Sounds

What's the most important feature in language comprehension? Sounds, syntax or vocabulary?
The answer certainly depends on the communication skill we focus on. If we think about reading, for example, sounds are not relevant at all, but they are the most important feature of spoken language. Likewise, syntax is definitely a key point when it comes to writing. Which one is the most important, then?

From my experience so far as an international student who's living abroad for the first time ever, my answer is SOUNDS. As I stated before, syntax and vocabulary are indeed relevant, but they don't really help when it's hard to understand one's pronunciation. I've had some trouble trying to understand people this week, and (unfortunately) not only once. Sometimes when I'm in a group (in the dining hall or even in the hallway) people talk so fast that I can't understand what they're saying. It's an extremely uncomfortable situation, primarily because I don't feel comfortable with adding comments when I don't understand exactly what's being said. As a result, I may remain quiet and people may think I'm shy or I'm not getting along well with people (or worse, that I'm not even trying) when the reality is that I do try but the sounds that come out of their mouths are sometimes incomprehensible for me. But why are these sounds incomprehensible for me if I've studied English for 8 years before coming to Stanford?

I think that the main reason is that people here speak English for English listeners, and that makes all the difference. In an English course, tapes are recorded in a slow-paced way so that students can understand what's being said even though they're not so proficient in the language. It helps then to have confidence in themselves by feeling that they're actually improving. Obviously, as the course goes on the difficulty of the listening exercises increases but still. Students remain quiet and entirely focused on the speaker in classroom; there's no extra sound bothering them. Everyday life is not that easy. Try to speak to your roommate while you both are biking to a class and everybody else is also speaking. Try to understand what an actor is saying during a play when somebody near you is whispering in somebody else's ears. Try even to understand what somebody whispers to you. It's not easy if the sound is not clear, and if you're not speaking your native language, you're much more likely to face problems with this clearness.

Obviously, I'm talking about spoken language. And my focus is in the spoken language because this is the one which I have more problems to deal with. Spoken language is instantaneous and, as such, requires promptness. While I'm here typing this text, I can delete a sentence and rephrase it in a better way. I can stop writing now and continue later. When the reader receives the entire text, he'll probably not realize that such break has occured. However, the same doesn't happen in the spoken language. After something's said, there's no way to "erase" it. And what if a professor asked his students to hold on some minutes because he'd have to think about what to say? Wouldn't everybody be bored? This is the promptness I'm talking about. A writer can take months and even years to write a single book but a speaker generally loses his audience's attention in a few minutes.

One could argue it's worthless to be able to hear properly and clearly if there's no uniqueness in the language, that is, if syntax differs and if the vocabulary varies. That'd be also true but in everyday life these situations are not so common as the sound-related ones. I'm considering a context where everybody is supposed to be able to use the same communication code (which is what happens here at Stanford).

I'm aware that this opinion is probably influenced by the challenges I'm now facing while settling in this new environment that is the USA, that is California, that is Stanford - which is perfectly fair in my opinion. We're all here to learn from other's experiences but also to share our own ones.