Broken English, is it offensive to you? (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Broken English, is it offensive to you?
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages

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newyorkeric
Diglot
Moderator
Singapore
Joined 6380 days ago
1598 posts - 2174 votes

Speaks: English*, Italian
Studies: Mandarin, Malay
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Message 41 of 83

26 July 2010 at 4:57am | IP Logged

I think Slovak anglo was being sarcastic otherwise I will be very upset learning that I lost the geographic lottery...
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johntm93
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5328 days ago
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2 sounds
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

Message 42 of 83

26 July 2010 at 5:12am | IP Logged

Slovak_anglo wrote:

Sometimes it annoys me.

The thing that bugs me is that every language we are learning is MUCH more complex than our language.

(hence why we get annoyed when people are messing up a much easier language)

I'm a native speaker, and I'd say most languages are easier than English (grammatically, but all of the movies/music/books/etc. in English help negate that because they provide plenty of materials in which to immerse yourself)
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Rina
Newbie
United States
Joined 5545 days ago
35 posts - 64 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Mandarin, Korean

Message 43 of 83

26 July 2010 at 5:31am | IP Logged

I only get annoyed if the person is arrogant about "being able to speak English" or if the person just doesn't try when they're in a position where they should try.

But otherwise, it doesn't bother me a bit. My boyfriend is Korean, so he speaks broken English. He forgets articles or prepositions, and sometimes his accent is just really thick. But he studies really hard (harder than a lot of people I know), and knows he makes mistakes. Sometimes people are rude to him because of his English or make fun of him, and that just gets me angrier than you can imagine. Ohhhhh that gets me angry.

So I both agree with you and disagree with you. It all depends on the situation. I actually love broken English from foreigners. Just not if they're arrogant about it or don't try at all.
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michaelmichael
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5258 days ago
167 posts - 202 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: French

Message 44 of 83

26 July 2010 at 5:45am | IP Logged

WANNABEAFREAK wrote:

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.

Well from a language learners perspective, you learn faster if you're willing to make mistakes. Fear of looking like an idiot, and being a perfectionist will hold you back. Now I understand how you might be annoyed that some might settle on broken English, and not make further efforts to reach a higher level, but having an intermediate grammar is a necessary part of learning. First language acquisition is like this to, there is something called the telegraphic stage, etc...

It is not too surprising that you feel this way. Hehe, look at the motto of this site. If you can't spell it, don't write it. (though ironically the basic guide on this site, as amazing as it is in content, has a lot of spelling mistakes, just saying ).
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ashleyr
Newbie
United States
Joined 5241 days ago
18 posts - 22 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Korean

Message 45 of 83

31 July 2010 at 10:34pm | IP Logged

No. I absolutely don't feel like this. If anything, I tend to be really understanding
when I talk to non-native English speakers who are still struggling with the language. I
know how hard it is to learn a language.
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hanni
aka cordelia0507
Groupie
United Kingdom
Joined 5605 days ago
69 posts - 92 votes

Speaks: Dutch*

Message 46 of 83

31 July 2010 at 11:11pm | IP Logged

I didn't ask to have to speak English as a foreign language. If anyone finds my accent offensive they can go___________. Alternatively, they can learn Dutch.

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johntm93
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5328 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

Message 47 of 83

01 August 2010 at 1:30am | IP Logged

hanni wrote:

I didn't ask to have to speak English as a foreign language. If anyone finds my accent offensive they can go___________. Alternatively, they can learn Dutch.

I plan on doing just that (the learning Dutch part, not the first part). I think you may be misunderstanding the question too; the question was about broken English (something like you'd find here). I (and I imagine most others here) have no problem with foreign accents (considering we would have just that in our second language).

Edited by johntm93 on 01 August 2010 at 1:31am
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ALS
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5805 days ago
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Norwegian, Finnish, Russian

Message 48 of 83

01 August 2010 at 1:51am | IP Logged

I'm not offended by broken English as such. If the person is unwilling to fix their mistakes, or they're in a position that they have no excuse to not speak good English, then I'd be offended. An example of this is customer service; usually the accents aren't so thick that I can't understand them but I've spoken to CS people whose English was awful. I ended up repeatedly trying to request they transfer me to someone else until they finally came to that conclusion on their own because they couldn't understand me.

Accents never bother me unless they're so ridiculously thick and sloppy, with NO effort being put towards proper pronunciation, that I can't understand them. But I also find foreign accents very attractive and usually delightful to listen to (which I think is quite common, funny then that language learners tend to freak out so much about not having an accent in their L2). Very rarely do I hear one that bothers me. But again, offends? No, unless the person is not understandable and is unwilling to work on it.

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