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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 |  | |
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6683 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 65 of 169 15 March 2006 at 11:50am | IP Logged | |||||
Well, since it is a matter of taste, all views are just as valid.
Which is no doubt down to my flimsy and apparently unsuccesfull attempt to render those sounds in writing. It is a US-pronunciation actually, of the more sterile and mechanical variety - hence the reference to robots and things. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6881 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 66 of 169 15 March 2006 at 1:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
“Pimsleur man” sounds like a mid-western accent, something well north of Kansas – No twang at all. Speaking of incomprehensible English, have you heard a strong “Southern Upcountry” or Appalachian Accent? I have heard a number people complain (native English speakers included) that a Southern accent is every bit as difficult to understand as an Australian accent. I don’t have a problem understanding either accent, but I have witnessed a few times when my southern accent, and the Australians I was speaking too, required a BBC translation to some second English speakers. I had always though of my accent being very mild and an Australian accent as something easy to understand. It must be something to do with the “twang”. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 6894 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 67 of 169 15 March 2006 at 2:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
And what about answering everything they say with "kuidas, palun?" (sorry what did you say?) :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6683 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 68 of 169 15 March 2006 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hmmm. I did not have that experience in Tallinn. I generally adressed them in Finnish, and got a mix of Estonian and Finnish back from them.
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| nordantill Triglot Newbie Sweden Joined 6613 days ago 16 posts - 54 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Mandarin Studies: Spanish, French | Message 69 of 169 27 March 2006 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't really understand some of the messages here. Do you guys seriously have a problem to find people who don't speak english? This seems to me like a bit bizzare since the main problem for me often is the reversed.
For example when I went to Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, which all have english as their offficial language, I had major diificulties to get by in english. My swahili is very bad but I had to rely on it all the time since there's wasn't anyone around who'd speak english.And I am not only talking about isolated villages in the middle of a savanna, even in the big cities,Dar Es salaam,Kampala,Dododma, Nairobi,Morogoro etc, was it hard to find english speakers.The most useful phrase during my trip was U na sema kingereza(=do you speak english), and the reply I got in 9 cases out of 10 was-No. Ok maybe it's a bit exreme to bring up some of the poorest countries in the world. But how about France then? I've seen people here who have said that the french usually speak english to every foreigner. Well, I certainly haven't encounterd that whilst I've been there. I stayed in a small villiage in the south of France for one month and didn't meet one single person who knew enlish. It was "Je ne parle pas anglais" all over the place. Then I went to paris for 2 months and stayed with a French family. I hung out with people in my own age (around 20) and only met 2-3 people who knew any english at all.Ohterwise I had to rely on my French (which thanks to this became much better then it used to be). I had the same problem in Italy, the only english speaking person I met worked at a hotel. The only country where I haven't had any problems to find english speakers (except for England of course) is Holland. Basically what I try to say is that it won't be to difficult to find people who don't speak english. As soon as you spend time with people outside the main tourist resorts you'll find that english isn't so widely spoken as it´s commonly believed. Edited by nordantill on 27 March 2006 at 7:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6892 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 70 of 169 28 March 2006 at 2:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think there is some truth in the statement above. Last summer I visited EuroDisney with a family group. When it was discovered that I was "brushing" my French up, there were continual choruses from everyone who had been, was going with us, was thinking of going, knew someone who had gone, had seen it on tele.... "Why are you bothering? Everyone speaks English there".
Well, "it was English but not as we know it, Jim". Basically anything that was definitely a "discussion in a difficult context" (and we had a couple) you had better be able to speak French and on occasions even simple requests required my intervention because their English wasn't up to it. On the other hand, I've been on some holidays in Germany when younger where some of the residents' English seemed better than mine :¬). My personal strategy when going abroad is to pay no attention to whether they speak English or not and to simply try and communicate in the target language and if it ends up that we're having a bi-lingual conversation then that's fine. EDIT: Regarding Paris, thinking back, my wife and I had exactly the same experience the one time we've been there. Only one person actually spoke (or professed any inclination to speak) any English to us the entire week we were there - a young lady in one of the "book a meal and a show" places opposite the Louvre I think it was. She identified us as English without me actually opening my mouth (clothing probably). Andy. Edited by Andy E on 28 March 2006 at 2:15am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Linas Octoglot Senior Member Lithuania Joined 6701 days ago 253 posts - 279 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Lithuanian*, Russian, Latvian, French, English, German, Spanish, Polish Studies: Slovenian, Greek, Hungarian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese | Message 71 of 169 28 March 2006 at 2:25am | IP Logged | |||||
Tanzanians are notoriously bad at speaking English, since almost all spoken communication is being done in Kiswahili, and English is reserved mostly only for formal writing in business, higher education, government etc. Maybe Kenians and Ugandans are a little bit better in English, however admittedly Kiswahili is more useful than English in these countries as well. A common man from street does not need to go to school to pick up some Kiswahili, he does it in street, while he needs it for English. In Uganda, the Luganda language would also be very useful, at least in Kampala, and perhaps more so than Kiswahili. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| JackFrost Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 6597 days ago 17 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Swedish, Icelandic | Message 72 of 169 05 April 2006 at 8:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, I did hear stories about this annoying habit from non-English speakers. I don't mind at all helping them to practice their English a little for their own sake as long as they let me practice their native language(s).
So far, only country I've been to is Canada to practice my French for several months. I rarely had someone speaking to me back in English when s/he found out I'm not a native French-speaker. They usually go on with French as I try my best to be understood, and usually they take it kindly and with patience. Perhaps it's the law I know of that it's required to use French if the client wishes to be addressed in French, unless the client states that it would be easier to switch to English or other language (like Chinese and Vietnamese for people in Montréal Chinatown). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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