|
|
Eighty Percent for Comprehension
I posted this in the languages forum, but I'd like to hear what the English forum posters think as well.
"Recently I heard someone say that he was happy if a native speaker understood eighty percent of what he said. I think that's far too low of a percentage for a goal. What do you think?"
When I start makin' love I don't just make love... I be strokin'
That's what I be doin', huh I be strokin' I stroke it to the east And I stroke it to the west And I stroke it to the woman that I love the best I be strokin' Let me ask you somethin'... What time of the day do you like to make love Have you ever made love just before breakfast Have you ever made love while you watched the late, late show Well, let me ask you this Have you ever made love on a couch Well, let me ask you this Have you ever made love on the back seat of a car I remember one time I made love on the back seat of a car And the police came and shined his light on me, and I said: I'm strokin', that's what I'm doin', I be strokin' I stroke it to the east And I stroke it to the west And I stroke it to the woman that I love the best I be strokin' Let me ask you something... How long has it been since you made love, huh? Did you make love yesterday Did you make love last week Did you make love last year Or maybe it might be that you plannin' on makin' love tonight But just remember, when you start making love You make it hard, long, soft, short And be strokin' I be strokin' I stroke it to the east And I stroke it to the west And I stroke it to the woman that I love the best, huh I be strokin' Now when I start making love to my woman I don't stop until I know she's sas-ified And I can always tell when she gets sas-ified 'Cause when she gets sas-fied she start calling my name She'd say: 'Clarence Carter, Clarence Carter, Clarence Carter Clarence Carter, ooooh shit, Clarence Carter' The other night I was strokin' my woman And it got so good to her, you know what she told me Let me tell you what she told me, she said: 'Stroke it Clarence Carter, but don't stroke so fast If my stuff ain't tight enough, you can stick it up my...' WOO! I be strokin' Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! I be strokin' I stroke it to the east And I stroke it to the west And I stroke it to the woman that I love the best, huh I be strokin' I be strokin' Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! I be strokin', Yeah! I be strokin' I stroke it to the north I stroke it to the south I stroke it everywhere I even stroke it with my... Woo! I be strokin' I be strokin' Ha! Ha! I be strokin'
@K.T.
Yes, 20% is quite a lot to miss, although you would probably get the gist. @STROKIN' Just make sure you stroke your lady all over, not just the obvious bits lol
At least that person is realistic and most likely will fail even to reach the 80% mark!
<<That person is a teacher. I think the bar is too low. >>
I think that person has the right outlook on life. Why lie to students by making them think it is easy? Why not tell the straight from the start that 98% of them will fail miserably?
I suppose it depends on how much you really care to get into the details of the language. And what you really mean by 80%. The other 20% may not be incomprehensible gobbledegook, just ungrammatical or not quite the right word choices. The listener would still get the drift, for the most part.
Interesting points, Uriel. You are good at...thinking. I disagree with you sometimes, but I'm struck by how well you express your views. That's praise.
My concern is that a teacher who places the bar so low for himself/herself isn't really ready to teach the language where only eighty percent gets through.
>>"Recently I heard someone say that he was happy if a native speaker understood eighty percent of what he said.
He would be happy if the native speaker understands 80% of what he expresses. I'm baffled by the notion, because I had expected from your topic that you're going to say "I would be happy if I could understand 80% of what native speakers say all the time, including conversations in very loud environments... " and so on. I'm almost ignorant of stock market. But when I was hearing conversations on TV about stock market in Mandarin, I could hear a lot of syllables bumping into my ears, but I still had much better comprehension than if it were in English. In fact, my comprehension would be similar in Cantonese. In fact, Cantonese speakers speak more slowly than Mandarin, but in news comprehension it's something like 100% vs 80%, compared to perhaps just over 60% in English. I won't say I'm depressed, but apparently my English is a light year behind Mandarin, although I've spent almost all my life on the former, and just over 3 years on and off on the latter.
That's why I said 80%. Mandarin speakers generally gave the comment that while my pronunciation was fine I had a lot of collocation problems. Just think about how a Brit tries to speak English with a lot of obscure colloquialisms to an American.
If I read an English novel and I understand 80% of it, I do think it really isn't enough. 90%, 9 out of 10 words, would be a safer estimate than 4 out of 5 words. Or even 95%. Then again, if the text isn't that meaningful/important, 80%- is alright...
<<My concern is that a teacher who places the bar so low for himself/herself isn't really ready to teach the language where only eighty percent gets through. >>
Maybe, but you gotta respect the guy for being able to fake it and still get his pay check. What else matters in the end?
Ah, so you're from Hong Kong, Xie? Or Guangdong Province?
Your English is faultless, I had assumed that you were a Chinese-American. |