Do you ever wonder...?

Question

...how many people here who criticize the 'foreigners' for being so bad in English have ever studied a second language and mastered it? So much so that they read/speak/type it perfectly ALL the time and NEVER make a mistake?

I'm studying a foreign language and often wonder how many people who speak that language would criticize me for grammatical/spelling errors when all I'm trying to do is learn how to communicate with them... My tutor often encourages me to communicate with his friends and family to sharpen my skills, and they never make fun of me for my mistakes. They encourage me to keep trying!

Do you ever wonder what kind of world this would be if people would just find something else to complain about? LOL

My second language is not useless. I'm learning Egyptian Arabic from an Egyptian tutor. What I am learning consists of both the written and the spoken language. I'm not doing it just so I can say 'I'm bilingual!' I'm learning it because I have some friends who are in Cairo, and I like learning new things. No other reason... it's just sort of like a hobby for me.

Answer 1

السلام عليكم
Thanks. Thanks for this question.
English is not my native. Normally I don't get many comments about my English. I know it still sucks, but I try to improve it everyday.
I like languages in general. Even here many think it is a waste of time (as I am sure many have told you that as well!). The ones thinking like that are ALWAYS monolingual.. or have rudimentary knowledge of a major language (but not enought to have a three minute conversation with a native or surfing a webpage in that language). For me it is a hobby. As valid as going bowling or watching reality shows.
Of course I have a lot of mistakes in the languages I am learnig. And only if natives point at them I'll be able to notice they are mistakes. some times they are so kind that just leave me do my attempt. They understand, but I want to improve. Maybe I will never speak Norwegian as a native, but I want to try it.
I guess many Americans go with the "Only English in America" because of the immigration issue. I am sorry to say it, but it is getting worse and worse as fear turns into hatred.
In a question here somebody asked if there would be a good idea to test on English all immigrants and send back home all those who would not do well in it. And someone replied that Americans should take such a test too... and send overseas those who did as poorly as immigrants sent back home. I see many natives here that have a poor command of their own language. I'd like to see a better level of comand of English here. But I expect that from the natives first.

Answer 2

You are so right! people don't know how difficult it is to learn a new language and yet they are all over you when you make the slightest mistake! I learnt english because its the most spoken language in the world and yet i really don't like speaking it because i'm always self-conscious that i may make mistakes and people will laugh at me. Everyone tells me my english is perfect but still i'm not confident enough and only speak when absolutely necessary. I think people should encourage those who are brave enough to learn languages other than their own. U go for it girl and don't let anyone put you down ok? All the best of luck!

Answer 3

i perfectly agree with you. On this web, people too would be rude when somebody asks a question and it is pretty obvious that the person is not spamming, but indeed wants to ask something, but with bad English or he attempted to have his question translated by computer. Replies like "ENGLISH ONLY!!!" are sometimes the least rude the poor guy gets. Why dont people realize that all people are not native English speakers? Once i saw a question obviously by an Asian guy who didnt use any punctuation. He got sarcastic reply like "how about getting familiar with commas and periods" I would love to see an American learning Vietnamese or Japanese and get a telling off that he used wrong characters. There are no commas and periods in some languages, so what?

I wish you every success with your studies. Forget about funny accent, mistakes.

Answer 4

Your right! What's really scary is to see people's posts on Yahoo and their spelling is so bad you can't understand them.

A lot of teens spelling is embarassing and their english isn't much better. Many Americans haven't mastered english so for them to complain about foreign peoples grammer is pretty funny. Ask them some of the ohter languages they know. Very cool comment.

Answer 5

I almost always assume that only monolinguals make comments like that.
And as an immigrant myself (I'm a Canadian in Switzerland) I find the similar comments regarding real-life situations just as bad.
(Cool, my friend's first language was Egyptian Arabic. She doesn't speak it at all anymore though.)

Answer 6

Well...english is my 2nd language, so i am also still in the process of learning it.

I do tell people if they make wrong spellings, but i don't scold them in any way...just telling them nicely...sometimes if i think it's just a typo...i even ignore it...

But...when people asking unappropriate questions...like some of those perverts you can find here...I scold them and make fun of them if they make errors...

Answer 7

Personally i have no problem with any foreigner that attempts to speak english, broken or not. The only thing that irks me is when they don't attempt to learn english, and expect you to cater to them and their native language

Answer 8

I think the ones that critize the most couldn't learn a foreign language if their life depended on it.

Answer 9

Do you realise how useless your second language can be? Textbook spanish taught in high school is different then spoken spanish

Answer 10

it's all ways easier to criticize and be negative than it is to be positive and see the good in people