
The Intermediate Class - wallflower
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/02/the-intermediate-class/
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DoctorOetker
It's the literary equivalent of a soap opera?

Newspapers can pivot to literary soaps!

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intopieces
Since I started learning languages in high school, I've always had great
respect for those who teach language, especially their native one. It can't be
easy listening to people butcher something that comes naturally to you, and
for such low pay. It gets even more interesting and difficult if, like in this
story, your class is composed of individuals with nothing else in common
besides learning the language.

I used to think I could be an English teacher to speakers of other languages,
but I don't think I have the patience. I'll stick to being a language learner
for as long as I can afford it.

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oh_sigh
A little context about why I should read this would be nice. The story doesn't
immediately draw you in, and after the first few paragraphs I don't see how
this is related to hackernews.

~~~
sanderjd
It's a nice story and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I can't really provide
much insight into why this belongs here any more than any other arbitrary
well-written short story. Maybe because he's studying computer science and his
mom thinks languages are a waste of time?

~~~
wallflower
> Maybe because he's studying computer science and his mom thinks languages
> are a waste of time?

Very close. I feel that studying regular computer languages is not as exciting
and challenging as studying a real spoken language.

I was encouraged to post this by the article about "Learning French" from
earlier today
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17682100](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17682100)).
In the article, it cites an analogy to those Internet ads promising language
acquisition in X days or even X months as akin to those that promote the
magical X day diet.

I felt that this particular fiction piece was a beautiful representation of
the stumbling/halting/humbling/unsteady progression up the intermediate
mountain slope of language acquisition, as one progresses from being able to
talk solely in the present to describe events in the past and ideas and
concepts.

To be able to express yourself in a non-native language, even if done
imperfectly and garbled-ly, is a win if the other person is able to get the
gist of what you are saying. Eventually, you will be able to have those deep
conversations and little stories about your life (good and bad) that you
already do among friends in your native language. I'm not there yet (in
Spanish), and I've come a long way in 3 years.

~~~
sanderjd
Lovely explanation. It got the votes to hit the front page so it clearly
resonated with some folks. Cheers!

