What is a foreign language?

Don’t confuse a foreign language with one which we do not know sufficiently well.  There are times when we cannot understand someone who speaks our native language.  We know all of the words, but we still cannot understand what the person is saying.

A foreign language is basically the same kind of language as the one which we speak.  The only difference is that we do not understand any of the words that we hear.  A true foreign language differs from a language that we simply do not speak in one very elementary way.

When we listen to people who are speaking in a foreign language, it seems that the conversation is an uninterrupted flow of incomprehensible sounds.  It is an insurmountable river of funny noises, and you cannot see its beginning or its end.

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a lot
1 words of 123
after
2 words of 123
airplane
3 words of 123
and
4 words of 123
animal
5 words of 123
back
6 words of 123
bad
7 words of 123
bag
8 words of 123
bed
9 words of 123
before
10 words of 123
big
11 words of 123
blanket
12 words of 123
boat
13 words of 123
boiled
14 words of 123
bread
15 words of 123
breakfast
16 words of 123
bus
17 words of 123
car
18 words of 123
chicken
19 words of 123
child
20 words of 123
closed
21 words of 123
clothing
22 words of 123
coffee
23 words of 123
cold
24 words of 123
color
25 words of 123
dangerous
26 words of 123
day
27 words of 123
doctor
29 words of 123
documents
30 words of 123
down
31 words of 123
drink
32 words of 123
drive
33 words of 123
eat
34 words of 123
egg
35 words of 123
far
36 words of 123
fire
37 words of 123
fish
38 words of 123
forward
39 words of 123
fried
40 words of 123
friend
41 words of 123
from
42 words of 123
fruit
43 words of 123
give
44 words of 123
go
45 words of 123
good
46 words of 123
hello
48 words of 123
help
49 words of 123
here
50 words of 123
hot
51 words of 123
hour
52 words of 123
house
53 words of 123
how
54 words of 123
how much
55 words of 123
hurry
56 words of 123
inside
58 words of 123
it
59 words of 123
know
60 words of 123
later
61 words of 123
less
62 words of 123
little
63 words of 123
look for
64 words of 123
man
65 words of 123
medicine
67 words of 123
milk
68 words of 123
money
69 words of 123
more
70 words of 123
my
71 words of 123
night
72 words of 123
no
73 words of 123
now
74 words of 123
one
75 words of 123
outside
76 words of 123
pain
77 words of 123
pasta
78 words of 123
phone
79 words of 123
please
80 words of 123
quickly
82 words of 123
relax
83 words of 123
rice
84 words of 123
room
85 words of 123
shoes
87 words of 123
shop
88 words of 123
slowly
89 words of 123
soup
91 words of 123
straight
92 words of 123
street
93 words of 123
sweet
94 words of 123
take
95 words of 123
talk
96 words of 123
tea
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thank you
98 words of 123
there
99 words of 123
ticket
100 words of 123
time
101 words of 123
to
102 words of 123
to the left
103 words of 123
to the right
104 words of 123
together
105 words of 123
toilet
106 words of 123
train
107 words of 123
two
108 words of 123
understand
109 words of 123
up
110 words of 123
vegetables
111 words of 123
wait
112 words of 123
wake
113 words of 123
want
114 words of 123
water
115 words of 123
when
116 words of 123
where
117 words of 123
who
118 words of 123
woman
119 words of 123
write
120 words of 123
yes
121 words of 123
you
122 words of 123
your
123 words of 123
a lot
viel
after
nach
airplane
Flugzeug
and
und
animal
Tier
back
zurück
bad
schlecht
bag
Tasche
bed
Bett
before
vor
big
groß
blanket
Decke
boat
Boot
boiled
gekocht
bread
Brot
breakfast
Frühstück
bus
Bus
car
Auto
chicken
Huhn
child
Kind
closed
geschlossen
clothing
Kleidung
coffee
Kaffee
cold
kalt
color
Farbe
dangerous
gefährlich
day
Tag
do
machen
doctor
Arzt
documents
Dokumente
down
unten
drink
trinken
drive
fahren
eat
essen
egg
Ei
far
weit
fire
Feuer
fish
Fisch
forward
vorwärts
fried
gebraten
friend
Freund
from
von
fruit
Obst
give
geben
go
gehen
good
gut
goodbye
Auf Wiedersehen
hello
Hallo
help
helfen
here
hier
hot
heiß
hour
Stunde
house
Haus
how
wie
how much
wieviel
hurry
beeilen
I
ich
inside
drin
it
es
know
wissen
later
später
less
weniger
little
wenig
look for
suchen
man
Mann
meat
Fleisch
medicine
Medikament
milk
Milch
money
Geld
more
mehr
my
mein
night
Nacht
no
nein
now
jetzt
one
eins
outside
draußen
pain
Schmerz
pasta
Nudeln
phone
Telefon
please
Bitte
potato
Kartoffel
quickly
schnell
relax
entspannen
rice
Reis
room
Zimmer
salad
Salat
shoes
Schuhe
shop
Shop
slowly
langsam
sorry
Entschuldigung
soup
Suppe
straight
gerade
street
Straße
sweet
süß
take
nehmen
talk
sprechen
tea
Tee
thank you
Danke
there
dort
ticket
Ticket
time
Zeit
to
auf
to the left
links
to the right
rechts
together
zusammen
toilet
Toilette
train
Zug
two
zwei
understand
verstehen
up
oben
vegetables
Gemüse
wait
warten
wake
aufwecken
want
wollen
water
Wasser
when
wann
where
wo
who
wer
woman
Frau
write
schreiben
yes
ja
you
du
your
dein

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A completely foreign language turns into one which we do not understand sufficiently well if we hear a few words in the flow of sound which we understand. 

We understand those words and can understand the topic – food, travel, sports, shopping, prices, the weather, etc.  That is all, however.  We cannot move beyond the overall topic that is being discussed.  Don’t fear, though – if you understand the general topic of discussion, then that means that you can identify the language that is being spoken – Spanish, French, Italian, etc.  This means that this is not a completely foreign language to you.  You simply do not understand it sufficiently well.

The next thing is this:  A language will turn from an incomprehensible into an understandable one only when you not only recognise the words that are spoken, but also understand the point to what is being said.

Sadly, some people who want to communicate in a foreign language in a comprehensible way must first learn to do so in their own language.  You have to remember a few things here.  If people talk to one another they only use words which the others will understand, and they use those words so that everyone understands the point to what is being said.