4 ms·

Hey, thanks. Yeah, being able to recognise non-native speakers (based on accents and non-idiomatic sentences) is apparently a significant evolutionary advantage

by jdiez17 12y ago

Hey, thanks. Yeah, being able to recognise non-native speakers (based on accents and non-idiomatic sentences) is apparently a significant evolutionary advantage. I remember reading most people can identify a person speaking in a foreign accent within 80ms. That's pretty impressive! I'm currently trying to actively get rid of my accent. I've been asked a few times whether I'm actually British, and pretty much nobody can actually guess where I'm from.

1_player 12y ago
How long have you been living in Britain, for people to think you're British from your accent? I started pretty much the same way, trying to make sense of C++ and VB manuals when I was young and I think I have pretty good reading and writing skills now, although a native speaker can notice English is not my primary language. Spoken English is still an obstacle for me, I moved to London a year ago, I got a pretty good pronunciation, but I still find it much harder to convey my thoughts, compared to writing them. And I'm trying hard to lose my Italian accent, luckily it's not as pronounced as the stereotypical one. Though I have to admit I've never been a good speaker, not even in my native language.
- jdiez17 12y ago
  About a year now. My spoken English was pretty rough back then, but I started copying the sounds I heard when other people spoke, and it seems to have helped. Yeah, it's a lot harder to convey thoughts by speech in a foreign language, and I think it's because you have to make a conscious effort to find the right words or expressions. It's like getting data from RAM (foreign language) or from the L1 cache (native). It gets better though, with practice.
  - srathbun 12y ago
    I would guess you aren't thinking in the language in question. You are translating your native language sentence into the appropriate english sentence on the fly. To use a programming analogy, it is like writing Haskell code as if it was C. Because you aren't thinking functionally, for every imperative step the C code in your head takes you have to translate it to some sort of functional analog. You can get through it, but it is slower, and looks "funny" to a "native".
noonespecial 12y ago
I always hated it when I was learning German when people would point out that I'd said something silly but not tell me the "right" way to do it. In that spirit, as a native speaker: "...from the context and the few words I recognised." would work just fine. That's english for you. When the peasants are revolting, its very different from when the food is revolting...
- jdiez17 12y ago
  Yep, thanks. Getting a basic handle on English is not too hard, because of the lack of gender pronouns and a few other things, but masquerading as a native speaker is exponentially harder :)
- gjm11 12y ago
  I think "a few words" is probably just slightly nearer the intended meaning than "the few words".

by jdiez17 12y ago

1_player 12y ago

How long have you been living in Britain, for people to think you're British from your accent? I started pretty much the same way, trying to make sense of C++ and VB manuals when I was young and I think I have pretty good reading and writing skills now, although a native speaker can notice English is not my primary language. Spoken English is still an obstacle for me, I moved to London a year ago, I got a pretty good pronunciation, but I still find it much harder to convey my thoughts, compared to writing them. And I'm trying hard to lose my Italian accent, luckily it's not as pronounced as the stereotypical one. Though I have to admit I've never been a good speaker, not even in my native language.

jdiez17 12y ago
About a year now. My spoken English was pretty rough back then, but I started copying the sounds I heard when other people spoke, and it seems to have helped. Yeah, it's a lot harder to convey thoughts by speech in a foreign language, and I think it's because you have to make a conscious effort to find the right words or expressions. It's like getting data from RAM (foreign language) or from the L1 cache (native). It gets better though, with practice.
- srathbun 12y ago
  I would guess you aren't thinking in the language in question. You are translating your native language sentence into the appropriate english sentence on the fly. To use a programming analogy, it is like writing Haskell code as if it was C. Because you aren't thinking functionally, for every imperative step the C code in your head takes you have to translate it to some sort of functional analog. You can get through it, but it is slower, and looks "funny" to a "native".

noonespecial 12y ago

I always hated it when I was learning German when people would point out that I'd said something silly but not tell me the "right" way to do it. In that spirit, as a native speaker: "...from the context and the few words I recognised." would work just fine. That's english for you. When the peasants are revolting, its very different from when the food is revolting...

jdiez17 12y ago
Yep, thanks. Getting a basic handle on English is not too hard, because of the lack of gender pronouns and a few other things, but masquerading as a native speaker is exponentially harder :)
gjm11 12y ago
I think "a few words" is probably just slightly nearer the intended meaning than "the few words".