questions about speaking a foreign language

What is bricolage?  Is it important?

What is circumlocution?  When should we use it?

What is tolerance for ambiguity? Why is it important?

Why is speaking a foreign language like taking a photograph?

You are on a bicycle trip.  You have a few tools but the toolkit is incomplete?  Comment.

You are on a bicycle trip.  You have a few tools but the toolkit is incomplete?  Comment,

Good answer

Of course the bicycle will breakdown during the trip.  It is the law of averages.  If I breakdown I will do everything I can to repair the bicycle with the tools I have.

I will practice bricolage. 

Bad answer

I don’t know.  (an unwillingness to guess.) 

I would not leave without full tool kit.  (Impractical; too heavy)


Why is speaking a foreign language like taking a photograph?

A good photograph tells a story.  The photographer has to compose an image with a camera.  The camera is a tool that limits what the photographer can do.  Photography tries to show, not tell.  It is a visual language that is ambiguous.