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Friendliness of the natives

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
32 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4 
Lindsay19
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United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: English*, GermanC1
Studies: Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic

 
 Message 25 of 32
25 May 2009 at 5:42am | IP Logged 
GoingGoingGone wrote:


I don't understand this. When I hear someone speak English with a foreign accent, even incorrectly, I am flattered that they wanted to learn my language and that they respect it enough to try. I am never offended.

.


Although I've never encountered it personally, I've been just as perplexed when I read about this sort of thing. Offense is the last thing on my mind when speaking with a foreigner. I highly respect anyone learning English, and will do my best to speak cleary and guide them through the conversation and provide corrections if they ask for them. I honestly can't comprehend why anyone would find reason to be hostile.
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Rout
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Senior Member
United States
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish
Studies: Hindi

 
 Message 26 of 32
25 May 2009 at 5:51am | IP Logged 
Lindsay19 wrote:
GoingGoingGone wrote:


I don't understand this. When I hear someone speak English with a foreign accent, even incorrectly, I am flattered that they wanted to learn my language and that they respect it enough to try. I am never offended.

.


Although I've never encountered it personally, I've been just as perplexed when I read about this sort of thing. Offense is the last thing on my mind when speaking with a foreigner. I highly respect anyone learning English, and will do my best to speak cleary and guide them through the conversation and provide corrections if they ask for them. I honestly can't comprehend why anyone would find reason to be hostile.


I completely agree. Reading some of the other posts about Spanish learning on this forum I am convinced it's in large part due to the immigration issue. Someone may associate any kind of foreign accent with that of a Mexican immigrant and will have little patience; unfortunately his fate has already been sealed.

Edited by Rout on 25 May 2009 at 6:00am
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Halie
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United States
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Speaks: English*, French

 
 Message 27 of 32
28 May 2009 at 6:48am | IP Logged 
People are generally patient with me when I try to speak French, even in Paris. The only person I've known who was very impatient with me was Lebanese, but she got used to it after a while.

Edited by Halie on 28 May 2009 at 6:49am
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Ashiro
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United Kingdom
learnxlanguage.com/
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Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 28 of 32
28 May 2009 at 1:09pm | IP Logged 
My memory of a trip to Spain was almost ruined by my first experience of trying Spanish at Girona airport. It was met with a VERY frosty reception.

However, in Barcelona at bars, restaurants, etc they were friendlier and patient.

When I went to the pharmacy for aspirin I thought the guy was going to propose to me. He was so pleased to help me and desperate to practice English too. It was great.
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WANNABEAFREAK
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Senior Member
Hong Kong
cantonese.hk
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1 sounds
Speaks: English*, Cantonese
Studies: French

 
 Message 29 of 32
29 May 2009 at 8:14pm | IP Logged 
In Hong Kong, people will talk back in broken English and look at you as if you are amusing them.

Doesn't matter how fluently you speak or how advanced your vocabulary is, if you don't speak with a near-native accent, people will speak back in English stating how they appreciate your efforts to learn and practice Cantonese, and say in English that its more useful to learn Mandarin.


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cojoda
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United States
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Portuguese, German

 
 Message 30 of 32
30 May 2009 at 7:59am | IP Logged 
WANNABEAFREAK wrote:
In Hong Kong, people will talk back in broken English and look at you as if you are amusing them.

Doesn't matter how fluently you speak or how advanced your vocabulary is, if you don't speak with a near-native accent, people will speak back in English stating how they appreciate your efforts to learn and practice Cantonese, and say in English that its more useful to learn Mandarin.


I know how to fix that! Learn a 3rd language that they aren't likely to know (like Swedish, German, or any other language you are interested). Reply back in that 3rd language acting as if you don't even speak English. Then they would just revert back to the language you are trying to learn (in this case Cantonese). Well, it might not be honest, but at least it's a good excuse to learn another language!
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Rout
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5714 days ago
326 posts - 417 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish
Studies: Hindi

 
 Message 31 of 32
31 May 2009 at 7:54pm | IP Logged 
cojoda wrote:
WANNABEAFREAK wrote:
In Hong Kong, people will talk back in broken English and look at you as if you are amusing them.

Doesn't matter how fluently you speak or how advanced your vocabulary is, if you don't speak with a near-native accent, people will speak back in English stating how they appreciate your efforts to learn and practice Cantonese, and say in English that its more useful to learn Mandarin.


I know how to fix that! Learn a 3rd language that they aren't likely to know (like Swedish, German, or any other language you are interested). Reply back in that 3rd language acting as if you don't even speak English. Then they would just revert back to the language you are trying to learn (in this case Cantonese). Well, it might not be honest, but at least it's a good excuse to learn another language!



I like that idea!
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LanguageSponge
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Senior Member
United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*, German, French
Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian

 
 Message 32 of 32
31 May 2009 at 8:16pm | IP Logged 
My experiences with the natives of countries I've visited have been pretty good.

I've been on holiday to France quite a lot, specifically to Normandy, mainly, to learn about the French side of the second world war and the Normandy landings. Although my French is not outstanding, the locals seemed impressed that I was making the effort. They even offered to tell me what my mistakes were - in a friendly way, and not in the mocking tone I'm sure a lot of people have experienced.

The first time I went to Germany, to Berlin, I spoke a lot of English because I was far too shy to speak in broken and quite honestly rubbish German. On all other visits since then I've not spoken a word of English to the natives, and they've been really great with me. However, on those later occasions I went with some friends who had not been doing German for as long as I had, who tried very hard to speak German. My friend tried to ask someone for directions to somewhere, can't remember where to now, and the woman just answered in English. This clearly annoyed my friend, so I asked the woman to say the rest of the directions in German to help my friend. Probably not the politest way we could have done it, but it got the job done.

I've been on holiday to the Greek islands a few times - to Kefalonia/Cephalonia. I don't speak particularly good Greek, but despite this everyone with whom I spoke was pretty shocked I was even trying, so I got a lot out of that experience, too.

Edited by LanguageSponge on 31 May 2009 at 8:17pm


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