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Ever busted a non-native speaker? | ||
Tags: Error | Advanced Level | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6620 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes  Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 17 of 34 04 September 2012 at 8:23am | IP Logged | |||||
Maybe he did mean 'propositions.' I've been propositioned by foreigners and busted them right away ;)
Since his mother was Thai, it is natural that her English would be a bit odd. But his father could also speak a slightly odd form of English since Hawaiian English is a bit different having been influenced by many other languages and also a sort of pidgen English. Pidgen English might give an even stronger influence than a completely different language since it's "almost English." In my own case with Norwegian, I know my accent isn't usually perfect, but if I'm very relaxed it is good enough to fool people into thinking I'm from another town in the area, just not the one we're in. My version of Norwegian is a sort of almost-trøndersk, so people sometimes think I'm from another area of Trøndelag. However, if I get nervous a foreign accent shows up and I stumble over words which makes my foreignness obvious. They don't usually know which country though. If my accent were consistently perfect, I think the thing that would bust me is the genders. I almost always get the genders of words correct, but when I refer back to something in an earlier sentence, the gender doesn't always match. For some reason, my subconscious has it's own rules about gender and uses the masculine for referring back to things that are tangible and the neuter for referring back to things that are intangible. I'm trying to work on this problem, but my subconscious is very stubborn. On the other hand, people often think I'm foreign when I speak English too. My accent, word choice, syntax, and the occasional misuse of words that sound the same in both languages, but mean something else, all give this impression. For example, I was talking once about having pigs on the tires. 'Pigg(er)' in Norwegian are those little spiky things that stick out of tires for extra grip on the snow. (See, I don't even know what they're called in English.) I think I might have said 'deck' instead of 'tire' as well. (Around here a lot of people have pigs on the decks.) I also get very mixed up when talking about economics because I learned it in Norway and am not very familiar with the English words and how to use them correctly. Edited by Brun Ugle on 04 September 2012 at 8:40am 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4859 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 18 of 34 04 September 2012 at 9:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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It would be hard to be mistaken with Polish - as for now, I've always been recognizing people by accents (mostly Ukrainian/Belorussian since their Polish is generally the best amongst Non-Poles)
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| Deklane Newbie United States Joined 4585 days ago 1 posts - 3 votes Speaks: German | Message 19 of 34 04 September 2012 at 11:07am | IP Logged | |||||
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I know a fellow whose father was an American soldier stationed in Germany and his mother was a German native. He went to an American school on the base and spent a great deal of time in America with his father, but in recent years has shifted more to his German side. His down-home midwestern American accent is just about perfect. In talking to him, you'd never be aware of anything unusual that would suggest he wasn't American... until you noticed him groping now and then for a common word that he would have known without thinking if he had grown up in the US full time. He has a native accent but not a complete vocabulary. His writing of English, though, is definitely non-native: he never knows where to put commas in setting off dependent clauses (a problem that often gives away even the best German writers of English).
I also know a Dutch woman who has some complicated family background that left her with a nearly perfect American accent, and her slangy, colloquial writing style sounds native as well. The one time I heard her slip up was when she referred to the seats in a car as "chairs." 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4873 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish | Message 20 of 34 04 September 2012 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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@Brun Ugle: Du må huske at "økonomi" er litt forskjellig fra engelske "economics".
I did the opposite once, I asked a girl if she was foreign when she in reality was just speaking in a southern Norwegian dialect, and they sound a bit Danish-like at times... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6620 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 21 of 34 04 September 2012 at 2:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
Actually, I think I did write what I meant. I didn't mean talking about "the economy," but more about principles and practices in a general way. Although, I suppose I might occasionally talk about the economy. Actually, now I'm beginning to wonder what I did mean.... Anyway, if I got it wrong, it just proves my point that you can be a native speaker and still not get things right, especially if you're influenced by another language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Oleg Triglot Groupie Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5829 days ago 57 posts - 95 votes Speaks: Russian*, Polish, English Studies: Spanish, French, Italian | Message 22 of 34 04 September 2012 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
There are two kinds of non-native speakers of Russian, the first one are people from the former Soviet Republics, they speak with the respective accent of their country's first language, but that accent is the only thing that gives them away. Apart from that, their Russian is indistinguishable from that of a person for whom Russian is the first and only language. The second kind is the rest, and honestly I've never ever come across a single person who'd speak Russian in a way that would leave me spellbound, although I don't expect much. Most of the polyglots who put videos on youtube of them speaking different languages and include Russian in those, sound funny if not miserable. =) Those who sound great turn out to be of Russian origin. Like Regina Spektor, for instance (not a polyglot, but her videos are definitely worth watching =). 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4671 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes Speaks: English* | Message 23 of 34 05 September 2012 at 2:22am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks Oleg! By the way, are there any former soviet republics where the people have no recognizable Russian
accent? I was thinking maybe Belarus or Ukraine...? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| stifa Triglot Senior Member Norway lang-8.com/448715 Joined 4873 days ago 629 posts - 813 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, EnglishC2, German Studies: Japanese, Spanish | Message 24 of 34 05 September 2012 at 10:29am | IP Logged | |||||
I was just pointing out that økonomi and economics are two different things. The English term "economics" is more similar to the Nrowegian "samfunnsøkonomi". But we digress. Edited by stifa on 05 September 2012 at 10:31am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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