Should beginners learn colloquialisms?

An ex-English teacher says:

One thing I tried to discourage the students from doing, as it happens, was pursue their interest in learning colloquial English phrases. They all wanted to do so: they thought it would show how much they knew real English, English as it is spoken and therefore English as they wished to speak it. Of course - though I could never get them to understand this - the effect would actually be the opposite. Because to speak a language colloquially, you have to demonstrate your comfort with the language, your identification with it.

Last night I met someone who claimed to be unfamiliar with fuck in any of its forms and contexts. There’s got to be a middle way.

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Comments

1. Tom sez:
   March 18th, 2008 at 10:51

   “Because to speak a language colloquially, you have to demonstrate your comfort with the language, your identification with it.” - yes, but adopting colloquialisms and ‘demonstrating your comfort/identification with the language’ are hardly mutually-exclusive, innit.

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