How come English speakers are incomprehensible to others?

[worgeordie]

2 minutes ago, bignok said:

Im proud not to be like you.

You would be a much better person , if you were ....

 

regards Worgeordie

[vangrop]

15 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

There's almost as much British bashing as Thai on ASEANNOW  , if you don't understand us

learn to live with it, as i am proud of my accent and would not change it for the World , learn

to be proud of who you are ,

 

regards Worgeordie

All to your credit, I admire you for that but the subject concerns the difficulty of understanding when conversing with an English speaker

[Dan O]

43 minutes ago, Hawaiian said:

You forgot you're and your.

spell correction programs have taken over and it becomes annoying to have to constantly go back and change what's been written.

[bignok]

10 minutes ago, vangrop said:

QED bogan is a slang term used by Australians end New Zeelanders, how would other people understand that?

Google is worldwide.

[bignok]

8 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

You would be a much better person , if you were ....

 

regards Worgeordie

Good bless and good health.

[Wobblybob]

3 minutes ago, vangrop said:

All to your credit, I admire you for that but the subject concerns the difficulty of understanding when conversing with an English speaker

Do you think that the problem might lie with you? 

[The Cyclist]

1 hour ago, vangrop said:

On the contrary when conversating with any other European people I understand despite our sometimes ridicoulous accents. Can anyone explain

 

The nuances of the English language are lost on those taught English as a 2nd language

 

Add in local dialects, sarcasm, irony, sense of humour and those nuances get even worse.

 

As some Trekkie said.

 

" It's English Jim, but not as we know it "

[vangrop]

3 minutes ago, bignok said:

Google is worldwide

Especially when you're in a direct, face-to-face conversation with someone!?

[scubascuba3]

56 minutes ago, bignok said:

Aussies no accent. You should all copy Aussies.

Couple years ago a bogan aussie sat next to me in a bar, difficult to understand what he was banging on about, showed me how to cut someones throat, i made my excuses and left ASAP, be careful of aussies.

 

Some Brits do have very strong accents, not easy to understand

Edited December 5, 2023 by scubascuba3

[bignok]

4 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Couple years ago a bogan aussie sat next to me in a bar, difficult to understand what he was banging on about, showed me how to cut someones throat, i made my excuses and left ASAP, be careful of aussies.

 

Some Brits do have very strong accents, not easy to understand

Pattaya must get the worst ones. I've never met one like that.

[JackGats]

Few non-natives speak English with a native-like English/US/AUS accent or understand English well when spoken with a native accent. The  English they speak and understand best will be equally broken English, non idiomatic, with the phonetics all wrong, an impoverished meta-language that doesn't exist as a real language. When they watch a movie in original English they will usually not be able to watch without sub-titles.  Note that those fools will be proud of their "English". They will flout it at every occasion in order to show that they "can speak English", like a poorly-endowed exhibitionist flouting his small pecker.

[Dmaxdan]

31 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

There's almost as much British bashing as Thai on ASEANNOW  , if you don't understand us

learn to live with it, as i am proud of my accent and would not change it for the World , learn

to be proud of who you are ,

 

regards Worgeordie

 

Yes, it's ironic that the rest of the world dares to criticise us Brits as to how we speak our language.

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, pub2022 said:

How come english native speakers do not know how to properly use it's/its and there/their?

How can speakers, speakers note, misuse those words? This topic is about the spoken word, not the written word.

 

BTW the word English is a proper noun and should be capitalized.

[bignok]

Just now, Dmaxdan said:

Yes, it's ironic that the rest of the world dares to criticise us Brits as to how we speak our language.

Given the 17 accents it seems you Brits can't agree on how to speak it.

[Dmaxdan]

1 hour ago, pub2022 said:

How come english native speakers do not know how to properly use it's/its and there/their?

This is to do with writing English, not speaking it. A whole different ball game.

[Dan O]

57 minutes ago, Polar Bear said:

Euro English is a separate dialect (or set of dialects, depending on how you want to break it down) to standard English. As it's primarily used as a lingua franca, it is typically spoken more slowly, the vocabulary and grammar are slightly simplified, and it's more concrete because idioms rarely translate well. Naturally, the parts that have been dropped in Euro English are the parts that learners find most difficult. If that's what you have primarily been exposed to, of course you will find British/American/Whatever English more difficult to understand, especially if the speaker has an accent or uses a local dialect. The solution is to practice listening to a wider variety of dialects.

Americans often struggle more with British accents compared to Brits who generally have fewer problems with American accents. That's partly down to there being a wider range of strong accents in the UK, but it's mostly because we are exposed to a lot more American English through TV and movies. When British accents do make it in American media they are usually received pronunciation and bear little resemblance to how most people actually talk. Brits flounder just as much when faced with a strong unfamiliar American accent. (And I once had a very confusing conversation with a Glaswegian Rasta. My Scottish friend had to translate because despite us both supposedly speaking English we didn't appear to have any language in common at all.)

Find movies where actors have local accents or watch/listen to local news from around the world. If you are serious about it, there are plenty of materials online for English learners who need to understand a broader range of dialects.

There are several versions of English that very uncommonly connected. UK and Aussie (generalized countries ) often make up words or truncate words indiscriminately. The use of slang terms is common in almost every country and regions inside those countries. Depending on who teaches the language and their approach and formality of the use of the language you end up with a variety of conceptional translations of words and phrases.  

[GreasyFingers]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Are you referring to all English speakers, or just British? Some Brits have very strong accents. Most say Americans are fairly easy to understand. The accent, if they have one, is fairly flat.

Except that they have trouble understanding Australian.

[Olav Seglem]

Im norwegian living in thailand.

Used to speak english with foreign customers in norway, british, american, whatsoever.

I have a great british friend here in thailand, and i enjoy our conversations.

However he comes from north london and speak dialect. Definately not easy to under understand, but always get the meaning :-)

Guess we norwegians, meeting a foreigner try speak norwegian would have tried speak to him in "standard norwegian". But can understand easy to forget.

And also-we can ask polite:"can you please try speak without your dialect, so more easy for me to understand :-)

 

[richard_smith237]

Some people just don't make an effort to make themselves clearly understood.... 

 

1 hour ago, worgeordie said:

1 hour ago, bignok said:

Why would you be proud of something you had nothing to do with? 

 

Be proud of being a kind person. 

 

 

Well i suppose you must be proud of been the biggest troll on here .....

 

tie my kangaroo down sport ..... be proud of that

 

regards worgeordie

 

Proud of being a kind person indeed...   

 

 

 

 

[soi3eddie]

2 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   They do generally know that , its just arduous making an apostrophe and so don't bother and sometimes there and their are used in the wrong place , just a mistake 

You forget one more. They're often wrong and don't know the difference. Cue many confused emojis from those that don't know  

 

 

[MangoKorat]

2 hours ago, vangrop said:

I was not born in a country whose native language is English. At school we were taught classic English. Unfortunately here in Thailand I experienced that it is impossible to have a fluent conversation with a native English speaking individu. Is it their accent, their speedness, their dialect, their level of education, their idioms I would like to understand. On the contrary when conversating with any other European people I understand despite our sometimes ridicoulous accents. Can anyone explain

I fully understand your problems.  I have never understood why some native English speakers use their accent and/or colloquial language when speaking to foreigners.  I have a strong localised accent and may speak colloquially when I'm at home in England but I can also speak what is known as the 'Queen's English' (now King's) and I use that when I'm abroad.  I believe that most if not all other native English speakers can also do the same - they just don't. How they expect people who have been taught basic English to understand them is beyond me. 

 

There are other problems too, the fact that so many English teachers abroad teach American English instead of the official international standard of British English can also be confusing for foreigners. Many's the time I've heard a Thai national say 'trash can' or 'sidewalk'.  There is no excuse for this, the teachers know the differences between US English and British English and should be teaching the correct language, regardless of which one they use themselves.  The whole point in having an international language is to enable communication between the speakers of different languages - installing confusion into that mix is not at all helpful.

 

Most native English speakers know the differences between US and British English but non native speakers are unlikely to.

[richard_smith237]

1 hour ago, The Cyclist said:

 

The nuances of the English language are lost on those taught English as a 2nd language

 

Add in local dialects, sarcasm, irony, sense of humour and those nuances get even worse.

 

As some Trekkie said.

 

" It's English Jim, but not as we know it "

 

Exactly...  and thats the same of many languages.

 

Thailand also has many accents and dialects filled with similar degrees of nuance. 

 

There are those who don't make an effort to make themselves understood. 

 

There is also the other 'Hollywood facet' to this...   whereby many people are far more familiar with north american accents due to their familiarisation with american pop culture, movies and TV shows. 

 

 

[bignok]

3 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Some people just don't make an effort to make themselves clearly understood.... 

 

 

Proud of being a kind person indeed...   

 

 

 

 

Hi Ritchie. I hope you find some fun and happiness one day.

 

Good luck.

[Pattaya57]

Wow, I did 3 years of high school French but when I went to France no-one could understand me. All these years I thought my French was crap but I now realise from the OP that it was their fault they didn't understand me 😉 

 

Also, what's this got to do with Pattaya, all forms of English seem widely understood here

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Pattaya57

[GreasyFingers]

The Americans have bastardized the English language. A Z is a zed, not a zee. Not to mention the unmentionables of what pride and gay means in the English language, or how to spell colour. The u must have been too difficult to understand, just like a Bush said that the French do not have a word for entrepreneur.

[Danderman123]

3 hours ago, Olav Seglem said:

Im norwegian living in thailand.

Used to speak english with foreign customers in norway, british, american, whatsoever.

I have a great british friend here in thailand, and i enjoy our conversations.

However he comes from north london and speak dialect. Definately not easy to under understand, but always get the meaning :-)

Guess we norwegians, meeting a foreigner try speak norwegian would have tried speak to him in "standard norwegian". But can understand easy to forget.

And also-we can ask polite:"can you please try speak without your dialect, so more easy for me to understand :-)

 

Some accents from Northeast English are based on Norwegian accents.

[Peabody]

10 hours ago, pub2022 said:

How come english native speakers do not know how to properly use it's/its and there/their?

When I encounter someone with this problem, I just pat them on the head and say quietly, "there, they're, their".

 

[Peabody]

7 hours ago, MangoKorat said:

...the official international standard of British English...

Nope. Not true. Wrong. Incorrect. Bogus. Nah. Not so. Etc. (or, as too many write, "ect").

[vangrop]

And I understand much better the Thaiglish from the bar girls than the barfly English (?) from the British or Aussies

[scubascuba3]

2 hours ago, vangrop said:

And I understand much better the Thaiglish from the bar girls than the barfly English (?) from the British or Aussies

I like that, barfly English, common in Pattaya, especially Buakhao