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Broken English, is it offensive to you? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| skeeterses Senior Member United States angelfire.com/games5Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6619 days ago 302 posts - 356 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Spanish | Message 9 of 83 24 July 2010 at 7:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Broken English is tolerable to a certain extent when there's no common language in the room that everybody speaks.
But, what is offensive is when people with broken English mock and ridicule native English speakers who go out of their way to learn a foreign language. I don't waste my time dealing with those kinds of wiseguys. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dolly Senior Member United States Joined 5791 days ago 191 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 10 of 83 24 July 2010 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | ||
The Indian dialect has every right to exist. It isn't any more "right" or "wrong" than any American or British dialect. But it won't work on the telephone if it's not the dialect of your customer base. Speaking an L2 is difficult and awkward and it can be embarrassing. Every kindness should be shown to someone who is trying to learn your language. But that is not the issue of my post. The issue is customers of one country who are forced to do business with call representatives who speak the dialect of another country. If there is a billing issue or a technical problem, the customer and the rep have to be able to understand each other. It's absolutely essential. This problem will not be fixed by sermons on kindness and cultural understanding and by making claims of "Personally, I'm nice to everyone". That's irrelevant. Mrhenrik, I do understand that Indian call reps are trying to make a living. What a pity that these jobs are being outsourced to the Phillipines. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 11 of 83 24 July 2010 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | ||
Do you meet those kinds of wise guys often? Edited by tractor on 24 July 2010 at 9:26pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5482 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 12 of 83 24 July 2010 at 7:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am usually very patient with those who cannot speak English very well, however I don't like when people insist on
speaking with me in their awful English, because apparently it's easier for me than speaking in German (which, by the way, it's very easy for me to speak in German). I think that the whole statement, that the people who speak bad English may just not have been good at languages, is really not a good defense. Anyone can learn a language, and anyone can make an effort to improve it. The only reason no one makes an effort to improve their English is because they know that they can speak it like crap, and anyone will be polite enough to tolerate them. I don't really care much for accent or pace of speaking, I just get annoyed with incorrect vocabulary usage, and grammatical mistakes, which really shouldn't be occuring in a grammatically simple language such as English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5248 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 13 of 83 24 July 2010 at 7:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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To resent people or their speaking because it is somehow lesser than your standards is somewhat ignorant IMO. Learning a language is difficult, and communication is a personal right and privilege. Better to admire people doing the best they can than to resent them.
2 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 14 of 83 24 July 2010 at 8:26pm | IP Logged | ||
I perfectly understand the issue, but from your first post it sounds like you hate the dialect in itself, which is a bit unfair. As I said, these people are doing their job. I'd rather call someone higher up in the system and yell at them for outsourcing things. I'm not a fan of outsourcing either, and it must be incredibly annoying to have to talk to people speaking a dialect you have trouble understanding - especially when you'd probably be a bit pissed off when calling them in the first place. I just think it's very important to emphasise that it's nothing wrong with the dialect or the people, but with the general idea of having people from two corners of the world try to sort out a very technical problem when they speak with vastly different dialects. Edited by mrhenrik on 24 July 2010 at 8:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 15 of 83 24 July 2010 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | ||
Oh, you poor English speakers, having to live in a world where so many people make mistakes when speaking your native language. I can't imagine how hard it must be. 13 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| GREGORG4000 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5524 days ago 307 posts - 479 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French | Message 16 of 83 24 July 2010 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just want to send out an apology on the behalf of all native English speakers for articles, irregular verbs, the "th" sound and unpredictable word stress and spelling. Edited by GREGORG4000 on 24 July 2010 at 9:58pm 6 persons have voted this message useful |
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