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Broken English, is it offensive to you? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6828 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French | Message 1 of 83 24 July 2010 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had the opportunity to witness Hong Kong people and Koreans communicate in a language that is supposed to be called English. (I apologise to anyone who may think I'm being an @rsehole).
I'm not saying I have an ego or showing off. However, listening to so much broken grammar, incorrect intonations, and poor word usages kind of ticked me off to the point that I feel quite offended that my native language can be butchered by so many people in the world. Now I'm not saying my foreign language skills are awesome, and I had many people tell me my Mandarin is just embarassing. Though, the message I received from people was to have everyone to communicate in English and it doesn't matter if its wrong, as we can all understand. Other things that tick me off: 1) getting past tense grammar etc all wrong 2) getting plural and singuluar wrong 3) missing the/a with nouns 4) adding "wor, lor, ah" at the end of sentences 5) using text book vocabulary that doesn't fit oral communication .... Is it just me, or does anyone else feel awkward with so much poor English being used at a business level and the bastardisation of English? I guess this applies in reverse to other languages. Edited by WANNABEAFREAK on 24 July 2010 at 4:54pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6380 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 83 24 July 2010 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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No, I don't feel that way because I know that learning a language is hard, especially for people whose native language is very different from English.
7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dolly Senior Member United States Joined 5791 days ago 191 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 3 of 83 24 July 2010 at 5:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Indian Call Center English isn't broken but it's sometimes so heavily accented it's almost a dialect. I hate it. It fills me with loathing.
It's not an issue of being gracious with language learners. The issue here is American jobs being sent overseas, to people whom American customers are struggling to understand on the phone. Edited by dolly on 24 July 2010 at 5:35pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| janalisa Triglot Senior Member France janafadness.com/blog Joined 6891 days ago 284 posts - 466 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese Studies: Russian, Norwegian | Message 4 of 83 24 July 2010 at 5:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hm... Personally I think you're being a little harsh. I don't think you can necessarily blame people for speaking poor English. Most people simply don't know how to learn a language effectively, and many people learn English just because they have to. Knowing English to a mediocre level gets them through the kinds of situations they come across just fine, so many people simply don't feel the need to learn it to a higher level. Passionate as we may be about it, I don't think we can ask everyone to be as dedicated to language learning as we are. It is a lot of work.
The thing that does tick me off, though, is when people insist on continuing in poor English even when the conversation would obviously run smoother in a different language. Unfortunately this seems to happen a lot in Asian countries. Some people just have the mindset that English is the language you speak with foreigners. One unfortunate side effect of English being considered the "international language" is that a lot of people are going to speak it poorly. But personally, I'm glad everyone doesn't speak perfect English. That would make it a lot more difficult to learn their languages! 13 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 6080 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 83 24 July 2010 at 5:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm so glad a lot of people don't feel like this, otherwise it would really suck to be
studying languages. Imagine proudly making your first trip to the country of the language you're studying only to be met by genuinely pissed off natives every time you open your moth. I think you need to be a lot more patient. Especially since you speak Cantonese - you should know how much effort it took to learn this language and how radically different it is from any IE language - it's the same the other way around too.
So, these people learnt the language from the necessity to be able to communicate, and learnt English. Minor grammar mistakes etc aren't important for people who just need to get a basic concept across - anything is a lot better than nothing! I'd just be really thankful it's my language they were speaking so I didn't have to learn another one to join in the conversation. Also, Dolly, isn't Indian English exactly what a dialect is? I perfectly understand your frustration, but perhaps you should direct it more towards the people outsourcing jobs and less towards the people just doing their jobs and making a living? To sort of answer the topic question, I don't feel awkward with bastardised English, although I might sometimes I have difficulties understanding it (although that did apply to this French girl I tested my French on too). I've worked in several stores in immigrant-heavy areas in Oslo where people stutter away with very basic Norwegian, often with grammar which is completely off. They all try though, and I try to speak extra clearly and (if they speak English but aren't English) use some obvious Norwegian words where appropriate (holding up a bag and asking if they want one in Norwegian). Trying to learn other languages than English has made me a lot more aware of just how difficult it is, and I have tons of respect for people who keep using the language even though they're not great at it yet. Edited by mrhenrik on 24 July 2010 at 6:01pm 15 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kary Groupie Canada Joined 6150 days ago 85 posts - 113 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Spanish, German | Message 6 of 83 24 July 2010 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | ||
Absolutely no, except when it is consistently poor English used by a native speaker. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dagojr Groupie United States Joined 5590 days ago 56 posts - 131 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 83 24 July 2010 at 6:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Consider two situations.
1) Millions, perhaps billions of people want to speak your language. In many situations, your language will be accommodated on some level, and will often be preferred, even in a foreign country. It's considered the language of choice for almost every discipline. 2) Nobody wants to learn your language. Any attempts to use your language are met with disdain by other speakers. You have difficulty finding resources and services in your language. As English speakers, let's be honest, we have it very lucky. We're obviously in the first scenario (which is in my opinion better than the second), and one of the side effects is that we have to deal with broken or bad English frequently, since so many people want to (or at least try to) speak it. In a sense, complaining about bad English sounds a little bit like complaining about how lucky you are. Edited by dagojr on 24 July 2010 at 6:24pm 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5586 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 8 of 83 24 July 2010 at 6:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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I really try to help people when they struggle, I never look impatient or annoyed when they speak.
If I had to speak their language, I probably couldn't. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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