English As Your Mother Tongue?

[Sing_Sling]

Is English your mother tongue?

(language learned from birth/native language)

Edited February 29, 2012 by Sing_Sling

[Sing_Sling]

On another thread - the one about TV members' partners' origins - one poster, mca, took umbrage with another poster's opinion and ridiculed his grasp of English.

Now, I agreed with mca's sentiment regarding the other guy's opinion, but was it really necessary to mock the man's English, whose mother tongue was ever so clearly something else?

This is a bit of a bugbear of mine - the seeming arrogance of some of those whose mother tongue is English towards those whose grasp of the language isn't as good as theirs.

I think, instead of ridiculing their language capabilities we should actually be grateful that they are contributing in a language that is foreign to them, on a forum that is mainly occupied by those whose mother tongue is English - - - - well, we shall see if it is. I do wonder how many TV members, whose mother tongue is English, are capable of writing and conversing fluently in a second or third language.

(Next poll will be a demographic of which parts of the world we all hail from)

[Beetlejuice]

I speak 2 languages, English and rubbish.

[Sing_Sling]

!

I speak 2 languages, English and rubbish.

But you do it so well!

[PattayaParent]

Mother AND Father's tongue

[theblether]

Where is the option for Scottish?

I agree that roughing someone up for their lack of Engiish is wrong, however! Very often as we know, it's not 'what is said, but the manner in which it is said, is wrong'.

It's the nature of the beast on internet forums that the language is truncuated as 60% of communication is body language. The emoticons help but they can't replace body language.

Also the time taken to communicate is so much longer, hence leading to sometimes unintentionaly brutal exchanges as we don't take the time to frame our responses as we would during conversations.

Some of the topics do turn brutal though, I am as guilty as anyone of rising to the bait, especially when the Wingeing Brit Pensioner Brigade kick in ( did you know they do my head in? ), but we should all refrain from taking things personaly, as we are only getting input through the prism and filter of the internet.

[dean999]

I think England is a very ignorant country when it comes to other languages. The main line i hear is, why should i learn another language, everyone speaks English. This line was pushed on me when i was a kid and i decided learning French or German was a waste of time. Plus my parents used to say," what a waste of time learning French or German you will never use it".

Well guess what mum and dad, I'm now working in Belgium, away from the main city's and i struggle and feel very rude nearly everyday. Most don't speak English, they speak French. Simple things like shopping is a pain in the ass if i need help. Or how bad it is when i have a party around my house and my wifes Thai friends turn up with there French speaking husbands.

Why did i listen to my parents.

Only good thing thats come out of this is, my wife now understands the frustration of wanting to communicate with someone and can't because she doesn't speak the language. She now understands why i want to learn Thai.

Before someone says it, I'm learning French now but i only have just over a year left here. I should be ok by the time i'm due to leave.

[dean999]

Where is the option for Scottish?

I agree that roughing someone up for their lack of Engiish is wrong, however! Very often as we know, it's not 'what is said, but the manner in which it is said, is wrong'.

It's the nature of the beast on internet forums that the language is truncuated as 60% of communication is body language. The emoticons help but they can't replace body language.

Also the time taken to communicate is so much longer, hence leading to sometimes unintentionaly brutal exchanges as we don't take the time to frame our responses as we would during conversations.

Some of the topics do turn brutal though, I am as guilty as anyone of rising to the bait, especially when the Wingeing Brit Pensioner Brigade kick in ( did you know they do my head in? ), but we should all refrain from taking things personaly, as we are only getting input through the prism and filter of the internet.

It's not the body language that makes you lose it.............it's the Scottish blood.

One thing i would say though....you hit the nail on the head there.

[Soutpeel]

Where is the option for Scottish?

Stay on your side of the wall...

I actually find the phrasing of this question highly offensive...."Yes, this applies to Brits, Americans, Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis"

Americans and Canadians are referred to by their proper nationalities....why aren't they referred to as "Yanks"/ "Septic's" and "Canook's" ?.... I protest

I think very soon this thread is going to be hijacked by the "English teachers" and grammar nazi's..correcting everyones posts anyway

[Soutpeel]

I think England is a very ignorant country when it comes to other languages.

Have you any idea of how many other languages are spoken in England ?...thought not.....so lest not talk about ignorance shall we

Over the last many years the predominent 2nd language in England is Polish, I would think Hindi, Pakistani, Chinese etc etc are up there as well being in the top 10

[stoneyboy]

English is my mother tongue,I am eternally great full for this,that said lots of people would struggle with my broad Norfolk accent see below.

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=nnioP0T_3Ao

[transam]

I think England is a very ignorant country when it comes to other languages.

Have you any idea of how many other languages are spoken in England ?...thought not.....so lest not talk about ignorance shall we

Over the last many years the predominant 2nd language in England is Polish, I would think Hindi, Pakistani, Chinese etc etc are up there as well being in the top 10

How right you are but you forgot Vietnamese and all the other Baltic countries, and...................

[dean999]

I think England is a very ignorant country when it comes to other languages.

Have you any idea of how many other languages are spoken in England ?...thought not.....so lest not talk about ignorance shall we

Over the last many years the predominent 2nd language in England is Polish, I would think Hindi, Pakistani, Chinese etc etc are up there as well being in the top 10

Sorry should of explained it better. Those languages you speak of, are people that have migrated mostly. There not languages that people have just learnt. In my family, apart from my wife (Thai) and my uncle (Oman), not one other language is spoken. Maybe my family is a one off and we are the only ignarant ones.

[villagefarang]

Then again there are those who’s native language is indeed English yet they revel in trashing it. Any suggestion that they should perhaps try a little harder is met with vilification and contempt. If something is worth writing, isn’t it worth writing well? Assuming of course that English is your native tongue and you have a modicum of education.

[pattayadingo]

I think England is a very ignorant country when it comes to other languages. The main line i hear is, why should i learn another language, everyone speaks English. This line was pushed on me when i was a kid and i decided learning French or German was a waste of time. Plus my parents used to say," what a waste of time learning French or German you will never use it".

Well guess what mum and dad, I'm now working in Belgium, away from the main city's and i struggle and feel very rude nearly everyday. Most don't speak English, they speak French. Simple things like shopping is a pain in the ass if i need help. Or how bad it is when i have a party around my house and my wifes Thai friends turn up with there French speaking husbands.

Why did i listen to my parents.

Only good thing thats come out of this is, my wife now understands the frustration of wanting to communicate with someone and can't because she doesn't speak the language. She now understands why i want to learn Thai.

Before someone says it, I'm learning French now but i only have just over a year left here. I should be ok by the time i'm due to leave.

And just look at how many wonderful countries we gave English to while we ruled the Empire.

French? The French were still considered important while I was at school and so was their language. So much so that we were forced to learn French. But why? We kicked their butts all over Europe and beyond.

English is the dominant language in this world and with the advent of computers it has become more dominant. Maybe it is about time the world learned that

To lambast a person who speaks English as their 2nd language is appalling. The language police on here should be ashamed of their dictatorial little selves.

[transam]

I think England is a very ignorant country when it comes to other languages. The main line i hear is, why should i learn another language, everyone speaks English. This line was pushed on me when i was a kid and i decided learning French or German was a waste of time. Plus my parents used to say," what a waste of time learning French or German you will never use it".

Well guess what mum and dad, I'm now working in Belgium, away from the main city's and i struggle and feel very rude nearly everyday. Most don't speak English, they speak French. Simple things like shopping is a pain in the ass if i need help. Or how bad it is when i have a party around my house and my wifes Thai friends turn up with there French speaking husbands.

Why did i listen to my parents.

Only good thing thats come out of this is, my wife now understands the frustration of wanting to communicate with someone and can't because she doesn't speak the language. She now understands why i want to learn Thai.

Before someone says it, I'm learning French now but i only have just over a year left here. I should be ok by the time i'm due to leave.

And just look at how many wonderful countries we gave English to while we ruled the Empire.

French? The French were still considered important while I was at school and so was their language. So much so that we were forced to learn French. But why? We kicked their butts all over Europe and beyond.

English is the dominant language in this world and with the advent of computers it has become more dominant. Maybe it is about time the world learned that

To lambast a person who speaks English as their 2nd language is appalling. The language police on here should be ashamed of their dictatorial little selves.

Yeh, l was forced to learn French, l wonder why. Did they think at the time that the frogs were to become dominant. Perhaps they will but l will be under ground by then.

[StreetCowboy]

If I think another poster's mother tongue is not English I'll try to refrain from commenting on it - except perhaps for the most entertaining or misleading of malapropisms.

Generally you can tell whether someone's mother tongue is English from the nature of mistakes that riddle their posting, though, rather than the absence of errors.

I would certainly struggle in any foreign language - perhaps I could post brief, incoherent and confused messages in pidgin French, and perhaps bizarrely inappropriate and surreal two or three word incoherent nonsense in Chinese

so not much difference there, except for the brevity for which you might hope. I can see that I might regret saying that, in the future

SC

EDIT:

I suppose we were taught French because its an easy language to speak, quite similar to English, and its the language of our nearest neighbours, bar the Irish. As I recall, at my school French was compulsory, German was an option, and Latin was additional. Greek was a further option. The joys of a classical education...

Edited February 29, 2012 by StreetCowboy

[Soutpeel]

To lambast a person who speaks English as their 2nd language is appalling. The language police on here should be ashamed of their dictatorial little selves.

Agreed...We should all spend a little time in the week educating our less fortunate TV members in the joys of the English language, I am of course referring to those members who hail from places like Scotland, US, Wales, Liverpool, Newcastle and finally those poor unfortunate soles who come from Birmingham...

[Soutpeel]

Yeh, l was forced to learn French, l wonder why. Did they think at the time that the frogs were to become dominant. Perhaps they will but l will be under ground by then.

This was in preparation for when England invaded france again and installed the British monarch as the head of the country again....you need to be able to speak to the natives old chap...even if they do smell of garlic, wear onions around their necks and have funny little hats on..

[Eff1n2ret]

English is the dominant world language, so it's not obvious which foreign languages should be taught in the countries where it is the native language. In the case of the UK, it's tended to be French, but nowadays there's precious little reason why that should be so, other than that they are the folks next door. Commercially, for the future it would seem a good idea to boost the teaching of Mandarin and Portuguese, given the rise of China and Brazil amongst the economic powerhouses in the coming century.

British children of the last generation and more have been at a serious disadvantage in learning any foreign language, as English grammar was dropped from the syllabus a long time ago.

I took French and German (and Latin) at 'A' Level, but in my late 60's I'm finding it fairly tough learning Thai.

[Soutpeel]

Generally you can tell whether someone's mother tongue is English from the nature of mistakes that riddle their posting, though, rather than the absence of errors.

In some cases you can even tell which part of English language speaking world they come from...

[thaiIand]

On another thread - the one about TV members' partners' origins - one poster, mca, took umbrage with another poster's opinion and ridiculed his grasp of English.

Now, I agreed with mca's sentiment regarding the other guy's opinion, but was it really necessary to mock the man's English, whose mother tongue was ever so clearly something else?

This is a bit of a bugbear of mine - the seeming arrogance of some of those whose mother tongue is English towards those whose grasp of the language isn't as good as theirs.

I think, instead of ridiculing their language capabilities we should actually be grateful that they are contributing in a language that is foreign to them, on a forum that is mainly occupied by those whose mother tongue is English - - - - well, we shall see if it is. I do wonder how many TV members, whose mother tongue is English, are capable of writing and conversing fluently in a second or third language.

(Next poll will be a demographic of which parts of the world we all hail from)

English isnt my mother tongue yet i make fun of people with almost no English knowledge that come to Thailand and expect to get it on with a decent girl when all they can speak is bargirl language themselves.

English is very easy to learn to a certain level where you can communicate any thought pretty easily and comprehensibly, easier than riding a bicycle. Someone who fails at this is either very lazy or an extreme narcissist.

If you cant ride a bike, do you go on with your bike in the traffic? No, you WALK. If you can't speak english, stay home. "wer u loom " isnt considered speaking english

[Sing_Sling]

Where is the option for Scottish?

I agree that roughing someone up for their lack of Engiish is wrong, however!

Scottish? You mean Celtic? You grew up speaking that? Excellent . . . so, it Isn't English, right?

[StreetCowboy]

Generally you can tell whether someone's mother tongue is English from the nature of mistakes that riddle their posting, though, rather than the absence of errors.

In some cases you can even tell which part of English language speaking world they come from...

How d'ye mean by that, like, ken?

[isanbirder]

What about the Singaporeans? Many of them have English as their first language, though they probably speak Malay and at least one Chinese or Indian dialect as well. The whole idea of mother tongue = country of origin is getting blurred these days.

That said, yes, I was an English teacher, with read-only French, Latin and Classical Greek, and 'orrible Thai and Malay. If there's a category worse than 'orrible, my Cantonese goes into that.

[isanbirder]

To lambast a person who speaks English as their 2nd language is appalling. The language police on here should be ashamed of their dictatorial little selves.

Agreed...We should all spend a little time in the week educating our less fortunate TV members in the joys of the English language, I am of course referring to those members who hail from places like Scotland, US, Wales, Liverpool, Newcastle and finally those poor unfortunate soles who come from Birmingham...

I've heard of people being like wet fish, but flatfish? Sorry, but I couldn't resist that!

[Eff1n2ret]

Yeh, l was forced to learn French, l wonder why. Did they think at the time that the frogs were to become dominant. Perhaps they will but l will be under ground by then.

This was in preparation for when England invaded france again and installed the British monarch as the head of the country again....you need to be able to speak to the natives old chap...even if they do smell of garlic, wear onions around their necks and have funny little hats on..

French was at one time the language of international diplomacy, and such as the Tzars spoke French at Court rather than Russian. Don't you remember when the preamble in your passport about "Her Britannic Majesty requests and requires..." was in French as well as English. But nowadays apart from bits of Africa and Canada there's hardly anywhere outside France that speaks French.

[MAJIC]

Yeh, l was forced to learn French, l wonder why. Did they think at the time that the frogs were to become dominant. Perhaps they will but l will be under ground by then.

This was in preparation for when England invaded france again and installed the British monarch as the head of the country again....you need to be able to speak to the natives old chap...even if they do smell of garlic, wear onions around their necks and have funny little hats on..

Actually French was compulsory at schools ,more to do with our entry into the Common Market,which had at the time only two members:France and Germany.many years later the Con became clear,we were joining a Federation of Europe,not the Common Market of Trading Nations,as sold to the British people!

[Sing_Sling]

What about the Singaporeans? Many of them have English as their first language, though they probably speak Malay and at least one Chinese or Indian dialect as well. The whole idea of mother tongue = country of origin is getting blurred these days.

That said, yes, I was an English teacher, with read-only French, Latin and Classical Greek, and 'orrible Thai and Malay. If there's a category worse than 'orrible, my Cantonese goes into that.

Most Singaporeans don't speak their dialect anymore, especially the younger ones who may - only if they attend Chinese school - speak Mandarin even if their parents can't.

Singaporean Malays still predominantly speak Malay at home, as do the Tamils (Tamil, not BM)

We learned German, French, English and Latin at school . . . living in those places for work later on in life proved well worth the effort

[Beetlejuice]

!

I speak 2 languages, English and rubbish.

But you do it so well!

Compliments will get you everywhere.