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English becoming the "international" language for the west has nothing to do with English as a language, and everything to do with geopolitics and economics. A

English becoming the "international" language for the west has nothing to do with English as a language, and everything to do with geopolitics and economics. As for being treated as an outsider, I actually moved and lived to the US for close to a year. I made tons of effort to try and speak good English. On the face of it, the locals were very appreciative - French accent is so romantic, am I right? In reality, they made absolutely zero effort to understand me when my pronunciation differed slightly from the correct one, on countless occasions. And believe me, I tried.

Symbiote 2y ago
I would like to hear from someone who lived in Britain for a year, but I think British people are far more tolerant and willing to listen. (Failing to realise the L in would, should and could is silent, so would and wood are pronounced identically, is half the French accent.)
milch 2y ago
> In reality, they made absolutely zero effort to understand me when my pronunciation differed slightly from the correct one, on countless occasions. And believe me, I tried. I found this quite interesting about Japan. I went on vacation there recently, and especially in more rural places many people do not speak English. I don't speak Japanese, just picking up a few words while there. The people there put an immense amount of effort trying to understand what you're saying, e.g. somehow we managed to explain to a taxi driver the location of our hotel using only some elementary words like water, station, train tracks, up/down/left/right, yes/no, please/thank you. They are also very appreciative and often find it quite funny/interesting when you try to speak Japanese, even just simple words. As another example we also had an incident where a random passerby noticed we were trying to find our way, so (I assume) he asked us where we were trying to go, and then led us to the right bus stop. IME any similar situation in the US would more likely lead to people avoiding eye contact or pretending to be busy than trying to help, certainly not proactively without being asked to

Symbiote 2y ago

I would like to hear from someone who lived in Britain for a year, but I think British people are far more tolerant and willing to listen. (Failing to realise the L in would, should and could is silent, so would and wood are pronounced identically, is half the French accent.)

milch 2y ago

> In reality, they made absolutely zero effort to understand me when my pronunciation differed slightly from the correct one, on countless occasions. And believe me, I tried. I found this quite interesting about Japan. I went on vacation there recently, and especially in more rural places many people do not speak English. I don't speak Japanese, just picking up a few words while there. The people there put an immense amount of effort trying to understand what you're saying, e.g. somehow we managed to explain to a taxi driver the location of our hotel using only some elementary words like water, station, train tracks, up/down/left/right, yes/no, please/thank you. They are also very appreciative and often find it quite funny/interesting when you try to speak Japanese, even just simple words. As another example we also had an incident where a random passerby noticed we were trying to find our way, so (I assume) he asked us where we were trying to go, and then led us to the right bus stop. IME any similar situation in the US would more likely lead to people avoiding eye contact or pretending to be busy than trying to help, certainly not proactively without being asked to