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Q: Do non Native English Speakers Really understand?
As of late I have come across a couple of situations that lead me to Believe that it does not matter how well somebody writes or speaks English they do not necessary under stand what you have said or written
I have written a couple of posts tongue in cheek that must of been taken the wrong way because I put it down to that somebody did not understand
This also happens when you give clear instructions to some people and for what ever reason they do it differently and disregard the original instruction .This is my observation and you may not share my view so I ask if Anybody else have a theory on this?
10 years 44 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
Some non-native English speakers grew up with Allo Allo, others didn't.
I have the feeling that you are playing with the feelings of some people with this post also.
Bored, eh?
icnif77:
I learned English over 'Allo, Allo'!
Now, I am teaching it to happy Chinese!
I think, Aussies want pay raise, Edit: butT(..ra - ve - ler)....it doesn't look like it will happened, 'cause Chinese insatiable demand for English teachers.
nicholasba:
i use to teach enrisch for 15k a month and my boss along with a texan superviser thought i was pretty good at IT..so whats the deal losers?Afraid of loosing the only job you r qualified for? carpe diem, untill u can:):):)
angelina8:
Not sure if that was directed at me, I never joined any camps.
In English we have an order that words appear in to give different meanings. In other languages, the order order of words is different. When non-native speakers are not proficient in English, they confuse the expected order of words in their own language with the word order in English.
Also, many English words do not have exact counterparts in the non-native-speakers first language, and if not proficient in English, they often misunderstand direct translations. It is similiar with idioms and phrases.
Unfortunately, if not proficient in English, they inevitably teach these errors to other non-native speakers. Instead of the learner having to deal with two language systems, they unknowingly get subjected to a third.
Now sit back and watch as the usual few non-native speakers go on the attack, then run crying to admin about the nasty native speakers.
philbravery:
I got questions harmonized and I do not know why
The nuts one today was a harmless and I think funny look at Wall Nuts and the exercises people do with them and then the art work they can create from the polished product the other one was about the colour of the sky in your part of China due to pollution only to see a post on par with mine a couple of weeks latter
I admit that I have sailed close to the wind some times as have most people here
so this brings me to the conclusion that Non Native English people do not always understand what is said either that or they have no sense of humor
Traveler:
A lot of posts get harmonised because Silva's best friend writes nonsensical things and abuse. Then admin deletes the whole post, or the whole thread.
But others do get harmonised because a few posters, who mostly incite others, run constantly to admin about their own misinterpretations of the English language.
I thought this was going to be a post about none native English teachers who are damaging the learning of children because they are unable to pronounce words correctly. Such as an example, I have a friend who pronounces toes as toys. It is a hard ship in its own right trying to reverse engineer (for lack of a better description) the damage they have done. Even more so when you have a child of eight years old that does not believe you when you tell them it is s-a-d not d-a-d....
Sorry I had to have this little gripe of mine.
philbravery:
It is a bit like that Pomy show Allo Allo where they put on the accent to change the language I loved the Frog Cop that was a POM
I thought this was going to be a post about none native English teachers who are damaging the learning of children because they are unable to pronounce words correctly. Such as an example, I have a friend who pronounces toes as toys. It is a hard ship in its own right trying to reverse engineer (for lack of a better description) the damage they have done. Even more so when you have a child of eight years old that does not believe you when you tell them it is s-a-d not d-a-d....
Sorry I had to have this little gripe of mine.
nicholasba:
...and I have a friend who pronounces three as free....and what if Im going to tell you that he is a native?
Some non-native English speakers grew up with Allo Allo, others didn't.
I have the feeling that you are playing with the feelings of some people with this post also.
Bored, eh?
icnif77:
I learned English over 'Allo, Allo'!Now, I am teaching it to happy Chinese!
I think, Aussies want pay raise, Edit: butT(..ra - ve - ler)....it doesn't look like it will happened, 'cause Chinese insatiable demand for English teachers.
nicholasba:
i use to teach enrisch for 15k a month and my boss along with a texan superviser thought i was pretty good at IT..so whats the deal losers?Afraid of loosing the only job you r qualified for? carpe diem, untill u can:):):)
angelina8:
Not sure if that was directed at me, I never joined any camps.
Rodney: "Why 'Answer of the Day' is 'stored in vinegar'?"
Del Boy: "Do You Guys play with your Nuts?"......
Grandad: "You are not authorized to access this page."
I don't understand that! Is that some 'Aussie' trick, or?
You are not authorized to 'down
vote' Trotters page.
i use to teach engrrrish for 15k a month and my boss along with a texan superviser thought i was pretty good at IT..so whats the deal losers?Afraid of loosing the only job you r qualified for? carpe diem, untill u can:)
:)
nicholasba:
nah not really, im just punctual, reliable and.... i take my job seriously, thats all.
ps: and i got the right pigmentationHulk:
I believe it. I make 17k as a highly-qualified (much to Traveler's dismay) native speaker before bonuses.
We got some non-natives pulling in 15k here. It's not too bad. Unfortunately, I downvoted you... sorry. Wish I could take it back.
I'm from Barcelona, me no understand 'Allo Allo' references.
Scandinavian:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-oH-TELcLE
It's a reference to Twatty Fowls. A source for me learning Ingles.
Traveler:
Scan: Your English is far more than satisfactory for conducting business.
I was being sarcastic about Scandinavia being a country, in relation to another recent post.
Scandinavian:
kind of figured that you had been able to obtain basic geography since you read fancy papers that are banned in this country. sometime such paper write about stuff like countries.
I know a few who do, and that includes ElenaDob. Yes, there are a lot of shady non-natives here, but there are also some extremely skilled people. I would hire several of them over some of the native speakers I've been trying to recruit lately.
Hulk:
Because we need more illegal, unqualified teachers? 
I'm a recruiter now, Traveler. 
You can side-step all the typical recruiter crap with me. Do you need a job? I won't take any part of your salary: I get a one-time fee for each foreigner I find for these schools.
Firstly I would like to thank most of you all for for getting this post Harmonized
I am glad I got to see it before it went to WEB heaven
The point of the post was not to start ww3 but to get a your ideas about if some people who speak English well do not understand the meaning of what they are hearing or reading
it looks like even some Native English speakers are just as bad
So I think I will just go play with my Nuts and see what colour the Sky is here today.
and Thanks again for your efforts
icnif77:
'Nuts' post is 'A of the Day', butt.....it is 'harmonized A of D'. I have never seen this before.
crimochina:
there will always be english nazis. people do not understand the post is simply about language misunderstandings between non natives who speak fluent engl and native engl speakers. it was actually quite playful
icnif77:
You don't understand! Look @ the 'Answer of the Day'. Now, click it as you want to read 'where Phil's wifey got nuts...'....You are not authorized to access this page. Stored in vinegar! I guess, till 'big cheese' comes back to office on Monday.
-I can't exactly figure out the original question. I'm a native speaker, and known for my tortured style of speaking, where I often leave a sentence unfinished, or change topic halfway through. My writing was worse, but I have tried to improve that over time.
-actually I feel like I walked into the middle of an argument, and don't know what it is about.
i was drinking beer all day yesterday. after reading through the answers in my post drunk state i 'm gonna repeat yesterdays activitity.
elena, i told you my "price" for doing favors. and my positio as admnin is supposed to be a secret
crimochina:
oh and by the way, i feel you phil. non natives are overly sensitive about their english (in general) look at how many are over reacting to this post
native english language nazis are not the majority (thank god)
native english speakers in general are more liberal with the language.
icnif77:
Who is 'liberal'? Traveler? Why do you tolerate his attacking posts?
'That also really doesn't give you any credibility. Now is the time you, icnif and Elena run crying to admin, because you picked fights, and the nasty native speaker dared to fight back.'
In the end of his baseless construction, there are 3 posters, who should 'leave' this site. Now, why number of the 'wrong' posters keeps rising? Shouldn't poster be responsible for his/her postings? Why do you tolerate attacking posts of this 'self admiring sc......g'? Do you have psychiatrist at eChinacities?
crimochina:
trav is not the op!
Do non Native English Speakers Really understand?
As of late I have come across a couple of situations that lead me to Believe that it does not matter how well somebody writes or speaks English they do not necessary under stand what you have said or written
I have written a couple of posts tongue in cheek that must of been taken the wrong way because I put it down to that somebody did not understand
This also happens when you give clear instructions to some people and for what ever reason they do it differently and disregard the original instruction .This is my observation and you may not share my view so I ask if Anybody else have a theory on this?
this is phil's post. he is not attacking anyone.
i've already told trav where i dis agree with him. i'm not gonna beat a dead horse.
sadly your posts hurt people like Elena when it comes to what trav is ranting about. (and that is not fair to you or him/her)
i did not say anyone is liberal. re-read what i wrote.
as to what phil posted i agree . i will give an example. i was watching an episode of seinfeld. with a girl from I forget where in africa. Elaine says "yeah plugola" (they were talking about someone getting hair plugs)
she said to me "why did she say that word wrong?"
I said she didn't say it wrong, she just played around w/ the word "plug" (hair plugs)
she says "yeah but it is not a real word"
I said "well that's the point but you can add on to words in certain situations and be understood"
she replies "but I didn't understand her so she is wrong"
I'm gonna save you from the mind numbing details. but this is a failure to understand hw flexible and informal english really is.
i'm hung over and drunk i can't post anymore
Hulk:
crimochina,
My wife gets those! I think... I'm actually proud of her. Then again, I do add a lot of strange prefixes and postfixes to words, and then I explain them to her. They make zero sense but she generally understands, then she laughs and says I talk too much dog shat.
But generally, she gets them even as a non-native. I also do it in Chinese, but nobody gets them except her. 
I worked with an Irish guy in Ningbo for a year. He had to fake his accent because the students had no clue what he was saying. His fake accent sounded quite ridiculous but I guess it worked. Well I understood his native Cork accent so it didn't bother me, I seem to understand most English accents for some reason. The students had no problem understanding me though (I'm not saying I don't have an accent). One day he had to take a grammar test via email (maybe for CELTA, I forget). I had to do most of it for him... end of story.
The US? I lived in Greenville SC for some years (yeah I know, why there???). I couldn't understand my landlord and he couldn't understand me haha. If a person like him came to teach here and I was a student, I'd be ROFLMAO.
even if it might hurt someone, is actually a fact some kind of english are hard to understand.
Eventually people decide to study english, especially in china, to do business with the outside world and not necessary english-speaking country. Hence, I think the ideal teacher should have a standard pronunciation at least and being native doesnt mean that you have it.
When i was study Chinese we had 3 different chinese teachers: from shanghai, taiwan and shijiazhuang. That gave us a wide spectrum of accent to practice our ears.
t91camp:
To be fair, I've met native speakers who make similar mistakes constantly.
Hugh.G.Rection:
@t91, so have I, frequently. The difference is, in my experience such people rarely say their poor English is beneficial (to who?) and don't try and teach it.
nicholasba:
haha, pathetic fail. Where did I mention that I m currently teaching or that I believe that such mistakes are beneficial to someone.?Besides, why don't you apply this standard also to yourself ? is way more disgraceful and pathetic that a native make such mistakes.
Hugh.G.Rection:
nicholasba:
"Where did I mention that I m currently teaching"
You don't but here in your comment on Angelina8's reply above:
"i use to teach enrisch for 15k a month" [sic]
You clearly state that you have taught English in the past.
"or that I believe that such mistakes are beneficial to someone.?" [sic]
Actually you did this very thing in this reply,
"When i was study Chinese we had 3 different chinese teachers: from shanghai, taiwan and shijiazhuang. That gave us a wide spectrum of accent to practice our ears."
Saying 'That gave us a wide spectrum of accent to practice...' is clearly saying that it is beneficial, or at least it is to anyone with native-level English.
Thank you though, for further highlighting both my and the OP's points.
They sometimes they don't get the nuances of word stress. We do have "tones" in English after all but they are a moving target.
Take this sentence - 8 words, 6 possible meanings depending on the stressed word
I said, she should consider a new haircut?
Meaning 1 It was me that said it
Meaning 2 Are you dumb? Didn't you listen?
Meaning 3 ....
Try it.
I have met some Chinese who can do it nicely, sometimes they have studied overseas or sometimes they watch movies and have lots of foreign friends.
nicholasba:
that thing should be called, intonation. And different intonation of course can add nuances and change also completely the meaning. But is rather common in every language, also chinese, has different meanings.
