I wonder if some English natives couldn't believe as kids that the entire damn world just happens to speak their language
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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Non-native English speakers are still often better at English than native English speakers that choose to write like they are illiterate.
I mean I just get turned on.
More specifically because they are talking to me at all, not just in broken English.
Broken english is one thing. Butchered is quite another
My personal hint for everyone learning a foreign language to be understood in another country: Pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation! You only need around 2000 words to get around, but no-one can understand you if you butcher each and every one of the 100k words you’ve learned. Also grammar is optional. Nouns, adjectives and verbs in their basic forms convey enough meaning.
As an American, when I learn another language I am taught to pronounce it correctly in the accent of that language. And yet when people from other countries learn English, it's so heavily accented and poorly pronounced I can barely understand wtf they're saying.
Especially looking at you, Indians.
What is the "correct accent" for English? Even within America there are so many. The southern accent is so different from the Minnesota accent. Most Americans will have difficulty understanding a Scottish or Irish person speaking with a strong accent, but I doubt anyone is going to tell them to speak differently. Given the plurality of accents, it's on the listener to adapt. Unless, of course, everyone is expected to speak with RP.
Most Americans will have difficulty understanding a Scottish or Irish person speaking with a strong accent
This tells you that Irish or Scottish is not the correct accent. However, someone who speaks Southern British English will be understood by everyone.
What is the “correct accent” for English?
One that is understandable.
Most Americans will have difficulty understanding a Scottish or Irish person speaking with a strong accent, but I doubt anyone is going to tell them to speak differently.
Dunno what world you live in. I have two different coworkers who specifically have been told they need to work on their accent. One is Kenyan and the other is Welsh. People from white countries don't get a pass.
It's not racism, it's understandability.
Is there a standard measure of how "understandable" an accent is? It is quite a subjective thing based on where one is from.
You mentioned India previously - there are 350 million English speakers in South Asia (with marginally varying accents) who can understand each other perfectly well. They may not, on the other hand, find it as easy to understand American accented English. Who should change?
I find German and Singaporean/Malaysian accented English easier to understand than most American accents, because they share phonemes with the languages I speak. Which is more understandable in this case?
The assertion I'm challenging is that there is a "correct accent" that is universally intelligible to all, especially for a language as widely spoken as English. I think the only way we can bridge this gap is to be better listeners. Realistically, it doesn't even take a couple of weeks to become comfortable understanding a different accent, probably much less if you pay attention. Personally, I find this issue to be very intertwined with the tolerance we have to develop to live in a multicultural society.
Dunno what world you live in. I have two different coworkers who specifically have been told they need to work on their accent. One is Kenyan and the other is Welsh.
You said you were American (though it's not clear if you work in America, so forgive the assumption) but if this was official feedback then it seems to be in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. There seem to have been successful lawsuits (example, example - see Brown and Brown Chevrolet, 2008) for the same.
You are making this way more complicated than it needs to be. People need to be understood by the people they are talking to. There's no "correct accent", just whatever makes you understood by the other party.
but if this was official feedback then it seems to be in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Not in the fucking slightest and it's actually making me angry that you would imply "you need to be understandable" is in any way equivalent to
constantly made fun of their accents, ordering them to speak English even when they were already speaking in English. Some Filipino-American workers endured humiliating threats of arrest if they did not speak English and were told to go back to the Philippines. In a particularly offensive incident, an employee sprayed air freshener on a claimant's lunch due to the offender's self-professed hatred of Filipino food.
and
subjected to explicit and graphic commentary about their body parts by their supervisor; spreading rumors about their purported sexual activities; spying on them as they attempted to use portable toilets; engaging in sexual bantering and joking regarding the women with certain male harvesters.
If no one knows what the fuck you're saying, it's impossible to do your job. That's all.
This feels like French propaganda to deflect from how rude they tend to be if you don't speak French
I speak French until they have enough of me butchering their language with my Jersey (New) accent. Bon Joor, je voo le pan. They beg me to stop and I keep going. Jaim vo d-nay. Mare C bo coo. They thank me for leaving.
Ever heard japanese filtered through a southern accent? Oh HAI yo guh ZAI muss!
This was our favorite thing to do in my HS Japanese class. I still remember "skydiving": skah-daaaah-ben-goo.
Even if you speak French or at least try to they go like: huh?!
Lean into it. Channel your inner Peggy Hill and repeat this phrase: Jay parlay fran-says tray bee-in. Jay-tude on lay-cole quart ons.
They will beg you to switch back to English
I will continue to maintain a laissez faire attitude towards French language.
This is nonsense. Only English teachers do this.
Reminds me of a joke that you hear a lot in Europe:
What do you call someone who can speak many languages? Polyglottal.
What do you call someone who can speak two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks one language? English.
The only language that would be useful to know where I live would be Spanish.
And I fucking hate the Spanish language.
Prolly racism lol
Everything is racism
The only perspective from which one might see everything as racism is that in which they themselves are racist.
That's racist
I can see how you'd feel that way from your perspective.
Perspectives are racist
They certainly can be
Cans are racist
Why?
Questions are racist
I'm bored of you.
The only problem is I have no specific reason for that to be the case. Like I said I have no problem with the people, just the language.
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