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[hydrophilic attack]

I often see posts with terrible language. Wrong grammer and they're spelling sucks. If your writing posts like that, you should expect to be ridicule. Its the Internet. To bad, but that's just how it works. I have every rite to mock you if you don't speak english good

 

[SuperOrez]

I'm in the U.S. and I get kind annoyed when I see someone who doesn't speak english expect there to always be someone on hand who speaks their language. I mean if you're in a bank they can easily get translators on the line but you can't expect that fast food kid to even know what language your talking in.

 

[MilkBeard]

I often see posts with terrible language. Wrong grammer and they're spelling sucks. If your writing posts like that, you should expect to be ridicule. Its the Internet. To bad, but that's just how it works. I have every rite to mock you if you don't speak english good

Well done.

Spoiler

please be sarcasm

 

[spekkeh]

I often see posts with terrible language. Wrong grammer and they're spelling sucks. If your writing posts like that, you should expect to be ridicule. Its the Internet. To bad, but that's just how it works. I have every rite to mock you if you don't speak english good

 

[ClivePwned]

Shaming no, but I will laugh when people from some backgrounds order a large coke (my own dad included).

Besides he laughs at my pronunciation of his language so I think we're even.

 

[entremet]

I often see posts with terrible language. Wrong grammer and they're spelling sucks. If your writing posts like that, you should expect to be ridicule. Its the Internet. To bad, but that's just how it works. I have every rite to mock you if you don't speak english good

Does that happen here though?

It's mostly line editing--your versus you're/fewer versus less.

Unclear posts are usually ignored or posters reply with "What?"

I'm answering seriously lol. I see your gag.

 

[bonesmccoy]

As someone who volunteered as a conversational partner with ESL students while I was in uni, and who has 'working' (ie, not used in years) conversational German and French, it pains me to think that people actually belittle others for struggling to grasp a language. If anything I'm always extremely impressed when someone for whom English isn't their native tongue comes up to me, as a stranger, to ask me something.

And yet, I do not understand the poem at all. Is it using English and English poetic form to say that English is a crap language compared to XYZ?

 

[Jack The Nipper]

With phones a lot of us make some of the worst mistakes
. Luckily we can figure out the auto correct mistakes as well.

I feel bad for the Chinese though. They really study hard but they have no environment for english. Every time I spell a word wrong they ask what is that? If I say, waht are you doing, trust me. Most of them ask me what is waht. What is bf. What is Stuy. I don't know why but it happens. but it always happens with dozens of friends online.

Then if I type the misspelled word again a line below they still don't catch on.

I guess in Chinese you have characters and sure you can easily choose the wrong form


Everything seems to fly over their head.

I don't think language and basic feeling and culture always mix.

Different countries can have different ways of thinking and doing things. I notice chinese will not gossip much at all and they don't like to answer questions for the most part. They also don't take to if or scenarios well.

So many things can be cultural as well.

A bf the whole equal rights, many girls here would rather give it up. Some things can be interesting and different. Always finding a couple of interesting situations

 

[neto]

The main problem I have with English is pronunciation and maybe the accent, I don't know how strong is may accent, I have never seen someone correct me when I write, I don't know if I write correctly or my mistakes aren't that big

I have actually never had anyone online correct my Spanish (unless I ask, or am in a specific forum dedicated to learning Spanish) even though I know it's pretty damn bad. Spanish speaking peeps, are you just more chill about your language?

Yeah at least not me or the people I know, we mostly don't care if you write/speak badly as long we understand what you are trying to say, the most common mistakes I see is using el/la incorrectly

 

[BriGuy]

This image brings up a really nasty habit that I seem some GAFers demonstrating on this forum: belittling people for not speaking perfect English.

I can't think of a single instance when I've seen this on GAF, and I can't imagine that the mods would turn a blind eye to that kind of behavior if it existed either. Do you have any specific examples you can point to, or was this just an opportunity to get on a high horse?

 

[Lights and Waves]

As someone who volunteered as a conversational partner with ESL students while I was in uni, and who has 'working' (ie, not used in years) conversational German and French, it pains me to think that people actually belittle others for struggling to grasp a language. If anything I'm always extremely impressed when someone for whom English isn't their native tongue comes up to me, as a stranger, to ask me something.

And yet, I do not understand the poem at all. Is it using English and English poetic form to say that English is a crap language compared to XYZ?

The point of the poem is that the author's father is an eloquent speaker in five extremely diverse languages, but is considered inferior in the eyes of the majority just because he can't speak English as well as natives can.

 

[tattooed_dwarf]

I find it more annoying when non-native speakers correct others for pronunciation. And often it's just matter of different accents. Hell people from US have so different ways to pronounce words compared to people from UK. And inside both these countries pronunciations vary alot between different areas. I think it's annoying elitism to correct those, especially when point comes across anyway. That's main reason for communication.

 

[johancruijff]

To worse, it's I've been to worse places, AAAAH

lol fair enough

 

[Raysoul]

In the Philippines, English is our secondary language. We are expected to speak it fluently, but I understand that some people are having a hard time doing it due to the lack of proper education.

However, people sometimes tries too hard...

 

[Koobion]

My parents and other ignorant family members actually look down upon other people in my family who are bilingual. I can't imagine what makes them feel that way.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

I often see posts with terrible language. Wrong grammer and they're spelling sucks. If your writing posts like that, you should expect to be ridicule. Its the Internet. To bad, but that's just how it works. I have every rite to mock you if you don't speak english good

lol, beautiful.

 

[Mimosa97]

I don't get it. I also don't like, even thought I 100% understand why, people apologize for their poor english. I'm always thinking why the hell are you apologizing? You know at least one more language than me!

That's because non-native speakers have a lot of respect for the language they're learning. That's why they apologize.

 

[Dai101]

I often see posts with terrible language. Wrong grammer and they're spelling sucks. If your writing posts like that, you should expect to be ridicule. Its the Internet. To bad, but that's just how it works. I have every rite to mock you if you don't speak english good

 

[Coffee Dog]

People should only get mocked for not speaking english when its their first language.

 

[andythinkpad]

Listen, English is my 2nd language and I am a first generation immigrant.

All I am saying is that the pace of globalization is faster than you think. There is a huge need to have a common language to communicate among people. 50 years (30?) from now we don't even speak English, we communicate with gesture, emoticon and whatever device we use to convert brain wave to emotion.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

Maybe I haven't been lurking enough but I've never seen someone belittling someone else's post for not being written in perfect English.

I've seen it happen elsewhere for sure, but not on GAF. At least not yet. And I'm not a native English speaker and lack a perfect grasp of the language as well!

 

[Alpha Phoenix]

I've never seen the problem the OP alludes to on GAF. While there is a fair number of members who don't speak very good English, I have yet to see them get mocked or anything like that.

In any case, I agree.

 

[LAM09]

I haven't seen any instances of this around here

 

[Vilam]

Maybe I'm just exposed to a different perspective, but I've only ever heard nothing but praise from native English speakers towards those learning English. Because there's so little incentive for an English speaker to pick up an additional language, it always seems impressive when encountering others that have.

 

[Gormless Noodle]

While I haven't been shamed yet, it is quite difficult to participate in the more high end conversations on here. My English vocabulary is relatively limited so I can't always express myself as well as I'd like to. That tends to end up in me deleting my posts before I ever submit them

 

[Adnor]

English is my second language and thankfully no one has shamed me here for my bad english and I've got a lot of useful corrections.

 

[soco]

A) This probably happens for every language.
B) This is hard because people can't tell if you're a native speaker. So I don't think they're attempting to shame non-english speakers. In fact, several of the instances I've seen were places where the english was so good that it seemed like they were just a native speaker being awkward.

 

[Qurupeke]

There haven't been many opportunities to have a conversation in English but I'm sure I'll sound terrible. Even when I post a message here, I have to double check for syntax errors and such.

And my french are certainly even more atrocious. I just don't want to think what I'll sound like to a French man...

 

[Octavianus]

As someone from Germany my biggest problem with English right now is when to use a comma or not.

I asked my English teacher in high school once and she said "just use one whenever you feel like it" -.-

That's pretty much how I do it too. I use them whenever I feel like I should and I hope for the best.. I hope I get it right at least 50% of the time.

A) This probably happens for every language.

Probably, The Dutch and French are pretty anal about it at least.

 

[Newt]

At one point in my life I did speak 4 languages, and I agree that people who learned English as second language shouldn't be belittled at all.

Though, people should also realize, English is the language of the future. For the purpose of pure communication, English is simply the best.

 

[FunkyPajamas]

I often see posts with terrible language. Wrong grammer and they're spelling sucks. If your writing posts like that, you should expect to be ridicule. Its the Internet. To bad, but that's just how it works. I have every rite to mock you if you don't speak english good

You should of thaught this thru, for all intensive purposes.

OP, lovely poem but besides the minor "dude what are you trying to say" or "you're/your" etc, I rarely see any gaffers making fun or deriding people for their writing skills (or lack thereof). Still, it's a nice sentiment, sure. One we should all try to live by.

 

[Stereogatari]

There does seem to be this attitude with foreigners to English (though I imagine it exists in all societies) that the foreigner is stupid. Yet as the image in the OP shows, languages like Urdu can be incredibly eloquent and sophisticated.

 

[Lights and Waves]

Relevant: This billboard that was just put up in Iowa.

 

[ZackieChan]

Whatever happened to terrisus?

Gone but not forgotten. We're living in the post-apocalyptic wasteland he's left behind, one that's given rise to an anti-Terrisus, even. >.>

 

[Commanche Raisin Toast]

The only people I've seen even come close to picking on anyone for not speaking 'perfect' English are those from England themselves, but even then they have several dialects and variations so it's a silly argument.

But if I'm going to comment on what the gist of the OP actually is, I don't really witness many people belittling others for not speaking English well. I see plenty of debates about whether or not immigrants should learn the local language in the states, but it's exactly that- a debate.

That's just my experience though. I hear things can be pretty brutal in the UK, and although I live in Texas, I'm in Houston and its a giant melting pot. Me and my wife are 1 of maybe a small handful of homes in our entire subdivision that are occupied by white-ish folk. We even get a lot of flyers and business cards on our doorstep with no English on them at all.

Instead of complaining or tweeting angrily at Obama we just accept that our neighbors are good people that are bettering themselves and we have no idea what their daily lives are like or if they ARE working on learning English.

Until we have some differences we can't resolve due to the language barrier, I have no room to complain or think less of them to be honest. But I also think it's ridiculous if anyone were to criticize me for not learning Spanish. That's one thing I can't wrap my head around. I don't care if Texas is right up against Mexico. If you only know the 'local language' of a country you get a free pass, sorry. That goes for European countries too IMO.

 

[Stinkles]

Native English speakers who say "on accident" should be banned outright.


Also, "Should of"

 

[RoyalLaFlame]

I always read what I'm about to post a tousand times to catch any gramatical errors.

 

[zswordsman]

It's not just English though.

I went to high school in Mexico and would always get picked on because my Spanish was a little off at times or I flubbed a word when I first got there. No mercy man, even though my English is on point and didn't even have to take the class in school, they would always just rip on me when I messed up on my Spanish.

I guess it's just a way for themselves to feel superior even though you got multiple languages mostly mastered compared to their 1, if at that.

 

[Calvero]

I want to see someone take a red pen to this whole thread. It'd be glorious.

edit: the poet is Shailja Patel. at least that's what i found from 30 seconds of googling

edit 2: further googling says that the poem in display is incomplete, there's two lines cut off

who think their flat, cold spiky words
make the only reality.

comes after

 

[Ricker]

I am French Canadian,french is my native tongue...it's not been so bad here,besides a few times when I sort of opened the door by making comments on voice acting and translation saying it was good(example was Arc Rise Fantasia) lol...but overall I think people realise most of the time by the way I ''turn'' my phrases that English is not my first language.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I don't really mind if someone speaking English as a second language makes some mistakes here and there. Sometimes they make amusing mistakes, like the guy in that Ninja Turtles thread yesterday who thought "baddest" was supposed to mean "worst," but nothing worth ridiculing. They're doing a better job than I am at their language.

What bothers me is when people who were raised with English as their first language butcher the language.

It's usually pretty easy to spot the difference.

Exactly this. I'm not going to belittle someone who speaks one language fluently and English pretty well, because they're basically up an entire language on me. But if you only know one language and you still can't get it right? I don't have sympathy for that; learn to communicate.

 

[Currygan]

Honestly, I see way more native English speakers making dreadful mistakes here than the bilingual blokes

 

[Disxo]

Yeah its kinda difficult you guys have to consider that, some of us re-read the heck out of our posts and still have some errors.

 

[oti]

But seriously if someone says crap like "I could of" instead of "I could have" I just want to slap them.

Yeah its kinda difficult you guys have to consider that, some of us re-read the heck out of our posts and still have some errors.

I feel so bad every time I make a mistake.

 

[AnathemicOne]

Videogames, movies and songs taught me what i know of english language.
My english is far from perfect. But people don't usualy mock me for it. At least not here on GAF. Actually i don't know if people are being kind or if i'm just writing everything correctly.

As a native English speaker, I'd say raging/talking with people online (thanks Battle.Net via Warcraft 3) taught me more about the language than any teacher through grade school ever did.

As for commas, a good indicator of where to use them is saying the sentence out loud or to yourself naturally and see where you take a pause.

 

[Dai101]

Honestly, I see way more native English speakers making dreadful mistakes here than the bilingual blokes

Gracias.

 

[RoyalLaFlame]

I'm actually used to english mainly because, even though I'm portuguese, my presentations, material and reports are mostly in english.

But my english is far from perfect.

 

[sir_kevith]

I just say don't bother to correct anyone unless it's causing confusion or being misinterpreted. Grammar correction is off topic or just snarky most of the time.

We use all kinds of colorful language and slang here and the conversation is casual. As others have pointed out even the native english speakers/writers have plenty of bad habits. We shouldn't veer off topic every time someone says "I could care less" because we all know the meaning of that.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Nobody on GAF ever told me about my mistakes.

 

[Cocaloch]

Grammer and punctuation has traditionally been an indicator of education and background, this is also applied to memebers from non-english speaking societies, whos brightest demonstrate a robust command of not only their own language but English too. I believe alot stems from that.

In my experience the shaming is more from pronunciation, as words take either new meaning or sound different from what's expected, and its easier for majority speakers to shame based on that and feel as if theyre experts, and find a common point to feel superior.

It's not nice of course, gently making fun of a few words here and there is OK, Its usually met with a smile, but shaming is nasty and unpleasant, almost like bullying.

This is a polite way of saying class. I never correct anyone's grammar unless I really just can't understand what they're saying. It's fairly pointless and just makes you seem like an ass. It's also the most boring way to feign intelligence.

Also a lot of English grammar is actually pointless. In particular giving hard rules for stylistic commas, not ending sentences on prepositions, never using the passive voice, and the like. It's really just the most shallow and pointless kind of elitism.

Contrary to what your teacher said, there are set rules for using commas. I have found this link for basic uses of commas. Perhaps it would be a good read, even for native speakers:

http://www.evergreen.edu/writingcenter/handouts/grammar/commas.pdf

Ehh not really, there is no langague board for English so pretty much everything is arbitrary. There are commas that do more work than other more stylistic commas so one could claim that rules that consistently yield such commas are "set rules for how to use commas". But English commas are not really a part of its grammar in the same way that say German commas are.

The point of the poem is that the author's father is an eloquent speaker in five extremely diverse languages, but is considered inferior in the eyes of the majority just because he can't speak English as well as natives can.

Completely off topic but I just thought it was kinda funny that you called them diverse languages. Especially considering the inclusion of both Urdu and Hindi.