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Johntm
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5424 days ago
616 posts - 725 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish
| Message 41 of 54 10 March 2010 at 5:47am | IP Logged |
ruskivyetr wrote:
And btw I really ate it when people say I'm a Nazi for speaking German and being half
German. I'm half Polish Jew and I often tell that to people who say that and say "It's
rude of you to say that when I have relatives who were gassed in Auschwitz."
High schoolers' morals suck :P. |
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Damn, that's messed up.
Edited by Johntm on 10 March 2010 at 5:57am
1 person has voted this message useful
| Johntm
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5424 days ago
616 posts - 725 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish
| Message 42 of 54 10 March 2010 at 5:53am | IP Logged |
Tombstone wrote:
Ironically, what I do run into regularly is people who don't speak English being angry that they cannot get someone to assist them in their own language.
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Gah, I hate that. Luckily, I'm not in business, so I hardly ever experience that.
On a somewhat related note, I help teach at my taekwondo school, and I had to teach a student who only speaks Spanish (well, he knows basic English). I used a little Spanish (counting, praise), English (counting, other stuff), and Korean (commands). So I taught him in 3 languages, although using a very limited vocabulary in all 3. But he's learning English.
1 person has voted this message useful
| datsunking1
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5587 days ago
1014 posts - 1533 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French
| Message 43 of 54 10 March 2010 at 6:00pm | IP Logged |
Johntm wrote:
Tombstone wrote:
Ironically, what I do run into regularly is people who don't speak English being angry that they cannot get someone to assist them in their own language.
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Gah, I hate that. Luckily, I'm not in business, so I hardly ever experience that.
On a somewhat related note, I help teach at my taekwondo school, and I had to teach a student who only speaks Spanish (well, he knows basic English). I used a little Spanish (counting, praise), English (counting, other stuff), and Korean (commands). So I taught him in 3 languages, although using a very limited vocabulary in all 3. But he's learning English. |
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It feels really good helping someone like that, wait until he realizes how much he improves! (Your Spanish will also!)
I had a conversation last night with a girl entirely in Spanish, who didn't speak English at all. If I didn't know Spanish, I would be ABLE to talk to her. Turned out to be a very nice girl :)
It gave me a warm feeling knowing that language can open doors like that. I can't wait until I'm able to help people with everyday things if their English knowledge isn't so great. I could do that all day :)
1 person has voted this message useful
| ruskivyetr
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5483 days ago
769 posts - 962 votes
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew
| Message 44 of 54 10 March 2010 at 6:33pm | IP Logged |
Johntm wrote:
ruskivyetr wrote:
And btw I really ate it when people say I'm a Nazi for speaking German and being half
German. I'm half Polish Jew and I often tell that to people who say that and say "It's
rude of you to say that when I have relatives who were gassed in Auschwitz."
High schoolers' morals suck :P. |
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Damn, that's messed up. |
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Tell me about it :(. I have to deal with it even though I LOOK Polish. I don't look very German, I have a more Slavic face. It always gets to them when I tell them though. And @Datsunking, I am sick of the Jew jokes too. People don't know how much they really can hurt. Being racist in general is just low, and it angers me to see that people don't think of it as a big deal when it is.
1 person has voted this message useful
| mick33
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5926 days ago
1335 posts - 1632 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Finnish
Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish
| Message 45 of 54 10 March 2010 at 9:26pm | IP Logged |
ruskivyetr wrote:
mick33 wrote:
4. "Everyone in (pick almost any country here, but most commonly said about western
European nations) speaks excellent English nowadays; so you don't need to learn the local
language because you'll never use it."
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One of the most untrue things I have ever heard. Too many times I have met a German,
Swiss, Austrian, or French person who did not speak English. Most of the times I spoke
German with them (except for the French, I do not speak French so it was more like sign
language). The surprising fact is, not many people in German speaking countries or in
French speaking areas are multilingual. You meet the occasional German with great
English, but for that one German, there are ten more who don't. |
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I wouldn't know if your claim of one in ten speaking great English is true since I've never been to a German speaking country, but it makes sense.
Unfortunately, the stereotype I mentioned before is often reinforced by German speakers in North America who say things like "All Germans speak English, it's easy for us because the languages are so much alike."
1 person has voted this message useful
| ruskivyetr
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5483 days ago
769 posts - 962 votes
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew
| Message 46 of 54 10 March 2010 at 11:34pm | IP Logged |
mick33 wrote:
ruskivyetr wrote:
mick33 wrote:
4. "Everyone in (pick almost any country here, but most commonly said about western
European nations) speaks excellent English nowadays; so you don't need to learn the
local
language because you'll never use it."
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One of the most untrue things I have ever heard. Too many times I have met a German,
Swiss, Austrian, or French person who did not speak English. Most of the times I spoke
German with them (except for the French, I do not speak French so it was more like
sign
language). The surprising fact is, not many people in German speaking countries or in
French speaking areas are multilingual. You meet the occasional German with great
English, but for that one German, there are ten more who don't. |
|
|
I wouldn't
know if your claim of one in ten speaking great English is true since I've never been to
a German speaking country, but it makes sense.
Unfortunately, the stereotype I mentioned before is often reinforced by German
speakers in North America who say things like "All Germans speak English, it's easy for
us because the languages are so much alike." |
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The only reason they speak English is because they have the money to travel to America
for vacations. And then they assume that because everyone takes English in school that
they can speak it really well, when really that is a false statement.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Johntm
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5424 days ago
616 posts - 725 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish
| Message 47 of 54 11 March 2010 at 5:52am | IP Logged |
datsunking1 wrote:
Johntm wrote:
Tombstone wrote:
Ironically, what I do run into regularly is people who don't speak English being angry that they cannot get someone to assist them in their own language.
|
|
|
Gah, I hate that. Luckily, I'm not in business, so I hardly ever experience that.
On a somewhat related note, I help teach at my taekwondo school, and I had to teach a student who only speaks Spanish (well, he knows basic English). I used a little Spanish (counting, praise), English (counting, other stuff), and Korean (commands). So I taught him in 3 languages, although using a very limited vocabulary in all 3. But he's learning English. |
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|
It feels really good helping someone like that, wait until he realizes how much he improves! (Your Spanish will also!)
I had a conversation last night with a girl entirely in Spanish, who didn't speak English at all. If I didn't know Spanish, I would be ABLE to talk to her. Turned out to be a very nice girl :)
It gave me a warm feeling knowing that language can open doors like that. I can't wait until I'm able to help people with everyday things if their English knowledge isn't so great. I could do that all day :) |
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Sadly I couldn't say much, as my limited vocabulario is even more limited when trying to tell someone to double backfist while stepping their front foot back :(
Can't wait til I walk up to him and start speaking fluent Spanish, he'll look surprised I imagine :)
1 person has voted this message useful
| Volte
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
Joined 6441 days ago
4474 posts - 6726 votes
Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian
Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 48 of 54 11 March 2010 at 3:50pm | IP Logged |
ruskivyetr wrote:
mick33 wrote:
ruskivyetr wrote:
mick33 wrote:
4. "Everyone in (pick almost any country here, but most commonly said about western
European nations) speaks excellent English nowadays; so you don't need to learn the
local
language because you'll never use it."
|
|
|
One of the most untrue things I have ever heard. Too many times I have met a German,
Swiss, Austrian, or French person who did not speak English. Most of the times I spoke
German with them (except for the French, I do not speak French so it was more like
sign
language). The surprising fact is, not many people in German speaking countries or in
French speaking areas are multilingual. You meet the occasional German with great
English, but for that one German, there are ten more who don't. |
|
|
I wouldn't
know if your claim of one in ten speaking great English is true since I've never been to
a German speaking country, but it makes sense.
Unfortunately, the stereotype I mentioned before is often reinforced by German
speakers in North America who say things like "All Germans speak English, it's easy for
us because the languages are so much alike." |
|
|
The only reason they speak English is because they have the money to travel to America
for vacations. And then they assume that because everyone takes English in school that
they can speak it really well, when really that is a false statement. |
|
|
That doesn't match my experience. English proficiency is associated with age and interests, but not so much with whether people can afford to travel to America. I know a Dutch squatter that speaks English absolutely flawlessly, and so do a surprising number of Germans working in non-touristy restaurants.
Even among the Germans that can afford to travel to English-speaking countries and who speak English well, many have never done so.
I don't see the Germans assuming that everyone speaks English well very often either, much less because it was taken in school.
1 person has voted this message useful
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