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Both points can be true: startup CEOs need to be understandable in English, and native speakers are insensitive to the difficulties of someone trying to learn t
by gruseom 13y ago
Both points can be true: startup CEOs need to be understandable in English, and native speakers are insensitive to the difficulties of someone trying to learn their language. The insensitivity is greater if the person hasn't tried to learn a foreign language themselves, and no doubt also if they lack empathy.
That has nothing to do with English, though. Any language student who's ever sat around with a group of native speakers babbling away knows how impossible it is to get them to slow down for you. And even when you're speaking one-on-one with someone, you might be able to get them to slow down for 5 seconds if you're lucky before they forget and just start speaking normally (i.e. completely unintelligibly to you) again. It's obviously not arrogance. People just aren't aware of how they speak their native language.
- simonebrunozzi 13y agoHey Daniel, good points. I agree that when there are MULTIPLE English speakers in the group, it's almost impossible to slow them down. I also agree that it's unlikely to be arrogance in that case. Perhaps I was mostly referring to one-to-one communications. I think there's something specific to English though, especially the pronunciation part. As an example, I have heard multiple times from Japanese and Russians that learning how to pronounce Italian is quite simple for them; I also was often in situations where Italians were thought to be Russians because of the way they would pronounce English. This means that some languages are easier than others, and I still think that English is not that great from this point of view.
- gruseom 13y agoI was speaking only about the thing where native speakers are insensitive to learners. You may be right that English is harder to pronounce. Being an insensitive English speaker I defer to your expertise!
- WildUtah 13y agoJapanese, Italian, Spanish, and a few other languages have about five to nine distinct vowels. They also have a severe limit on consonant blends and combinations. English has about 25 distinct vowels; it varies depending on your accent. Consonants can be placed around vowels freely without strict rules. There are about 250 distinct syllables in use in Japanese and two or three times that many in Spanish or Italian. English has many thousands. So English is harder, but people learn to speak it. Even babies.
- simonebrunozzi 13y agoWildUtah, thanks for the details. Very useful and interesting. So, I was right in thinking that pronouncing English is harder than, say, Italian or Japanese. Unfortunately, written Japanese is super hard IMHO, or most non-western alphabets. Simone