So I used to have a Russian friend who had a pretty thick accent and like a lot of Russians tended to eschew articles. She would say things like “Get in car.” And stuff.
Well one day this asshole who had been kind of tagging along with us asks her why she talks like that because it makes her sound dumb and I still remember her response word for word.
“Me? Dumb? Maybe in America you have to say get in THE car because you are so stupid that people might just get in random car, but in Russia we don’t need to say that. We just fucking know because we are not stupid.”
One time I was proof reading a paper for a Russian student. As I was correcting her paper with her, the many mistakes in her grammar started weighing on her. I asked her what was wrong, and she said, almost sobbing,
“In Russian I am so intelligent and clear. In English I am like [an] idiot”
Respect to anyone trying to master a foreign language. I get so sad thinking about that student.
Full offense but people who make fun of someone else’s accent or belittle their limited vocabulary when they’re speaking a language not native to them are fucking disgusting and are just begging to be punched.
They’re speaking your language because you don’t know theirs. That’s not something they should be made fun of, it’s something that should be commended because learning a language is hard fucking work.
I hate people who do this so much.
if you don’t like how they speak your language, learn to speak theirs. then you’ll understand.
[ID: Screencaps of a scene from Modern Family of Gloria, a Colombian woman, saying: Do you know how frustrating it is to have to translate everything in my head before I say it? To have people laugh in my face because I’m struggling to find words? You should try talking in my shoes for one mile. [The person she is talking to says, “I think you meant…” and she continues.] I know what I meant to mean. Do you know how smart I am in Spanish? Of course you don’t. \End ID]
As an non-native English speaker, yes. Yes to all of this 👆🏻
Also please keep in mind that we have learned your language in very specific conditions, by studying very specific topics.
I can talk about the Civil Rights movement in the United States, all of the Reform Acts that happened in Victorian Britain or give you an analysis on the character of Humbert Humbert in English but I had to search the word “cashier” because my teachers never thought it was pertinent to talk about it because it was never part of the curriculum.
