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Hilariously even the most proficient Portuguese English speaker cannot understand a word I say when I turn and converse with a fellow Brit, or an Americ
by geocrasher 5y ago
Hilariously even the most proficient Portuguese English speaker cannot
understand a word I say when I turn and converse with a fellow Brit, or an
American. I don't notice any difference, but I guess my perfectly enunciated
Queen's English turns into incomprehensible gibberish.
As a native English speaker, it's easy to underestimate how nuanced and even culture specific our language is, even compared to other English speaking countries such as NZ or AUS.
For example, I have learned that when I'm communicating with folks in India, who speak wonderful English, that I can't use common American colloquialisms such as "shooting yourself in the foot" or other similarly colorful language. It has no context for them, and the point is lost.
- presentation 5y agoI notice that when I speak to Japanese people (I live in Tokyo) that I subconsciously simplify and slow down my English, and even occasionally imitate their English errors; but when I speak with other native English speakers I naturally pull out loads of slang and speed up significantly. I also notice that my friends don’t always do that naturally, and so my Japanese friends confide that they didn’t understand much of what my friends were saying. I wonder if I’m more attuned to that since my own parents weren’t native, 100% fluent English speakers (I definitely dumbed things down for them, too).
- bluGill 5y agoI most noticed this when it didn't. I met a Swedish girl traveling in the US, and it turned out we were going the same way so I gave her a ride. She seemed perfectly fluent so I didn't think of simplifying my speech and used an unusual word which confused her.
- xcambar 5y agoThe english learnt/spoken by most non-native speakers is also often referred to as "globish" for this very reason: get rid of any local or cultural idioms so that it is globally understandable.