Language Barriers and Frustration

When my inlaws were still alive - they only spoke Spanish. I could understand a little, but after awhile they would get rolling in conversation with my husband or his siblings and I'd end up being left out. It got to be a bit depressing sometimes. But I hung out with the kids.

Second languages can be so difficult. I cannot speak Spanish very well, I understand a lot of it, but I live in a community where most people cannot speak English, they only speak Spanish, so I have to learn to speak it. Sometimes just to avoid a conversation in Spanish I say, " No habla espanol".

while this dosent happen a lot i have come across a few that i couldnt understand most of the time i can but we have to remember some of these people are improving thier english skills just by being on here and in part the diversity is wht keeps it interesting!

Hello lecanis, I have few friends here whose english are really poor. But I do not mind it very much. If the discussion they posted are not coherent, I will simply ask them for clarification in the nicest way. I have never encountered anyone of them being rude when I do this. If I think that the discussion is going nowhere, then I just move on to the next topic. Happy posting!

I have had that problem, but from the other side. I am a native English speaker living in Guatemala and when I was first learning Spanish, it was really hard. I would have everything planned out in my head how I wanted to say something and then it would come out all garbled. People would look at me and go, "huh?" I think the main thing is to have patience! I can´t tell you the number of times store clerks would just walk away from me because they couldn´t be bothered to try and figure out what I was trying to ask for. It was and still is at times, frustrating. Even now that I speak fluently, many people choose not to talk to me because they assume my Spanish will be awful. So, I think when you are speaking to someone from another country, the best thing to do is to ask them to rephrase their statement, or make a suggestion, like "Do you mean . . . or . . . .?" to help them out. I certainly never minded if someone was willing to take the time to understand me!

Hi lecanis, Don't let language to act as barrier and you should not leave the conversation just because you don't understand a part of it. You can ask the person in front of you to make it clear for you. After all a good conversation is the one in which both the persons talking to each other get the points clearly. The rule of the conversation is that when you say something it is your responsibility that you are understood by the person in front of you. I am from India, and I don't feel that language is any problem for discussion, as far as English is common between us all.

If you are on the other side, you will know how you feel. Understanding people who cannot express fully is just fine, tell them to state his point in another way so you can understand better. If you let frustrations hang on your mind, you can't really understand each other because you have your point at both end not in the middle.

this is what exactly happens to me almost everyday. im a foreigner studying in singapore, and i found it's sometimes hard to catch what the locals are trying to talk, especially when during discussion, they tend to speak formal english and talk very fast, i just cant catch up with them. i tend to ask alot. and i somehow scared that they may find me irritating. and worse still, when i attend seminar, the speaker is british people who speak a strong british english like all the british people do. and i couldnt understand anything at all except those "you, me, i". horrible.

My mother tongue is Spanish and I was educated in an English speaking country, but now I have moved to a German speaking place. I first tried to learn German at home, and then I paid half a fortune to go to a language school. But after a while I realised there was not much point, as I never got the chance to talk to anybody, except the German teacher. Nobody corrected me when I spoke, which would have helped me learn the language. I would have loved for people to ask me questions, instead of just ignoring me. The questions would have meant that they cared and were interested in what I was saying. Questions are much better than just silence and indiference. The more questions, the better! The fact that people were not interested in correcting me or in talking to me has meant that now my computer is my best friend, as I can find people through it to talk to.

Yes, there are some rather interesting discussions that are difficult for me to follow because of the non-normal spelling and articulation. It doesn't really upset me. I figure that if it is from someone of another country, they might not have mastered English and it is their second language anyway. And then there are some discussions I have no clue about simply because I don't understand the lingo. I am not all that "hip" to some of today's goings-on. And there are some who appear to be from a different planet alltogether...lol. I usually avoid anything I can't understand. I don't have the time to spend figuring it all out.

If I think the topic is interesting and I want to respond, but I don't understand I will usually try to paraphrase. I will give you an example: Did you ever have gotten angry ur neighbor? We fought all the time n i don't know y. I will answer the question and as a PS, I will write corrections to their post, example: I think you are saying that you get angry with your neighbors a lot. Sometimes I do, too because my one neighbor said rude comments to me before. I asked her to cut her tree because they were on my property and she got mad a me. I feel very frustrated when talking to her. PS: I know some people don't like being corrected, but I think you should know. I'm not trying offend. Have a nice day. HAVE you ever gotten angry with your neighbors? We FIGHT all the time and I don't know why. I think it just takes patience because it is hard to learn another language, do you speak another language? Well I am sure you could imagine. If I totally don't understand then I don't respond at all. Sometimes people understand and then respond. When more people respond I come back to the discussion and post an answer. Have a nice day Pablo

English is not my main language too. But I don't think language might block us from expresing our opinion and discussion in mylot. We can use simple words, phrases and sentences that we know to write and post response for discussion we like. Of course, we must first make sure that what are the topic that we are going to discuss. You can make use of dictionary or to improve your English Language by listen to broadcast, reading books, magazines and newspapers. Here is one more simple way to improve your English i.e. to read and answer as many as you can the discussions you understand in mylot. What is your comment on these points?

For me, language shouldn't be an issue here. I've encountered similar topics on language issues and i always say that we came from different countries here. We don't have the same level of exposures in the English language. So i think, English natives or those fluent in the English language must be the one to adjust. I agree with one comment here that if you don't understand the reply, you can ask for further clarifications but be careful with your choice of words. =)

I'm glad that someone brought this up as it is something that I have been thinking about since I joined myLot. I have a hard time understanding a lot of posts and at first I thought I was just dealing with English-speaking people with poor grammar and spelling skills. However, I have since read tons of posts where people have explained that English is not their native language and that they use myLot in part to improve their English skills. I feel bad that I judged them so quickly, yet I have to admit that every once in awhile I still get annoyed, because I am not used to dealing with language barriers. Of course, it is not their fault - I would probably annoy a lot of people if I tried to post discussions on Spanish language sites, for example. I really appreciate getting a diverse range of opinions and knowledge so I'm glad that there are so many cultures represented here on myLot. It's also nice to see a site that is helping people improve their English skills, whether English is their second language or their native language!

Language is the only means to communicate be it sign language or verbal language.it did not happen with me but yes thats very much a possibility. Also sometimes it could get very irriating when you want to speak but you cannot because of language bariers.

i think better use english,if u want to use other language just join other program or other forum..even engkish is not my mother tongue,english is my prefered language for discussion.

I do run into an OCCASIONAL discussion that's hard to understand, but they are few and far between. The ones that I find MORE difficult are the ones that clearly are about a "regional" topic that might make sense to someone in India, or the Philippines, but makes no sense to me. As a non-native English speaker, I actually get more "What did they MEAN, by that?" moments when I read the writing of college-educated Americans-- a sad reflection on I-m-not-sure-what.

I have a friend who was born in the U.S. however she spent most of her life in Italy, so english is a 2nd language to her. Sometimes it's hard understanding what she is trying to say because she may not use her negative words correctly, or forgets to use them at all. I muddle through the best that I can. Yes, it does make responding hard, especially on here. The title may catch my interest and I'll read the post and be so confused by the language that I don't understand what I'm being asked. So for those posts, I don't respond.

Getting frustrated when someone misunderstands you will lead finally to disappointment and there is nothing wrong if there is a communication gap. what the other person is trying to say is important and a perfect language is secondary. Making friends is easy and possible in case of diversity. I am from India and we people are united in diversity though we have some hundreds of languages to speak. Language can never be a barrier my friend.

i will like to let you understand this fact that there is no way you can discuss a topic you don't understand to the owers certisfaction.I will rather say that you should leave such discussion because if you insist that such person should present the topic in anothere way,such person can get discouraged