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Taking part in asynchronous internet discussions is wildly easier than any face to face communication. The blend of written, yet informal language used on the n

by usrusr 9y ago

Taking part in asynchronous internet discussions is wildly easier than any face to face communication. The blend of written, yet informal language used on the net makes it very easy to participate. In quality of writing, HN might be leaps and bounds above a random youtube comment thread, but that still does not make it particularly difficult. Source: I feel quite at home commenting here, but I'm a mumbling wreckage when navigating the day to day linguistic perils of e.g. something as trivial as a US supermarket checkout.

microcolonel 9y ago
> Source: I feel quite at home commenting here, but I'm a mumbling wreckage when navigating the day to day linguistic perils of e.g. something as trivial as a US supermarket checkout. Yeah, I think that's a fairly common issue (overspecialization). I have that problem with studying Japanese: I get most of my practice in listening, so I can listen to and understand at a level far above my speaking, reading, or writing.
- jernfrost 9y ago
  Exactly. That is kind of my point. Many europeans are able to participate in technical discussion in english even if our regular english is lacking. When I visited relatives in the US I noticed the problem that I could speak of computer science topics, history etc without problems, but struggled big time even naming the most basic food items. I knew what spam email was but was unaware that it was an actual food product until I visted wallmart and saw spam on the shelf which made laugh far more than perhaps such an observation reasonably warants. I also can’t read a lot of regular prose very well. I can read any technical subject quite well though. To be fair I was shocked when visiting the US how bad many Americans are at formulating themselves on paper.
  - microcolonel 9y ago
    > To be fair I was shocked when visiting the US how bad many Americans are at formulating themselves on paper. The thing about English is that it's such a clusterfuck; slang, contractions, and "incorrect" grammar are hard to criticize when the language is already such a mess. Partly in jest, I liken it to a linguistic Broken Windows Theory[0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

by usrusr 9y ago

microcolonel 9y ago

> Source: I feel quite at home commenting here, but I'm a mumbling wreckage when navigating the day to day linguistic perils of e.g. something as trivial as a US supermarket checkout. Yeah, I think that's a fairly common issue (overspecialization). I have that problem with studying Japanese: I get most of my practice in listening, so I can listen to and understand at a level far above my speaking, reading, or writing.

jernfrost 9y ago
Exactly. That is kind of my point. Many europeans are able to participate in technical discussion in english even if our regular english is lacking. When I visited relatives in the US I noticed the problem that I could speak of computer science topics, history etc without problems, but struggled big time even naming the most basic food items. I knew what spam email was but was unaware that it was an actual food product until I visted wallmart and saw spam on the shelf which made laugh far more than perhaps such an observation reasonably warants. I also can’t read a lot of regular prose very well. I can read any technical subject quite well though. To be fair I was shocked when visiting the US how bad many Americans are at formulating themselves on paper.
- microcolonel 9y ago
  > To be fair I was shocked when visiting the US how bad many Americans are at formulating themselves on paper. The thing about English is that it's such a clusterfuck; slang, contractions, and "incorrect" grammar are hard to criticize when the language is already such a mess. Partly in jest, I liken it to a linguistic Broken Windows Theory[0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory