My Support Forums - View Single Post - Two (or 'Too'?) Commonly-Used Terms

nonightowl · Nov 13, 2022 at 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Beth*

I have been told by language teachers that English is, indeed, the most difficult language to learn, for so many reasons.

I'm afraid we don't sound (at least not those of us who speak American English) so wonderful to non-English speakers The "King's English" surely sounds much lovelier than our choppy, rushed American version of English does.

I had a close friend, his native language was Bulgarian, but his English was quite good. He would cringe at many young women, Americans, who essentially screeched and chirped when they spoke - he found their repetitive "Okay, okay, okay" especially grating. He wanted to know why they kept saying "okay," especially in such a shrill way. I couldn't explain why, I only told him that I, too, found it extremely irritating.

My son had a friend from China, a very bright young woman, new to learning English (her English was lovely, btw). But she was really confused by the word "go" - much as my mother had been. This young woman wanted to know what it meant when, for example, we said, "To turn the radio on you go-" and we'd push a button. Or, "You just go like this." She wanted to know what "go" meant. Sometimes it was easy to explain - but many times we were stumped!

Every baby is born with a "language acquisition device." An LAD. Something in the brain that tells us to respond to and learn language. Language is a method of survival. We learn by hearing and repeating what we hear. You never took a formal class in English, owl, but you did take a "class" in the sense that you heard English spoken, you repeated what you heard, and thus you became a speaker of American English.

I can't exactly say that I speak Hebrew as a second language, but growing up as a Jewish child I spent a lot of time reciting prayers in the synagogue. I picked up Hebrew pronunciation before I could have been aware of doing do, I was so young, and my pronunciation of that language remains very good.

btw- as for the way a language sounds, when I was in Ireland I felt like everyone around me was singing when they spoke. Sometimes I would close my eyes and just float on the lyrical sound of the Irish accent. I've heard many, many languages and accents, but never one quite so beautiful.

True, I repeated what I heard, but I still wonder how I seemed to instinctively "know" what words to use to express my thought, as in "Stop that noise!" Or "What are you watching?" How did I know? I never heard of an LAD, in a human to boot. I mean the word "device" sounds like it's referring to a robot.

I did take English GRAMMAR, but that's different. Thanks for posting about how we sound to others who don't understand English or not much. I'm glad I can't "hear" that.

As for "go, people say "I have to go" as in have to go to the bathroom, LOL. So a non-English speaker might say "Go where?" As a teenager, we said "going together" which meant dating. I overheard a teacher say "Going where together?"

We said "shack up" as living together, but I guess that was crude.

I LOVE the IRISH BROGUE!!! SO lovely sounding.

Their music is great too, I love it. Scottish accent is great too, Australian, anything but American. We are boring.

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Beth*

Ohhh...and French, when spoken properly....*swoon*....

Swoon is right!