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Disliking English | ||
Tags: "Louche" Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| TehGarnt Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 4852 days ago 33 posts - 63 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish | Message 17 of 73 07 November 2013 at 6:07pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Well yes. The English are annoying, lets face it. The last thing we need is another reason to feel culturally superior. Changing the subject, I'd say the disadvantage of having English as a first language is that you have less motivation to learn a second language, should you be into that kind of thing. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Halfdan Newbie Canada Joined 4184 days ago 13 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Danish, Mandarin, French | Message 18 of 73 07 November 2013 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
And I find that, because of that, less emphasis is put on foreign languages in the education system. Which is quite unfortunate. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| aspiringplyglot Triglot Groupie United Kingdom aspiringpolyglot.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4577 days ago 40 posts - 62 votes Speaks: English*, GermanB2, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Esperanto, Polish, Scottish Gaelic, French | Message 19 of 73 07 November 2013 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Agree 100%! Maybe the goalposts of language learning in the education system should be changed. We seem to always want 'fluency' or 'proficient speakers' which seems to occur less than 5% of the time... Let's just try to get the kids to be able to understand a basic newspaper article FIRST... then we can worry about improving after that... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4703 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 20 of 73 07 November 2013 at 6:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I don't really care if English is "special" or not. The enormous concrete advantages of speaking English as a first
language, to me, outweigh any other wishful might-have-beens. Plus, it's not the tool that's important, it's how you use it. I guess I don't see not being able to surprise someone with an English expression as being that disappointing, because there are so many other topics I could engage them in conversation about. We might have even more to talk about if we already share a favorite TV show. I do sympathize with the OP, but I don't really feel like I'm missing out. Edited by Hekje on 07 November 2013 at 6:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4290 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 21 of 73 07 November 2013 at 9:00pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I am annoyed with having English as a native language because ironically despite having
less problems finding people to speak English if necessary in other countries, it means learning foreign languages to a much higher level in some cases compared to native speakers of other languages to avoid "the switch" to English on the part of various non-native speakers in other countries. Any native Anglophone has more chances of being given "the switch" into English if their French is not high enough in Québec, Dutch not high a level enough in the Netherlands or Vlaanderen in Belgium, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, or Finnish not high enough in Scandinavia; in other cases, Italian not high enough in Italy, French not high enough in France, etc. Meanwhile a Portuguese native speaker or Romanian native speaker who might not have a high level of English can go to these countries and probably practise the language of the country without the people opting for a switch into English. If the English is worse than the language they try to speak, then the switch would lead to more communication problems. Thus, they are basically forced to communicate with the foreign speaker in Norwegian, French, Dutch, etc. As an English native-speaker, I do not have this available. In some cases, I have even pretended that I cannot speak English, or that English is not my native language and at a low level so that I can practise my languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Jamopy Newbie EnglandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4580 days ago 26 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish | Message 22 of 73 07 November 2013 at 9:02pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
If you have a problem with the English, stop speaking our language (and yes i know there's a good chance you're one of those self-hating Englishmen, i'm just making a point). For me having English as my native language has been fantastic. I know that almost wherever i go in the world i will be able to make myself understood if i need to. I also have a lot of shared references wherever i go to the the influence of both the British Empire and the American entertainment industry. Whether it has been completely healthy for the recipient's culture is of course debatable, but there's no denying it's useful for those of us who do speak English. Also it means that if i do choose to study a foreign language it's because i actually want to, not because i'm forced to do it for career or travel purposes. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Papashaw Newbie Australia Joined 4103 days ago 28 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 23 of 73 07 November 2013 at 9:20pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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We may become the minority, if the language more non-native speakers gains.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tanya b Senior Member United States Joined 4778 days ago 159 posts - 518 votes Speaks: Russian | Message 24 of 73 07 November 2013 at 10:37pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Yeah English is the big juggernaut and maybe some people don't like it--but it can incorporate a Hindi word like "juggernaut" into its lexicon and still get away with it.
No one can repay English for giving the world vital words like "nerd", "geek", "dork" or "dweeb", and English (unlike Armenian, for example) has no committee trying to squash the use of such words in the media in favor of more accepted words. I can appreciate English for its accent variety--from the hilarious Cockney to the smooth Jamaican--and its adaptability, the fact that it's always churning out new words like "whackjob" and "twitterfeed" that were unknown until recently. I know that if "TV English" becomes the only language in a future monoglot world, which may actually happen, it will no longer seem "special", but for the time being it still has a lot to offer both learners and native speakers. Edited by tanya b on 07 November 2013 at 10:40pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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