Do you speak English?

[cooliegirly]

I know that Pimsleur's theory is very well-known and proved to be very practical for learning a foreign language,but I have also noticed that on Pimsleur's Cantonese learning CD at least,the first sentence it teaches you to say is:do you speak English? Which I thought was the most useless thing one should learn to say,do you think?

[Torsten]

Hi Cooliegirly,

Why do you think it is useless for a foreigner to know how to say Do you speak English in Cantonese? For example, if a person who starts learning Cantonese from scratch travels to China it might be good if they find somebody who also speaks English.
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[carbonarius]

Well, I understand Cooliegirly's point of view: if the person you adress to in order to ask if he/she speaks English does speak English, it is the same if you ask it in English or in Cantonese. And if he/she does not speak English, what is the use in asking it in Cantonese?

[Torsten]

Hi Carbonarius,

Now this discussion is getting interesting. Let's say you travel to a region in China where Cantonese is spoken. Your knowledge of the language is very limited to say the least so you would be quite comfortable to find a person who understands some English as well. Now, if you approach a person in China by asking Do you speak English chances are you won't get a positive response because speaking English requires a lot more practice than just understanding a few words. Now, if you ask that same question in Cantonese you might get a more positive response because you person you are approaching can respond in Cantonese which gives them time to analyze the question. They might say (in Cantonese) Well, I learned English at school but I'm afraid I don't remember that much. So, you could at least establish some kind of rapport.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[cooliegirly]

Well,I see your point.
But then you will really have to know enough Cantonese to be able to understand the complicated answer as well.

[englishfan]

[cooliegirly]

Englishfan, I am intrested in second language acquisition that's why I know about this Pimsleur Method. He is famous in the linguistics field and his method of learning foreign languages is mostly used in militaries. Well, it teaches you to learn the language by listening instead of starting with the phonetics. That's also how babies learn their first languages.

I used a similar way to learn English. I listened to audio books every night before I fell asleep and I just left the CD player on the whole night. At first, I didn't understand much of what was said in the book but after months of listening to the same stuff over and over again, I started to understand more and more, and this was like magic! I did that for like 10 books and now I could tell I've made hugh progress in my learning of English.