A lot of people tend to think the c2 as the ultimate goal of language learning
but the truth is that speak in a foreign language at a C2 level and speaking like
a native speaker are two different things.
Hi, my name is Luca from LucaLampariello.com and today I'm going to show you
the difference between speaking on a C2 level and speaking like a native speaker.
Have you ever caught yourself using expressions such as "he speaks like a
native speaker, he sounds like a native speaker" but the reality is that speaking
and native speakers don't go well together in one sense: native speaker is
about IDENTITY, it is not just about the knowledge, it's not just about the skills
A native speaker is a native speaker and if you're a foreigner, if you're a
non-native speaker, well, you're not a native speaker. That's an important point
to take because a lot of people strive for speaking like a native speaker,
sounding like a native speaker, but the reality is that this is just a mere
emulation. Just to give you an example, let's take a Sanish professor or a
French professor who has been living in the US for a long time and speaks
English really well. So well, in fact, that he gives lectures at university and he
is much appreciated by his students. Well, that Danish professor speaks
English has acquired native-like skills so he can speak at a native-like level.
He can express himself very well but he's not a native speaker. On the other
hand, let's take a peasant, a person who is a native speaker still - he was born in
the United States - but has no formal education. Who do you think speaks
English better between the two? Obviously the peasant probably speaks English
worse. He cannot express himself as eloquently and as elegantly as the
professor but the reality is that he is still a native speaker in this show
So who speaks English better? The Danish professor or the American peasant? On the
one hand, the Danish professor can express himself very eloquently, can
speak really well, can write essays. The peasants, though, although he cannot do
all these things still has an advantage, and the advantage is that he was born in
the United States so he has incorporated all the customs, ways
of saying, ways of being, facial features gestures, experiences that the Danish
professor probably didn't have because he did acquire knowledge, he did acquire
the skill of expressing himself elegantly and eloquently but he was not born there.
He did not have the same experiences so you can learn to speak almost like a
native but bear in mind that you will never BE a native speaker. You can
EMULATE the status of a native speaker without being one. The people who get
very close to speaking and being native speakers are normally the people
who live 30 to 40 years in a country and whose kids were born in that
country, so they've seen the entire thing, maybe from an external perspective, they
didn't go to the kindergarten, but they've seen their kids go to
kindergarten and interact with other kids and interact with other adults and
they've seen adults themselves interacting with kids going to school,
going to high school etc Those get close to speaking and being native speakers
but again, they will never be native speakers because they were not born in
that country.
So if there is one thing for which people can say or can think that you are
a native speaker is accent. If you speak a given language very very well, to the
point where people cannot tell that you're a foreigner, well, that means that
you have reached native-like pronounciation, and if you want to reach
native-like pronunciation in a given language, you have to take into account
other things. People normally tend to think okay well what I have to do is
focus on the text, focus on sounds, replicate sounds, repeat etc. True but I
think that one of the most important factors that is often neglected is that
you have to take everything into account, the entire "communication tool/kit" that every
single native speaker has, and by "communication tools" I mean my hand,
co-speech gestures, my face, how I'm communicating with my face, my eyes my
body, everything, the whole thing. Just to give you a few examples
an Italian - might sound like a stereotype but we actually do that -
actually might say "ma che stai a fa?" This is in Rome. Right. (it means): "what are you doing?"
We tend to use that especially when we ask questions with an interrogation mark
"Ma che stai a fa?" or a Spanish would say
"Pero que te pasa macho" (What's going on dude)? the entire expression.
Or "Sag mal, biste bescheurt?" (are you stupid or what). Or the French would go like
Bon je sais pas s'il faut aller au cinéma j'ai pas envie" (I don't know whether to go to the movies, I don't feel like it)
These are just a few samples of how different cultures channel different ways of saying things
and the accent does count, your pitch, your intonation, your articulation
your pronunciation, but the truth is your hands, your face ,your eyes do count and
if you want to speak and sound pass off as an native speaker even if you're
not, pay attention to these, watch movies, pay close attention to how people
communicate with each other, adult with adult, kid with kids, pay attention to
every single detail, because they DO count and you can learn these
consciously and unconsciously.
It should be fairly obvious by now that speaking like a native or passing off
like a native is not just a matter of sounds. It's a holistic process, but there
is one third factor which makes a difference and it is cultural
understanding. How many times have we found ourselves talking to native
speakers and you've seen two native speakers talking about stuff that you
had no idea of? You know, no clue, and this can refer to, I don't know, people on TV
or like TV series or maybe TV shows, or something that happened, historical things
geographical things etc etc This is part of culture this is the part of
heritage that a given generation of native speakers has and - bear in mind - a
given generation of speakers - because language learning its hues its its
cultural references - they do change in space and in time.
So if we're speaking for example about English, Brits maybe don't understand
certain cultural references of Americans for Americans certain things of the Brits and
maybe the same Americans of now might not understand things that were very
common 200 years ago (in the US). That's reason why it's so difficult to nail a language,
because it changes in time, it changes in space, it changes its cultural references
That's why it's so difficult when we talk about being a native speaker
Actually we should talk about being a native speaker of that place and of that
time and that's that's the cultural references that you will never be able
to replicate because you were born in another time or maybe in the same time
but unfortunately in another place. I just wanted to say before we wrap up the the
video, that this is not supposed to be discouraging, I don't want to just put
you down and say "hey you will never be a native speaker" it's just a fact. You will
not be a native speaker but you can pass off as one. This happened to me many
times and I can guarantee you that even if I'm not American, I'm not French and I
will never be - not German for that matter or any other nationality, I've had an
amazing time every time people thought that I was one of them
because through sound you can actually embrace another reality, embrace another
culture and and.. embrace an historical moment people communities, you name it! So
it's always worth speaking in a foreign language,
it's always worth passing off as a native, if you can, if that's your aim
apart from speaking, you know, at an excellent level, because it opens worlds,
it makes your life richer in so many ways you cannot even start to fathom
So the first point to take into account is that speaking like a native does not
equal being like a native because being like a native is just a unique
characteristic of native speakers and that's fine! The second point to take
away is that if you want to sound like a native speaker, you should not only speak
like a native speaker that is with good articulation and pronunciation, but also
acts like one with co speech gestures reactions, facial features, you name it! It's just
like a little bit like acting and the third thing if you want to pass off as a
native speaker is that you should integrate and being able to understand
the same cultural and historical references and maybe from TV and TV
series etc that native speakers do, in a given space and in a given time. If you
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