Honestly, this forum makes it seem as though it's impossible to learn French in France, Dutch in the Netherlands, German in Germany, Danish in Denmark, etc, etc. When I travelled to Germany for the first time earlier this year, I was determined to practice my German, but this subreddit really had me believe that no one would want to speak to me in German. I split my time between a big city and a small town in the Rhineland, so I can give some general insight that helped me use German almost the entire time I was there, regardless of where I stayed:
1) ALWAYS start your conversations in the target language: if you start speaking to them in English, then switch to their language, they've already gotten used to the conversation flowing in English, so it's awkward for them to make the switch. Always start out conversation in the target language, and keep it going as much as you can without falling back on English. Now, if you're at an airport, and you don't know airport lexicon (like me), don't try this out, because you're not going to be able to express yourself well, and might get misdirections.
2) ALWAYS let them know of your language-learning interests: I told literally everyone I met that I was a Puerto Rican interested in learning German. Not only does this serve as an ice breaker, because they'll often start asking why you're learning it, or where in country name you come from, but also makes it clear to them that you are actively trying to learn the language. A mistake that a lot of people on this subreddit make is that they assume that, when approached by a foreigner who barely speaks their language, locals will automatically assume that this foreigner is learning the language. The truth is, they will think you're a tourist who learnt phrasebook insert language name here because you weren't sure whether people there spoke English or not. They can't read minds, people, and they can't tell you apart from all the tourists who try to do the same thing. Make it SUPER clear that you are trying to learn the language itself, not just a few words.
3) Polish your pronunciation: especially for languages like German, Dutch, French, and Danish, having a good pronunciation, particularly in the beginning, is probably much more important than having spotless grammar. The main reason why a lot of these Europeans will start speaking to you in English as soon as you open your mouth is that, they honestly can't understand your accent. I can say that, despite my German grammar skills being quite lackluster, my pronunciation's very good, so they continued to speak to me in German because they could actually understand the words I was saying, and their mind fills in the gap due to missing grammar. I could also give you another example: I am a Spanish major in college, and one of my professors was an American woman who did her BA, Master's, and Ph.D in Spanish. She's been studying it for most of her life, but seems to have dedicated most of her studies to the grammar, as opposed to the pronunciation. As a result, while her grasp on the grammar is on par with that of a college-educated native speaker, her pronunciation can render her incomprehensible at times. She knows all the words, conjugates everything correctly, but her thick accent makes it hard to understand what she means by certain things. On the other hand, one of our librarians is also an American woman who speaks Spanish, but she paid more attention to the accent, so even though she messes up the grammar sometimes, she's much easier to follow than my professor, because you can actually understand the words she says.
4) DON'T be discouraged by the nay-sayers: I remember reading a long time ago a post by a Danish man whose wife was an American living with him in Denmark for over twenty years. He said that his wife learnt very little Danish because everyone spoke to her in English, then goes on to say that when his wife would come up to him speaking Danish, to try and practice, he'd tell her she doesn't have to learn it. He went on to say that his wife is pretty much an unhappy recluse because of it, all while saying she didn't really have to learn the language. At the time, I took this to mean that Danes would never speak to me in Danish, but this poor woman was just unlucky to have a bunch of discouraging people around her, because I read many other stories of Americans who did manage to learn the language successfully, who use it with native speakers and are not spoken to in English. What I mean to say by this is that you should ignore all the nay-sayers in your life, who tell you you shouldn't bother to learn such a "useless" language. This woman will be unhappy for the rest of her time there because she never got to accomplish her goal of assimilating or learning the language, because she allowed the nay-sayers to crush her ambitions. In such environments, you'll come across loads of assholes who'll tell you you can't do it, but remember that for every mean native speaker, there are dozens more who will admire you for wanting to learn their language, and will help you practice. You simply just have to be persistent, stubborn and a bit selfish.
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from Yá'át'ééh | Languagelearning https://ift.tt/2OqiGdm
via Learn Online English Speaking
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