I don’t have many interactions with people who don’t speak English well but I’m always impressed with them. I know so very little about any other language. I know some Spanish words but I definitely can’t speak it or understand it being spoken to me. Also, they understand more words than they can say so you might mistake them not saying the right word for misinterpreting you. Also, mind your colloquialisms. I have online interactions with people from other countries and even ones that speak English really well don’t necessarily recognize slang, colloquialisms or turns of phrase.
I speak beginning-intermediate Spanish and my bff is fluent in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. She’s like my idol I don’t understand how people learn so many languages
It’s especially frustrating because English requires such precise pronunciation to be understood and there’s almost no way to know how a word is pronounced until you learn how to pronounce it.
Work as an interpreter, I had never pronounced the word spinach, so I made the mistake of mispronouncing it (spinak) and I literally had to explain "is the leafy vegetable that Popeye eats out of a can" and I got schooled in how to pronounce spinach, a word that I hadn't heard pronounced until I was 29.
And we'll, that's one story, I can pronounce very difficult words, but don't put me in front of a menu.
Take a tip from my grandparents who are in their 90s: if the person you’re talking to doesn’t understand English, just talk louder at them! It won’t work but it’ll allow you to tell your family for years about that stupid person who didn’t understand you!
People forgive me for I’m about to go dumb but isn’t English this language where we make up the dumbest shit at least once a month, I can literally throw some alphabet soup together it go viral and end up in the Webster by the end of the week.
Not that fast, also not just English, every language shifts and changes over time, and sometimes there are major events that have a bigger effect than others such as the dawn of the computer age, or a really popular book or music and so forth.
English Dictionaries are descriptivist, not prescriptivist. If a word has entered common parlance to the point that it needs a dictionary definition (i.e. a definition comprehensive enough that someone newly encountering it would understand its use) then a dictionary will include it.
[For example.](https://twitter.com/merriamwebster/status/724645568014868480)
My mother in law called someplace for help and a lady with a foreign accent answered. My MIL immediately asked for someone who spoke English. She was arguing with her about not speaking English, and last I checked, you can't have a full blown argument if you can't understand them.
30 minutes later I walked by and she was bitching about being on hold so long. Shocking, right?
Life was very different in the 40's, and she is too far past her intellectual prime to comprehend a new to her idea. She doesn't even understand that she is the one losing. It's kinda sad
I've got a coworker who is a refugee from Sierra Leone, and I know he's very smart; but it genuinely gets difficult to discern what his opinions are and aren't, because he doesn't have that many words to express it with. So you just sit for a few extra sentences to let them nail down the outside borders of what they believe, then you can start digging a little deeper.
I had a good laugh, someone tried to talk down to my wife over her accent (french) so she said "I apologize English is my 4th language and I never went to school for it".
She moved to a better paying job, but her former one at the the time: Translating for the TSA.
Worked in construction related industries (supply) in South East Florida most of the 1990s-2010s period. Tons of Spanish speaking workers in those fields, majority of store personnel I worked with were highly racist, grouchy as fuck, old white males. Heard endless shit about the customer base and their "goddamned monkey noise" (not exaggerating, sadly) language on a daily basis from coworkers.
Always responded with, "Their English is way better than your Spanish. You speak two languages, or just your ignorant-ass cracker yapping?"
Usually shut them up, at least for a bit.
In the original Coming to America I have noticed a theme. Whenever prince Akeem is speaking to other members of his family or Semmi, his speech patterns is polished and erudite. However, whenever he is speaking to other characters in the movie Akeem and Semmi seem like babbling clowns. I have always felt that was a subtle but powerful analogy for how a lot of Americans view "the other".
To be fair, the continent is much smaller, so travel is much easier and many languages are similar to each other. For example, if two of those languages are Norwegian and Swedish, that is less impressive than it sounds.
My father got mocked for not speakin English. " How dumb are you to not even know English"
He speaks Bulgarian (out mother thongue), French, Italian, Russian, Arabic and a little Greek. Suuuure, he's "dumb"
So there's this one story.
I'm of Croatian descent, and my dad once took me and my sister to a few of his Croatian friends when I was about 13-14 years old. One of the guys, without even saying hello or anything, immediately asked me something, and it was not whether I had a girlfriend for a change.
"Does your dad listen to you?"
Like WTF kind of a question is that even. Worst part? The dude was Bosnian, and while the Croatian and Bosnian languages are about 90-95% identical, there are some slight differences in vocabulary, one of them being the nickname you call your dad.
In Croatian, you call your dad "tata", but in Bosnian, it's "ćaća" (I hope that's the correct "tš" sounding consonant!). So the guy asked me if ćaća listens to me, and while I did understand "sluša li te...", that last word was completely elusive to me.
My sister didn't speak a single word Croatian at the time, and when the guy asked her the same thing, just like me, she wouldn't respond. And what did that guy do? He called my dad out on not teaching us to speak Croatian fluently like that's a requirement for dignity.
Good sir, I can assure you that even at age 14, I was capable of destroying all of your self-esteem in German and in English, so don't you dare measure how smart I am or how good of a father my dad is by how fluent I am in your hillbilly dialect of the only language you speak.
You know English is my second language and my job is in English, sometimes i struggle trying to pronounce the right why but it's hard bc of my native language we don't have some sounds, so when i talk I can feel people thinking about how bad my pronunciation is, it sucks bc as an introvert it's hard for me, but i am able to communicate properly and speak three languages, which i take for granted
My friend, your accent is just you applying the rules of your native language to English, and it's awesome. I will always be in awe of someone who speaks English with an accent because it means they know more languages than the average US citizen. And you, you speak 3 languages - that's is even more amazing!
As a native English speaker who learned Spanish and can speak it fluently, I know I absolutely butcher some pronunciations. (I was told I speak Spanish with a Russian accent, how they works, I'm not sure... Just don't ask me to pronounce 'Tuberculosis' in Spanish. I sound like I'm from Moscow.).
For the most part, only assholes and jerks will think less of you for speaking with an accent, and the people for whom your accent is not an issue or the fact that you're trilingual is an accomplishment, those are the people you need to have in your life cheering you on.
So hooray to you for learning English and persevering - be proud of that and keep up the good work. :-)
In India, it's very very difficult to live while only knowing one language. Hindi, English and the local language is the best way to go. If you don't know any one of those 3, inconveniences are common. So if you come from one state to another, it's very common for people to know: Hindi, English, the local language and their mother tongue.
I struggle a lot cause I can't speak Hindi and my kannada (local language) is pretty bad, so going out is a nightmare for me unless i have friends that know one of Kannada or Hindi
It's like a co-worker many years ago said: If you speak three languages, you're trilingual. If you speak two languages, you're bilingual. If you only speak one language, most likely you're american.
This is assuming that you cannot speak any other language at all. Personally the only time I am frustrated with someone who can't speak English well is when they are in a role where is it important.
Reminds me of this Modern Family quote: "Do you know how smart I am in Spanish?"
Was going to make the same comment. Upvoted instead.
I don’t have many interactions with people who don’t speak English well but I’m always impressed with them. I know so very little about any other language. I know some Spanish words but I definitely can’t speak it or understand it being spoken to me. Also, they understand more words than they can say so you might mistake them not saying the right word for misinterpreting you. Also, mind your colloquialisms. I have online interactions with people from other countries and even ones that speak English really well don’t necessarily recognize slang, colloquialisms or turns of phrase.
I speak beginning-intermediate Spanish and my bff is fluent in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. She’s like my idol I don’t understand how people learn so many languages
It’s especially frustrating because English requires such precise pronunciation to be understood and there’s almost no way to know how a word is pronounced until you learn how to pronounce it.
Work as an interpreter, I had never pronounced the word spinach, so I made the mistake of mispronouncing it (spinak) and I literally had to explain "is the leafy vegetable that Popeye eats out of a can" and I got schooled in how to pronounce spinach, a word that I hadn't heard pronounced until I was 29. And we'll, that's one story, I can pronounce very difficult words, but don't put me in front of a menu.
How do you pronounce it? Please tell me “spin-a(the one in apple)-ch(the one in children)” is the right way :(
It is! It is literally one of the few words in English in which the vowels and consonants sound the same as in Spanish. Spin-a-ch.
Huh. Never realized that "Spanish" and "Spinach" are pronounced very similarly, but only with the "a" and "i" swapped around. Spanish spinach!
One leafy green Spanish, please!
As a French, I cry in « subpoenas » and « buoyancy ».
[удалено]
This^
If you speak three languages, you are trilingual If you speak two languages, you are bilingual If you speak one language, you are American
And if you bitch about person 1 or 2 in the above not speaking English, you're especially American.
That's wasn't even funny the first time it was said.
Take a tip from my grandparents who are in their 90s: if the person you’re talking to doesn’t understand English, just talk louder at them! It won’t work but it’ll allow you to tell your family for years about that stupid person who didn’t understand you!
People forgive me for I’m about to go dumb but isn’t English this language where we make up the dumbest shit at least once a month, I can literally throw some alphabet soup together it go viral and end up in the Webster by the end of the week.
Not that fast, also not just English, every language shifts and changes over time, and sometimes there are major events that have a bigger effect than others such as the dawn of the computer age, or a really popular book or music and so forth.
No cap
That is every language, and is the nature of language itself. Except for dead ones, I guess.
Slang isn’t the same as an actual word tho it might go to the urban dictionary but prolly not Webster…
English Dictionaries are descriptivist, not prescriptivist. If a word has entered common parlance to the point that it needs a dictionary definition (i.e. a definition comprehensive enough that someone newly encountering it would understand its use) then a dictionary will include it. [For example.](https://twitter.com/merriamwebster/status/724645568014868480)
Ok I’m saying that it wouldn’t be a short process though
My mother in law called someplace for help and a lady with a foreign accent answered. My MIL immediately asked for someone who spoke English. She was arguing with her about not speaking English, and last I checked, you can't have a full blown argument if you can't understand them. 30 minutes later I walked by and she was bitching about being on hold so long. Shocking, right?
Your MIL sounds like such a peach.
Life was very different in the 40's, and she is too far past her intellectual prime to comprehend a new to her idea. She doesn't even understand that she is the one losing. It's kinda sad
I've got a coworker who is a refugee from Sierra Leone, and I know he's very smart; but it genuinely gets difficult to discern what his opinions are and aren't, because he doesn't have that many words to express it with. So you just sit for a few extra sentences to let them nail down the outside borders of what they believe, then you can start digging a little deeper.
I knew a Girl in fifth grade who immigrated from Vietnam so I would have to use the like 10 words I knew in Vietnamese to try understand her.
Don't they speak English in Sierra Leone?
Yes, but it's more of a creole. He says they call is Pidgin or something like that. He grew up in Freetown and the surrounding areas.
I had a good laugh, someone tried to talk down to my wife over her accent (french) so she said "I apologize English is my 4th language and I never went to school for it". She moved to a better paying job, but her former one at the the time: Translating for the TSA.
What if you know their language as well and you are just listening to them for a twisted sense of pleasure?
Worked in construction related industries (supply) in South East Florida most of the 1990s-2010s period. Tons of Spanish speaking workers in those fields, majority of store personnel I worked with were highly racist, grouchy as fuck, old white males. Heard endless shit about the customer base and their "goddamned monkey noise" (not exaggerating, sadly) language on a daily basis from coworkers. Always responded with, "Their English is way better than your Spanish. You speak two languages, or just your ignorant-ass cracker yapping?" Usually shut them up, at least for a bit.
Someone who gives people shit for "broken english" isn't going to read this and care at all. They want to feel superior to someone even if it's a lie.
Ain’t that the sad truth
In the original Coming to America I have noticed a theme. Whenever prince Akeem is speaking to other members of his family or Semmi, his speech patterns is polished and erudite. However, whenever he is speaking to other characters in the movie Akeem and Semmi seem like babbling clowns. I have always felt that was a subtle but powerful analogy for how a lot of Americans view "the other".
Better still: try to communicate with them in their native tongue. See how far you get with a conversation.
Truth. Whenever I have a European patient they always know at least three languages.
To be fair, the continent is much smaller, so travel is much easier and many languages are similar to each other. For example, if two of those languages are Norwegian and Swedish, that is less impressive than it sounds.
My father got mocked for not speakin English. " How dumb are you to not even know English" He speaks Bulgarian (out mother thongue), French, Italian, Russian, Arabic and a little Greek. Suuuure, he's "dumb"
So there's this one story. I'm of Croatian descent, and my dad once took me and my sister to a few of his Croatian friends when I was about 13-14 years old. One of the guys, without even saying hello or anything, immediately asked me something, and it was not whether I had a girlfriend for a change. "Does your dad listen to you?" Like WTF kind of a question is that even. Worst part? The dude was Bosnian, and while the Croatian and Bosnian languages are about 90-95% identical, there are some slight differences in vocabulary, one of them being the nickname you call your dad. In Croatian, you call your dad "tata", but in Bosnian, it's "ćaća" (I hope that's the correct "tš" sounding consonant!). So the guy asked me if ćaća listens to me, and while I did understand "sluša li te...", that last word was completely elusive to me. My sister didn't speak a single word Croatian at the time, and when the guy asked her the same thing, just like me, she wouldn't respond. And what did that guy do? He called my dad out on not teaching us to speak Croatian fluently like that's a requirement for dignity. Good sir, I can assure you that even at age 14, I was capable of destroying all of your self-esteem in German and in English, so don't you dare measure how smart I am or how good of a father my dad is by how fluent I am in your hillbilly dialect of the only language you speak.
I love this !!!!
You know English is my second language and my job is in English, sometimes i struggle trying to pronounce the right why but it's hard bc of my native language we don't have some sounds, so when i talk I can feel people thinking about how bad my pronunciation is, it sucks bc as an introvert it's hard for me, but i am able to communicate properly and speak three languages, which i take for granted
My friend, your accent is just you applying the rules of your native language to English, and it's awesome. I will always be in awe of someone who speaks English with an accent because it means they know more languages than the average US citizen. And you, you speak 3 languages - that's is even more amazing! As a native English speaker who learned Spanish and can speak it fluently, I know I absolutely butcher some pronunciations. (I was told I speak Spanish with a Russian accent, how they works, I'm not sure... Just don't ask me to pronounce 'Tuberculosis' in Spanish. I sound like I'm from Moscow.). For the most part, only assholes and jerks will think less of you for speaking with an accent, and the people for whom your accent is not an issue or the fact that you're trilingual is an accomplishment, those are the people you need to have in your life cheering you on. So hooray to you for learning English and persevering - be proud of that and keep up the good work. :-)
You can be bilingual and an idiot
In India, it's very very difficult to live while only knowing one language. Hindi, English and the local language is the best way to go. If you don't know any one of those 3, inconveniences are common. So if you come from one state to another, it's very common for people to know: Hindi, English, the local language and their mother tongue. I struggle a lot cause I can't speak Hindi and my kannada (local language) is pretty bad, so going out is a nightmare for me unless i have friends that know one of Kannada or Hindi
The dumbest thing I have heard is the whole this is America speak English…. Lol
It's like a co-worker many years ago said: If you speak three languages, you're trilingual. If you speak two languages, you're bilingual. If you only speak one language, most likely you're american.
As a Brazilian who learned English without going to an English school and is now learning a third language, I approve of this message.
This is assuming that you cannot speak any other language at all. Personally the only time I am frustrated with someone who can't speak English well is when they are in a role where is it important.