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Ungrateful Natives | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 89 of 139 14 March 2010 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's funny -- I went to Japan twice and had the exact opposite experience. They all seemed to have a much better impression of my ability than I myself had. Not only that, but I specifically explained that I was there to practice the language and they all respected my request and made great efforts to help me. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 90 of 139 14 March 2010 at 10:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
How do you express your gratitude towards people who study your language? 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 91 of 139 14 March 2010 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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When I was 15, my family and I went to Paris. My first language is French; I'm Québécois.
My interest for languages was just developing at the time. While shopping in Les Galeries Lafayette, I spotted a lady with an Assimil plastic bag. I really wanted to know where I could find such a store so I went up to her to ask. You know what she answered? "Pourquoi, vous voulez apprendre le français?" [Why, you want to learn French?] It would have been hard to find a more insulting reply, but hey, life is life. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5553 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 92 of 139 15 March 2010 at 1:01am | IP Logged | |||||
I don't think that's what people are asking for here at all. I wouldn't start learning a language thinking that its native speakers would worship the ground I walked on because of it. I can't speak for everyone, but I know that I myself am not asking for gratitude or praise, but to be treated like a human being and not an outsider because "har-dee-har he made a mistake worse than a child would make in my language." Not that this has ever happened to me, but I have reading comprehension skills and can understand what other people are talking about here. Did you even read the thread? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| stout Senior Member Ireland Joined 5371 days ago 108 posts - 140 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 93 of 139 15 March 2010 at 1:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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My experiences with French people has been variable.I can recall two experiences one
negative,one positive.My negative experience was in Paris CDG airport.A French woman had asked me in French for directions.I explained in slow,but reasonable French the directions she wanted to go to. Then she asked a me question which I did not understand.Then I asked in French to repeat the question.Then she made a pretty nasty remark in English that "You do not understand".I was tempted to argue with her but I then I remembered the saying "Never argue with an idiot".Then I just said "Au reviour madame" and left her go. My positive experience was with another French woman who was a post office clerk. I was a sending registered letter to my home in Ireland.I said In French that I wanted to register my letter and send it to Ireland,she asked me a couple of questions in French which I understood alright.Then she asked me another question in French and this time I did not understood what she said.Then I asked her in French to repeat what what she said. The postal clerk then switched to English,but her manner,unlike the woman in the airport was sympathetic and understanding.I know I do not like being spoken to in English by French people,but I knew buy her manner that she was being helpful and we finished our postal transaction.Then I said in French to her "Quelquefois je peux debrouille en francais,quelquefois pas(sometimes I can manage in French,sometimes not). Then I asked her in French were she learned her English.The postal clerk had informed me that she had spent a while in England and that she had been going to English evening classes for many years in her local area.Then we said "Au revoir"to each other and went our separate ways. So they are the two sides to France.So it's not always negative.The French are not all surly.You can have your fair share of surly British,Irish and Americans too. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tritone Senior Member United States reflectionsinpo Joined 6120 days ago 246 posts - 385 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, French | Message 94 of 139 15 March 2010 at 3:07am | IP Logged | |||||
LOL. I have been one of those rude people before, simply because I wasn't familiar with their accent and assumed it to be non-native. Actually a lot of English speaking foreigners here get asked, "where did you learn English"? and things like that. I had trouble understanding a lady I used to work with, and one day out of curiousity I asked her "What's your native language?". To my suprise and embarrasment, she replied "English! I'm Guyanese!" 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5469 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 95 of 139 15 March 2010 at 4:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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A Flemish aquaintance of mine has been replied to in English by locals in the Netherlands on several occasions when speaking Dutch there.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| roy2005 Diglot Groupie Hong Kong Joined 6550 days ago 70 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, German | Message 96 of 139 15 March 2010 at 11:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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Perhaps the question should be worded as something like:
"Have you ever had unpleasant experience when you speak your target language with native speakers, like being responded to with ridicule or extreme impatience? How do you deal with this?" The title might be something like "Reactions from native speakers". I'm tired of people keeping replying "How grateful do you want the natives to be?" or "Why do they have to be grateful simply for your effort to learn their language?" This is not what the OP is really asking. Edited by roy2005 on 15 March 2010 at 12:06pm 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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