daveb Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 6 hours ago, PoeciMeta said: I don't think I'm that good tbh I didn't know English wasn't your native tongue. Your posts look good to me. I find that often when people apologize about their English on forums they are usually better than they think. Link to post Share on other sites
frostboot Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 Well, globalization. Personally, I grew up watching Friends! I remember it being on tv after dinner and as I tried to follow what was happening I first learnt to read the subtitles quickly, and then begun to understand what they were saying. I started using the internet at an early age and after learning that googling things in English tends to give you more results, it just became unavoidable. Of course, we also learn English in school and our education almost seems to rest on the assumption that we pick up English on our own. If you don't, you're pretty much screwed. Link to post Share on other sites
Ortac Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 When I was a very young child, I didn't at first realise that there were people who couldn't speak English. I thought that everyone in France spoke mainly English at home and French when out and about, and that was the norm! I was four years old when one day I spoke to some other kids in English and it came as a complete surprise to me that they couldn't understand me and all I got back were confused looks. Because France is generally not great at English, it means that there are many erroneous and amusing translations to be seen where someone has attempted to display a notice or something in English for the benefit of foreign visitors. The most hilarious I have seen was at a campsite, where a notice stated: "Campers, please empty your chemical water closets into the men's stand-up shitter". I so wish I had a photo of that. Sadly I don't, but I swear it existed. Link to post Share on other sites
half-blood Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 I'm from the Philippines -- here, English is one of the most commonly used languages. I've learned mainly from using English everyday at school, ever since I was in kindergarten! It's really just a matter of getting used to the language. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 I was born in the Southern U.S. so some people in my own country would question whether I speak proper English. Trust me when I talk in real life it's much different than how I type. 😂😂😂 Link to post Share on other sites
Piotrek Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 @Ortac Do I understand correctly that you come from a bilingual family? Link to post Share on other sites
Acing It Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 On 1/19/2020 at 3:41 PM, Ortac said: Because France is generally not great at English, it means that there are many erroneous and amusing translations to be seen where someone has attempted to display a notice or something in English for the benefit of foreign visitors. The most hilarious I have seen was at a campsite, where a notice stated: "Campers, please empty your chemical water closets into the men's stand-up shitter". I so wish I had a photo of that. Sadly I don't, but I swear it existed. Really? I never noticed! Hahah I was in Belgium during the Christmas holidays and you could be forgiven for thinking you were in an English speaking country looking at shop windows and the like. Not sure what is going on there but they can't be very proud of their own language, unlike French speaking countries/areas. I've never seen anything like it. Link to post Share on other sites
Bzztoh Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 Dutch or Diets was once one of the great languages of Europe, but all Diets speaking nations were rather great at trade. International, so multilingualship (yes just invented the word) has always been important. Link to post Share on other sites
Janus the Fox Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 English is my first language, I'm still poor at it, below a high school level still. English is foreign to a Welsh Fox Link to post Share on other sites
Piotrek Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 9 hours ago, Janus DarkFox said: English is my first language, I'm still poor at it, below a high school level still. English is foreign to a Welsh Fox Do you speak Welsh? @Bzztoh I've been to the Netherlands recently and have read about the Dutch endeavours in other parts of the world. I don't speak any Dutch though, other than what I may have picked up from Heidevolk, one of my favourite bands. Link to post Share on other sites
Janus the Fox Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 24 minutes ago, Piotrek said: Do you speak Welsh? Little to no Welsh either Link to post Share on other sites
PoeciMeta Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 On 1/19/2020 at 4:41 PM, Ortac said: Because France is generally not great at English, it means that there are many erroneous and amusing translations to be seen where someone has attempted to display a notice or something in English for the benefit of foreign visitors. The most hilarious I have seen was at a campsite, where a notice stated: "Campers, please empty your chemical water closets into the men's stand-up shitter". I so wish I had a photo of that. Sadly I don't, but I swear it existed. Haha, true! 😂 So your family spoke English too? I wish mine did, would have saved me a lot of effort. Link to post Share on other sites
Ortac Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 21 hours ago, Piotrek said: @Ortac Do I understand correctly that you come from a bilingual family? Yeah, I was spoon fed English since birth by my mother who is a native speaker, so I was lucky. Most of my peers had to learn English the hard way, at school with text books. In fact, there were actually three languages spoken within my immediate family as on my father's side I also had a grandmother who was a native German speaker, but sadly that language was not passed down to me and I can only speak two. Link to post Share on other sites
Piotrek Posted January 23, 2020 Share Posted January 23, 2020 On 12/29/2019 at 11:58 AM, Arodash said: Im a native english speaker and I really want to ask, what did you all find most difficult about learning english? The intricacies of article usage never cease to stump me. The fact the very grammatical cathegory of definiteness/indefiniteneness doesn't exist in Polish makes it even more confusing. The real problem begins when you tutor someone in English and you're supposed to explain the rules of article usage to them. Other than that, small differences in meaning between words which are translated the same way in my native lanaguage. The most recent exmple of that: "Sympathy" v "compassion". Link to post Share on other sites
Rhaenys Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 British colonization. Belt, rod, wooden spoon waiting for you at home and school if you didn't speak it properly. Link to post Share on other sites
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