Nonnative English speakers share their gripes about speaking English

Post by flemhans » Thu, May 20, 2021, 8:06 PM UTC

brk wrote: post #70

FriedrichN wrote: post #41

There is such a thing as Indian English, maybe not officially but it certainly exists and it does differ from British and American English. As a matter of fact, if you look up prepone in Wiktionary "prepone" is mentioned as being used in India, so it's not that weird that the teacher in the article used it. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prepone

There is such a thing as Indian English If there is one phrase that, to me, defines Indian English, I think it would be "do the needful". For American English speakers, I think the first time you hear/see that, it is totally confusing and jarring in an odd way.

Post by jumelles » Thu, May 20, 2021, 8:07 PM UTC

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #434

crazygringo wrote: post #415

> But this scenario doesn't fit with Serrano's experiences of English, where nonnative English speakers who learned the language in a classroom are often more educated on grammar rules and complex technical terms than American native speakers. In my experience as an EFL teacher living abroad in multiple countries... this is not even remotely accurate. English students across the world are often "taught" a ton of nons…

Isn't "I have a doubt" a way to say that you are not sure? Not that you do not understand it know, but that, well, you doubt. Like in "homeopathy is backed by science" to what someone would understandably say "I have a doubt" (in a mocking way in that case)

Post by Broken_Hippo » Thu, May 20, 2021, 8:09 PM UTC

trashtester wrote: post #320

TacticalCoder wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear you! A long time ago I was in the US and I used the word "labyrinth" because I didn't know "maze" and, well, in french for a maze we say "labyrinthe"... I still remember the reaction of my american friend, very surprised by my "advanced" english vocabulary. We native romance language speakers have it easy ; )

The Norwegian word ("labyrint") is also based on the Greek word (possibly through Latin, somehow). Ironically, though, "maze" may come from the Norwegian word "mas". https://www.etymonline.com/word/maze

Post by BrandoElFollito » Thu, May 20, 2021, 8:11 PM UTC

hob_code wrote: post #116

pdpi wrote: post #26

As a non-native speaker, one fascinating phenomenon for me is the flip side to Uncleftish Beholding[1]. Many latinate words are considered more sophisticated, or fancier in general, than germanic words. Because I'm a native speaker of a Romance language, those are precisely the words that I reach for naturally, because they're familiar. What follows is that, past a certain threshold where your English is good enough,…

Richard Feynman noted something similar in his story about traveling to Brazil and learning Portuguese[1]. People would compliment him for using larger elegant sounding words, when really he just couldn't remember simpler words. 1. https://southerncrossreview.org/81/feynman-brazil.html

Post by angry_octet » Thu, May 20, 2021, 8:24 PM UTC

chris_j wrote: post #72

pdpi wrote: post #26

As a non-native speaker, one fascinating phenomenon for me is the flip side to Uncleftish Beholding[1]. Many latinate words are considered more sophisticated, or fancier in general, than germanic words. Because I'm a native speaker of a Romance language, those are precisely the words that I reach for naturally, because they're familiar. What follows is that, past a certain threshold where your English is good enough,…

I (native English speaker) have noticed this a lot. The example that I remember most vividly is receiving advice while trying to cook food on a barbecue: A Portuguese speaking friend suggested that I "move the burgers to the periphery of the barbecue". It make perfect sense but sounded incredibly fancy to me. A native English speaker would never have said that... unless they had received a really expensive education.