I presume here BS means "Bullshit" area, Uriel, if it is then I really adore your way of talking...lol
How many of you are native speakers?
I'm a native speaker of American English, Inland North dialect (I'm a Michigander). I come here either to read about regional variations of English (which is one of the aspects I enjoy most about my native language), or to read posts on the foreign languages part of the board.
Yes, BS means bullshit. I try to edit myself for content occasionally.
And adoration is always appreciated ... and encouraged. ;)
(Actually, since we have people of many nationalities there, and we BS amongst ourselves enough to be able to distinguish each others' writing styles, the subject of having a personal "voice" has come up, and I think Porthos and I were rated the most American-sounding (metaphorically speaking anyway). Amusingly, our most British-sounding poster is our resident Singaporean! Our real Brits can't hold a candle to him -- but I think our Swede could pass for a Yankee any day....)
And adoration is always appreciated ... and encouraged. ;)
(Actually, since we have people of many nationalities there, and we BS amongst ourselves enough to be able to distinguish each others' writing styles, the subject of having a personal "voice" has come up, and I think Porthos and I were rated the most American-sounding (metaphorically speaking anyway). Amusingly, our most British-sounding poster is our resident Singaporean! Our real Brits can't hold a candle to him -- but I think our Swede could pass for a Yankee any day....)
I do envy you native speakers of English in forums - it must be so pleasant and exciting to be a Santa Claus, giving out gifts which you can't run out of.
>>I do envy you native speakers of English in forums - it must be so pleasant and exciting to be a Santa Claus, giving out gifts which you can't run out of.<<
Not necessarily - one must remember that non-native speakers very often want to learn a standard form of English and are not necessarily particularly interested in English dialects beyond such. Consequently, if one speaks a very non-standard dialect, while such may be quite interesting from a English dialectology standpoint, such may not be all too useful for individuals learning English as a foreign language.
Not necessarily - one must remember that non-native speakers very often want to learn a standard form of English and are not necessarily particularly interested in English dialects beyond such. Consequently, if one speaks a very non-standard dialect, while such may be quite interesting from a English dialectology standpoint, such may not be all too useful for individuals learning English as a foreign language.
On that note, I wonder what would happen if I became an L2 English teacher, considering that I still have quite nonstandard pronunciation even in my most formal speech, and my usual everyday speech would most likely be far from what students would be specified to be taught by the curriculum in question...
<<I do envy you native speakers of English in forums - it must be so pleasant and exciting to be a Santa Claus, giving out gifts which you can't run out of.>>
LOL -- yeah, it's a cheap thrill that lets you feel smart for a few minutes, even though you're only handing out little tidbits on basic grammar and how to use this word versus that word -- something anyone who speaks a given language day in, day out, would be able to do!
LOL -- yeah, it's a cheap thrill that lets you feel smart for a few minutes, even though you're only handing out little tidbits on basic grammar and how to use this word versus that word -- something anyone who speaks a given language day in, day out, would be able to do!
The thing with being a native speaker on forums like this is that it does come with a bit of responsibility... Pos recently chewed me out because I said something that I thought was reasonable but turned out to be wrong. If I'm not sure I'm right, though, I generally either say so, or don't post at all.
- Kef
- Kef
I am a native speaker of American English and have come to care immensely about the difficulties foreigners can have with their English skills, which is why I started visiting this website.
I am a graduate student in an entomology laboratory with three other international graduate students from India, Thailand, and South Korea. Our only common language is English, and I am the only native speaker in the lab. I am frequently asked for advice on spelling and pronunciation, as well as for help with writing and proofreading everyone else's abstracts, papers, posters, PowerPoint slides, and sometimes important e-mails. And seeing what other people are going through as they try to work and study in what is a foreign language to them is giving me a quite different perspective than I have ever had before.
Anyone else?
I am a graduate student in an entomology laboratory with three other international graduate students from India, Thailand, and South Korea. Our only common language is English, and I am the only native speaker in the lab. I am frequently asked for advice on spelling and pronunciation, as well as for help with writing and proofreading everyone else's abstracts, papers, posters, PowerPoint slides, and sometimes important e-mails. And seeing what other people are going through as they try to work and study in what is a foreign language to them is giving me a quite different perspective than I have ever had before.
Anyone else?
I am a native speaker and I have studied several other languages but I've never reached a level where I'm nearly as comfortable with the foreign language as I am with English, so I understand how it feels for people learning English. However, it's still hard for me to believe sometimes that people don't understand certain things or that they wouldn't realize that they were making certain mistakes, since English seems so easy to me.
I'm a native and I'm a speaker........many people say I do far too much of the latter for my own good most of the time....but it's my bread and butter. And I so enjoy it. The word native still has certain connotations doesn't it? Jungles, bush country, mud huts, bones through the nose, spears, war cries.........mmmmmm.......yes, Scotland! Don't you just love it!
<<I am a native speaker and I have studied several other languages but I've never reached a level where I'm nearly as comfortable with the foreign language as I am with English, so I understand how it feels for people learning English. However, it's still hard for me to believe sometimes that people don't understand certain things or that they wouldn't realize that they were making certain mistakes, since English seems so easy to me.>>
It is not as hard to believe after they explain to you how their language works, and you perceive how different it is from English. It is a learning experience on both sides.
It is not as hard to believe after they explain to you how their language works, and you perceive how different it is from English. It is a learning experience on both sides.
Indeed. When I saw how very different Japanese grammar was, it was quite an eye-opener. I didn't explore it in depth at the time, but I found that the very basic, fundamental things were extremely different. About the only significant similarity between English and Japanese grammar is that adjectives precede nouns! Everything else is different: the word order, the distinction between topics and subjects, the fact that many adjectives are actually a kind of verb, the complete lack of articles and plural markers (on both nouns and verbs), the many ways to say "I" or "you", the way that the politeness of a sentence depends on the conjugation of the verb (this goes beyond the well-known European T-V distinction (tu/vouz, tú/usted, etc.))... and that's before we explore issues like how relative clauses are formed!
The point is, when you see stuff like that, you begin to notice how arbitrary your native language's grammar is. English does feel simpler and more natural to me, but I'm aware that it's only because I'm more used to it.
Also, a couple of times when trying to write a message in Spanish -- a language far more similar to English, of course, but still more different than you might think at first -- I've said things that were patently nonsensical and should have realized were wrong, just because I got confused. Sometimes the simplest words can trip you up when you're speaking in a language that still feels very foreign to you. So no matter what mistake somebody makes, I'm probably not going to be surprised, unless they've been speaking English so long that they really ought to know better. (I hate it when people have been speaking a language for years, and yet they still make fundamental mistakes and are too lazy to use a dictionary...)
- Kef
The point is, when you see stuff like that, you begin to notice how arbitrary your native language's grammar is. English does feel simpler and more natural to me, but I'm aware that it's only because I'm more used to it.
Also, a couple of times when trying to write a message in Spanish -- a language far more similar to English, of course, but still more different than you might think at first -- I've said things that were patently nonsensical and should have realized were wrong, just because I got confused. Sometimes the simplest words can trip you up when you're speaking in a language that still feels very foreign to you. So no matter what mistake somebody makes, I'm probably not going to be surprised, unless they've been speaking English so long that they really ought to know better. (I hate it when people have been speaking a language for years, and yet they still make fundamental mistakes and are too lazy to use a dictionary...)
- Kef
Native speaker, standard American English. I was linked to Antimoon from www.alljapaneseallthetime.com, which advocates a method for learning Japanese inspired by Antimoon's method for English.
I am not a native speaker but i can speak english fluently
Welsh is my first language and the language of my life 90% of the time
Welsh is my first language and the language of my life 90% of the time