Something good from work

[minoanmiss]

I have been grumpy this week, for which I apologize. So I wanted to note down a little good thing. Someimes patients apologize to me for their limited English. I always make a point of telling them that English is an especially difficult language and I am very impressed with them for learning it and I am cheering them on. They sound so delighted. I really really hope it helps, especially in the current and coming days.

Bonus: coworker showed us his chihuaha today. BIG EYES LITTLE DOGGO.

Comments

[lauradi7dw]

English is hard. I am prejudiced in favor of it, but whenever I hear someone make a mistake, that's what I say, if only to myself.

[lunabee34]

That's very kind of you. :)

[bikergeek]

IME immigrants to the US who apologize for their poor English usually speak or write it better than a lot of people who were born here.

[cellio]

Same. I tell them English is hard and they're doing fine, and sometimes I say "your English is way better than my $language" (whatever their native language is). USians have the luxury of being able to be monolingual; everyone else who has to adapt to us is doing a lot more work and deserves kudos and (when applicable) patience.

[bikergeek]

My dad came to the US when he was 16, and never completely got rid of his native German accent. At one point in the 1950s he got called for jury duty. During voir dire one of the lawyers had been doing his best to make a nuisance of himself and was antagonizing everybody, including potential jurors and the judge. (Don't they teach this stuff in law school?) He gets around to asking my dad the usual questions, then: "Do you have any trouble understanding the English language?" My dad looks at him and deadpans, "No, do you?" Which caused much laughter in the courtroom, including from the judge, which he let go on for a bit to the humiliation of Mr. Asshole Attorney before calling for order.

One downside is that as an American, if I go somewhere and try to speak the local language, I usually get interrupted with "I speak English!" and get denied the opportunity to practice. It's happened to me a bunch of times in Montréal (I was managing to pick up some French) and in Costa Rica (where I could actually converse in Spanish). I imagine the same thing would happen if I were to go to Germany.

[cmcmck]

It would as many Germans speak decent English and always want to practise which annoy other half no end as he speaks fluent German!

Whereas the restaurants we favour in Paris have owners who know we speak French so let us get on with it. :o)

[acelightning73]

When I went to Quebec, I spoke a very little French, but I would tell them "I'm American, so I don't know very much French." And they'd go out of their way to help me understand. And watching French-language TV in my hotel room helped a lot.

I can struggle along with French and Spanish (having lived in NYC, I easily became bilingual). But I don't know Chinese or Japanese or Malay. And I don't speak Norwegian or Finnish. So it's okay when I have to resort to pointing and arm-waving. And I made sure to find out how to say, "How much is that? Where are the toilets? I am American."

[bikergeek]

I was raised bilingually, English/German, so learning other languages comes pretty easily to me, even way past the age where language acquisition becomes decidedly more difficult.

Making at least an attempt at the language of the country you're traveling in gains you a lot of goodwill and accommodation, I find.

[acelightning73]

Americans are so used to an environment where everybody speaks English, that it never occurs to us that people who come here NOT speaking English have a lot of work to do to be able to read the destination name on the bus, or try to figure out a menu. Imagine if you suddenly found yourself in Mongolia and had to puzzle out the language. And you're right to praise people who are willing to make the effort to learn English - our spelling rules make no sense ("cough, through, enough, plough..." or "bomb, comb, tomb") And anyone who is willing to teach ESL is a saint. (And a pox upon people who shout, "You're in America - speak English!")

[bikergeek]

And a pox upon people who shout, "You're in America - speak English!")

Geno's, a well-known, tourist-y cheesesteak joint in South Philly, had a sign in the window for years that said literally that. When the son of the guy who owned it took over the business in 2016, the sign was quietly removed. The local TV news stations took notice.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/genos-speak-english-sign-gone-cheesesteak-joey-vento/87655/

[acelightning73]

I saw a YouTube video of "stupid Americans..." and a guy who went to Spain on vacation said everyone was rude and spoke Spanish to him. They should learn English in order to deal with American tourists. (Everybody in the world should learn English because Americans are the only tourists who spend money to go to foreign countries. Or maybe some dictator will order the entire world to only speak English, so nobody has to worry about how to use Ecuadorian money.

[bikergeek]

Ecuador uses the US dollar as its official currency, or did I somehow just miss a joke?

[acelightning73]

I was just trying to think of country where people don't often speak English and they use a different currency. Switch it to Slovenia.

[bikergeek]

Ah. Thank you.

[acelightning73]

The Felon-Elect just issued an executive order declaring English the OFFICIAL language of the United States. We never had an official language until now, but OTOH, he's barely literate in English, so let's not confuse him with exotic foreign languages.

[bikergeek]

Ugh. Again, I suspect that this is something Congress would have to do by legislation, and is outside the scope of an executive order. He could order documents and such to be issued by government departments only in English; they report to him as part of the Executive Branch. But I think something establishing an official language would have to be done by legislation.

[acelightning73]

I do expect it would take an act of Congress to establish an official language. Or maybe an amendment to the Constitution. (But the idiot-in-chief uses the Constitution for toilet paper.)