NationStates Jolt Archive

Foreigners are notoriously good about having horrible English skills (Don't say *no shit moron*, I meant what I said) (no offense; I heard English is the hardest language in the world to learn *I'm an American, so the Brits here will criticize me too:)*)

I just checked out a fansite for a Korean game (Gunz) (which was just asking for trouble), and it's full of entertaining little posts that have horrible grammar. Sometimes the posters even admit their English sucks...idk. Maybe I'm just a cruel man. It's all entertaining. Not like internet lingo or anything-sometimes they actually do try and it comes out horrible. On other, REALLY EXTREMELY funny occasions, people try their luck at shortening English phrases (that made no sense in the first place) into what they think is internet lingo. That turns into a jumble of crap.

It gets hard to look at sometimes cause I'm normally rolling on the ground laughing...

and just how good is your Korean?
Give them credit for even trying, rather than criticise them for not succeeding. You have not even tried!

Tu não sabes nada sobre as dificuldades em aprender uma lingua bem diferente à sua lingua nativa. É provável que não há lingua mais diferente do inglês do que coriano, ter um pouco de paciencia hein?

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/8476/grammarnazi0ms.jpg

Whoa, no John Waite and a frilly ascot on this thread. My mistake.
*takes his cleavers elsewhere*

and just how good is your Korean?
Give them credit for even trying, rather than criticise them for not succeeding. You have not even tried!

Tu não sabes nada sobre as dificuldades em aprender uma lingua bem diferente à sua lingua nativa. É provável que não há lingua mais diferente do inglês do que coriano, ter um pouco de paciencia hein?

I agree with you..what can you expect from someone named the mock though?
English is a very hard language..
P.S. what did you say AB Again? was that French?

La Habana Cuba wins by a landslide, LOL.

I suck in English grammar, I suck in Spanish grammar,
adverbs, predicate, propositions, pronouns, etc, etc, etc.

When I lerned English, I was given a test, re-write these sentences, my clues were the adverb here, the predicate there, the pronoun here or there, everywhere a part of speech.

I was going crazy, loco.

I had nothing on my paper, time was running out, I decided forget about the adverb here, predicate there, everywhere a pronoun.

Just re-write the sentences the best way they sound to you, I did and got 100 percent correct, no mistakes, after the test, my instructor called me over to praise me, I told my instructor, you should have seen her face, she did not like it.

LOL

I love Math, Accounting, Bookkeeping, Statistics, Systems, History, Geography, Economics, Politics, etc, etc

YAY for making fun of people...:rolleyes:

Come on!

Learning a language is very hard. Give them props for trying.

And how many languages can you speak as well as they speak English?

例えば、私は中級の日本語を話します。日本人に話している時、みんなは好人物で、私を助けます。Et aussi, je parle le français intermédiaire, mais ma grammaire est si douteuse, alors... bof!

You have to realise how hard they're trying and give them mad props for it!

I agree with you..what can you expect from someone named the mock though?
English is a very hard language..
P.S. what did you say AB Again? was that French?
No way it's French. French doesn't use tildes.

P.S. what did you say AB Again? was that French?
Looks like Portuguese.

No way it's French. French doesn't use tildes.
It sure sounds like they use tildes.
Doesn't over-nasalization sound like it should be spelled, "~"? I can visualize it in the gestures too.

I agree with you..what can you expect from someone named the mock though?
English is a very hard language..
P.S. what did you say AB Again? was that French?

Nah, Portuguese. (See my location, then check your geography books.)

Nah, Portuguese. (See my location, then check your geography books.)

The funny thing is that I could kinda understand what you said, even though I've never spoken a word of Portuguese in my life. (Except, maybe, for my last name, but that doesn't count.)

The funny thing is that I could kinda understand what you said, even though I've never spoken a word of Portuguese in my life. (Except, maybe, for my last name, but that doesn't count.)

Do you speak Spanish?

Do you speak Spanish?

I took it for a few years, I know the languages are very similar though, all my Brazilian friends deny it.

I suppose that he could make the argument that, because they are trying to speak English, they are opening themselves up to hsi criticism; thus his argument would hold that you could not criticize his Korean on that basis since he is making no effort to do so.

I just like to think of arguments for argument's sake. I don't really feel that way. Infact, I admire those who are trying to learn and feel for them somewhat (my spanish sucks; though I am only taking that because we have to take a foreign language and German wasn't offered)

I took it for a few years, I know the languages are very similar though, all my Brazilian friends deny it.

They are lying, as you have just proved for yourself.

Spanish and Portuguese are similar enough that I can happily read academic texts in Spanish without ever having studied the language. What I cannot do is speak or write Spanish, and spoken Spanish has to be slow for me to understand all of it. If spoken at normal speed I can understand about half.
This is not due to some incredible linguistic talent (languages are hard work for me) but due to the similarity of the languages. If you enter graduate school here you have to prove your proficiency in one or two foreign languages. Spanish is so similar to Portuguese that it is not considered a foreign language for this by most universities.

I suppose that he could make the argument that, because they are trying to speak English, they are opening themselves up to hsi criticism; thus his argument would hold that you could not criticize his Korean on that basis since he is making no effort to do so.

I just like to think of arguments for argument's sake. I don't really feel that way. Infact, I admire those who are trying to learn and feel for them somewhat (my spanish sucks; though I am only taking that because we have to take a foreign language and German wasn't offered)

While I recognise you are playing devil's advogate here, the argument still does not hold. It would be like criticising a medical student for not saving a persons life when you as a doctor stood back and did nothing. The medical student is not opening him or herself up for criticism, but trying to do something useful. The only reasonable response that the doctor could make is to offer to help. Did Mok offer to help the Koreans with their english? No, so he should be ashamed of himself.

English is not the hardest language in the world to learn! Try learning eastern asian languages, and you'll realize what hard means. Up until now, I still cannot find a definite grammar structure to Mandarin, and it's my first language. Also, learning Japanese by watching anime is NOT the best way to learn the language...

Also, have you ever tried to learn another language, or even tried communicating with them in it? It's not easy. How would you feel if everybody laughed at you for saying the wrong things every time? Stop being an asshole and give them props for at least trying.

English is not the hardest language in the world to learn! Try learning eastern asian languages, and you'll realize what hard means. Up until now, I still cannot find a definite grammar structure to Mandarin, and it's my first language. Also, learning Japanese by watching anime is NOT the best way to learn the language...

Also, have you ever tried to learn another language, or even tried communicating with them in it? It's not easy. How would you feel if everybody laughed at you for saying the wrong things every time? Stop being an asshole and give them props for at least trying.

:fluffle:

sorry i just felt like giving you a fluffle...

Donde esta el bano?:p

Donde esta el bano?:p
Aonde fica o banheiro?

(I mean it wasn't going anywhere, so it inevitably stays rather than is, huh!)

While I recognise you are playing devil's advogate here, the argument still does not hold. It would be like criticising a medical student for not saving a persons life when you as a doctor stood back and did nothing. The medical student is not opening him or herself up for criticism, but trying to do something useful. The only reasonable response that the doctor could make is to offer to help. Did Mok offer to help the Koreans with their english? No, so he should be ashamed of himself.

Ah, good. I get to argue! :) !

Your argument seems good initially, but there is a central flaw. The doctor went out and got trained in his profession, thus "opening himself to criticism." If it had been a random untrained civilian standing by, then it would be a proper example. But then the argument wouldn't work.

Keep trying, you are getting close to the hole in the logic.

I heard English is the hardest language in the world to learn

There's no easy answer to that.

There are many factors that come into play in distinguishing difficulty of language acquisition. First is the similarity between the language family of your first language and the second language. Next are the components of the second language - the number of phonemes (distinct individual sounds), morphology (how words are put together using phenomes), syntax (simple explanation - grammar), vocabulary (some languages require more words than others), and orthography (the writing systems). Finally, the number of speakers affects the availibility of instruction - for example, you'd have a hard time finding someone to teach you Ume Sámi (http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/europe_report.html#Ume), wich has fewer than 20 remaining speakers.

Euskara (aka Basque) is considered one of the more difficult European languages to learn because of it's small number of speakers, the fact that it's unrelated to any other European language and has only tentative realtionships with other known languages, and it's complex grammar.

Some languages that are generally considered by the experts to be very difficult include: the various dialects of Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, and (appropriately in this case) Korean.

Aonde fica o banheiro?

(I mean it wasn't going anywhere, so it inevitably stays rather than is, huh!)
Well, they just showed a few moving outhouses on "Most Outrageous Moments" on TV, so not necessarily.
;)

Ah, good. I get to argue! :) !

Your argument seems good initially, but there is a central flaw. The doctor went out and got trained in his profession, thus "opening himself to criticism." If it had been a random untrained civilian standing by, then it would be a proper example. But then the argument wouldn't work.

Keep trying, you are getting close to the hole in the logic.

I see Mok as being trained in the subject here, English. Thus he, as a native speaker, is to the Koreans as a doctor is to a medical student. If it had been a random language speaker commenting, then he could not do so. So the analogy does hold up.

They are lying, as you have just proved for yourself.

Spanish and Portuguese are similar enough that I can happily read academic texts in Spanish without ever having studied the language. What I cannot do is speak or write Spanish, and spoken Spanish has to be slow for me to understand all of it. If spoken at normal speed I can understand about half.
This is not due to some incredible linguistic talent (languages are hard work for me) but due to the similarity of the languages. If you enter graduate school here you have to prove your proficiency in one or two foreign languages. Spanish is so similar to Portuguese that it is not considered a foreign language for this by most universities.

Exactly so. I know a fair number of returnees of Brazilians and Peruvians of Japanese descent, and they manage to communicate quite well between Spanish and Portugese.

And as far as Mok's laughing at them, it sounds like he's just laughing at their lack of English skills, which is certainly unkind. However, as a professional ESL/EFL teacher, I must admit that I sometimes laugh when students make humourous mistakes. But I always point out why it was funny to say something like "He was driving a fork." I also usually give an example of some of my funny slip ups, so that they understand it's OK to laugh at mistakes.

Exactly so. I know a fair number of returnees of Brazilians and Peruvians of Japanese descent, and they manage to communicate quite well between Spanish and Portugese.

And as far as Mok's laughing at them, it sounds like he's just laughing at their lack of English skills, which is certainly unkind. However, as a professional ESL/EFL teacher, I must admit that I sometimes laugh when students make humourous mistakes. But I always point out why it was funny to say something like "He was driving a fork." I also usually give an example of some of my funny slip ups, so that they understand it's OK to laugh at mistakes.

I too work as an ESL/EFL teacher at times (Not at the moment as I am finishing off a dissertation in Portuguese.) Laughter is a useful classroom tool, as you say, when used correctly and sensitively. If you are able to get the students to find their own mistakes funny, they then relax and their fluency increases rapidly. To do that though requires that they can see and or hear your mistakes in learning their language or at least see that you are not being critical, but are just genuinely amused.

Mok may have been genuinely amused by the errors, but his attitude in his post was one of condescendence and arrogance. As such I found it to be offensive rather than helpful.

I too work as an ESL/EFL teacher at times (Not at the moment as I am finishing off a dissertation in Portuguese.) Laughter is a useful classroom tool, as you say, when used correctly and sensitively. If you are able to get the students to find their own mistakes funny, they then relax and their fluency increases rapidly. To do that though requires that they can see and or hear your mistakes in learning their language or at least see that you are not being critical, but are just genuinely amused.

Mok may have been genuinely amused by the errors, but his attitude in his post was one of condescendence and arrogance. As such I found it to be offensive rather than helpful.

Exactly so. And one of my favorites actually relates to Smackboxistan's question. Many years ago while doing a short (1 month) home stay in Mexico, and managed to ask "¿Dónde está el bolsa?" when I wanted the baño. :p

You ever tried learning Chinese? Damn...

Aonde fica o banheiro?

Haha, oh boy!

お手洗いはどこですか。(otearai wa doko desu ka.)
Où sont les toilettes?

Whoa, no John Waite and a frilly ascot on this thread. My mistake.
*takes his cleavers elsewhere*

You mean Bad English as in the band. Ohhhhhh.

It's my hobby now to understand Straughn's references. :)

You mean Bad English as in the band. Ohhhhhh.

It's my hobby now to understand Straughn's references. :)
Mod, no no no no!
No more understudies and interns! The temptation is too great!!!!


Bender Bending Rodriguez: "Hey baby, wanna kill all humans?"

Foreigners are notoriously good about having horrible English skills (Don't say *no shit moron*, I meant what I said) (no offense; I heard English is the hardest language in the world to learn *I'm an American, so the Brits here will criticize me too:)*)

I just checked out a fansite for a Korean game (Gunz) (which was just asking for trouble), and it's full of entertaining little posts that have horrible grammar. Sometimes the posters even admit their English sucks...idk. Maybe I'm just a cruel man. It's all entertaining. Not like internet lingo or anything-sometimes they actually do try and it comes out horrible. On other, REALLY EXTREMELY funny occasions, people try their luck at shortening English phrases (that made no sense in the first place) into what they think is internet lingo. That turns into a jumble of crap.

It gets hard to look at sometimes cause I'm normally rolling on the ground laughing...


English is NOT the most difficult language, try learning Mandarin Chinese. So how many languages do you speak? Are you fluent in Korean? Or are you one of these limited monolinguals who just pokes fun at other peoples accents? C**t:upyours: (rhymes with Aunt...)

They are lying, as you have just proved for yourself.

Spanish and Portuguese are similar enough that I can happily read academic texts in Spanish without ever having studied the language. What I cannot do is speak or write Spanish, and spoken Spanish has to be slow for me to understand all of it. If spoken at normal speed I can understand about half.
This is not due to some incredible linguistic talent (languages are hard work for me) but due to the similarity of the languages. If you enter graduate school here you have to prove your proficiency in one or two foreign languages. Spanish is so similar to Portuguese that it is not considered a foreign language for this by most universities.

Being fluent in Spanish and French, I find Portugese and Italian very easy to understand. I can read and comprehend these languages quite well, without ever having taken a class. Don't forget, some people have better capacity for languages, and as we get older, some lose that capacity to LEARN new languages or it becomes more difficult.

卫生间被占领。

De badkamers is bezet.

La salle de bains est occupée

Das Badezimmer wird besetzt

Το λουτρό είναι κατειλημμένο.

La stanza da bagno è occupata.

浴室は占められる。

목욕탕은 점유된다.

O banheiro é ocupado

Уборный занята

Se ocupa del baño.

Mod, no no no no!
No more understudies and interns! The temptation is too great!!!!


Bender Bending Rodriguez: "Hey baby, wanna kill all humans?"

Ohhhhh, you're saying Monica Lewinsky.

Bending Rodriguez? Ohhhhh, Futurama.

These were easy. :D

German seems to be one of the more difficult European languages, and people are surprisingly nice to you and rarely correct you when you make mistakes which clearly causes problems in learning it. :mad: They do however stare at you and make rude comments about you if you are speaking in English. What I think we need is an attitude like that of the Germans where people should feel honoured in a way that foreigners want to and are learning our language. We shouldnt be all rude to people like the French are.

We're all dumb in foreign languages.

My Spanish is iffy.

My Italian is atrocious.

My Russian is mostly dirty words and a few nonsense phrases.

My Yup'ik Eskimo is a source for much laughter from my native-speaking colleagues.

BUT... I'm laughing with them, and they know I'm trying, and respect me for it. It goes back to the difference between laughing at someone and laughing with them.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/8476/grammarnazi0ms.jpg

Care to explain the difference between a 'grammar nazi' and a grammar pedant?

Learning Swedish is way harder than English. In English it usually works to just say what feels right. But how come you don't give any credit to those who do have good grammar?

English is a very hard language...

Well that a laugh. I have spoken English fluently since I was six years old. I didn't even have to do the English tests in school until seventh grade. And from that I have learned this:

Don't say that TV is bad for children


EDIT: BTW, what is the Chinese Latin letter word for 'Yes'?

Yep, and Native English speaking people are notorious for being unable to learn any other language. English is my 3rd language, and I Aced English Literature and English Composition courses when I was in the US. I actually think the English of the average American is extremely bad, both in terms of grammar and pronounciation -> thats pretty worrying considering it is the only language they speak and will ever speak.

It was my understanding that Icelandic was the most difficult language to learn for a none native.

Foreigners are notoriously good about having horrible English skills (Don't say *no shit moron*, I meant what I said) (no offense; I heard English is the hardest language in the world to learn *I'm an American, so the Brits here will criticize me too:)*):rolleyes:
Whatever. Have you tried to learn any others?

I just checked out a fansite for a Korean game (Gunz) (which was just asking for trouble), and it's full of entertaining little posts that have horrible grammar. Sometimes the posters even admit their English sucks...idk. Maybe I'm just a cruel man. It's all entertaining. Not like internet lingo or anything-sometimes they actually do try and it comes out horrible. On other, REALLY EXTREMELY funny occasions, people try their luck at shortening English phrases (that made no sense in the first place) into what they think is internet lingo. That turns into a jumble of crap.

It gets hard to look at sometimes cause I'm normally rolling on the ground laughing...I prefer reading websites by American racists attempting to piece together German sentences. THAT's entertaining :D

Well, I used to make fun of English as a second language speakers ("Where is bathroom?", "I no understand what you are say! Fucking you!"), but then I moved to Panama. Here, I had to learn Spanish, and until like a year ago I sounded just like that, 'cept it's Spanish equivalent. Now, I can read and understand what people SAY perfectly, and I am pretty good at writing and talking (although not that great). I also know alot of Panamanian slang, so I can confuse my American friends who think they know Spanish ("Xopa, mopi? Que es lo que es.") I also pronounce it differently (I tend to not pronounce the "s", like a Panamanian.)

EDIT: BTW, what is the Chinese Latin letter word for 'Yes'?

I believe it's "zhèng què."

Foreigners are notoriously good about having horrible English skills (Don't say *no shit moron*, I meant what I said) (no offense; I heard English is the hardest language in the world to learn *I'm an American, so the Brits here will criticize me too:)*)

So much crap in such a disjointed and incoherent, little paragraph. Maybe you should start learning English, too? Seems like you'd need it.

[QUOTE=Bejerot]Et aussi, je parle le français intermédiaire, mais ma grammaire est si douteuse, alors... bof!

[QUOTE]
me too but for some reason I seem to understand more than I can speak.

Yep, and Native English speaking people are notorious for being unable to learn any other language. English is my 3rd language, and I Aced English Literature and English Composition courses when I was in the US. I actually think the English of the average American is extremely bad, both in terms of grammar and pronounciation -> thats pretty worrying considering it is the only language they speak and will ever speak.

Remember, American English and Eurpoean English differ in their structure, so what you may have been perceiving as "incorrect pronunciation" may, in fact, have been correct, locally.

I had a friend from Russia who had learned strict European English, then came to the US and was surprised to learn that a lot of the grammar structures and vocabulary that she had learned didn't sound right here.

Example: Group nouns. British English and American English differ on this point. In American English, a team or group is always treated as a singular noun, however, from my understanding, in British English, the group is treated as a plural noun since, while it is a single unit, it is made up of many. My Russian friend (whose English was phenomenal), tried to correct us on this, not realizing that it was a dialectal difference.

Ohhhhh, you're saying Monica Lewinsky.

Bending Rodriguez? Ohhhhh, Futurama.

These were easy. :D
The tasks vary. It's best to keep a few belt holes free. :)