11–20 of 67 posts
Although among technical literature I've most enjoyed the language of The C++ Programming Language by Stroustrup, and he's not a native speaker
Related discussion of this article’s sequel (556 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27220433
Most of the time, the non-native speakers learn English from the books instead of absorbing the local dialects/nuances since they don't hear people around them speaking English. However, depending on the quality of books / teachers, this means they pick-up a weird/artificial view of English (speaking is still difficult because you don't get to do it everyday - this is changing though). Then when one lands a job requi…
[1] : https://www.google.com/search?q=%22do%20the%20needful%22&tbm...
I work in a research group with a lot of international people across Europe and elsewhere. As an American there for years, I got used to doing what they say here, speaking at the lowest common denominator, but when a new native English speaker (could be British or Australian too) enters, the same effect takes place.
Similar can be said of French (since my group is in France), all these non native speakers (myself included) exchange freely in terrible French but it all dries up with the first French person because largely they are mostly intolerant of poorly spoken French.
Still I think the skill of not judging and talking up and down the proficiency level according to the people you’re with can be learned fairly easily, if you get away from the idea that language proficiency reflects competence (in your domain of interest)
Sadly I also experienced a native (Canadian iirc) speaker mocking me for my pronunciation of 'power'. Indeed, I used heavy German accent on that specific situation, because I was excited at that moment. It shocked me quite a bit and I didn't know what to do back then. Now I can laugh it off - English was my first foreign language but only one of three in total back then. And it must have sound funny (like Arnold Schw…
As someone who had trouble learning English in class and ended up self-teaching using the Internet and reading English literature, I would have no hope of passing that test. Additionally I wouldn't be able to explain English grammar for the life of me.
However being multi-lingual and learning from multiple sources appears to do wonders for one's vocabulary - in pure vocabulary tests I tend to outscore native speakers.
Sadly I also experienced a native (Canadian iirc) speaker mocking me for my pronunciation of 'power'. Indeed, I used heavy German accent on that specific situation, because I was excited at that moment. It shocked me quite a bit and I didn't know what to do back then. Now I can laugh it off - English was my first foreign language but only one of three in total back then. And it must have sound funny (like Arnold Schw…
Many of us associate the accent exclusively with Arnold. LOL. Don't take it too personally. We like Arnolds accent and to us it sounds like all Germans are impersonating Arnold.
Sadly I also experienced a native (Canadian iirc) speaker mocking me for my pronunciation of 'power'. Indeed, I used heavy German accent on that specific situation, because I was excited at that moment. It shocked me quite a bit and I didn't know what to do back then. Now I can laugh it off - English was my first foreign language but only one of three in total back then. And it must have sound funny (like Arnold Schw…
Many of us associate the accent exclusively with Arnold. LOL. Don't take it too personally. We like Arnolds accent and to us it sounds like all Germans are impersonating Arnold.
Most of the time, the non-native speakers learn English from the books instead of absorbing the local dialects/nuances since they don't hear people around them speaking English. However, depending on the quality of books / teachers, this means they pick-up a weird/artificial view of English (speaking is still difficult because you don't get to do it everyday - this is changing though). Then when one lands a job requi…
My next door Danish neighbors learned English in the late 70's and early 80's by watching TV. The guy worked at Spectra-Physics and drove a Wankel Mazda RX-7 that he backed-in to their garage.
The next time an American or British or Australian person tells me how good my English is, I’m telling them that “oh your English isn’t too bad either”.