How to reach a perfect bilingualism?

[Johan]

Hi everyone,

I'm getting onto this topic 'cause I guess I'm not the only one stumbling over a few points in English!
As for me, I'd say I am fluent in English for I can understand pretty much any kind of conversations, movies, news etc... BUT I'm nowhere near being bilingual yet!
In France, one never speaks English on streets or anywhere therefore the only times I get to practise my English is when I surf the internet or when I watch a movie (on dvd coz there is no English whatsoever on TV).
I owe my fairly good English knowledge to a 12-month stay in Connecticut and Toronto otherwise I would have a very crummy English!

Nevertheless, every single time I study my English (through exercises or movies) I come across new words, new expressions and stuff and I have the impression that despite everything I know I still have loads to learn! So I'm objective and I know I still do have lots to learn.

My biggest issue is to express myself! I mean I make myself understood pretty readily even though mistakes stand out quite often (I think there aren't big mistakes that's why it's not that a big deal!), but anytime I watch a movie for example, I'd say I understand between 80 and 95%, but I completely NOT able to speak the way English speakers do! First of all, relevant words related to certain a conversation don't cross my mind right away at times (therefore there are hiatus when I speak (which doesn't really bother me so far coz I'm still learning therefore I first have to go through that step!), then, even if I can express myself with a good flow, it' s impossible that I don't speak in a French way, I mean, a native English would formulate a sentence in its way, and I'm gonna formulate the exact same sentence in another way (this other way is mostly right every time but THIS bugs me a lot that I cannot express myself like a native guy!).

Do you guys understand what I mean?

So anyone can get onto this topic if you desire so but I'm especially interesting in having your point of view for both learners and native English people. By the way, if you have any suggestions for English to get stuck in my head for good! (coz this is another thing that bothers me, I forget easily when I don't practise enough and as a student I don't really have time to study more!), let me know!

Thanks

[Ralf]

Hi Johan,

You've said it all! And, as far as your learning techniques and self-evaluation is concerned I'd say you're on a very good track.

[Torsten]

Hi Johan,

You've asked an excellent question and Ralf gave you very sound advice -- after all he is bilingual himself and knows exactly what he is talking about. In addition to his ideas I'd like to point the following. First of all, you might want to define what exactly you mean by "speak like a native guy". Who do you want to emulate? There are "native guys" whose English might be worse than yours so why copy them? What I'm saying is that you should be aware of whom you listen to because you will pick up their language. For example, some teenagers who want to be cool try to use expressions that adults wouldn't and they write certain words in their "own" way. ("u" instead of "you", "coz" instead of "because", etc.) The thing is that native speaking teenagers will drop those expressions at some point in their lives simply because they no longer want to sound or look like "cool teenagers". So the question is, do you really want to speak like a "native guy" or do you want to use English to achieve your goals in life? As Ralf said, you should develop the habit of consuming information in English rather than in French. Instead of reading scientific papers and articles in French, start reading them in English. It is an investment at the beginning but further down the road this investment will pay off. In addition to communicating with French speaking students, talk about the same subject with English native speakers. Instead of or in addition to listening lectures in French, listen to the same type of lectures in English.

If you like, we can share more ideas on this subject, just let me know what you think.
Regards,
Torsten
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[Ralf]

[SkiIucK]

Perfection is unachievable, nobody is impeccable at anything, there will always be those tiny flaws with which we will struggle to cope throughout our existence. The fact that perfection is unreachable shouldn't discourage one to set higher goals, quite the contrary, actually. Trying to obtain the desired results is what has driven the mankind to what it is today... I got a bit astray, my point was that it's a specific trait of the people who are eager to succeed to aim higher and higher.
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[Boke]

Well unless you were born or raised in an english speaking country (from around13-15 years of age) you will never be bilingual. We have to talk a little about semantics first, when I say bilingual I mean that someone can function in 2 languages as well as a native speaker of those languages. In Japan I often see children with an American father and Japanese mother, they speak english at home and outside speak japanese, even with this situation I would be hesitant to call their child bilingual because they have never lived in America, while the children may be highly functional I don't think they are "bilingual". But if you take the same child and he lives in New York for a couple years then Tokyo for a couple more and then back to New York, I would say yes, bilingual. Words like "fluency" and "Bilingual" are often thrown about without anyone agreeing to what they mean

[Johan]

[Ralf]

Hi Johan,

[Johan]

Hey Ralf,

here are your suggestions and what I think about tehm:

- listen to online radio stations (i.e. my favourite xfm.co.uk): I only listen to the radio in my car and I only listen to the music
- watch movies: I do it a lot (up to 5movies a week sometimes)
- read news: I hate reading, so I only watch news on tv
- write blogs: I don't have time
- talk to yourself (I'm not joking!): whenever I read something in English on the internet I do it aloud to improve my pronunciation and it happens that I end up talking to myself, just for my English to have a good flow
- talk to anybody who you think is capable of doing so in English: I don't know anyone who's got a decent English level, but I'm starting to teach my girlfriend who is very bad so I speak quite a lot when we work together
- read books: I hate reading
- write short stories or poetry: I'm not a poet, I don't have much inspiration
- sing along to pop songs: I do that sometimes
- and google their lyrics: when I love a song, and if I have got time, I do that too

Well, to sum up, when I can spare time, I watch movies or study my English on the internet! That's pretty much it and it's already pretty good considering the few amount of spare time I have!

[Nicholas]

You then might have time to read English jokes. Read what interests you. Find some time you can have, even a minute because a minute of reading a joke book can lead to an hour. Who knows?
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Nicholas

[Jamie (K)]

Johan, one thing you really have to do -- which Torsten briefly alluded do -- is to stop using teenage Internet or cartoon abbreviations, like "u", "coz" and "gonna". These can really get lodged into your English and ruin it. A couple of years ago, I had a student who was a very fluent speaker but landed in a low intermediate class because her writing or spelling were in chat room English and she couldn't break the habit. Suddenly she wanted to write in a way that people would take seriously, and she couldn't.

Also, as others have said, be careful whose English you choose to emulate. Some years ago, when I was teaching in Europe, some of the kids in my classes were MTV freaks. I always warned them to imitate the Dutch and Swedish hosts on that channel, because most of the British ones at the time spoke some pretty rotten English.

A large part of the reason you continue to use regular words, rather than idioms, is probably because you haven't lived through the situations where native speakers use those expressions. Sometimes you just have to live a situation before the idiom connected to it gets activated in your mind.

No matter how good your English gets, there will always be plenty of situations when you won't know how to say things, because even native speakers would be speechless under those circumstances. I was sent to a company to give English lessons to a man from Sweden. I did an assessment of his abilities, and I determined that he was LONG past the time when he needed to take lessons. I told him he was a near-native speaker of English and didn't need instruction anymore. However, he protested that, when he goes to the hardware store, he doesn't know the names of half the items he needs. I had to assure him that even native speakers don't know what most of the things in the hardware store are called.

[Johan]

Hey Jamie, I know you are totally right about the teenage language.
I will bear in mind all your relevant advice (everyone's tips) and apply them as much as I can.

Regards.