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Getting people not to speak English | ||
Tags: Language Banditry | Convincing native speakers | Immersion | Swedish | Learning Technique/Method | Accent | English | German | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7105 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 89 of 169 16 January 2007 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
You are right... but I think the major problem for native speakers of English is that their foreign accent can be easily recognisable as an English accent rather than just a foreign accent. I consider German as one of my better languages, maybe at the same level as Spanish but since I am Dutch, Germans will not switch to English very quickly and if they do I just apologise and say that my German (although not perfect) is better than my English although in most cases it is also better than their English :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 90 of 169 17 January 2007 at 3:56am | IP Logged | |||||
I always wonder which nationalities can spot English accents more easily. When I visited Brussels, they could tell I wasn't a native francophone, but I was sometimes asked whether I spoke English or German. To Japanese, I suspect the various European accents quite alike. It's easy to fake not knowing English if you get accosted by a Jehovah's Witness or something. Edited by Captain Haddock on 17 January 2007 at 3:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| LorenzoGuapo Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6444 days ago 79 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: French | Message 91 of 169 30 April 2007 at 12:39am | IP Logged | |||||
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Instead of offering another languge that you speak, you can just act as if you don't understand the English, until they will speak to you in that target languge...however this is only recomendable if you are intermediate to advanced because if you are a new to the languge the person should just speak English to you anyway to facilitate things.
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| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7105 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 92 of 169 30 April 2007 at 2:18am | IP Logged | |||||
Okay but take in mind that locals will not easily switch back to their own language again as soon as they have helped you out of the word our sentence you haven't understood. If you play the trick that you don't speak any English they probably will describe the word you didn't understand in another way but still in their local language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| berlinhammer Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6565 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC1, French Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 93 of 169 13 August 2007 at 7:14am | IP Logged | |||||
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As an englishman i have this problem all of the time, and having native english is a double edged sword for me. there are undoubted benefits: i come from a country with a developed economy, strong currency, good benefits and speaking english by birthright is great for your CV. as a learner of other languages though i have found it to be a major impediment at times, on erasmus years and periods abroad i have envied friends of other nationalities who can claim to not understand english when confronted with this situation, with my accent though, no matter how slight, i always get spoken back to in english. it is worse in some countries than others. my two fluent languages are french and German. in Germany i rarely had the problem, even when my German was more basic at the beginning. french however... if i had a pound for every time i managed to complete a conversation of more than two or three sentences without being spoken back to in english, i wouldn't be a very rich man. and that is often without even making a mistake or hesitating for a moment. it drove and does drive me crazy. they may not mean to be insulting in doing so, but if someone addresses me in english first then i'll reply in english, even if they are struggling, i find it the height of rudeness when people just presume you don't mind or need to talk in english if you have started the conversation in the other language. it has a detrimental effect on your confidence and definitely slowed down my french learning.
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| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7105 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 94 of 169 13 August 2007 at 2:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Berlinhammer, if someone addresses you in English and his English is really bad, why don't you insist in speaking French to him. My French is a little bit weaker then my English but when a Frenchmen's English is very bad, French will be best the way to communicate. Not so long ago I said to such a Frenchmen: Monsieur, je ne dis pas que mon francais soit parfait mais c'est toujours meilleur que votre anglais, je ne veux pas vous offendre mais en francais on se comprend mieux.. (Sir I won't say that my French is perfect but it is better than your English anyway, I don't want to offend you but in French we will understand eachother better)... I think you can say the same thing in some situations, for instance when you want to buy something in a shop. Just tell them that you will go somewhere else if they won't speak French to you. It sounds rude but sometimes it will help.
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 95 of 169 13 August 2007 at 8:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If it happens my reaction would normally be just to continue speaking the language of the country. If I was pressed to comment, for instance because the person in question was just as stubborn as me, I would probably say something like "M'sieur ceci c'est la France, et ici on parle Français". It is marginally less rude and might appeal to their pride in their own language.
The last case I recall was not in France, but in Sweden, where I spoke Danish to the Swedes. Not all understand Danish, and then they normally switch to English. This time I thought I would 'punish' an offender by speaking Swedish which I patently can't - but it backfired: she happily switched back to Swedish as a response to my improvised half-Swedish babbling. Then I concluded that Swedish might be even easier to learn than I thought, and in the meantime I might just continue to murder their language since they apparently preferred that to impeccable Danish. Edited by Iversen on 13 August 2007 at 8:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| mjh Newbie United States Joined 6280 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Studies: German | Message 96 of 169 16 September 2007 at 12:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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The administrator said
"Of course you should try every time and most people will accept to speak their native language so that you can practice it, but if they don't want to, I now understand it's better to humor them." I cannot possibly disagree any more strongly. If you humor unhelpful people, who would be willing to help you practice? No one will be nice to you if you do not reward the people who are nice to you. The "most people will accept..." will become totally invalid. Certainly, it's appropriate to reward people who help you learn a language. You may take him/her out to lunch while you practice, for example. If someone takes the wrong attitude, and you live with him/her or must deal with him/her all the time, wait for a chance to deny him/her a favor, such as helping him/her move, turning on his/her alarm clock if he/she forgets to so, etc. No one has suggested leaving the conversation. That is the best option when possible. It can be done politely also. Just say you forgot an important phone call, you must catch a train, etc. I know some of my suggestions sound harsh, but they are perfectly fair. No coercion or violence is suggested. One has the right not to help me, but I also have the right to find the help. I am not obligated to help someone move, since I did not force him/her into the position of needing to move. I am considering studying in Germany next year. I have developed these ideas by reading different forums about this issue. I will always be polite at first, but be strong when I must. Edited by mjh on 16 September 2007 at 10:57am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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