Non-native: how is english language in your country?

Just wondering, I wonder how is english language in your country?

Are they spoken by people or only part of "popular culture"? in my country, english is considered rather cool when spoken in conversation. Though, I'm very bugged when people speak them in public space.

I really consider it's impolite when switching language sudddenlty to english when we are talking in our native language. It's as if they are showing off their english skill, but maybe it's just my prejudice,

In some occassion, english is also used just to press meaning of particular words. Yes, we use a lot english randomly. The government hyped about the begin of nationality collapse due the fact many people think english higher than the native language. But hey, I think learning english is important and its already part of daily life.

How is the english in your country? Hope this could lead good discussion.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Here in Malta English is one of the national languages (together with Maltese, our national language, which has common roots with Arabic but also lots of influences from our European neighbours' languages, especially Italian). We start learning it from a very early age; officially from the first year of primary school, but a lot of families start speaking in English to their children from infancy (with the consequence that such children sometimes never learn Maltese correctly...)

It's not easy to speak solely in Maltese nowadays - some words have practically become discourse markers or they are always used instead of their Maltese equivalents - I don't have any statistics, but it's MUCH more common to hear somebody say "sorry" than the Maltese "skuzani", for example. Numbers too are almost always in English - one almost has to make a conscious effort to say them in Maltese.

With regards to people who speak in both languages at once (interspersing their native language with English words, that is) - it's a phenomenon called code-switching or code-mixing (there is a slight difference between the two, but it's not very important ^^. It is very common in places which were colonised - the language of the ruling power has more prestige, and thus people start to include some of its words in their discourse. According to one of my lecturers it's almost impossible to avoid it in such situations. It still bugs me when Maltese people either speak in English purely to seem "better" (though it's funny to find their mistakes :lolsign. I like English a lot (I teach it, in fact) but I still think that we should be proud of our own language.

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Hmm, I find similar pattern in our countries. The teenagers here also speak english a lot, though they speak only a little and the rest is in native language. The older generations dont speak english a lot, most elders speak dutch (350 years of being colonialized, our one-sided history books said) and japanese (3,5 years of harsh imperialism).

but I'm absolutely agree with you, that we should be proud with our own language. I think all languages are all beautiful.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Well here in Canada, it's THE language.

In the phillippines though, we also see the usage of English for certain words and concepts, where it would be harder to use a tagalog equivalent. I can't think of an example since I don't speak tagalog very well, but there is definitely the adaptation of certain words from English (eg. television = telebisyon).

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Summonmaster

Well here in Canada, it's THE language.

Hey, remember those baby-eating, urine-drinking Frenchies now. =D
thx Cette

I was speaking idiomatically.

Where are you from Eriol? I can't put a name on the flag in your avatar bar. I really wish there was a roll over option for that, as some of the flags escape me by name, or are too similar to other ones.

English is prevelent however depending on what area you are from, communities will form of different nationalities, such as Japanese, Chinese, Mexican or other various hispanics and etc etc. In Phoenix there's a large Spanish speaking population and they'll often utilize Spanglish. I know my friends would drift in and out of Spanish and English. Sometimes I could understand it and other times I couldn't. Ah well, I do wish I kept up learning Spanish.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Summonmaster

In the phillippines though, we also see the usage of English for certain words and concepts, where it would be harder to use a tagalog equivalent. I can't think of an example since I don't speak tagalog very well, but there is definitely the adaptation of certain words from English (eg. television = telebisyon).

It's funny, because the same happens in Brazil. Concepts such as a "sale" or a "drive-thru restaurant" or "hip-hop" or "delivery" just don't have portuguese equivalents. So English becomes more and more a part of Portuguese as globalization takes place.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by guyinrubbersuit

Where are you from Eriol? I can't put a name on the flag in your avatar bar. I really wish there was a roll over option for that, as some of the flags escape me by name, or are too similar to other ones.

Your mouse-over isn't working on flags?
It works for me. He's from Indonesia.

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Originally Posted by JazzFlight

He's from Indonesia.

If that is indeed the flag of his country (some people pick other random things, though in this case I would agree it's probably right).

The English in my country? Terrible of course.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

No one knows English in my country and I'm proud of it.

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Originally Posted by kapsi

No one knows English in my country and I'm proud of it.

is English not taught as part of curricullum study in Poland? What do the students study as the 2nd language then?
or do the people experience the same with japanese, not much people really good at practicing them? (AFAIK japanese only develop passive communication in english)

@guyinrubbersuit
yeah I'm from indonesia (didnt you mouse over at the flag?)

How ya doing, buddy?

I find it insulting that people use English merely to show off or to think they're "better" than other people, because in my opinion no language is better than the other, much like any other culture. Although in most Asian countries that's the case; a lot of people find English attractive because it's more "educated" etc.

As an example, in Taiwan, most people only speak Mandarin, or only speak Taiwanese, or both. Although there are the occassional Hakka (native) or Japanese (very, very elderly) speakers. When I ask people who are native Taiwanese to assess their opinion on Mandarin, a language they learned second to Taiwanese, they find it stuffy and formal, almost never used when addressing people casually on the street or asking for directions on country roads. In fact, those who cannot speak Taiwanese often find prejudice from taxi cab drivers or shop owners because it's a sign they are not in tune with their country's culture, mostly in the form of offering higher prices or something when they attempt to barter. Those who can speak Taiwanese feel a sort of "kinship" with one another, almost like speaking in southern accent in southern United States as opposed to news anchor formality. On the other hand, I've spoken to Mandarin only speakers, usually children from Chinese refugees from civil strife, who do not know Taiwanese, but find it unnecessary to learn it because they think Mandarin is more cultured and educated, a prejudice clearly due to upbringing.

English may become that form (like Mandarin in Taiwan) to most people, but I think it's from years of oppressive British rule, such as India, who I think their new generation raised in the US never learn their mother tongue quite as fluently as say, Mexican immigrants, or from growing Westernization. In any case, it is also good to have a "unifying" language, even one that is so abused in Japan.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

err....In the Phils..most of the people speak a mix of filipino and english... but..sometimes we play around with the english words...I dunno how to explain it but there is a certain accent and the words that you choose that will make people laugh at you when you use them...

English is taught starting from elementary (private) until the end of highschool..I'm not sure about college..Filipino is also taught..even until College. We use SRA (forgot what it stands for) in grade school for reading , we also have that 2 a year book report..and we study grammar in Language...by Highschool we start studying stories...and reviewing grammar..we even had romeo and juliet for a time... Anglo-saxon literature...and some english stories made by Filipinos at the time of Japanese occupation.

As for my current location (Japan)..well it seems that they were taught english starting from elementary(?). Now is Senior High..they have Reading and language...which seems to be teaching the same thing....

I was speaking idiomatically.

man, I wish my country had such a cool language like English, instead I have to learn bloody French Well at least my first language is English
I know someone who went to french emmersion school at a young age, and it took her a long time to read English properly because of it

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'm not sure how it is in the cities of Finland, but in the town I live in, it is uncommon to hear someone speak english. (Usually tourists asking for directions.)

The people here are pretty good with english, although most of us have funny accent, myself included.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by gukarma

Concepts such as a "sale" or a "drive-thru restaurant" or "hip-hop" or "delivery" just don't have portuguese equivalents. So English becomes more and more a part of Portuguese as globalization takes place.

Are you sure?

sale = venda/saldos/liquidação (depende do contexto)
drive-thru restaurant = ...não me lembro de nenhum
hip-hop = musica de merda :lolsign:
delivery = entrega/envio/distribuição/fornecimento (depende do contexto)

As you see there are portuguese equivalents to (some of) these words and if you don't know them try babylon.com, the best web dictionary there is.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Bodomi

The people here are pretty good with english, although most of us have funny accent, myself included.

The only time I've heard people with Finnish accents is on Conan O'Brien's special when he went over there and was talking to people. Many of the people's accents reminded me of Russian accents (which I'm ridiculously familiar with), and not bad at all . If anything, it made me feel bad that all these other countries speak English, but Americans usually only speak maybe one other language at most -- and not always fluent, usually Spanish (myself included -- although I know a lot of random words in other languages).

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by eriol

is English not taught as part of curricullum study in Poland? What do the students study as the 2nd language then?
or do the people experience the same with japanese, not much people really good at practicing them? (AFAIK japanese only develop passive communication in english)

Well yeah, we study it in school (lately they even made it so 6 or 7 year olds have to learn a 2nd language) but no one's seem to be speaking it. Maybe the communism is to blame (we're democratic since 1989). Or maybe I'm hanging around wrong people :doh: .

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Well, English is only widely spoken in certain communities in my country, although admittedly everyone probably knows how to speak at least a few words of it.

However, Malay still ends up as the primary language, followed by Chinese and it's Dialects. English, more often than not, is only for certain 'official stuff' and business circles.

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In Maltese for some reason we don't tend to create new words easily, so anything which has to do with technology (not only computers, but also electronic or mechanical devices) and other modern objects usually has an English (or, less frequently, an Italian) name. Frequently we take the English/Italian name and give it a vaguely Maltese form. This wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that people are becoming soooo lazy when speaking that they can't be bothered to think of the Maltese word and instead use a bastardization of the English word. So for example... instead of saying "tibni" (to build) some people say "nibbuildja", which is just "build" with the prefixes and suffixes of Maltese . It's pathetic -_-'.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Bodomi

I'm not sure how it is in the cities of Finland, but in the town I live in, it is uncommon to hear someone speak english. (Usually tourists asking for directions.)

The people here are pretty good with english, although most of us have funny accent, myself included.

The same goes with me. I have hard times when trying to imitate native english accent, but I always prevent to speak in the way of our native language, because the conversation seems would go bizarre and not to mention, hilarious.

I love listen to accent of english from other nations, especially french. My cousins in netherlands speak english fluently too, though I hardly could hear any dutch accent in conversation.
Japanese is the funniest when talking in english. No offense. Here's quote of conversation of my friend's cousin studying in france and meet a japanese

Lulu: Good morning my name is "Lulu"
Japanese man: Good morning, oh I see, your name is Ruru?
Lulu: no, not "Ruru". "Lulu"
Japanese man: Oh I see, "Ruru"
Lulu: No, I said "Lulu"
Japanese man: Oh I got it, nice to meet you Dudu!
Lulu: ...

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Originally Posted by eriol

Japanese is the funniest when talking in english. No offense. Here's quote of conversation of my friend's cousin studying in france and meet a japanese

That conversation reminds me of when my Russian viola teacher tried to introduce me to my young japanese accompanist at a music festival. She introduced me as "Karli" (with medium-heavy Russian accent, mind), to which the girl replied:
"Kari."
"No no...Kar-LEE."
"Kar-REE."
"Kar-LEE. LEE. L--"
I stopped her and just said, "It's okay. In Japan I'm Kari. It's okay."

The japanese girl spoke absolutely no English, so it made things a bit..erm..difficult at times. I managed to understand the Japanese better than the Russian, though .

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

English is just the easiest language there is, that's why it's considered the "global" language. Here in Mexico english is used a lot. There's been a lot of schools lately to start learning english and it's been given a lot of importance. Many people speak basic english, but few can actually have a conversation or write something decent in english. I blame lazyness.

Still, most people know what "cat", "dog" and "fuck" is.

FELIPE NO

I've heard quite the opposite, that English is said to be one of the hardest languages you can try to learn. But Spanish and English are very similar to each other, so I imagine where as Spanish is the easiest language an English-speaker can learn it probably works the other way too.

Here needless to say English is the official language, but there are some places where you'll find an abundance of speakers in some other langauge or another, especially areas of the southwest that speak mostly Spanish.
I've heard some talk of making Spanish an official language too, considering it is the native langauge to so many people here and there are a number of places where Spanish is more common than English.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Minoko

I dunno how to explain it but there is a certain accent and the words that you choose that will make people laugh at you when you use them...

Here, people say it, 'stoo-pid'. I laugh at my sister who visits from Canada because she pronounces it, 'stew-pid'.

Quote:

English is taught starting from elementary (private) until the end of highschool..I'm not sure about college..Filipino is also taught..even until College.

English is taught here cos the US was the last country that colonized us and we haven't gotten over our colonial mentality ever since, but it doesn't necessarily mean we can speak the language well.

Originally Posted by eriol

I really consider it's impolite when switching language sudddenlty to english when we are talking in our native language. It's as if they are showing off their english skill, but maybe it's just my prejudice

I can understand your point of view but there are exceptions: me. I'm still learning my native language so my grammar is terrible. I have a tendency to switch back and forth with Filipino and English but as long as the people I talk to know where I'm coming from, I guess it's okay. The ones I won't accept (and sometimes find entertaining) are those that can speak their mother tongue but choose to speak English. Yes, it's like they're trying to prove something, but no offense, with their accent they sound like a bunch of idiots.

Jam it back in, in the dark.