Today we reflect on our trip to Italy and what it was like being non-native speakers. We discuss how we picked up language there, and how it felt not being able to fully communicate. We talk about becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable, and how to engage native speakers to help you learn.
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Show Notes:
- Reflections on our recent trip to Italy
- What we did to prepare for the trip for language study?
- How did we learn Italian and phrases when we were in Italy?
- What we did when we didn’t know how to say what we wanted to say (spoiler alert: smiling happened a lot!)
- We didn’t really speak the language – when Italians helped us and spoke to us in English, it felt like such an act of kindness
- David talks about going into a cheese shop and orders cheese even though he doesn’t speak Italian. He was richly rewarded with getting to eat some amazing cheese!
- Building up comfort with being uncomfortable.
- How to start a conversation in another language even if you don’t know that language at all: learn a greeting and how to say “do you speak ___”?
- Video on greeting Americans
- How did it feel to be a non-native speaker?
- Taking Stoney to playgrounds in Italy
- How to ask natives to help you learn little phrases or vocabulary words in everyday situations: ask them “could you help me say that?” Or “could you teach me how to say that in English?”
- Recording yourself as you’re speaking with native English speakers
- The podcast with IELTS expert Eliot Friesen