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What do non-native English speakers think of the English language?
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As an native English speaker who has spent years trying to teach English to foreigners I can tell you that they find it incredibly annoying.
The sheer number of words is daunting enough as it is but things like verb conjugation, tenses and other complications are enough to drive anyone nuts.
My favourite example of the problems in English involves spelling the numbers (one of the first things any new language learner encounters)
ONE looks like it should be pronounced Onay. It shouldn't be confused with won which means something different.
TWO looks like it should be pronounced Tawoo. It shouldn't be confused with to, or too.
THREE should clearly be pronounced Taheree or something similar. This is where English learners have to discover that two letters combined will sometimes make another sound entirely. They also have to learn when this isn't the case: flathead screwdriver for example.
FOUR should be pronounced For-uer because it has a U in it that it doesn't need. It shouldn't be confused with For or Fore.
FIVE is fine.
SIX is good.
SEVEN is great.
EIGHT is usually the place where hands are thrown up in the air in frustration. Only the T at the end makes any kind of sense and the other letters look like they've been thrown together at random. ATE makes sense. EIGHT doesn't.
NINE and TEN are both okay.
Other languages have a counting system that makes sense and has a pattern that can be followed after the first ten numbers have been learnt. But not English ELEVEN, TWELVE, THIRTEEN and FIFTEEN make no sense. They're more words that have to be rote learnt because they have no pattern or logic. FOURTEEN. SIXTEEN, SEVENTEEN, EIGHTEEN and NINETEEN are all fine but TWENTY makes no sense and neither does THIRTY, FORTY (why is the U dropped?) and FIFTY all problems again.
So much of English is totally illogical, breaks its own rules and has to be learnt by rote and memorized.
The sheer number of words is daunting enough as it is but things like verb conjugation, tenses and other complications are enough to drive anyone nuts.
My favourite example of the problems in English involves spelling the numbers (one of the first things any new language learner encounters)
ONE looks like it should be pronounced Onay. It shouldn't be confused with won which means something different.
TWO looks like it should be pronounced Tawoo. It shouldn't be confused with to, or too.
THREE should clearly be pronounced Taheree or something similar. This is where English learners have to discover that two letters combined will sometimes make another sound entirely. They also have to learn when this isn't the case: flathead screwdriver for example.
FOUR should be pronounced For-uer because it has a U in it that it doesn't need. It shouldn't be confused with For or Fore.
FIVE is fine.
SIX is good.
SEVEN is great.
EIGHT is usually the place where hands are thrown up in the air in frustration. Only the T at the end makes any kind of sense and the other letters look like they've been thrown together at random. ATE makes sense. EIGHT doesn't.
NINE and TEN are both okay.
Other languages have a counting system that makes sense and has a pattern that can be followed after the first ten numbers have been learnt. But not English ELEVEN, TWELVE, THIRTEEN and FIFTEEN make no sense. They're more words that have to be rote learnt because they have no pattern or logic. FOURTEEN. SIXTEEN, SEVENTEEN, EIGHTEEN and NINETEEN are all fine but TWENTY makes no sense and neither does THIRTY, FORTY (why is the U dropped?) and FIFTY all problems again.
So much of English is totally illogical, breaks its own rules and has to be learnt by rote and memorized.
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My native language is Thai. Communicating an idea in English seems much more compact and easier than in my native tongue. Here are some of the reasons:
There is no Tense in Thai. In Thai, there's no elegant way to distinguish among "I eat", "I ate", "I have eaten", "I have been eating" with such few words.
Words in English are very specific. Thai isn't as much. For example, look, see, eye, stare, glance, contemplate are all the same word in Thai. Same thing with compare, contrast, and distinguish; and many many more. Therefore, I often find myself spell out Webster's translations of English words when I communicate in Thai in order to make myself clear.
Plurality is specific and compact in English. In Thai we have no way to say, "She has pencils", we can only say, "She has a number of pencils" which sounds wrong in Thai. We could say "She has some pencils." But in English that is different from saying, "She has a few pencils" and "She has few pencils." In Thai, these three are said the same way that, "She has some pencils" which is less clear.
English's Passive Voice is awesome! It allows you to communicate just the point and that is it. Passive voice doesn't exist in Thai. And it sounds wrong when you try it in Thai. For example, to say "She's drowned" in Thai you have to say something like "She is overwhelmed by water". The problem is it is not always water (e.g. lung fluid) but we have to say water anyway in Thai which is wrong factually and it takes away from the point that the poor woman is just drowned.
There is no Tense in Thai. In Thai, there's no elegant way to distinguish among "I eat", "I ate", "I have eaten", "I have been eating" with such few words.
Words in English are very specific. Thai isn't as much. For example, look, see, eye, stare, glance, contemplate are all the same word in Thai. Same thing with compare, contrast, and distinguish; and many many more. Therefore, I often find myself spell out Webster's translations of English words when I communicate in Thai in order to make myself clear.
Plurality is specific and compact in English. In Thai we have no way to say, "She has pencils", we can only say, "She has a number of pencils" which sounds wrong in Thai. We could say "She has some pencils." But in English that is different from saying, "She has a few pencils" and "She has few pencils." In Thai, these three are said the same way that, "She has some pencils" which is less clear.
English's Passive Voice is awesome! It allows you to communicate just the point and that is it. Passive voice doesn't exist in Thai. And it sounds wrong when you try it in Thai. For example, to say "She's drowned" in Thai you have to say something like "She is overwhelmed by water". The problem is it is not always water (e.g. lung fluid) but we have to say water anyway in Thai which is wrong factually and it takes away from the point that the poor woman is just drowned.
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Another Swedish-speaker here.
It has its ups and downs. The vocabulary's size is ridiculous, and since it's from so many places, it's hard to guess the meaning of new words (at least for us who don't speak French).
Spelling and pronunciation are too often seemingly unrelated.
Exceptions to each and every rule to the point where I consider English to be not a rule-based language, but exception-based.
The set of tenses is commendably restricted (but why holding on to the special third-person singular verb form?), and the lack of grammatical gender simplifies learning a lot (as well as copy editing: replacing a noun in a Swedish text, and you may have to check the rest of the sentence too to see if any adjective happened to refer to it).
The prepositions are too close to Swedish, while presenting a whole slew of gotchas.
And as for the sound of it - it is not one language. I get very different images from the English on BBC (soothing, instilling trust) than from Texan (self-assured).
It has its ups and downs. The vocabulary's size is ridiculous, and since it's from so many places, it's hard to guess the meaning of new words (at least for us who don't speak French).
Spelling and pronunciation are too often seemingly unrelated.
Exceptions to each and every rule to the point where I consider English to be not a rule-based language, but exception-based.
The set of tenses is commendably restricted (but why holding on to the special third-person singular verb form?), and the lack of grammatical gender simplifies learning a lot (as well as copy editing: replacing a noun in a Swedish text, and you may have to check the rest of the sentence too to see if any adjective happened to refer to it).
The prepositions are too close to Swedish, while presenting a whole slew of gotchas.
And as for the sound of it - it is not one language. I get very different images from the English on BBC (soothing, instilling trust) than from Texan (self-assured).
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I'm an Arab who grew up in Lebanon and Dubai. But yet the passion and appreciation that I have to English is off the chart. I see English as a beautiful language that has a very strong history and culture. When I first came to Dubai, I only spoke Arabic and French. To catch up and improve my English, I decided to start reading. After a while, I stopped reading for the sake of improving my English and started reading because I was enjoying it. I found myself observing and admiring how beautiful this language is. I loved English so much to the point that English became my first language. I mean dknt get me wrong, Arabic is even older and much much harder and more powerful than English, but theres something about the English Language that makes it jumps out of the crowd. For example, I bought this book about phobias, and I was surprised to know that there r words that describe the weirdest phobias ever. To show you what I mean when I say this language is interesting, did you know that some people have a phobia from long words, and that the word to describe this disorder is actually the longest word in the English language? The word is "
1. Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in (“A mighty fortress is our God".)
2. Similes : we rely on similes when making explicit comparisons ("light as a feather")
3. Hyperbole: To emphasize a point ("I'm starving!").
4. Alliteration: The repetition of an initial consonant sound. ("Her eyes, her hair, her skin, her smell")
5. Irony: The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. ("The Titanic was promoted as being 100% unsinkable; but, in 1912 the ship sank on its maiden voyage.")
6. Onomatopoeia (my favorite): The use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. ("She clapped for him")
9. Oxymoron : A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side. ("the same difference".) In this example, "same" and "difference" are contradicting.
10. rhetorical question: A rhetorical question can be an effective persuasive device, subtly influencing the kind of response one wants to get from an audience.( "Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?")
The list goes on and on but I just shared my top ten. You see what I mean, don't you? It is a beautiful language. If you want to understand the greatness of the language then just try reading about its history. The role that the English language played during Romanticism, Medieval and Renaissance period had changed the languages order all around the world. Not to mention that the Shakespearean era was also as affective and inspiring. Shakespeare reshaped, reconstructed, and rebuilt the English language to what it is now. It's like he found the English language dumbed in the garbage bin, screaming out of agony and uselessness. He picked it up and decided to make a masterpiece with it. Then came all those giants that decided to carry on Shakespeare'a works. We are talking about giants like Ernest Hemingway with his "the old man and the see" book, Charles Dickens brought "a tail of two cities" on the table, from Scotland came Robert Burns with his famous Tam O' Shanter poem, the luck of the Irish was followed by James Joyce when he wrote "A portrait of the artist as a young man", Joseph Conrad came from Poland and wrote his Almayer's folly and many more. You see, English was a second language for all these writers. I mean, Joseph Conrad started speaking English fluently in his mid 20's. but these giants noticed the importance and the beauty of English and decided to make it their first language
hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia". Now comeon? How are you going to tell me that this isn't interesting. You know what, forget about phobias, and history and popularity and the strength of the language and just think of words that simply sound beautiful. Words like epiphany,serendipity,phosphorescence, and many more.
Okay, another interesting point for the English language is the figure of speeches. Figure of speeches are mechanisms and settings used while writing or speaking. The writer gets to alter the content in a way that preserve the meaning and yet make it more interesting. Some of the most commonly used speeches are:1. Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in (“A mighty fortress is our God".)
2. Similes : we rely on similes when making explicit comparisons ("light as a feather")
3. Hyperbole: To emphasize a point ("I'm starving!").
4. Alliteration: The repetition of an initial consonant sound. ("Her eyes, her hair, her skin, her smell")
5. Irony: The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. ("The Titanic was promoted as being 100% unsinkable; but, in 1912 the ship sank on its maiden voyage.")
6. Onomatopoeia (my favorite): The use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. ("She clapped for him")
- 7. Paradox: A statement that appears to contradict itself. ("You can save money by spending it.")
9. Oxymoron : A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side. ("the same difference".) In this example, "same" and "difference" are contradicting.
10. rhetorical question: A rhetorical question can be an effective persuasive device, subtly influencing the kind of response one wants to get from an audience.( "Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?")
The list goes on and on but I just shared my top ten. You see what I mean, don't you? It is a beautiful language. If you want to understand the greatness of the language then just try reading about its history. The role that the English language played during Romanticism, Medieval and Renaissance period had changed the languages order all around the world. Not to mention that the Shakespearean era was also as affective and inspiring. Shakespeare reshaped, reconstructed, and rebuilt the English language to what it is now. It's like he found the English language dumbed in the garbage bin, screaming out of agony and uselessness. He picked it up and decided to make a masterpiece with it. Then came all those giants that decided to carry on Shakespeare'a works. We are talking about giants like Ernest Hemingway with his "the old man and the see" book, Charles Dickens brought "a tail of two cities" on the table, from Scotland came Robert Burns with his famous Tam O' Shanter poem, the luck of the Irish was followed by James Joyce when he wrote "A portrait of the artist as a young man", Joseph Conrad came from Poland and wrote his Almayer's folly and many more. You see, English was a second language for all these writers. I mean, Joseph Conrad started speaking English fluently in his mid 20's. but these giants noticed the importance and the beauty of English and decided to make it their first language
(Although I primarily read/speak/write English these days, I didn't speak a word of it until age 14. I am originally from Japan.)
I think it was User who once quipped PHP is like English. I can't find the exact quotation, but it went something like "Yeah, PHP has quirks and isn't the most elegant, but it's simple overall and easy to get started. Look at English. Full of exceptions! But having a lot of exceptions and grammatical inconsistencies didn't prevent English from becoming the dominant natural language."
The analogy stuck with me. Like PHP, English is a relentlessly pragmatic language that's relatively simple with a ton of gotchas.
(This is not meant to be a knock on PHP. I actually like PHP. I even landed a patch for its OpenSSL library once.)
I think it was User who once quipped PHP is like English. I can't find the exact quotation, but it went something like "Yeah, PHP has quirks and isn't the most elegant, but it's simple overall and easy to get started. Look at English. Full of exceptions! But having a lot of exceptions and grammatical inconsistencies didn't prevent English from becoming the dominant natural language."
The analogy stuck with me. Like PHP, English is a relentlessly pragmatic language that's relatively simple with a ton of gotchas.
(This is not meant to be a knock on PHP. I actually like PHP. I even landed a patch for its OpenSSL library once.)
English is one of my six languages. [pashto (native), Urdu/Hindi, Farsi, Spanish, and Arabic]
But I find it much easier to think in English. The transition was a little hard from Pashto but I seem to be able to safely switch between the two. [I can't think in the other ones since i haven't mastered them...yet] Although it depends a lot on the environment and audience.
Reasons why I find English to be easier to think in than all the other languages I know:
1. Clarity. The vocabulary in English greatly affects my ability to articulate thoughts without using unclear words.
2. Greater understanding through synonyms. My first points segues into this point quite nicely. At first, when I tried to learn English the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary all appeared to be a conglomerate of boondoggles. (See what I did there?) They seemed stupid and bland. But with greater mastery came better articulation. It took a while but once you get the hang of it, you can choose and manipulate words willfully. My friends dad says, “you've truly mastered a language when you can make puns in it”
3. Distinct ideas through words without the unnecessary details. When I started using the language more frequently, I noticed the absence of gender, plurality, and the presence of passive voice. In comparison, Pashto, Arabic, Spanish, and the Hindi/Urdu languages have huge restrictions on word forms for specific genders. In my opinion, this greatly inhibits a person from voicing his thoughts clearly by preoccupying the brain with useless gender assigning. and it takes away more than the amount of information it adds. You can certainly disagree with this depending on what you deem as valuable information to be put in a sentence.
4. Flexibility. You might have traced my train of thought by now. With the freedom that words have in being able to attach to one and only one meaning [there are exceptions of course] it adds great flexibility in articulation and instead of imposing restrictions, it opens words up to be manipulated in more beneficial ways. The possibility of adding suffixes and prefixes is a great thing that English has.
5. The amount of work that has been done in English. My fifth point has more to do with the fact that the English world has made much progress while the other languages I know haven't. They are simply not on par. This in turn has greatly simplified the language and has made it more useable.
Anonymous
(my native language(s): German, Austrian dialect of German)
Spelling:
Pronunciation:
Vocabulary:
Grammar:
Image:Associated with youth, modernity, progress, and poor education.
The latter is mostly due to the fact that English loanwords and phrases are liberally used for advertisements in German-speaking countries (meant to seem youthful and modern, but not targeted at particularily educated audiences). A pop music radio station will talk about "top hits" and "charts" and try to be "cool"; a high-brow classical music programme will use English words less often than a classical music programme in the US will use German words.Also, everyone learns English as a second language, but only the more educated people know a third language.
Spelling:
- Worse than Chinese characters. Latin words are butchered by the pronunciation, everything else is spelled using near-random letter combinations.
- Too many diphthongs. English speakers can't pronounce a single long vowel without drifting into one or two different vowels.
- Most Americans sound like they're the real frog-eaters, only they haven't quite managed to swallow the frog yet. But I think I know English too well to really notice how weird it sounds.
Vocabulary:
- Elegant nuances. Poor but sufficient capacity for coining new words for new concepts ("Zeitgeist" FTW!). You can probably find a little-used existing word to adapt to a new concept.
- The political vocabulary of English is naturally skewed towards political and cultural ideas from the English-speaking world. I particularily dislike the word "justice", which mixes together things I like to keep separate: "Recht" - law, justice, right; "Gerechtigkeit" - justice, fairness; and - most disturbingly - "Rache" - revenge. It neatly fits with the much harsher punishments in English-speaking countries. "Pacifism" sounds a bit like "naivete" and "appeasement" when said in English, while "Pazifismus" is a worthy goal to aspire to.
Grammar:
- Elegant and concise for simple things. ("I asked him to come see me right after arriving in town"; I like the "ask + infinitive" and the use of the "ing" - it's so compact.)
- Completely falls apart due to homophones and ambiguities once you try to use German or Latin-style complex sentences. When translating a text from German to English, I have to split up sentences and "linearize" the thoughts just to keep it readable. Most of the time, that can be done, but often it loses nuances or leads to atrocious circumlocutions.
Image:Associated with youth, modernity, progress, and poor education.
The latter is mostly due to the fact that English loanwords and phrases are liberally used for advertisements in German-speaking countries (meant to seem youthful and modern, but not targeted at particularily educated audiences). A pop music radio station will talk about "top hits" and "charts" and try to be "cool"; a high-brow classical music programme will use English words less often than a classical music programme in the US will use German words.Also, everyone learns English as a second language, but only the more educated people know a third language.
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