What do you English native speakers hate most of foreigners when speaking to you in English??

Question

There must be some kind of "irritating" factor when communicating with foreigners living in your country.
I would appreciate your sincere answers, native speakers, in order to improve my communication skills.

Answer 1

Using slang they have picked up and repeating themselves!

Answer 2

That kind of comment probably stems from the fact that many unilingual English speakers say things like "learning another language is pointless and stupid" or "we're in America, speak English", etc. which in turn offends those of us who do speak another language or might not have English as a native language. Anglophones are lucky because they can get around fairly easily and have access to opportunities that may not be available to those who don't speak English. Perhaps that's why some Anglophones don't bother learning another language. The fact that English is "the" global language also irks some people, but that's another topic altogether. The fact is, I would never consider someone stupid or ignorant for being able to speak just one language. Heck, if you can at least speak English well, you've already done much better than many of the Anglophones I've met! Language is not the only thing that defines intelligence, and truth be told, being polyglot does not save you from being an idiot.

Answer 3

Never you forget this.Each an everyone has a language their born with and that is the language they speak better.Most native speakers will hide their feelings because they are scared of being assumed racist.Yes,there is some irritation with some individuals and they look at you as a fool forgetting that the person trying to communicate has got another language their speak fluently which may not even be one.However majority will treat you based on your appearances and body language.This is happening everywhere in the world.If a native speaker of English visited your country they are in the same soup.If you are not self confident as you seem to appear,the best way to learn English is to attend a formal setting."By the way what made you thinking there most be some kind of irritating factor arising from a person's failure to communicate fluently in another person's language? You may have been "bitten" but you will find "bites" everywhere around the world.
This site http://www.funnyuniversitystudents.blogspot.com is written by someone who is probably not a native English speaker but when you go there and start to read you will understand what they guy is saying,it is my best blog i found online as the guy has done a good job that makes me to laugh to see the reality and i am quite convinced his work will help those that need help with their dating lives irrespective of male or female.There is some good explanation about body language and how to understand how to approach and deal with different people.

Answer 4

Mostly I admire the skill with which foreigners master English. Try listening in to a few conversations among English teenagers and you'll see what I mean!

I get slightly irked when a person who is learning English, which is my mother tongue, asks if I am sure that the word, spelling or whatever is correct. A German friend, just last week, wouldn't accept that 40 was spelt forty, not fourty (and, no, I don't know why either), but sort of understood when I pointed out dreissig should really be dreizig (vierzig, funfzig etc) but isn't.

I have learned 4 languages over the last 50 years and know how hard it can be; I try to be patient with learners.

Answer 5

Hate is too strong a word. I'm a foreigner where I live and I find it irritating and, when time is of the essence, frustrating, when natives either know that my mother tongue is English or pick up on my accent and then insist on practising their English on me, even when my French/German is a thousand times better than their English!
I have been verbally attacked in 'my country' - England - because people heard me speaking German to my companion. I explained that my companion was Spanish speaking and the only common language we had was German, but that we were from Switzerland. I was then informed that Switzerland was 'all right!' I'm sure the Swiss would be glad to hear this.
Oh Lyn! how right you are. A couple of days apart I had phone calls from two angry and distressed mothers, whose children were in the same class in Sekundarschule. The were both native English speakers, one from the USA and one from the North of England. The Swiss-German English teacher had criticised the children's accents. I wasn't much help, all I could say was that that was why I had insisted that my children didn't learn English when they were in Sekundarschule. I just knew it would lead to problems - and I pride myself on speaking 'received English'.

Answer 6

I have great respect for someone trying to communicate in a foreign language - What I hate is when native english speakers can't use the language properly eg: Americans and wannabe Gangstas

Answer 7

Nothing at all. I was lucky enough to be taught Latin at school and from that I have been able to learn the 5 Romance languages. I work in a care home with people from Poland, Hungary, Africa etc and there is nothing I hate about their English. They are mainly very good, but are always pleased to learn English slang, idiom, swear words, syntax, etc. I know several French people who speak English, they make mistakes, but I find these mistakes quite charming. I am not so purist that I insist on totally accurate English (except from English people!). But I was educated at a grammar school in the 1960s when we really did learn English properly (parsing, syntax, grammar, punctuation, spelling, forms of speech etc).

Answer 8

I don't usually have a problem with a person who is not a native speaker, unless it's with the person themselves. I am not worried about an accent or a small vocabulary. I learned long ago that a person who speaks with an accent probably knows a language that I don't know. The people I know well who have an accent or a small vocabulary are usually very interested in increasing their vocabulary, learning correct grammar, and improving their pronunciation, and I'm happy to help if I can.

If there's one class of people that I don't like to deal with who happen (incidentally) to speak with an accent, it is those people who come here, work in the U.S., take up jobs, housing, etc., and then sit around and tell me how great it was back in whatever country they're from. If it was so great, why are they here? If this place is so awful, and they're committed to living here, then what are they doing to make it better? Someone who bellyaches and does nothing to change the problem is annoying beyond belief.

Answer 9

I don't get annoyed by this sort of thing. If you don't try you can't learn. whenever i go on holiday, i try to learn a little of the language, even if it's just a please, thank you or hello, it's nice to be polite. i think in Britain we can be so ignorant of non English speaking foreigners. any European country i go to the people speak very good English, yet i don' think the same can be said for here. I recently noted that 'modern languages' are no longer compulsory in our secondary schools (Scotland), which i think is a disgrace, and very arrogant. Language is an amazing thing, and forms a great deal of our identity, to learn the way in which others use language could be useful in breaking down boundaries.

Answer 10

It's usually endearing rather than irritating, becauses the speaker is making an honest and friendly effort to speak my language. Sometimes I wish they wouldn't be quite so self-conscious about it, or self-correcting, but it's totally understandable; I can be the same way about my Spanish.

Once, and only once, it was slightly irritating. I'd actually say more humorous and awkward than irritating. Most of all it was one of the more surreal moments in my life. A friend and I were in Belgium, at a hostel in Brugge. We were engaged by a very friendly Japanese man, who was an English teacher from Yokohama traveling alone. After a brief and pleasant exchange, the man spent literally five mintues trying to pronounce "McDonald's" correctly. This was an impossible chore, and it was a bit awkward for us. Now, of course, I laugh at the thought of a nice 45-year-old man shouting "Macadonahadharawa!" at me over and over...

Answer 11

The only thing that would irritate me would be when someone is trying to speak fast - trying to be as close to native speed. Then I can't understand them. But that doesn't happen often at all, and I really appreciate that they are trying.