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Ungrateful Natives | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5345 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes  Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 33 of 139 10 February 2010 at 12:27am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, death threats. I can't remember how I reacted to them but I'm glad that I was able to take them well, considering I was just a 16 year old little kid at the time!! I mean, I'm almost 19 now, and I'm still a kid, but I'm light years more mature now than I was as a 16-year-old. A death threat on the internet of all places would just make me scoff, but when you've just started to take an interest in a certain people and they respond by wishing death on you, it's not the best motivator. The thing is, the OP with Sloval and you with both Japanese and Finnish, you both will meet so many new people through your language endeavors, both online and offline. I have just met so many incredible people (not just Finns but also fellow learners or foreigners living in Finland) including someone I would call one of my greatest friends who I met while studiny abroad in Finland. The people who ridicule you are NOT the only people who speak your L2. Chances are there are millions upon millions of speakers, and most of them will be good people. Maybe people are, by nature, evil at heart; I don't know! But to learn a new language is to open a new door in your life and to let in so much more light than that which exists in the suffocating world of a monolingual. The world is your oyster, so make the best of it! The next time someone insults you for learning your L2, just laugh, smile, thank them and continue with your own life, because it's the only one you'll ever have. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6510 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 34 of 139 10 February 2010 at 2:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've never experienced anything but kindness, a keen interest, smiles and a welcome from Hungarians. I saw a random Hungarian man at a booksale recently. He saw me looking at the Hungarian books and actually came up and introduced himself. He was so happy and he even stood there and helped me to find some books (all languages were mixed together in a massive disgusting mess)!
The worst I've ever gotten is a semi-sarcastic "Good Luck! It's a difficult language to learn! I'd almost say impossible!". And I get laughed at too when I make funny mistakes - but usually the translate back what I said, we have a laugh and then they correct it for me! But if I am understandable, they don't say anything and continue with the conversation just as happily! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6495 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 35 of 139 10 February 2010 at 9:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
Don't be too sure about that! There are different ways of pronouncing dead languages like Latin and Ancient Greek, and I have the feeling that the feelings between adherents of the belligerent factions aren't exactly those of love and respect. I recently read a notice in the Neolatin webjournal Ephemeris about an attack on them by an Italian professor, who had written a vitriolic epistle wherein he declared that they debased the sacred tongue of Seneca and Virgilius with their infamous maccharonical and Italianate scribblings. And the Ephemerids on their side were roaring with laughter because they got a lot of new, curious readers after this diatribe. Edited by Iversen on 01 July 2011 at 1:02pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Delodephius Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 5195 days ago 342 posts - 501 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, EnglishC1, Czech Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 36 of 139 10 February 2010 at 9:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, I am very well familiar about the different ways ancient languages can be spoken. I once followed a discussion between two groups on Ancient Greek. One pronounced it how modern Greek is pronounced (this is how they are taught in Greece) and the other pronounced it according to latest reconstructions (the way it is taught mostly elsewhere). They were not very nice to each other. :-) These however are not native speakers so my statement was correct. I however have no intention of sinking so low as to fight over how a language was pronounced 2000 years ago. I'll pronounce it the way I feel the best, with a heavy "barbarian" accent. :-D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5348 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 37 of 139 10 February 2010 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Living in Germany for a little while now, I find the locals are much friendlier towards me when speaking English rather than German. If I'm out shopping for a t-shirt or down the pub with friends, yes I'll try to speak in German and thoroughly enjoy the experience, but if I really want to get my radiator fixed, it's going to happen much more swiftly and cheerfully in English.
I think three good reasons for this are: 1) a lot of Germans speak very good English but are still understandably a little nervous or less confident whilst speaking a non-native language, and therefore politer and more attentive; 2) I'm more at ease because I'm very confident and certainly not shy speaking my own native language, and much more likely to engage in postive rapport and body language; 3) I all too often assume that we language learners are members of a rare secret society, but everyday events often reveal this to be quite the contrary, especially in a multi-cultural melting pot like Europe; we are indeed part of a much larger community where everyday people want to practise their non-native language skills too. Germans are no exception here, and enjoy practising their English skills given the chance. Personally, I'm grateful to any German patient enough to listen to my attempts in the language for more than 5 minutes! :) 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tritone Senior Member United States reflectionsinpo Joined 5912 days ago 246 posts - 385 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, French | Message 38 of 139 10 February 2010 at 11:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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By far the most ungrateful natives are anglophones.
No matter how well you speak English nobody will care or even be impressed, and if you don't speak English well people will doubt your intelligence. Seeing foreigners speaking English is just too common, so its taken for granted, and expected of them. English speakers are oblivious to the efforts that others go through to speak our language and totally unappreciative. 13 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hombre gordo Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5375 days ago 184 posts - 247 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Portuguese, Korean | Message 39 of 139 11 February 2010 at 12:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
What do you want native anglophones to do? Pretend to be amazed and shocked as if they were witnessing some kind of miracle like a resurrection or something? To me the premise of this thread seems strange anyway. Why do you all expect people to express gratitude for learning their language anyway? It seems a lot of people have some kind of high sense of entitlement. Why would you want special treatment from natives anyway just for learning their language？ I would just prefer to be treat as one of them. I hate standing out. However, I understand that it is nice to get positive and welcoming responses from natives when spending time in their country, it is certainly much better than encountering belligerence from natives for using their language, but to expect gratitude just for learning their language is just over the top. Come on guys, learning languages is a good thing, but it doesnt make us special or some kind of superheroes. Edited by hombre gordo on 11 February 2010 at 12:37pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5245 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 40 of 139 11 February 2010 at 1:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
Of course you can't expect to get special treatment just for learning their language, but I think you are more likely to be treated as one of them if you speak their language. That means you are less likely to be treated as just one more "stupid tourist". 1 person has voted this message useful |
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