how do non native english speakers cope?
how do non native english speakers cope?
(OP)
Did I read somewhere that the idea behind this forum was to assist people who are not native English speakers? That's a great ambition - is it happening?
Not criticising the threads - they're great, but there must be many questions about English useage on the minds of our non English apeaking colleagues.
J.
Not criticising the threads - they're great, but there must be many questions about English useage on the minds of our non English apeaking colleagues.
J.
J.





RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
But you are also wrong - in a way. It is true that we did not get English when we grew up, but the lingua franca in our profession (electronics) is English and there were not even Swedish (my native tongue) words for many phenomena in electronics in the beginning. And, frankly, we still use the English words more often than not.
There are many aspects of this question. One is that when you learn and use a second language you will notice underlying rules (the grammar) that went unnoticed before. Simply because your usually mother didn't care about grammar that much. And this new awareness helps not only sharpen your English, but also your mother tongue.
It also helps mastering a third or fourth language. You get "preconditioned" to look for patterns in the new language and you accept "funny and silly" grammar rules more readily. It has helped me a lot. I got exposed to English in school when I was about 13 years old. I then worked summers on ships doing North Atlantic and got a good practical language training before going back to school for more grammar.
I found this ideal and languages never were a big thing - I was more interested in math and physics and such nerdish things.
It was several years later that I discovered how two languages can help learning a third one. I was sent to France to do some selling and by talking daytime and do some formal studying in the evenings I soon got a working French. Same thing happened several years later when I joined Siemens.
I have been "floating around" in Europe and the rest of the world for four decades, but I never got to my fifth language. I do not think that it is because my brain has been "saturated". It is probably because electronics developed at such a pace that all learning capacity was needed to master all the new technologies - and also because I got by quite well with the languages I already had. But I surely would like to master Finnish and Japanese...
OOPS! This took quite another turn than I had planned. But perhaps it answers some aspects of your question. And the answer is that this forum really helps. It helps explaining that jargon and slang that can't be found in dictionaries and it also helps in another way: When reading the posts, I ever so often find word usage that is new to me. Or words that I have been using the wrong way.
It is an on-going process and, basically, there is no difference between brushing up your language skills and your technological ones and Eng-Tips Forums provide the tools.
RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
In the USA we use the word "little" frequently to belittle or as in a disparaging way as in "you have your little way of doing things."
If you look-up the word little, it fits perfectly for that purpose and yet it seems like when it is used in that way it does not seem disparaging. Rather it is more like OK it is good for you but not so important to me but I can live with it so you are ok and I am ok on this little issue.
Is this idiom obvious to non-native english speakers and is there a counterpoint in most other languages?
Jesus is THE life,
Leonard
RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
I (non-native English) get the impression that what really is meant to say is; "You have your own little way of doing things" and that means that you are not doing it the way it should be done, but adding "little" reduces the criticism somewhat. It sort of implies that "as long as you are tinkering on a small scale, it really doesn't matter".
The Swedish idiomatic expression is "Du gör saker på ditt eget lilla sätt" and it is literally a verbatim translation.
RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
What is sensible in one language is somewhat strange in another. In English, we say someone has "bats in their belfry" when we mean they are a bit odd, mentally. The equivalent phrase in French is "Spiders on the ceiling". As you see, a direct literal translation would not work.
RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
In Spanish one would interpret that "problem" replaces "issue", unintentionally reverting the original meaning. Thus committing a dysphemism.
RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
In the Colins Reference English dictionary a euphemism is the substitution of a softer term for a hurtful one. In the same dictionary a term is a word or phrase.
RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
Quaint language. Always a surprise somewhere.
But then i say "a herb" and pronounce the "h" while others say "an herb" and don't pronounce the "h".
JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
J.
RE: how do non native english speakers cope?
I burst-out laughing when I read your post because my
Grandfather immegtrated from Sweden so my Dad would tell us Swedish expressions, ditties etc and yours was reminicsent of such.
Jesus is THE life,
Leonard