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I'm not sure why is this here. It's basically a teacher complaining that people don't like when she makes up words, and has a strong accent. Language is a livi

by slver 5y ago

I'm not sure why is this here. It's basically a teacher complaining that people don't like when she makes up words, and has a strong accent. Language is a living protocol that you can only learn by listening people use it and using it yourself constantly. Whether a made up word makes sense syntactically and grammatically doesn't matter. In fact whether it's in a dictionary also doesn't matter. What matters is being understood. So you need to use words people know. Sometimes you're in a position to make up a new word, when you need to. Talking to students about when their exam is... is not one of those situations. And a heavy accent literally corrupts your communication. On top of making it hard to understand what words you say, your intonation becomes completely unintelligible, because you're speaking English, but intonating in another language. You're literally not speaking entirely in English. Strong Indian accent is especially infuriating for this, I find it very hard to listen to and understand. And by the way, made-up words and strong accents are ESPECIALLY annoying to OTHER non-native English speakers, because we have an extra hard time parsing this on top of understanding a non-native language already. I should know, I'm a Bulgarian, so... (I have slight accent).

rocknor 5y ago
Ah, nothing like telling people to change the way they have been speaking since childhood for your convenience... Those words and accent is understood by more than a hundred million people, and that number is going to increase manifold in the coming decades. So if you need to communicate with this large group of people, it's better that you learn to understand them, or it will be your fault for not understanding. Take your racism somewhere else.
- slver 5y ago
  > Ah, nothing like telling people to change the way they have been speaking since childhood for _your_ convenience... Look this is not a conversation about feelings. It's a conversation of what's necessary so we can understand each other effectively. Speaking the language of the people you're trying to talk to is a basic requirement for communicating. Being super-respecful of someone's origin doesn't make you comprehend the sounds coming out of their mouth. By your logic, I've been speaking Bulgarian since childhood, I should talk to you in Bulgarian and be super-offended when you don't understand, because millions of people speak Bulgarian. Instead, I'm using English, because it's an English-speaking board. That's called "common sense". > Take your racism somewhere else. My God... that's so ignorant, I just feel bad for you. You're trying to turn this into a moral debate, and it's not about morals. It's about understanding each other, get it? BTW, I'll be responding to you in Bulgarian only from now on. Because you're clearly not "racist" and you respect my culture and heritage, or don't you?
- andrewzah 5y ago
  Or both parties can work together since there is no True English. Indian English is different than <place> English. It is wrong for the author to expect their English to be universal, and it's wrong for <place> English's speakers to expect -their- English to be universal. Thick accents are frustrating in any language. I have had to work hard on removing my American accent when learning Korean; it made understanding what I was saying much easier for everyone. I think what people take issue with is when native speakers (who only speak 1 language, and maybe 1 local dialect of it) start demanding things from ESL/EFL learners.
  - rocknor 5y ago
    I'm not advocating making any particular dialect universal. I'm simply asking people to look at the big picture instead of hating the person that you're talking to because of how they talk. We have the Internet now, IMO it's only a matter of time until we naturally converge to a universal dialect. It will be a long time, but still.
    - slver 5y ago
      > I'm simply asking people to look at the big picture instead of hating the person that you're talking I didn't advocate "hating" anyone. On the other hand, you showed up and declared me a "racist" for no reason. Maybe you should listen to your own advice and not jump the gun and hate the person you're talking to.
notdang 5y ago
> Strong Indian accent is especially infuriating for this, I find it very hard to listen to and understand. This applies to any accent you were not exposed previously. I noticed that after some time you get used and understand it perfectly fine.
- slver 5y ago
  That's true not just about accents, but about any language. But whether the parties communicating have enough time to actually learn each other's dialects is another question entirely (and usually no, there isn't). Also, you can get used to a teenager saying "like" every second word and ending every single sentence by raising their pitch, or with excessive vocal fryyyyy. Ar tarnang avary vawaaal to aaah. But it doesn't necessarily mean that's effective communication style. There are dialects and accents that are actually less articulate than others. So even if you get used to them, it helps, but you still get less information content, and more dialect-specific ambient ornamentation (like some of the teen-speak examples I mentioned above).

by slver 5y ago

rocknor 5y ago

Ah, nothing like telling people to change the way they have been speaking since childhood for your convenience... Those words and accent is understood by more than a hundred million people, and that number is going to increase manifold in the coming decades. So if you need to communicate with this large group of people, it's better that you learn to understand them, or it will be your fault for not understanding. Take your racism somewhere else.

slver 5y ago
> Ah, nothing like telling people to change the way they have been speaking since childhood for _your_ convenience... Look this is not a conversation about feelings. It's a conversation of what's necessary so we can understand each other effectively. Speaking the language of the people you're trying to talk to is a basic requirement for communicating. Being super-respecful of someone's origin doesn't make you comprehend the sounds coming out of their mouth. By your logic, I've been speaking Bulgarian since childhood, I should talk to you in Bulgarian and be super-offended when you don't understand, because millions of people speak Bulgarian. Instead, I'm using English, because it's an English-speaking board. That's called "common sense". > Take your racism somewhere else. My God... that's so ignorant, I just feel bad for you. You're trying to turn this into a moral debate, and it's not about morals. It's about understanding each other, get it? BTW, I'll be responding to you in Bulgarian only from now on. Because you're clearly not "racist" and you respect my culture and heritage, or don't you?
andrewzah 5y ago
Or both parties can work together since there is no True English. Indian English is different than <place> English. It is wrong for the author to expect their English to be universal, and it's wrong for <place> English's speakers to expect -their- English to be universal. Thick accents are frustrating in any language. I have had to work hard on removing my American accent when learning Korean; it made understanding what I was saying much easier for everyone. I think what people take issue with is when native speakers (who only speak 1 language, and maybe 1 local dialect of it) start demanding things from ESL/EFL learners.
- rocknor 5y ago
  I'm not advocating making any particular dialect universal. I'm simply asking people to look at the big picture instead of hating the person that you're talking to because of how they talk. We have the Internet now, IMO it's only a matter of time until we naturally converge to a universal dialect. It will be a long time, but still.
  - slver 5y ago
    > I'm simply asking people to look at the big picture instead of hating the person that you're talking I didn't advocate "hating" anyone. On the other hand, you showed up and declared me a "racist" for no reason. Maybe you should listen to your own advice and not jump the gun and hate the person you're talking to.

notdang 5y ago

> Strong Indian accent is especially infuriating for this, I find it very hard to listen to and understand. This applies to any accent you were not exposed previously. I noticed that after some time you get used and understand it perfectly fine.

slver 5y ago
That's true not just about accents, but about any language. But whether the parties communicating have enough time to actually learn each other's dialects is another question entirely (and usually no, there isn't). Also, you can get used to a teenager saying "like" every second word and ending every single sentence by raising their pitch, or with excessive vocal fryyyyy. Ar tarnang avary vawaaal to aaah. But it doesn't necessarily mean that's effective communication style. There are dialects and accents that are actually less articulate than others. So even if you get used to them, it helps, but you still get less information content, and more dialect-specific ambient ornamentation (like some of the teen-speak examples I mentioned above).