Getting a chance to use the language.
Need, inclination and opportunity.
I recently traveled with my wife to three European countries, Spain, Portugal, and France. I was struck by the fact that it is often difficult to practice a language you are learning, even when you are in the country where the language is spoken.
I speak Spanish quite fluently. I can converse on just about any subject, although it can be a little difficult for me to understand someone who speaks too quickly or unclearly. I understand a lot of Portuguese but have essentially no experience speaking Portuguese. I am totally fluent in French, almost at a native speaker level. My wife speaks some Spanish and French and understands some Portuguese. Both of us were keen to use these languages. I would even say it is one of the reasons why we traveled to these countries.
We found varying degrees of difficulty in using the local language as long as we were doing typical tourist things. I can see where this can be a problem for people who travel to a country in order to practice their language skills.
In Salamanca, Spain, the reception staff at our hotel were keen to use their English even though I spoke Spanish better than they spoke English. This was not the case in the hotel restaurant, so there we were able to order "cafe con leche" and say "buenos dias" every morning. Outside the hotel we were able to use Spanish in shops and restaurants. However, the conversation was limited. I was lucky to find a book store where the manager (owner) was happy to engage in discussions about the delights of the Castilla-Leon region of Spain.
Part of the "problem" was that my wife and I were together so much of the time. If we had been alone we may have had more opportunity for Spanish dialogue. I would have loved to just go to a "tapas" bar and engage anyone I could find in a conversation, but since my wife would have had trouble following the discussion, this was simply not practical. I can imagine that immigrants face the same problem, since their family life takes place in their native language, and the opportunity for interesting discussions in the local language may be limited.
In the southern Costa del Sol tourist region of Spain, English is quite wide-spread. We often felt that waiters in restaurants were a little annoyed at having to speak to us in Spanish. They like speaking English to tourists. Admittedly we spent most of our time in tourist-like activities like golfing, eating out and shopping. The more "local" the restaurant or store, the greater the opportunity we had to use Spanish. Nevertheless the nature of the discussion was always limited.
We had only a limited amount of time in Toledo, but I had the impression that the level of English there was lower and that there would have been greater opportunities to use Spanish there had we stayed longer.
In Portugal the situation was even less favourable to practicing our languages (Portuguese). The Portuguese people we met seemed better at English than the Spanish, and our Portuguese language skills were very basic.
In Paris we encountered a general lack of English, except at our hotel, and so there was less of a problem in using French. I also had business meetings in French.
The greatest benefit to our language improvement was just being in the environment. I bought excellent material to listen to in all three languages. I spent a lot of my traveling and walking time listening to Spanish, Portuguese and French audio material on my iPod. I bought books and read newspapers in those languages. I was, therefore, to the extent possible, immersed in the languages. I seized every opportunity to speak, of course, but these opportunities were limited. Still I improved my awareness and familiarity with these languages.
I guess the conclusion I come away with is the following. To learn a language requires a need, or an inclination, or an opportunity, or some combination of these. I do not need to improve in Spanish, Portuguese or French, but I want to. In many situations my wife and I did not need to use our languages during our visit. However, we have a strong inclination to do so and it gives us pleasure to try to do so. As a result, we take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. I was able to create opportunities to immerse myself in the languages through audio and written material. I used the languages where I could, whether listening, reading or speaking. I feel that I improved in all three languages even if I did not use them as much as I had hoped.
I thoroughly enjoyed the language experiences that I had, although they were not as intense as I would have liked. I think anyone can do the same in any language environment, even in a country where the language they are learning is not spoken. Making that easier is a big part of what we attempt to do at The Linguist.
