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Ungrateful Natives | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6031 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes  5 sounds | Message 113 of 139 04 April 2010 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
Maybe in an ideal world you would be appreciated. The unfortunate reality is that regardless of how respectful and humble you are there are some people who just want to be rude. But as I said, it's not a question of a certain nationality being rude. It's a fact of life in every country.
And if you have too little respect for your own abilities, then it will look as if you know much less than you actually do. Edited by Sennin on 04 April 2010 at 5:37pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6444 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German | Message 114 of 139 04 April 2010 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Must be telepathy or something. What's with this "grateful" business?
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5835 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 115 of 139 04 April 2010 at 10:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
I am so sorry you had this experience! And embarrassed too! I don't know where you were or what sort of people you ran into but they must have been complete idiots and I'd like to have a talk with every single one of them. Someone ought to take them and dump them right in a remote corner of East Finland where Swedish is not popular... and then force them to to learn Finnish and be laughed at by the Finns. That'd teach them to have an attitude with Finnish people and appreciate the efforts of those in fi who study Swedish. Sorry this happened to you. Btw - the Finnish accent is beautiful, everyone loves it. This is particularly awful since Finnish people are great to me when I visit, and speak Swedish even though it's not their mothertongue. The thought of these rude people makes my blood boil! 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5331 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 116 of 139 30 April 2010 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In my opinion it boils down to expectations.
English and French speaking people expect you to speak their language - so they are less than patient if you do not. People who speak Spanish and Portoguese and Italian are less likly to expect that, and are therefore happy that you make an effort. I am more surprised by Finns and Slovaks being unappreciative. Learning someone's language is a sign of respect - not learning it(after a long time in the country) is a sign of disrespect. I will therefore be extremely appreciative of foreigners who learn Norwegian because they want to, or who have made a big effort while they have been here, but I would be considerably less appreciative of those who have lived here for years but have not bothered to. Generally I have had very positive reactions wherever I am, from people because they do appreciate the effort - and the respect for them - that I show by learning their language. Like many I have had negative experiences in France, when my French was still very poor, and been puzzled to see that I was treated like a member of the family by the exact same people, when I came back 6 months later speaking fluent French. We are all different - and some things the French do come across as very impolite to Norwegians, and some things Norwegians do come across as very impolite to the French. During Easter, I used all (the few :-)Russian word I knew, and everyone encouraged me, and the day I actually managed to put together a full sentence, which was both understandable, original and funny, I literally got a standing ovation, and kisses. I wish that kind of reception for all language learners. :-) 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5921 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 117 of 139 01 May 2010 at 10:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
Edited by mick33 on 01 May 2010 at 10:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5337 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 118 of 139 02 May 2010 at 12:00am | IP Logged | |||||
I agree with Solfrid Cristin's account above. I had exactly the same negative experience in Paris when my French was poorer. Weirdly, I was 'criticised' for being pro-anglo saxon just because my French was weaker while English is more of a native language to me...thank god not every French whom I met are like that...my personal experience is, French outside Paris are way nicer and friendlier than Parisians. I also discovered that, my Russian colleagues are so much more encouraging than the French for example, when a foreigner makes the effort to learn their language. I did my best to squeeze out some Russian sentences that I learnt from Assimil's chapters 1 - 3, and my Russian colleagues were almost like giving me a standing ovation... Another nice folk whom I met are the Swiss Germans. Whenever I tried my best to speak some Swiss German, I find the Swiss will be very happy about and generally would encourage you...a very friendly and polite folk... 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Euphorion Hexaglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5337 days ago 106 posts - 147 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Czech, EnglishC2, GermanC1, SpanishC2, French | Message 119 of 139 06 May 2010 at 10:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In fact you can find ungrateful natives all over the world. I had quite a bad experience with the Spanish but as soon as my Spanish became fluent, Ive never seen other reaction than respect (it is perhaps because they think their language is difficult, which of course is not true :) it is beautiful, sexy, very useful, "lengua para el dialogo" and everything else but difficult). Then Ive had a similar experience with the French, but never with the English or the Americans. I agree with the explanation that they are used to everyone speaking their language more than anyone else.
Coming from a small country in the heart of Europe, I always greatly appreciate to hear a foreigner speak my language (Slovak or Czech) and I always encourage them to go on learning. I feel in that a certain kind of esteem towards us. And learning "small" languages possesses particular charm... Edited by Euphorion on 07 May 2010 at 12:34am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5175 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 120 of 139 27 September 2010 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
me too~~ Often Japanese people say things like "your Japanese is very good" though, but I find Korean and Indonesians (on pen pal websites), much more interested if you study their language. I have tons of Korean friends on pen pal sites, but only few Japanese ones. (I recommend talking to women over 30, there are easier to talk mostly, by my opinion). But many Japanese, don't find it strange for foreigner to learn their language, unfortunately :( You can make some friends, but still, it's probably due to the manga wave, but If you think about it, Koreans have their drama too~~ and korean is pretty popular in Asia too~~. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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