Does "say it in English, but louder" ever work when talking to non-English speakers?

Question

It seems to me to be a horribly English attitude.

Answer 1

I was a teacher in a school in a town that a well-known technical university. We had a lot of parents and some students that didn't speak English.

One night we were having Parents' Night. I was standing in the hall taking a break when I heard my buddy talking to a parent. As he talked his voice became louder and louder. So I moved closer to his room to see what was going on. He was talking to a parent. Finally, the parent spoke to him in very broken English saying, "I'm not deaf. I just no speak English." My friend was so embarrassed and I was almost having a heart attack from laughing so hard. My fellow teacher was kidded about that for years.

We live in the SW part of th US. I don't speak Spanish, but always try to speak in a normal tone. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!!!!

And no, it doesn't work. The other person just looks at you as if you have a mental disorder.

Answer 2

Actually, speaking English clearly and distinctly really does help in communicating with anybody who speaks any language in the Indo-European language family. The similarities between the languages are striking--all kinds of cognates and whatnot. I once had a complete conversation with a French woman who spoke no English--and I don't think one semester of French back in high school helped me very much.

Next time you need to communicate with somebody who doesn't speak English, just listen closely and you may be surprised at how much you can understand--or at least get the general gist of.

Answer 3

think of with regards to the customary reason all people ever chooses to earnings a secondary language. It is clever to decide for the main ordinarily spoken language in the worldwide, does it no longer? "English isn't the main extensively spoken language - chinese language is.. " actual, English is, Mandarin is the main extensively spoken FIRST language, yet no longer the main spoken era. it extremely is the 0.33 maximum basic community/first language after Mandarin and Spanish. additionally, why could a individual could learn Welsh to stay in a rustic that has English as between the valid languages? i could understand if Welsh became into the a million and in basic terms valid language, in spite of the shown fact that it extremely is not any longer.

Answer 4

I don't think so....I am a teacher's assistant in a Bi-Lingual school. Our students have trouble with the language, since they are new to the country. As a new student, they are naturally shy and a little apprehensive to "speak up" since they are not confident in their English grammar yet.

It is hard to get them to speak up even when they can master the language, so discipline is not going to make them translate any better. English is a very difficult language to learn when you grow up with another language.

Answer 5

I speak a foreign language with moderate fluency. Sometimes it is difficult to understand someone. It is more difficult if they are taliking quietly, mumbling, or the TV volume is low.

If they understand some English, I think it helps to speak clearly with good volume when talking to non-English speakers.

Answer 6

Not just an English problem.I live in Italy and was deafened for years by unimaginative fools,who's vocabulary was so limited,they could only pose the same question at increasingly loud volume

Answer 7

That happens here in the USA too.

We joke about it since I teach English as a Second Language (ESL) to children.

Answer 8

No, shouting isn't going to help the person doesn't understand English. The way I usually deal with that situation is to improvise with sign language, or if you like mime it works like magic.

Answer 9

Feell bad for ppl who talk down on ppl who speak broken english.. when they might speak 2 or more languages, and most americans speak 1

Answer 10

Mabey if you try saying it slower, but not louder, they'll understand better. Ask the question to yourself vise versa