We are always asking foreigners to learn English but do we know English?

Question

A majority of us do not know a language other than English if we were not born and/or raised outside the country. It is very popular to say the "foreigners" should learn English but how well do we know English?
Take a sentence such as you may hear on TV. "If he would have caught that pass ...". What a nightmare of a grammatical sentence to parse. What is it, a past pluperfect future conditional tense? Why not try not to sound intellectual and just say "If he had caught the pass ...". The event has already occured. There is no future associated with it (no will or would).
While we are at it people should look up the meanings of
misnomer, criteria, affect, principal, effect, principle, disinterested, criterion and many more commonly misused words.
People should learn what an "intransitive" verb is as I see all verbs are more increasingly being used transitively.
I learned English and so can your politicians and news anchors and editors.
OK, my English is suspect but not bad.

Answer 1

Actually, you have an excellent use of the language.

And I agree that too many people misuse words. I don't know if it's laziness or lack of education on these words. A lot of people don't understand how incorrect use of grammar, spelling and punctuation can make a huge difference in everyday life and how people who are educated look at them.

Answer 2

We learn English from the foreigner always, the sea urchin you have asked, but is English known? As for our large portions we other than English are not born outside the country and/or being lifted, you do not know language. That "the foreigner" should learn English,, but just which has spread very in order to say that we have known English well? Perhaps, you hear the sentence like you with TV, take. "Him the pass..." When you catch. It should analyze or, the how unpleasant impression of the grammatical sentence. Is that a what which passes the future conditional tense of pluperfect? The attempt intellectual and the fair speech which are not "why because you do not sound he pass..." When you catch. It was possible and thing already happened. That and relation there is no future which is attached (as for will or). While we is that, standard or the word erroneous name where the large quantity is misused generally, standard and emotion, the principal, there are no people meaning of the effect, principle and selfishness should be inspected. Verb everything the people should learn, as I see, "automatic operation" those where verb is used more and more as transitive. I to learn English, therefore make your politician and the anchor and the editor canned goods of news. It was understood, my England it is not been bad doubtfully.

Answer 3

It sounds like she is self-conscious about her English abilities, which is understandable since she is in a foreign country. Try phrasing the question like, "Hey, you speak really great English. Where did you learn?" She probably needs encouaragement in her English ability and it sounds like you're in a great position to do that. Most foreign countries teach students English from a very young age. She probably did a majority of her English practice in a classroom-type setting. So I wouldn't say you did anything wrong, I'd just say that she needs some encouragement.

Answer 4

First off all, we talk the way we do because of dialect. Every state has its own dialect in the U.S. Secondly, we don't pay as close attention as we should. Its because we are always speaking we dont find the need to label what we're saying by verbs, or nouns, or whatever. Wej ust speak, not bearing in mind what part of speach we're using. We pick it up from around us. And thank you for an interest in out language, but however we use our words should make no difference to you. Remeber that you had to /learn/ English while we were /already/ speaking it.

Answer 5

You missed the point in that statement:
For communication purposes, everyone has to have a minimum knowledge of the language spoken in the country they reside in.
I am not talking about accents or fluency in a grammatical way, or even richness of vocabulary.
Believe me, if we were to survey the number of natives in the US who speak proper english and trully master their language, we'd fall out of our trees seeing the results, and you can notice that just watching some TV or anywhere for that matter. So that's not the immediate concern.
When some people cannot ccommunicate what they seek or explain what they want, it leads to frustration to everyone. Of course we can learn their language, and all be multilinguals. That would be a perfect world in this time and age. But it's simply not realistic.
We expect our residents (citizens and immigrants) to be able to at least be able to understand each other on a basic way, and not use sign language and idiomatics to get through it.

Answer 6

It appears that you may be a highly educated person in language skills. The fact is, most Americans do not take high level english classes nor is it taught in detail in the school systems. I think when we say the foreigners need to learn english, we are implying that they need to learn enough to be able to communicate with us.....I, for example, am vietnamese...however i speak english fluidly and also agree that foreigners need to learn enough english so that we can understand them. We live in America however in the southern states alot of street signs have spanish and english. This is the main concern i believe.

Answer 7

You are absolutely right because hopeless abbreviations and plain good English have taken over. Blame the schools which not only don't teach it any more, they let the kids get away from "me and him" and other of my pet peeves. Why did my kid have great grammar until he started school? Rhetorical question. I thank on bended knee my 6th grade English teacher who was a drill Sergeant, but who taught it all. I thank my 9th grade English teacher who taught me how to write a report, essay, or anything else. My kid is in 10th grade and has no clue. This gradual erosion of the language is furthered with every generation, because now the parents don't recognise it in their kids.

Incidentally, I am an avid reader and it irks me no end when I see a glaring mistake in a book. I should become a proof reader. Thank you Mrs. Gossen.

Answer 8

I believe that most Americans can't speak English properly, look at the President for an example. I do very well in school, but I don't know all of the different tenses of a verb in English. I was taught them in French and my teacher said that she couldn't believe that Americans can't conjugate their own verbs. It's rather pathetic.

Answer 9

All people, Anglophones included, should learn many languages. Besides, the complexity of English is what makes its literature so beautiful.

Proud to speak the only language that requires thesauri.

(Subjunctive tense)

Answer 10

I be in totul agreeement with ye. Most peoples haves no idea how to speak the correct englishes like me and you. We are self-smarted and hate when persons butchers the english lenguage. I is so good, I dont even use that spell ckeker anymore.