Our personal "sandwich board"

Hello everybody,

When we speak another language, we always want to have a good, understandable accent and speak clearly so we are understood.

This is all great and very commendable.

But, when do we think about how we are seen by others. When we speak another language, our body language, mannerisms, habits and manner of speaking tells people as much about us as our spoken words.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing.

Showing other people our personality and talking about our likes and dislikes is something we do in our own language every day, but we don't really think about it much.

With a foreign language, then we must realise that we will always be a "foreigner" speaking the language we have chosen. However, if we decide what should be best put on our "sandwich board", then we can use this to our advantage.

What we need to guard against is things that would put people off speaking with us: rudeness, not being polite, impatience, bragging, moods and many other "traits" can be off-putting - even if we have a perfect accent.

So let's be careful what we put on our "sandwich board" when we go out to speak with native speakers.

Bye for now

Alan