B l o g

Why you (probably) will never sound like a native speaker

Thoughts on language learning and perfectionism

As you might see, besides having a passion for music, I also love learning languages.

In this blog post, my idea is to try to explain to “non-polyglot” people what “speaking/understanding” a language actually means.

When I mention that I speak 7 or 8 languages, people ask surprised:

“But do you sound like a native speaker?”

My answer is clear:

“No, I don’t sound and I probably will never sound like a native speaker. But you don’t need to sound like a native speaker to speak the language.”

I see that most people think of skills like an “ON/OFF” switch.

“Can you draw? Can you cook? Can you play the guitar?” It’s always posed as a “Yes-No” question. It is not.

If my parents read a contract from a bank or a lawyer, they struggle to understand it. If I give them a philosophy book with some strange nouns and concepts, they will have a hard time reading it, even if it’s written in their native language. A child might speak the language fluently and sound “native”, but cannot understand the newscaster that the parents are watching in the television due to lack of vocabulary and context.

Some tasks are hard, already in your native language.

Now, try to imagine these activities for a non-native speaker.

It’s pretty much a losing battle you’re facing. You require years of education and study. I add that it’s pretty much impossible to sound like a native speaker without living for years in the country and having contact with local people. I am going to give an example:

Let’s imagine Spanish spy “Pablo” wants to infiltrate in Portugal and not be recognized.

Let’s say that he took extensive years of training in learning the Portuguese language, having read many books and had lessons with native Portuguese speakers. He is prepared for his mission.

He arrives in the city of “Oporto”, enters a local bar and asks in fluent Portuguese:

“Bom dia. Uma cerveja, por favor.” (“Good morning. A beer, please.”)

Without knowing, he already made a lot of mistakes:

Because his language teacher was from the capital, Lisbon, he spoke with the Lisbon accent. The bar owner immediately recognizes that he is not native from the North of Portugal.
The bar owner finds a bit weird that our Spanish Spy said: “Por favor.” (“please”). It’s almost like he’s begging for something. In a more casual setting, the expression “se faz favor” (“if you please”) is more used. “Por favor” is more used to ask for a special favor or an important request.

The bar owner replies:

“Uma cerveja? Aqui só há finos! Ou quer uma imperial?”

(“A beer? We just have thins! Or do you want an imperial?) – he says while laughing.

To understand this joke and what he is talking about you need to know several things:

“Cerveja” is the standard word for “beer”, but in the North of Portugal you would say: “Fino” (literally “thin”) for a standard beer. In the capital, Lisbon, you would say: “imperial” for the same thing. The bar owner realized that he was not from the North of Portugal. He assumed he would be from the capital and thinks that, probably, our Spanish spy, Pablo is fancy person.

“Why should he be a fancy person?” You may ask.

Well, you use the word “Cerveja” to mean a specific type of beer, usually not the standard “fino” or “imperial”, which is served from a barrel, under pressure. That beer is usually the cheapest, another kind of beer ("cerveja"), served in a bottle is usually more expensive. The bar owner asked him if he wants “imperial” which is a joke because in the North you woudn’t say that, as a reminder to our spy Pablo that there people speak different from him. Pablo failed the "native speaker" test, even having mastered pronounciaton and grammar rules.

“But can’t Pablo learn that information by having language lessons with native speakers?”

This is just a small example. If Pablo spends hours talking with people, it is very likely that he will eventually make mistakes and false assumptions, because language is extremely complex and some small details like that take years and trial and failure to master. It's impossible to learn EVERYTHING subtle variation of the language in the classroom.

A successful language learner is the one that accepts its limitations and understands that everything has a cost.

“A cost”? What do you mean?

Pablo is hardworking and reads 20 books in the Portuguese language.

He will for sure master the Portuguese language in no time and become fluent in it.

His colleague Paco also reads 20 books, but he decides to learn more languages.

He reads 5 books in French, 5 in German, 5 in English and 5 in Portuguese.

Even though Paco can read and understand more languages, Pablo can read more complex books, write and perform more complicated tasks with the Portuguese language, maybe even getting a job as a lawyer in a law firm in Lisbon, while Paco cannot.

Paco spreads himself thin: he can communicate with many different nationalities, but cannot write a letter in Portuguese without making spelling mistakes (his knowledge of the language is limited). Paco is however more flexible and has access to more information and people because he knows more languages.

Pablo and Paco are equally hardworking but achieve different results because they have different life priorities. (The day has only 24 hours...)

By saying that I speak 7 or 8 languages, I am aware how limited my skills are.

I try to better myself everyday but always knowing the deep, sad truth:

I (probably) will never sound like a native speaker.