Speak as you would write?

Bridget   Tue May 22, 2007 9:34 am GMT
"There's no mystique about spoken speech. It's simply writing the way people speak rather than the way we've been taught to write at school."

I agree, but I get a feeling that many teachers want students to believe that it is more correct to speak the way one would write. What do you think? How many of you speak in the way you write?
Guest   Tue May 22, 2007 9:49 am GMT
Both ways. First of all, I developed my written skills for quite a long time by writing emails and contributing on various online forums. Then I started speaking the way I wrote. Once my spoken skills were developed to a decent level then I write the way I speak. Nowadays when I write my internal mind speaks. In a real life scenario, I notice that my sentences are more like written sentences. I come across as more like an orator than an average street speaker. No slang. No idioms. No fillers. No pauses like ums. I dont know if it is a good thing. :)

I also face a problem that I cant ask specific one line questions but when someone asks me a peculiar question here comes the answer in a jiffy.

<How many of you speak in the way you write? >

In real life, I do.
Bridgte   Tue May 22, 2007 10:18 am GMT
<I notice that my sentences are more like written sentences. I come across as more like an orator than an average street speaker. No slang. No idioms. No fillers. No pauses like ums. I dont know if it is a good thing. :) >

Who do you normally converse with, native speakers or nonnative speakers?
Pos   Tue May 22, 2007 10:19 am GMT
<<<when I write my internal mind speaks>>>

Isn't that an idiom, Guest?
Guest   Tue May 22, 2007 11:48 am GMT
<<Who do you normally converse with, native speakers or nonnative speakers? >>

Both native and non native speakers. If you have developed your spoken English from your written one then you have a serious problem with your conversation skills. I do have. Instead of asking a one line question, I throw in three or four sentences together infront of a listener. Bad habit. It stems from the fact that I have learned to speak the way I write. I take no pauses between my sentences. My sentences are too long. For developing our spoken skills, i think we need to master other basic details as well like how to pasue in the middle of a sentence and how to be precise with our answer. For example, if someone asks us a question, "where do you live" dont answer like " we live in Poznan". Say "Poznan". I think you will improve your spoken skills only with communication or watching movies and sitcoms. They are a great source.

I have talked with non-native speakers in real life. I always impressed them with my fluency. They are taken aback.

Here is a thing
When I talk with native speakers, my throat goes dry, my pronunciation reverts back to old ones and my fluency suffers. Also, when native speakers ask you to repeat yourself after every other second sentence you feel like you are fighting a losing battle by learning a new language. I barely hold a flawless conversation.

I found American native speakers extremely awkward to communicate with. They dont understand you for jack. I noticed that canadians understand me much better. Not for a single time, they tell me to repeat myself. Same with a British teenager. I held a 15 minute conversation with him on skype and not for a single time he told me to repeat myself. He was answering to my questions quickly and flawlessly.

Nowadays I talk to an English teacher from New york on the phone. Twice a week. He is just any other American who tells me to repeat those sentences again which he does not understand them in the first place.
However, he confesses that, with my current language skills I can do much more than catching a cab or shopping in a native speaking country.

There is no consistency. Sometimes I speak better , sometimes i dont.
Guest   Tue May 22, 2007 11:56 am GMT
Pos, seriously I dont throw in slang or idioms when I speak in real life - my spoken skills sound more like one dimensional - formal. When you are talking to an aged person I dont think so they can understand slang and idioms. I remember that I threw in a word "pissed off" instead of "angry" with an aged English speaker. She kept searching for the meaning of "pissed off" when I had reworded it again then she got the meaning.

Here. I am free. I am not talking to someone face to face. I have no fears. Here I am more opened up and talk just like the way I talk in my native language.
Guest   Tue May 22, 2007 12:08 pm GMT
When I used to write via emails and on other forums. I never used slang and idioms. Nowadays I hardly give a fig to formality and such conventions atleast on the forums. After watching movies and sitcoms , I am quite good at slang, platitudes and swearing. However, I still dont use them when I write emails because you dont know if other person can understand your lingo.
Pos   Tue May 22, 2007 1:11 pm GMT
<Pos, seriously I dont throw in slang or idioms when I speak in real life - my spoken skills sound more like one dimensional - formal. >

There's another: "throw in".

;-))

<When you are talking to an aged person I dont think so they can understand slang and idioms.>

Why wouldn't they understand idioms?

<She kept searching for the meaning of "pissed off" when I had reworded it again then she got the meaning. >

It's been around for an awful long time. Was she an American English speaker?
Liz   Tue May 22, 2007 1:26 pm GMT
<<She kept searching for the meaning of "pissed off" when I had reworded it again then she got the meaning. > >

<<Was she an American English speaker?>>

If she was, she must have understood it!
Guest   Tue May 22, 2007 1:43 pm GMT
<If she was, she must have understood it! >

Is it used in AE?
Liz   Tue May 22, 2007 1:49 pm GMT
Although I'm not American, as far as I'm aware, it is a typical American expression. In British English it has a completely different meaning.
Guest   Tue May 22, 2007 3:02 pm GMT
She is a British speaker. She holds a master degree in linguistics. She is 65 years old. I think she is not exposed to hollywood movies.

Is "throw in" an idiom? I thought it was a phrasal verb. Idioms sound more like "get up on the wrong side of the bed"," tit for tat", "shooting from one's hip", "kill two birds with one stone".
Pos   Tue May 22, 2007 10:23 pm GMT
<She is a British speaker. She holds a master degree in linguistics. She is 65 years old. I think she is not exposed to hollywood movies.>

Has she lived in a vacuum all her life? "Pissed off" is known, if not used, by almost every British adult.
Mark   Tue May 22, 2007 10:38 pm GMT
My speech and writing is formed by what influences me, unfortunately this tends to be Tolkien esque fantasy and Austen style period dramas. Fortunately I tend to be quite English (shy), so I get tongue tied quite often which means that I use short polite sentences amongst people I do not know.
Liz   Tue May 22, 2007 10:39 pm GMT
<<Has she lived in a vacuum all her life? "Pissed off" is known, if not used, by almost every British adult.>>

Exactly. What's more, if she *does* have a master degree in linguistics, she has to be up-to-date enough to become familiar some newer expressions or (presumed) Americanisms.