Why Does He Stay? Examining a Student's Odd Decision in Bio Class

[Moonbear]

The other day we had a new student arrive who is from Japan. When he learned that he was set up in a room with another student from Japan he immediately came to us and requested that he be placed in a room with someone who speaks english because "I am here to learn english". I thought that was a wee bit odd.

Actually, I think it was very wise of him. Many people would opt for the "comfort" of sharing rooms with someone who speaks the same native language, but he knows he needs to not be tempted by that and to speak English as much as possible to get better at it.

My own experience in learning languages is that you can learn the vocabulary and grammar and to speak fairly quickly, but that's with the accent of whoever taught you the language (i.e., Spanish spoken with an American accent), and listening skills are what end up lacking unless you've been learning from a native speaker of the language. It's a lot easier to listen to a tape of someone speaking a foreign language in your native tongue's accent, especially when they speak every word slowly and enunciate everything clearly and use completely correct grammar, compared with being confronted with a native speaker who leaves off final consonants, makes liberal use of idiomatic expressions, speaks quickly, etc.

For some people, if they have a sufficient grasp of a language, but are not fully fluent at listening yet, just slowing down, enunciating every word carefully, and using simple sentences is all it takes to communicate with them.

I worked with a post-doc from France once who started out like that...she spoke decent English, but when faced with people like me, who speak really quickly, she was lost. Fortunately, once I told her it was perfectly okay to tell me to slow down if I started speaking too quickly for her to understand, we were able to communicate fairly easily. And, at the end of her year in the U.S., she was lamenting that she wished she learned English better, and I had to point out that she had made great progress, because she was no longer telling me to slow down, and I knew she was understanding what I was saying at my normal speaking speed. She just never noticed that happening.