How nerdy are you about English?

[Jon_Dahl]

There are a few things in this world that will never make you a hero. Such as eating glass, jumping off a bridge or learning English.

Writing to message boards and living one year in Ireland has shown me that people who speak English as a native language tend to be real douchy to people who've learned it as a second language. I've tried to analyze why is it like that. Some possibilities come to my mind:
- These people don't understand what it's like to learn a new language, so they don't appreciate it.
- They hate seeing or hearing anything else than perfect and natural English. Any deviation from this will distract them.
- It's their hard way to encourage people to learn more and speak better.

Well one thing that I do know is that this is cultural. For the past three years I've studied Brazilian Portuguese and I speak it like a retard. But still it was an amazing experience to travel to that beautiful country and the people really appreciated that I had learned Portuguese. No dickness, no wise-ass comments, no derailing from the subject just to correct me. Just politeness and some healthy humility ("oh, our language is not the center of the universe").

But I do admit that it would be worse if no one would ever correct me or tell me that 'you're doing it wrong'. I just find it extremely insensitive to make fun of people just because they speak or write imperfect English.

If you got two choices to make: Either telling a person that he or she is committing to a repeated grammatical error or cracking a witty remark to score points, which one is your choice?

 

[Croesus]

Well one thing that I do know is that this is cultural.

I agree, but I have no hard data to prove it one way or the other. Some societies appear to be touchier toward foreign speakers than others.

If you got two choices to make: Either telling a person that he or she is committing to a repeated grammatical error or cracking a witty remark to score points, which one is your choice?

Usually I simply ignore it, but if I do feel the need to say something, I always try to do so privately. Even on a message board, one can usually send an email or IM.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Its not just breing touchy about foreign speakers. Some cultures feel betrayed if your are a member of their ethnicity but do not speak their language as a result of living in another country.

Case in point, Mexicans are not known to treat Mexicans or other latinos with respect if they don't speak spanish*. Even within my own family, several of my aunts and uncles call me "indio" (indian) because I know few words in spanish.


* This actually is a point of contention within Mexico and some areas of Latin America because of the sheer number of indigionous communities who refuse to speak a European tongue.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It varies, and its not just English speakers.

I loved visiting France when I lived in Europe. I had many positive experiences. However, nearly every time I went to Paris (and ONLY Paris) I encountered tourists having great difficulties- not with the language- but with snooty locals who pretended not to understand the French they were using.

One person who ran into this had been speaking the language for many decades AND had taught it professionally.

IF I correct someone's English, and I don't know them personally, I try to be gentle about it, especially online, since I have no idea whether its their primary language or not. Sometimes I joke, but I try not to make the joke about them.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Part of me wants to complain this is all about Nationalism. I think the reason most English speakers complain online is they assume that the person on the other end is an English speaker. Which, is a bit wrong-headed, but unfortunately the norm.

I'm much more accepting of a foreign national attempting to speak my language (I've been on the reverse when I was stationed in Germany) than I do for some punk kid who is either too lazy or too apathetic to learn the correct usage of their native language . THIS is what I think is getting lost in the issue here, that many of the reasons people are edgy about it is because of the decreasing proficiency of supposedly native English speakers.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it really burns my butt when Germans and Italians (yeah for them) speak English more precisely than Americans, English, Irish, Scots, etc. (boo for the morons). It doesn't even have to be perfect, just APPEAR to be trying.

 

[jonesy]

I have a tendency to poke fun at (funny) misspellings of the English language.

Oddly this doesn't apply at all when it comes to my own language. But they do say that Finnish is notoriously difficult to learn, so I guess anyone who does it becomes exempt from ridicule.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Personally I've always lived in a very cosmopolitan area, so I'm used to people who aren't native English speakers. Usually I just let it go. Sometimes I gently correct them.

What gets on my nerves is native English speakers who make the same sort of mistakes.

The US is huge and contains substantial cultural divisions, and how you speak English says a lot about you in this country. Errors that are intentional are a form of cultural expression, errors that aren't are poorly received. Speaking other languages rarely enters many people's minds; language is not well taught at all in the US educational system. People who haven't been exposed to foreign nationals may have more negative impressions of grammatical errors than I do, which I suspect accounts for some of the attitudes the OP is talking about. As mentioned, this is true anywhere but the US can be remarkably xenophobic.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One of my relatives is a highly skilled MD, and despite her education, she has not been able to rid herself of "axing" questions.

 

[Diamond Cross]

I speak with a Jamaican/Klingon mixed accent.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Then you need to POST like that, mon!

K'plach!