Tonight I think that I offended one of my second-level Spanish students. She asked me to repeat something in English, and I said ‘no’. Now, before you think that I am heartless, let me explain. I was reading from the textbook, word for word plus just a few words of explanation.
It’s not uncommon to have students who believe that it is crucial to understand every word spoken in class in the target language. Not only do I disagree, I also think that it would be a disservice to students to let them think that. Most people do not learn a foreign language just to sit around in a classroom with other non-native speakers, doing exercises from a textbook. (Quite a few people take language classes to fulfill a requirement and never speak it once the last exam is over, but that’s another story.)
Usually, the goal of learning another language is to speak it with native speakers, either abroad or in one’s own country. Can you imagine traveling abroad and expecting everyone to translate everything into English? Oh, wait, that’s how the “ugly American” stereotype got started. It’s part of my job to destroy that stereotype!
If you’ve taken the first semester of a language, you should be able to listen for key words (see the earlier “Airport Listening” post), and you need to learn to negotiate meaning. That means using what you know of the foreign language to better understand what is being said. Even “can you repeat that?” is acceptable if it’s not in English.
So don’t take it personally. I don’t speak English.
