The Challenges in Learning Foreign Language
Georgiy Sichinava
Peter Starr
Writing 115
10/11/2012
The challenges in learning foreign language The case of being a foreigner while improving your skills is very common in the contemporary society. A lot more people are crossing the border of the home country either to advance their language skills or to get a better education in a certain sphere. Being the part of this reality, I recently moved to the United States to earn a degree. Thus the situation shown in the David Sedaris’ essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is very close to me. As a matter of fact, I personally know the feelings that author expressed in his essay. Obviously there are plenty of other things that David & I have in common. To tell the truth, I suppose each foreign student faces almost the same challenges. The biggest one that a foreigner faces is difference in a way of speaking and people’s behavior. As a result, international students have problems in interpreting the language and understanding the culture. “My fear and discomfort crept beyond the borders of my classroom and accompanied me out onto the wide boulevards, where, no matter how hard I tried, there was no escaping the feeling of terror I felt whenever anyone asked me a question.” (Sedaris 298). In these words David illustrated the hardship of being in a foreign community. Learning second language seems really hard at the beginning. After a while it is getting much easier, but at a certain point you feel that this is it and you will not be able to advance your skills anymore. ”Over time, it became impossible to believe that any of us would ever improve.” (Cedaris 299). Even a dedicated person like David had pessimistic thoughts about his improvements. There is a difference between listening to/hearing the foreign language and speaking the one. When you are speaking a foreign language you can only rely on the words you know. However remembering these words as well as appropriately
Peter Starr
Writing 115
10/11/2012
The challenges in learning foreign language The case of being a foreigner while improving your skills is very common in the contemporary society. A lot more people are crossing the border of the home country either to advance their language skills or to get a better education in a certain sphere. Being the part of this reality, I recently moved to the United States to earn a degree. Thus the situation shown in the David Sedaris’ essay “Me Talk Pretty One Day” is very close to me. As a matter of fact, I personally know the feelings that author expressed in his essay. Obviously there are plenty of other things that David & I have in common. To tell the truth, I suppose each foreign student faces almost the same challenges. The biggest one that a foreigner faces is difference in a way of speaking and people’s behavior. As a result, international students have problems in interpreting the language and understanding the culture. “My fear and discomfort crept beyond the borders of my classroom and accompanied me out onto the wide boulevards, where, no matter how hard I tried, there was no escaping the feeling of terror I felt whenever anyone asked me a question.” (Sedaris 298). In these words David illustrated the hardship of being in a foreign community. Learning second language seems really hard at the beginning. After a while it is getting much easier, but at a certain point you feel that this is it and you will not be able to advance your skills anymore. ”Over time, it became impossible to believe that any of us would ever improve.” (Cedaris 299). Even a dedicated person like David had pessimistic thoughts about his improvements. There is a difference between listening to/hearing the foreign language and speaking the one. When you are speaking a foreign language you can only rely on the words you know. However remembering these words as well as appropriately