Language Mistakes are Natural?

wow... great you're in control of two very interesting languages - English and Spanish. Even for people who are in English speaking countries sometimes find it difficult to express themselves, it would be an uphill task for people where English is rarely used except when they interact on the net. We have good numbers of members here who can't express themselves well but are trying to write to the best they can.

It is very common case here where children speak many languages at home. My children speak 4 languages at home. My children speaks Englsih, mandarin, our national language and my mother's tongue fluently. They are able to gain good control of the languages. We are fortunate to live in a multi racial country and learning other languages is made easier.

Thanks zandi I do my best really I was in a position where I had to have good English [ speaking and writing] now a day I speak both languages to my children and now my son and his wife are having their first baby next year and I Am allready booked to sing [ my wonderful] [so they say] lullabies in Spanish. Mind you I also learnt some beautiful aboriginal lullabies which I intend to sing to the baby as well. I hope we wont confuse this child but at least he/she will learn a language or 2.

I find that the native speakers are making a mockery of their own language by the excessive use of slang or text language. It only confuses us to no end when we don't read the right usage of words. They are either too confident of their own mother's tongue or are upgrading their own language in the wrong way.

I always keep my comments or responses short and simple (K.I.S.S.)but not stupid.

[b]Well, we do love to play with our language. It's one of the joys of English! I agree, though, that there are many who show off, & fail to communicate--especially with those who aren't native speakers! It's a game with rules we understand, but I think it's thoughtless & even rude & selfish to keep non-native speakers bewildered, walled out of the conversation. There needs to be a careful balance between word play & communication. One should use such play as a fine chef uses spices, in small amounts, among more common ingredients, so that one doesn't burn the tongue! I agree that texting is a horrible influence as it's used today, & it doesn't help our children (the ones who use it most) to learn speak or spell properly, either! Slang, jargon, & word play in general are also often used negatively, as an exclusive code, deliberately signaling those who don't know the special terms (or as we say: "are not in the know") that they don't belong. It prevents "outsiders" from joining in. Thus a teenager uses texting terms such as, i.e., "bff" (Best Friend Forever) as a private way to shut out the "enemy," i.e., parents. A business develops its own private terminology ("jargon") as a shortcut, but only people in that field will understand it, so, again, it shuts out those who aren't knowledgeable. There are actually dictionaries devoted to these private lexicons! There are enough pitfalls already built into English to make it one of the hardest languages to learn, so when I speak to any non-native speaker, I try to be polite & keep this problem in mind. There is an acronym for this: K.I.S.S.! It stands for a command: "Keep It Simple, Stupid!" After all, speech is all about communication, & if we're just shutting folks out, why talk at all? Anyone who ignores this fact isn't only rude, they are "stupid!" Maggiepie IMPEACH THE IMPOSTER![/b]

[b]Wow, you're definitely on the same page as I am! Unless I really can't decipher the person's meaning--& I always try--I will answer, but only if I enjoy the topic! Maggiepie IMPEACH THE IMPOSTER![/b]

I don't respond to nonsensical topics too as they are only a waste of time and could easily pass off as kinder class subjects.

I do notice that you are an 'all seasons' responder. Which is an advantage cos regardless of the subjects, you have ever ready answers to give.

i HOPE THIS IS A NICE MESSAGE IF SO THANKS. WELCOME TO MYLOT.

Hola como estás, gusto en conocerte

I can conclude that we Asians are quite intelligent lot as we are are able to command the English language quite well compared to people whose mother's tongue is English who can only read and write in their native English and I doubt whether they be able to speak other language. Being multi lingual is an advantage.

Hello my friend zandi458 Ji, You are absolutely right in your analysis. Asians are rich in heritage. Ido ot think anyone can fathoom the depth of their richness. Further you are very right thateven my own mother tongue may not be perfect. For more languages, I am always telling my grand children to go for Frnch/German/Russian apar fromHindi and English. May God bless You and have a great time.

Many have lamented their weaknesses in this language and that maybe part of the reasons they quit before making their marks here. Of course everyday is a learning process for us and mylot is the most appropriate platform to improve the language. It builds our confidence to interact with the native speakers.

[b]Absolutely true! Please see my other post(s) here! Maggiepie IMPEACH THE IMPOSTER![/b]

Hei Sudipta are you sympathetic to me to? Well You could be. I am not so well in English but have been trying to make it my slave and I am not sure if it has become or not but I am sure that I can Command it in English and that too in good and acceptable English.

Hi Rajib, You are an English teacher! So definitely you have mastered the language somewhat. In any case, English is not our mother tongue and we can hardly be expected to be exceptionally fluent in it…also I’ve seen that one needs to regularly speak a language if one has to be fluent in it…in India, even if we read and write English a lot, we hardly speak it regularly in our daily life. So even I find it difficult to keep up conversations in English for a prolonged period…you know, I’m speaking and one or two words are bound to be in Bengali or Hindi or maybe I just search in my mind for the right word and the Bengali or Hindi word comes to my mind LOL…

Being proficient in any one language is not easy unless you major in that language to be able to have a strong grip to it. Like you English is also not my mother's tongue but is a subject learned in school and the medium of instruction then. But due to political changes in my country, the dare-devil politicians has changed the syllabus of education to make English as a non important language only to replace it with for our national language which has no commercial value in international job market. Unfortunately these short-sighted politicians who mooted the idea to replace English as the medium of instruction has landed many local graduates in dilemma as they can't communicate in proper English which has become a hindrance in the job market. Probably I am used to the broken English locally, I find no problems in reading discussions that are written poorly. So I do respond to them.

Hi Lakota, Regional variation in the intonation stress and accent are there in every language. In England the souther accent is not easily understood by the Londoners. We just can not get out of this but we can try to be better in our written communication as we follow either the British or American or Australian English in the larger sense. What i feel the need is to make our writing as much closer to comprehensible level. And I have seen people developing their written English here at mylot.

I know about the English as I have 2 friends over there in the UK and have talked to them on the phone and they do have different accents. I can understand one pretty good the other have to listen hard to get what is being said lol Zandi, You have picked up good of what I have said. IF you didnt understand you asked then I tried to get it where you could understand wheat I had said that was one time after that you have done good and I hope i have done better.

Speaking and writing in English is in contrast but many of the native speakers apply their spoken lingo in writing which sometimes confuses people from the other side of the fence.

I always welcome constructive criticism from the floor. Being in mylot boost up my confidence. Knowing that I am able to interact and be understood by all is my greatest achievement in mylot. I was once my own greatest critics and wouldn't even dare to communicate with the native speakers for fear of being mocked. Not anymore. I can proudly say that I stand tall among the native speakers anytime in a round table for a healthy debate as I can now claim my place in the international English speaking world. Thanks to mylot for providing such a good training base for people whose native tongue is not English. I no longer need to attend intensive English language class as I feel I am on par with many of the native speakers now. Is this bragging?

I feel honored to be in your list of friends Maggie as you are so welcoming in your approach to tutor anyone wishing to learn this beautiful English language at NO COST. I wish you are in my country and surely your services will be selling like 'hot cakes' here. I can say languages, any language are hard to master and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to learn this language from young which paved the way for me to learn this language in depth by surrounding myself with printed materials in English and applying this language in my daily conversation with others. When I am in doubts of the spelling or meaning of certain words I will use the net to get me the answer. It is so convenient these days and we don't have to rely solely on the dictionary. Knowing few languages is an advantage as it comes handy when we are doing business or traveling overseas.

[b]No, the honor is yours, dear, for trusting me! And I did use to tutor for free (well, it was so much fun! ) in person, too. My English is very good, but no-one's English is perfect. Perfecting it is a life-long process. My grammar isn't nearly as correct as my spelling & vocabulary, however, so if you have a grammar question, I'll need to check my textbooks, but I will answer it! I'm just warning you that I may make the occasional error, so if you doubt my teaching, that's fine! PLEASE feel free to make me explain & double check a rule! Of course, I will do my "level best" not to "goof!" You're not the first non-American who thinks I should go to another country to teach. I once had a family of pupils from Beijing implore me to come back to China & stay with them, earning my living teaching them & others. Apparently official teachers there aren't plentiful, & worse, for some reason they teach spelling & vocabulary, but not pronunciation! (I had several students from China tell me they thought they learned best when we simply sat & talked, no matter on what topic!) This lack of teaching audibly in China is astonishing, to me, as I wonder how anyone could learn any language well without hearing it. Maybe people from there are just smarter than the rest of us? More than one student confirmed this news, however, & I was tempted to take that family up on their incredible offer, but at the time, I had duties here I couldn't neglect. Even so, I can't say I'm without regrets, sometimes! Some languages are more difficult to master than others, due to vastly different grammatical structures, idiomatic differences, & not least because each language is bound up within the language, thus they have concepts foreign to languages from vastly different parts of the world. For example, English, a polyglot language, is at least based on European languages, so when a native-born English speaker attempts to learn, say, French, or Spanish, it's much easier because of their common base, Latin & Greek & their offshoots. But when we try to tackle Asian tongues, there is no base connection familiar to us. I'm sure it's true when someone from Laos or Japan tries to learn Italian or English. It would only make sense! Making English doubly difficult for folks from both areas is that tendency we have of keeping variant rules from the languages from which we've "borrowed." Often those rules contradict one another! Here's a good example of that: "true & truly." Note that the "e" disappears when using the adverbial form. Other terms keep the "e" when forming their adverbs. Tale sure (surEly), or lovely, or sorely. I only learned the correct spelling of "truly" the last few years! Too, if you take out the E, of "surely," you'd have a different term, "surly," which means something totally different than surely! This is, as far as I can see, why the E is removed here, but not in other similarly-spelled adverbs! Part of the difficulty of learning English is stuff like that. I'll help steer you through it, if you like, so you won't drown. One of the things I can provide is this bit of wisdom: learn the rules, but learn English well enough that you automatically know when it's all right to break the rules! Ha ha! By the way please don't let my tendency to use less-common words in these posts scare you, as in future replies to questions, I plan to simplify my vocabulary to accommodate pupils who aren't as advanced in their pursuit of English as you clearly are! Maggiepie IMPEACH THE IMPOSTER![/b]

I know it is not easy even for the native speakers to write English perfectly compared to those who specializes in this language. These native speakers may excel in their spoken English but flop in their grammars when it comes to writing. That goes the same with other languages spoken by their native speakers where their spoken language is in wide contrast to their written words. It cannot be said of us in the Asian regions where the use of pidgin English is commonly used. It has been localized so much so that made it almost impossible for native speakers to comprehend within an earshot. As far as languages goes one need to go deep into the language to admit proficiency like you, who can spot and correct errors at a glance. Again I am in dilemma when it comes to spelling as the net uses American English while we learned the British English. Spelling can be different but the meaning is the same. I agree that you must try to simplify your words to accommodate people who may not understand English well. Using bombastic English might only deter some mylotters to come to respond to your discussions as they might feel threatened by the words used. I am a learner here so correct me when my words are misplaced, wrongly spelt or does not make sense. I am very open to criticism.

Have you retained your Italian Paula? I had an Italian boyfriend (about 30 years ago) who taught me a few words and so I set about teaching myself the language after he went back to Italy. It has been very slow because I've done it alone with a book or two, and had no one to practice with. When I went to Italy in 1994 I found I could express myself "ok" but it was difficult to understand when people spoke to me especially when they went fast. By the time it was time to come home, I felt like I was "just getting it". I hope you talk Italian to yourself because you really can keep it that way. I often still translate a sentence I'm thinking of into Italian in my head, just to "keep my oar in". And if there is a word I don't know the Italian for, I look it up, and I remember it too!

Hi paula, only now that I know you are an Italian. So English is your adopted language now? As you know English is also not my first language but weird though I speak this language quite often at home with a blend of another foreign tongue ie Mandarin and some local dialects. Coming from the same situation as other Asian lotters here I try my best to understand their ways of writing as some of them structure their sentences directly from their mother's tongue which of course is very confusing for those native speakers and others who are proficient in this language.

I went to school in Italy for five years and I still speak Italian to my parents although my husband and daughter are Australian so I speak English in my own home. I like keeping up to date with the language and I hope to teach it to my daughter.

Hi raj, Thanks for the good compliments. I can trust your judgment since you are the man that holds the keys to the teaching of this language. I am not surprise that you pass the test of Sharon Bucks.

Thanks zand,

Nice of you to come back with your comments.

You are doing fine here and I don't think your english is poor as your presentation is very clear and well understood. Thank you for responding and hopefully I will come across your discussions in future.

thank you for you support and encouragement.i enjoy mylot with you and all my good friends!

I believe a catchy title promises an interesting contents. I am also always drawn to the titles of discussion. I am an all rounder person which means I am able to comprehend the most polished words to one that is written haphazardly. Those whose mother's tongues are not English usually write with direct translation from their mother's tongue which more often are incomprehensible to the native speakers. To learn this language one should be willing to accept criticism from people who are proficient in this language and being offended should never arise as we learn from mistakes and should be thankful to people who pointed out the mistakes.

Having English as the only language allowed here is an advantage as others are forced to write in this language and in the process improve their command of this language. Constant posting and responding gives them confidence in their English usage.

You are doing perfectly well here riya. Mylot give us the chance to be in daily conversation with the native speakers which build our confidence in English.

Not all native speakers are good writers though their spoken command of the language is no match to people who learn this language but surprisingly those non native speakers excel in their writing as compared to the native speakers. The years of training and learning this language in school have taught them the proper usage of English. No doubt, they still make grammatical mistakes but they can almost parallel the proficiency of the native speakers.

i-do-not-know-what-you-are-talking-about-how-am-i-suppose-to-reply-or-respond? exactly what I am trying to imply. Only when one can express themselves clearly and correctly that they be be able to draw in good number of people to read their posts.

Thank you for responding. I agree with you that language is a tool for communication and as long as we are understood will be no problem to others.

Hi rg0205, You got that right. I ask no more from a well said response. I don't know whether you are a native speaker or someone like me but what you put down here are logical.