 1968.
• Arianna Huffington was 19 when she moved to England in 1969.
• Martina Navratilova was 19 when she came to the US in 1975.

Most readers will have heard at least of one of these celebrities on radio and/or television. You probably would call their English fluent – even though their more or less distinct accent makes it clear that they learned their English later in life.

(Other examples, such as Albert Einstein, the famous architect Leoh Ming Pei, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, etc. could also be listed, but their voices are less well known.)

It's likely, however, that most of these immigrants already had a basic knowledge of English when they arrived in the US. And, they perfected their new language in school or through diligent individual study.

You may also not know that there was a French Emperor who spoke French with an accent.
If you're interested to find out who it was, see our earlier Blog Post: Foreign Accent Worries? A French Emperor with a German Accent?

Native Fluency – A Real Challenge For Adults

A few years ago, we wrote a Post: Beyond “Learning a Language like a Child”. In it, we review various theories about language acquisition.

One interesting theory that applies to sounds in languages is called “categorical perception”.

My personal experience with learning Dutch as an older adult has confirmed this for me: Not only has it become more of a challenge for me to distinguish several Dutch sounds (that are different from German), but also to imitate i.e. reproduce them.

This is where young kids also have a big advantage over (older) adults: They are much better not only at hearing sounds, but also at imitating them.

But all is not lost: The same way that actors and opera singers can perform in foreign languages (they also spend much time learning and practicing), we can improve our listening and our pronunciation as well.
By listening to and practicing “foreign” sounds, we also can get better hearing and saying them.

This is why you should always repeat foreign words aloud in an online language course. In our Gamesforlanguage courses and games we frequently encourage our learners to do so.

But even if you never acquire true native fluency in a foreign language or a perfect accent, being able to understand and be understood is quite likely the main reason you started learning a foreign language in the first place. So go for it! Communicating in another language is a special feeling of mastery.