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Why’s there no empathy among anglophones? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| timwatt Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 6443 days ago 7 posts - 9 votes Speaks: Indonesian, English*, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 69 03 April 2008 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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It was presentation day during one of my university classes, where each group had to give a 10 minute presentation of their project. During one of the presentations, an Asian student was speaking with a heavy accent. Some of my classmates were snickering amongst themselves, whispering "Go learn your English!"
Some anglophones just have no empathy towards people who speak English as a second language. It's difficult to learn another language that has absolutely no resemblance to your own. I can't help but wonder how they would feel if they had to present in front of a class of 300 in a foreign language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5897 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes  5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 69 03 April 2008 at 6:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, having an accent is understandable, and making mistakes is understandable. But when someone sounds like they have a sock in their mouth...well, that's naturally going to invite jokes and rudeness (and that's everywhere, not just with anglophones). It's that person's responsibility to continue working on his English. If I went around talking in a strange voice (here, or anywhere), people would mock me.
Now, if it's clear that a person is clearly working on their language skills, then I find that most people are understanding and empathetic. But when it seems that someone apparently is making no effort to assimilate or improve, empathy goes out the window. In your particular example, giving a presentation in an educational institute and being incomprehensible is just going to frustrate and annoy those that want to learn. In the foreigner was being told to "Learn English", then obviously his English is not at an acceptable level. Don't put the blame on English speakers for not being able to understand someone with poor English. Anyways, just be glad it was the student and not the professor. I actually had a professor that spoke English so poorly and with such a heavy accent, that he might as well have been speaking Mandarin. Literally. I mean, with students it's presumed that they are learning, but with professors...ugh. That evokes nothing but anger from me, toward both the school and the individual. Edited by chelovek on 03 April 2008 at 6:17pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 5932 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 3 of 69 03 April 2008 at 6:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's because most anglophones only speak English so they have no appreciation for the difficulties involved in speaking a foreign language. I also think their ears are not trained to understand accents or handle grammar mistakes. I sometimes have to do "English to English" translations for my wife when someone has a heavy accent.
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| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5897 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 69 03 April 2008 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | ||
That has little to do with speaking English. If someone pronounces something too incorrectly in any language, then it will be incomprehensible. It's the learner's responsibility to pronounce things in an appropriate manner. If someone is clearly learning or new to a country, then I think just about anyone would be understanding and empathetic. However, me personally, when I see people that speak their own language all the time and don't actively try to improve in their English...I definitely don't have sympathy for them. Edited by chelovek on 03 April 2008 at 6:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| K.C. Groupie United States ksclay.net Joined 6862 days ago 42 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 69 03 April 2008 at 8:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think this is horrible. It's one thing to get annoyed if someone is using incorrect English and doesn't seem to care, but it's another to make fun of someone for having an accent. Accents are normal. As long as it doesn't get in the way of understanding, I don't see a problem. Even if it does, snickering doesn't help. It's like making fun of someone with a lisp or someone who stutters. Yes, people do it. But that doesn't make it right. Usually these people are trying to improve their speech (who wants to stand out so much, especially when standing up in front of a class full of people?), but it takes time to do so. And the Asian languages are so far from English that I think it often takes an even longer time for many Asian people to lose the heavy accent than people from other parts of the world when they learn English.
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| Walshy Triglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6752 days ago 335 posts - 365 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German | Message 6 of 69 03 April 2008 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I haven't seen this myself. In my three years at uni, my classes have required about a dozen or so speeches, and the University of Wollongong has an enormous number of Asian, particularly Chinese students, as well as many Africans and Indians. Quite a few have struggled in their speeches, but they were never mocked for it, thankfully.
The thing is that it's not that they can't speak the language well enough, it's that their nerves get the better of them and they struggle to fight the nerves while simultaneously giving a speech in a second language. One-on-one speech with them is always more fluent. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Jiwon Triglot Moderator Korea, South Joined 6246 days ago 1417 posts - 1500 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, Korean*, GermanC1 Studies: Hindi, Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 69 03 April 2008 at 9:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with JW about untrained ears. Surprisingly, I seem to be able to understand more accents (both "native" and non-native) than native English speakers.
It's just that some native speakers have this interesting attitude of classifying all non-native accents as incomprehensible. But the truth is, some of the so-called native accents are far worse than non-native accents and still are not as harshly criticised. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5897 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 69 03 April 2008 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
That's an oxymoron. I mean, the grammar of natives can surely be poor, but accents...that doesn't make much sense. Edited by chelovek on 03 April 2008 at 10:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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