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Is it important to be considerate to those who can't speak English well?

Is it important to be considerate to those who can't speak English well?

  • No, they should not be here if they can't already communicate well in English.

    Votes: 1 2.6%

  • Yes, of course. As long as the person is trying, we should cut him some slack.

    Votes: 33 84.6%

  • Not sure

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Other (explain)

    Votes: 5 12.8%
  • Total voters
    39
Luna Tick said:
I agree with almost everything you wrote. The only thing I take issue with is the notion that you have to never speak your own language. They tell exchange students to not speak English in the foreign country because they don't want them to do as you've described. They don't want them to congregate with other Americans and speak English all the time, thus never learning the foreign language. However, as long as you get daily practice with the new language, you'll learn more and more of it each day. You can sometimes switch back to English and still learn the other language. The problem comes when people end up relying on English and not practicing the language they went over there to learn.
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I am English..I am talking about when I lived in France..as long as I had a bi-lingual French/English speaker with me..I would keep asking..''what did he say?''

Then very suddenly..my interpreter left...leaving me to sink or swim..

I find that immigrants colonize various areas..and do not feel the need to totally immerse themselves in the language..

All they need to know is ..tea break..overtime...etc
 
0bserver92 said:
If they stay out of the South they should be fine then.
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You do realize that there are more regional accents and slang besides the south right?
 
cpgrad08 said:
You do realize that there are more regional accents and slang besides the south right?
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Yes it's just the Southern dialect seems to use them more often and the accent I find is generally undesirable like the Quebecois accent in French or the English Brummy accent.
 
wolfie said:
I am English..I am talking about when I lived in France..as long as I had a bi-lingual French/English speaker with me..I would keep asking..''what did he say?''

Then very suddenly..my interpreter left...leaving me to sink or swim..

I find that immigrants colonize various areas..and do not feel the need to totally immerse themselves in the language..

All they need to know is ..tea break..overtime...etc
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I can see that. My situation was I was on exchange in Germany and I found a German boyfriend who wasn't very good at English. My German was better than his English so we spoke German all the time. I also lived in a dorm with mostly students from Germany. The ones not from there were from places like Japan and Korea whose languages I did not know. Therefore in the dorm I also spoke German all the time. When I did encounter students from the US or England it was only natural to speak in English. That did not stop me from learning German because I was practicing German all the time.
 
Mathematician said:
I'll agree that Americans make many English errors. Haven't you noticed that only the most well-educated blacks seem to speak grammatically correctly? So make sure you throw the vast majority of blacks in with the rednecks you want to deport.

By the way, one of my pet peeves is the overgeneralization of using "I" instead of "me".
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I said rather deport, not that I'd wish to deport anyone over something so trivial. I can take shots against rednecks cause I grew up surrounded by them. It's a mentality of "I'm white, so I deserve to be here and you don't," except that's not an acceptable thing to say, so they justify it in other terms, like non-English speaking.
 
jonny5 said:
They speak English just fine. That is just their local dialect, and if youre in their region, then its their prerogative. However, if they moved to a different region I would expect them to adapt as well.
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That's not what I'm referring to. It's because they never read and have no means to express themselves other than 'that's gay / retarded.'
 
I was just wondering. What's the best language to troll in?:mrgreen:

If it was not against the rules.
 
Luna Tick said:
Do you speak another language? I'd bet you don't because you're not showing much knowledge of the topic. You can check with any linguist. The fact is most people who learn a second language as an adult will always have at least somewhat of an accent no matter how hard they work. Twenty years later they'll still have an accent. That's most people. Some people with exceptional talent manage to completely shed their accent. That's the very few. Some people, the less talented, will have a very heavy accent permanently no matter how hard they work or how long. Language is something that not everyone has the same natural ability at. It's a classic bell curve and it's a fact.

I wrote this poll because I see some Americans being rude to foreigners out of ignorance. Most of the time it's unintentional. Someone might rattle off fast English and not slow down when the person clearly doesn't understand. Sometimes people throw fits saying, "They should learn English" when the person is learning it, but isn't good at it yet. Sometimes people complain over accents that the person can't help.
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Ad hominem. If you are going to get upset about people being rude, then you should not be rude to the people who responded to your rant.
 
jonny5 said:
Ad hominem. If you are going to get upset about people being rude, then you should not be rude to the people who responded to your rant.
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I did not post any rant and was not rude to you. Your posts are not showing much knowledge of what it's like to learn a foreign language. It's why I suspect you don't know one. If you don't, it certainly does NOT mean that you're stupid. I apologize if I implied otherwise. It only means you don't have knowledge in that area in the same way that I have almost no knowledge of what it's like to be a fighter pilot or the goalie of an NHL hockey team.
 
Luna Tick said:
I did not post any rant and was not rude to you. Your posts are not showing much knowledge of what it's like to learn a foreign language. It's why I suspect you don't know one. If you don't, it certainly does NOT mean that you're stupid. I apologize if I implied otherwise. It only means you don't have knowledge in that area in the same way that I have almost no knowledge of what it's like to be a fighter pilot or the goalie of an NHL hockey team.
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Ad hominem again.

"an argument made personally against an opponent instead of against their argument"
 
If someone is trying to communicate in the native language, certainly.
 
CanadaJohn said:
In everyday life, it's important to be considerate of other people on a regular basis for a number of reasons, including understanding them and they understanding you. When I meet someone on the street who is lost or looking for something, I have no way of knowing if they have been living here a long time, just moved here, or simply visiting on vacation. It would never dawn on me to be ignorant or insulting to them simply because they were struggling with the English language.

As for learning a new language, I for one am terrible at it so I'd never criticize someone else having trouble with English - after all, my pre-alzheimers English is not always the greatest either.

What I have noticed, however, here in Toronto, is that there are pockets of Asians who have emigrated to Canada and bought up sections of the city, including shops and malls, and turned them into single language Asian areas where English is not spoken and English is not used in any signs or products solds. I personally find that to be ignorant and rude and disrespectful of the great country that invited them in.
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You mean unless they spoke french right?
 
Mason66 said:
You mean unless they spoke french right?
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I have nothing against people who speak French even if many of them are the most arrogant bores on the planet. I will always be considerate of those I don't know and meet on the street - I'll save the distain for after I get to know them, if I'm so unfortunate.
 
Goshin said:
The first 40 seconds....


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Sam was one of the greats. I remember the night he died, I wasn't that far away. What a shame.
 
jonny5 said:
Ad hominem again.

"an argument made personally against an opponent instead of against their argument"
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Thanks for showing that I made no such attack. My post does not meet that definition. I talked about your ignorance, which is NOT a personal attack. Ignorance is not the same thing as stupidity. You chose to read in a personal attack. At person's qualifications are indeed relevant to a topic. I speak foreign languages. I know what it's like to be in another country learning their language. You plainly and obviously don't, as is indicated by your ignorant comments on the topic. You can call that a personal attack, but it's not. If that's a personal attack, then it must be an attack on me to claim I have no idea what it's like to fly a bomber mission in Vietnam, even though that's absolutely the truth.
 
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