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Popular misconceptions about languages? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5924 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 41 of 100 04 December 2009 at 9:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Edited by mick33 on 04 December 2009 at 9:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Envinyatar Diglot Senior Member Guatemala Joined 5536 days ago 147 posts - 240 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 42 of 100 04 December 2009 at 10:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Many people (specially in USA) think all Latin Americans speak the Mexican dialect. It's very common to watch in Hollywood movies supposed "Colombian drug dealers" saying stuff like "Qué húbole güey, no mames".
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| pookiebear79 Groupie United States Joined 6030 days ago 76 posts - 142 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Swedish, Italian | Message 43 of 100 05 December 2009 at 12:07am | IP Logged | |||||
This is just a guess, but it came across to me that Woodpecker perhaps meant those areas to be considered as "standard" for AMERICAN English, not the whole English speaking world. At least I hope I'm right about that, because English is spoken natively in several countries, and there is not any one standard for the entire native English speaking world from ANY country (much as some people would like to think.) If indeed that's the case, the unfortunate omission of the word 'American' before English is still no cause for such an aggressive response. And as for assuming Woodpecker mentioned those accents so it must be his/her own accent, I think it should be pointed out that the three regions Woodpecker mentioned are three geographically distinct regions (west coast, middle, and east of the country,) and thus do not form a single "dialect," so if Woodpecker manages to speak some nonexistent single dialect from three geographically distant parts of the country, that is an amazing feat indeed. I had more written that was even on the original topic, unlike the road this thread is going down now, but since I prefer to take a breath and reread before I post, I realized it's pointless. This forum allows any sort of anti american comments (I'm not saying this thread has quite got there YET, but it's on the way...for examples see any thread with page after page of English being an evil linguistic imperialist, all Americans being portrayed as stupid/the bad guy/whatever because of US foreign policy, exports that are supposedly "killing" off people's "real" culture with "lowest common denominator garbage" (I notice nobody seems able to make the distinction between all of that stuff, much of these statements I may actually agree with the core argument if not for the rampant xenophobia, and the actual *people*, who merely happened to be born in one country or another and don't deserve to come on the forum and see almost everywhere disparaging remarks about how they talk, (yes, all you armchair "experts" on AMEnglish, despite what Wikipedia or whomever says, I DO say 'cot' differently from 'caught,' thank you,) the country being devoid of culture, the implication that they're all warmongers while everyone else is apparently from a country that's a paragon of virtue, etc. etc. It is allowed completely unchecked, while the slightest comment or perceived attack on anybody else, and threads get locked so fast your head will spin. But bashing Americans (not the government, not the foreign policy, but the people, their language, and the "lowest common denominator anti culture"? Apparently just fine. Don't believe me? There's page after page of it all over the forum. But I give up. Since at least 75 percent of the time it's the same couple/few people doing it, and they're allowed to continue (sometimes even with personal attacks,) I have to conclude that they enjoy some carte blanche to spew whatever they want unchecked, and that's that. Maybe I'm just "silly" to think that people should have the right to be treated as individuals and that people of all nationalities on this forum should be able to come here and not find their country, language, culture etc. constantly ridiculed (especially if it's the foreign policy or government people have the issue with...then kindly stop taking it out on people who don't have any real control over that crap!) Regrettably, this turned into a long rant even after I deleted what I'd originally written out of frustration. But since my point of view is probably going to be dismissed anyway, kindly disregard what I just wrote and continue with 'business as usual.' My apologies to the OP for the off topic rant, even though the OT drift was started long before I posted. 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5909 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 44 of 100 05 December 2009 at 12:47am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm really sorry that you and others feel like your culture is being attacked here. I'm probably not the right person to even comment, because I don't harbour negative feelings about English at all and I'm not anti-American (and if I've said anything that made you feel otherwise then I assure you I didn't mean it that way, and I'd appreciate if you could point out what I've said so I can know that my way of formulating myself has caused misunderstanding so I can avoid doing the same thing in the future - although I don't remember saying anything at all that could be misunderstood), but can I just suggest that maybe, in some cases at least, it's not any aspect of culture people object to, but the situation that often arises where any native English speaker automatically has a linguistic advantage over a non-native speaker in situations where English is used as the standard means for international communication.
Of course it's unfortunate if people are not on equal terms in what is otherwise a conversation among equals, solely because of language issues. It does happen. But this is purely a language problem and has nothing to do with culture, I've seen it myself while talking to people who are less fluent in English and who struggle with it. It's not always easy being that person (I've been there myself). The way I see it, the solution is more intercultural communication, so that everyone that wishes to develop their language skills (in English or any other language they use to communicate in an international context) has more chances to learn to express themselves fully. I've also seen this side of things - people who struggle with English who work at it and develop high levels of fluency, and I think that's a great thing. Really I'm just posting this to present the other side of the story - personally I think the prevalence of English is great, what it's brought to my life is beyond what I can measure or even fully appreciate. Please, please know that not everyone has objections relating to your culture, or even the somewhat dominant role of your language. The people who do may be vocal about their feelings, but they do not speak for everyone, not even close. Edited by Lizzern on 05 December 2009 at 12:49am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5521 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 45 of 100 05 December 2009 at 1:09am | IP Logged | |||||
Since you quoted me liberally, I just wanted to mention for the record that I have never claimed, nor has anyone else as far as I have read, that everything about, or everyone from, America is bad or evil. What I called anti-culture is just a part of the American experience. There is excellent music being produced in America everyday, but that doesn't stop Britney Spears's "music" from being garbage. (And some of her producers are actually Swedish.) And it is Britney and her colleagues that are conquering the world. Similarly, not all American books are written by Sidney Sheldon. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Envinyatar Diglot Senior Member Guatemala Joined 5536 days ago 147 posts - 240 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 46 of 100 05 December 2009 at 2:54am | IP Logged | |||||
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As far as I've read these forums there's only one specific poster who is very vocal about her antiamericanism and hatred about English language in general. I want to think the rest have nothing against your country or your language. Me, of course, have nothing against USA.
And this thread is starting to go off-topic so let's keep talking about misconceptions or moderators will close it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 47 of 100 05 December 2009 at 5:21am | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, let's try to keep the thread on topic. Thanks.
If anyone has any issues regarding forum moderation or particular members, then I sincerely recommend sending a PM to the administrator with your concerns. He reads them and will often discuss the issues with the moderators so we can try to work out a solution. Edited by newyorkeric on 05 December 2009 at 5:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5469 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 48 of 100 26 December 2009 at 2:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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One misconception I often get from non-Belgian French speakers is that we say 'octante' instead of 'quatre-vingts'.
While this is certainly true for 'septante' (70) and 'nonante' (90), 'quatre-vingts' however is the same as in Standard French. One Parisien even tried to correct ME who's lived in Belgium for 13 years by constantly saying that 'octante' was the Belgian form. ~_~ Also, very few Brits seem to realize that Flemish and Dutch are officially the same language. Other common mistakes I find are people not knowing the difference between an accent, a 'between-language' (don't know an English translation for the Dutch word 'tussentaal', basically a form of the standard language heavily influenced by dialect) and a dialect/language: -I often hear Scots saying that they speak with a Scottish accent whereas they infact speak quite dialectal (saying things such as 'I widnae hae thocht tha' or 'Dinna fash yersel') and close to purer Scots. -Flemings oven incorrectly call 'between-language' dialect. The Flemish tussentaal is a neither officially not a language, but neither is it a dialect (it emerged over the past 100 years as a mix of Flemish dialects, influenced by French and standard Dutch). Edited by elvisrules on 26 December 2009 at 2:14am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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