Can You Learn A Language From A Native Speaker?

Learning a language is a lot of work, and getting some help from a native may seem like a good idea, which it is and it isn’t.

You can learn a lot from a native, but at the same time they may not actually be able to teach you much. It sounds a bit strange, but I will go through the reasons why they are good for you and why they are not.  

Basically, you can and should use natives to help you learn you a language, but at the same time, realise you need to also be focusing on other methods of learning, to fill all the gaps that a native cannot explain to you.

Why Native Speakers Are Good For You

In general it is a good idea to speak to native speaker. Your ultimate goal is to be able to communicate in the language, so who better to practice with than those who speak the language daily.

They Speak How The Language Is Spoken

The best apart about learning from native speakers is that they speak exactly how the language is spoken.

If you look at textbooks they are often a little stiff and too formal. This is because they teach you the “standard language” and while this is important to learn, a native will use more natural sounding speech.

They know all the slang and different ways to say things, you can learn a lot from the textbooks, but you will find there is a disconnect between the two, so you do need to learn from natives to fill in the gaps that are in the textbook.

(You can read more about – Why Do Natives Speakers Seem Different To The Text Books?)

They Can Teach You Correct Pronunciation

Native speakers are going to be hard to listen to, but at the same time they are the best people to listen to as a learner.

You will hear how the language is supposed to be spoken and you can actually learn the speed, rhythm and intonation of everything. This means you will hear all the commonly used words and phrases and actually hear how they should be pronounced.

This will be real world examples of the language in use, which you will often not find in learning materials. Usually they are slowed down and simplified, which of course has it uses, but it’s just not real life.

If you are learning with a native they can also correct your pronunciation. They can coach you to say things more correctly and help you sound a little bit more natural, which is exactly what you want.

They Can Spot Your Mistakes

Natives are also excellent at spotting your mistakes and can instantly correct you or guide you about how to say things properly.

Although, whether a native actually corrects you or not is a different issue, which I will discuss below.

Being corrected is something you will not get if you are learning by yourself. You are only going to have your mistakes noticed and corrected if you are learning through a teacher, or you are speaking with a native speaker.

They Can Show You The Culture

A large part of learning a language is about learning the culture. The two are very closely interlinked and there is usually no one better to teach you about culture than a native speaker.

They are going to know the history and traditions of a country and of course the food and really anything you might need to know.

The best way to actually do this is to just make friends with someone who lives in the country where they speak your target language. Just start some language exchanges and you will be amazed at home much you can learn about the country, culture and language.    

(You can read more about – How Important Is It To Listen To Authentic Native Material In A Second Language?)

Why Natives Are Not Great At Helping You Learn

While you might think that learning from a native can only be a good thing, you would be wrong, unfortunately they are not the perfect way to learn a language and I will go through some of the reasons why they are not so great.

They Don’t Know What It’s Like To Be A Leaner

Most natives will have no idea what it is like to learn their own language. They just did it when they were small and it just kind of happened.

They can’t really relate to you and your struggles. If they have learned a second language then they maybe can have some sense of your situation, but in most cases they will be fairly clueless.

They Are Not Teachers

Another big problem with natives is that they are not teachers and probably don’t really understand things in their own language, even though they can use it perfectly.

They probably can’t explain why a lot of grammar is the way it is or how to explain something to you in a way that might help you understand better. They just know what to do, and don’t really know why they know it.

They will also not really know what you need to know, or how to teach you it efficiently. Basically most natives are not teachers.   

If You Are Looking For A Teacher, You Do Want Them To Be Native

I must say that if you are looking for a teacher, you will find the best ones will be native speakers.

They are of course going to know how to teach you the language, but are also going to have a natural understanding of the language, which is really going to be what you want.

There will be very little they do not know or understand. They really are the best people to be teaching you.

They Will Rarely Correct You

One of the big problems with native speakers is that they can often be too polite. They just want to communicate and will skip right past any mistakes you make.

If you say something wrong, they can still understand you, and they just ignore the mistake. They probably won’t point it out they just treat it like you spoke flawlessly. This is good for your confidence as you get to communicate and its seems fairly fluid to you, but at the same time I think it’s better to have your huge errors pointed out so you can learn from it and prevent it from happening again. 

They Can Dumb Themselves Down For You

Another issue with learning from natives is that you may find they dumb themselves down for you.

You may find they talk to you in a simpler and slower way. This can be great for you, as you can still learn a lot, but then when you speak to someone else you will quickly realise you where on “easy mode” while talking to your friend and suddenly realise you are actually not that good at the language.

This again happens as they want to communicate, so if they have to speak simply and slowly to make things work, they will.

They Can Easily Overwhelm You

The opposite of dumbing themselves down is of course to just go full force native and it can be a lot for you to handle, especially if there is more than one of them speaking. They can speak super quickly and use a lot of slang and you can get lost with milliseconds.

They might not realise you are not quite at that this level and basically forget you are learning, so things can get intense, but just remind them to slow down and it should be okay.

Conclusion

As you can now see you can learn a lot from natives, but they also have a lot of weaknesses and are not always the perfect way to learn.

If you are only using natives to learn a language you will probably struggle, you will be missing a lot of information and you will need to get this from somewhere else.

However, if you do pair traditional language learning techniques along with talking to natives, you probably will make a lot of progress, you will be hitting the language from all the right angles as such.