no boys allowed in the room!!!!

irl = in english

It's never too late, but it can be painful and difficult during the process. Take it from one who knows...

I'm not sure where it comes from precisely -- what's important is to recognize where yours is and, if you wish, be aware of the implications it has on your language learning. I'm sure that there are ramifications for written language as well, but usually it affects spoken language more because it's subject to more ridicule. On the other hand, I will add that a lot of people I work with (native Spanish speakers) have no problem speaking to me in English, but refuse to write email because they're afraid of making mistakes. They often don't realize this is why they "don't like" email, but this is why. They're afraid of being judged. It happens. (Of course I wouldn't judge them, but fear doesn't care about that)

I teach people to speak another language all day long (except during winter/summer breaks, natch) and I see all types -- but in general, successful language learners are not afraid to make mistakes, sound weird, or hear unfamiliar sounds coming out of their mouths.

Coincidentally, this applies to developmental learners as well. You have no idea how much resistance I get to the word "subsequently." "But no one uses that word!" "It's weird!" "It's stupid!"

Sigh. Back to work today, btw.

xp - part of communicating is speaking, so i would say you have a strong one

i really liked speaking spanish w/ my friend who is a native speaker but sometimes he would be like "say that again hahahahahaha" because he liked to hear certain words in my awful accent

I have native Spanish-speaking friends who encourage me to practice w them but yes, I am resistant to looking/sounding/feeling foolish so I don't. This isn't about accent (mine isn't completely terrible) or palette-formation issues, just my own frustration and/or insecurity.

However I FAIL at French and find all the sounds completely mysterious and un-form-able. And it might behoove me to study some German soon which arrrgh will be really starting all over since I've only done Romance languages before.

I can read and understand a decent amount of Spanish, and I'm good at... I'm not sure what to call it... figuring out the puzzle of other languages, maybe? Like, I took German and it just clicked and made so much sense. But speaking other languages makes me feel like I have marbles in my mouth.

Oh let me disclaim: most of my Spanish skills are focused on a specific subset of employment-related vocabulary words.

this is kind of moving away from the topic a little, but when i was a kid i had serious anxiety issues about saying certain words - not because i ~couldn't~ say them or pronounce them, but the words themselves made me feel uncomfortable. i started calling my step-dad 'dad' after a couple of years simply because i COULD NOT bring myself to say his name out loud ('lex') - it just creeped me out.

even now, as an adult, i sometimes get this.

Ugh, I had French lessons at school for 7 years and got good grades in it thanks to written/reading work but faced with the average French word I can think of about 6 different options for what vowel sound they want and which letters are silent.

German is a lot less mysterious accent-wise (at times I even kind of enjoy trying to speak it) but goddamn if I will ever get the German "eh" vowel not to sound like the most English "ay" ever while still keeping it distinct from the "ie" vowel (it's sort of halfway between the two, but my mouth doesn't seem to have an in-between). Luckily it seems a lot easier to be understood despite bad accents in German too, in my limited experience.

successful language learners are not afraid to make mistakes, sound weird, or hear unfamiliar sounds coming out of their mouths.

Yeah, these are all things which bother me in other areas too - suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that language confidence should be related to, e.g., would I dare sing in public (not at all, can't hit the notes, don't even sing in private much because of that) but I'd never thought about it.

Is it mostly people's names or a variety of words? xp to J.

it's a variety of words. trying to think of others, but my dad's name is the one that sticks out.

i had a terrible stutter growing up, so i feel you on that.

taking 7 semesters of various diction classes makes me wish everyone knew ipa bc it realllly helps so much in pronunciation! still, even with the rules right there, people who were fine speaking and singing in german and italian would freak out over french! i don't get it! to me, the hardest of all was english lyric diction.

also i've always been fascinated by code switching but language ego is a new term for me and i <3 it!

i'm excited about having a strong language ego

taking 7 semesters of various diction classes makes me wish everyone knew ipa bc it realllly helps so much in pronunciation!
this is why i can't read pronunciation threads -- 150,000 posts could be eliminated if people would just use ipa

hahaha yes!!!

i was so nerdy about it i used to take notes in class by writing them in ipa when i got bored.

i like code switching too because i work with a lot of generation 1.5 students

haha -- i used to do that too!!

usually it was too hard though

You are a bunch of cunning linguists.

i worked in a call center for a while and i would always catch myself switching depending on where the person on the other end of the line was calling from. it was kinda fun.

accents, not languages, though.

my grandmother (from long island) used to "code-switch" on the phone but her code switching was more talking VERY LOUD to her german step-mother as if she was deaf

Okay, taking a page from the meta-thread and also the shopping poll, do we even want to broach the shopping question here? Or should we continue just organically talking about linguistics and stuff? Which is already pretty cool, esp the language ego stuff which I didn't know anything about!

it's more fun here
we can talk about shopping but not about hating shopping? i mean like, let's embrace it!

i don't want to embrace shopping

shopping? i could talk about that..

i guess i'm not bad at learning languages.. i want to work on spanish, my french is pretty good including the accent, but i had to sit down with a tape recorder and record/play back many many times to get rid of the obvious anglophone sounds. also uh drinking a bit helps, to get past the worry about making mistakes! after a couple glasses of wine i suddenly remembered a lot of francais vocabulary that i hadn't used in years.

i sometimes have dreams in spanish and my accent is perfect

I mean basically ILX wimmenz are NOT en masse going to respond "OMG I JUST LOVE TO GO TO THE MALL WITH MY BFFS EVERY SUNDAY" because obv lols. So we can get that out of the way. But are we free of the pressure to go too far the other direction and disavow shopping entirely just because it might have too-typically "feminine" connotations?

How about having an informed-consumer approach in which you are interested in getting the best thing that you need/want for its own sake?

i need to go back and relearn things. i feel bad for forgetting most of it!
i tried teaching myself russian once but instead i just taught myself how to pronounce it by ipa-ing stuff instead of actually learning to read it/understand it.

i feel more free when i stay out of the mall, feminine connotations aside

i think the thing i'm not good at with shopping is the informed-consumer approach! Most of the time, i just want to buy a thing and get out. I don't even like ebay cos it's too full of decisions you have to take a long time over.

xp to harbl, agreed to infinity. I feel like a better person when I stay out of stores completely. I used to shop for "fun" because the variety of artistic and desirable things in NYC was mind-boggling to me. But it made me sadder and sadder that I would never be able to consume beautiful things at the rates that they were offered. Too many choices, too much stimulation, too much wanting.

So I stopped going to stores except on a mission for things. I also stopped reading ANY fashion magazines around the same time, for whatever that's worth.

Now I'm about 3x happier and have less stuff.

I don't feel pressured to hate shopping, but I find recreational shopping to be one of the most boring, disappointing, and pointless ways to spend my free time.

i just hate everything in my closet right now (l, you experienced this to some extent when we tried to dress me for soul club!) but i don't have the $ to buy new stuff so i just dream about shopping for new clothes which i think makes me think i like shopping more than i do.

I like shopping for books about language.

very low tolerance for aimless shopping or shopping with other people
still wearing clothes i had in college and one sweater from high school
i get bossy/intolerant when shopping with others and they are indecisive

ugh so do i!

i get frustrated when i shop too bc i always have a particular cut/item in mind and then i can NEVER find it.

Hahahahahaha. Yes. My mom took me shopping in MI and I ignored her for basically hours as I blitzed through sale racks.

She kept being like, "How about this?" (holds up thing that I hate).

ugh

my mom got me work pants for xmas and i liked them except she accidentally (?) ordered xtra long. lol mom.

No, she was good overall, esp when she started holding up joke items and we were so tired that it became hilarious. At one point she said, "Stop talking to me like I'm an idiot" and I said, "I will if you stop talking to me."

i still remember going to the thrift store with my high school friends and getting into a MAJOR fight with them about who was going to buy the smaller burgundy velvet blazer
NEVER AGAIN thrift shoppin with friends
i turned into a monster!

i remember barking DO YOU WANT IT OR NOT YES OR NO YES OR NO

lol my high school self wants that blazer!

actually, i have very little tolerance for people who involve me in their long, arduous, vocal decisionmaking

over trivial things, like buying a sixty cent blazer

i get frustrated when i shop too bc i always have a particular cut/item in mind and then i can NEVER find it.

Important keys to efficient shopping, I think: a) have a really clear idea of what kind of thing is acceptable to you, and immediately mentally discard everything else. Do not get sidetracked by something that's on sale if it's not your style/on your list!! and b) Be willing to leave the store with NOTHING if you don't find what you wanted. Do not buy just to have something to show for your time.

that is pretty much what i do but then i will end up looking for a pair of tennis shoes i really like for 6 months while the ones on my feet are disintegrating. nagl.