English

Do Italians generally speak worse English than the French or the Spanish? I wouldn't have thought so...

According to Mark yes :(

Scottish write understandable english than they speak ;)

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Originally Posted by A.F.F.

Scottish write understandable english than they speak ;)

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People from Newcastle area too :p

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Originally Posted by donKey jote

so you speak Italian effluently too ? ;) :p :andrea:

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Effeminately

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Originally Posted by wiruwiru

Do Italians generally speak worse English than the French or the Spanish? I wouldn't have thought so...

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I'm an English teacher, and I've taught lots of different nationalities. The French are probably the worst of the three, because they rarely lose their accent, which really affects their pronunciation. On the other hand, Spanish people have a problem with the differences that occur between how a word is pronounced in English and its spelling, mostly because in Spanish things are a lot more consistent, so they're not used to paying attention to these differences. I've even had Spanish people try to correct me on how to say my own name!

In the end, though, I'd agree with what someone earlier said, that the biggest problem is dubbing TV shows. Not doing that would change things in a generation.

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Originally Posted by donKey jote

so you speak Italian effluently too ? ;) :p :andrea:

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Nope. I understand it (both spoken and written Italian) perfectly, however due to lack of practicing I am having troubles finding the right words, and I never tried to write in Italian.

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Originally Posted by wiruwiru

Do Italians generally speak worse English than the French or the Spanish? I wouldn't have thought so...

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I've met French people (not many) who were speaking perfect English, with very pleasant UK accent.
Also met a couple Italians who do come close to very good. However I've never met anyone from Spain who speaks very good English (nor French), their accent is way to strong.

Then again as I mostly lived in France it is possible that the image is slightly distorted and there are also Italians and Spaniards who speak perfect English.

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Originally Posted by ioan

Nope. I understand it (both spoken and written Italian) perfectly, however due to lack of practicing I am having troubles finding the right words, and I never tried to write in Italian.

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So in fact, you do speak it effluently? :p :

.
donkey :andrea:

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Originally Posted by wiruwiru

So in fact, you do speak it effluently? :p :

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Don't push it!

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Originally Posted by ioan

Don't push it!

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Just a little joke there, ioan. ;)

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Originally Posted by wiruwiru

Just a little joke there, ioan. ;)

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I know, no worries! :)

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Originally Posted by donKey jote

I know the languages have common roots, but if how quickly Romanians learn Spanish is anything to go by, you're definitely a land of linguistic geniuses :up:

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That's true and I'm the exception to confirm the rule. All I know in spanish is "estoy embarazada" ( not sure about the spelling ), a reminiscense of hundreds of mexican telenovelas watched during taking lunch with my mother.

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Originally Posted by Ioan

Don't worry, given the literacy level of the Romanian politicians (including ministers and other well paid bureaucrats) they wouldn't know when you make grammar mistakes. Sadly enough.

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Now don't imagine that a dignitary would ever be bothered to read my elucubrations. They're destinated to other "pitifelnici" like me but need to take an official form. :laugh:



I have another curiosity. How come that most of romanians – even gypsies - who live in Italy manage to speak italian quite well while italians living here for years assasinate our sweet speak. At the end of the day the rules of pronounciation are the same.

Curiosity no.2: why is so hard for americans and englishmen to pronounce correctly the names of foreigners? My first name ( the „stage name”, not the official ) consists of only four letters and everybody ties their tongue pronouncing it.....

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Originally Posted by gadjo_dilo

Curiosity no.2: why is so hard for americans and englishmen to pronounce correctly the names of foreigners? My first name ( the „stage name”, not the official ) consists of only four letters and everybody ties their tongue pronouncing it.....

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Because, generally, they can't be bothered. What I find especially annoying are people who hear someone's name being said correctly — even by the person themselves, and even if the person is of the same nationality — and then go on mispronouncing it. It's ignorant, lazy and rude.

Shilpa Shetty ? :p

There are a lot of towns in the midwest US that were founded in the early and mid 19th century named for all sorts of exotic locations and revolutionary heroes. Since most communication was written and there was so much isolation from other languages the local dialect was applied to towns like Bolivar, Pennsylvania, Chili, Indiana, Cairo, Illinois and Buena Vista Colorado and can still be found today.

That said it's always been pretty grating to hear English announcers for the IRC pronounce Jan Kopecky's name, but that's only because all I learned in half a semester of Czech was a modicum of pronunciation. Still someone should have set them straight right away.

And then of course our use of the word 'Czech' was part of what AJP Taylor called an irritating habit of the English spelling any Slavic word according to Polish rules. No one else is so generous with the Z.

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Originally Posted by gadjo_dilo

I have another curiosity. How come that most of romanians – even gypsies - who live in Italy manage to speak italian quite well while italians living here for years assasinate our sweet speak. At the end of the day the rules of pronounciation are the same.

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Let's not forget that Romanian language has been, during it's development, seriously influenced by a number of other languages.

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Originally Posted by gadjo_dilo

Curiosity no.2: why is so hard for americans and englishmen to pronounce correctly the names of foreigners? My first name ( the „stage name”, not the official ) consists of only four letters and everybody ties their tongue pronouncing it.....

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Don't get me started on this one. The funniest when some reply to my email calling me Loan (one reason why I use a 'i' when I join a forum), shows a lack or respect and a lack of intelligence on top of it. Although this doesn't happen only to English speakers.

loan Ioan, not dissimilar specially with a different font.

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Originally Posted by Mark

loan Ioan, not dissimilar specially with a different font.

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Then again who writes their name in lower case in a company email?! No one.

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Originally Posted by ioan

Then again who writes their name in lower case in a company email?! No one.

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What you mean is 'no-one with a proper command of language'.

Right.

Now viewing Ioan and loan on my phone they are identical.

that must be a fine sight. :eek: Where did you get the pics from? :crazy: :andrea:

ioan^2

Imagine how I got on when working for a Japanese company. Being a formal people, the Japanese like to use surnames and they had, shall we say, fun with my surname. Just picture the response to an introduction: "Pleased to meeet you, Mr Rollo" - "Just call be Duncan" was my usual response and I then became "Mr Duncan". At which point I said to myself "Oh borroks!" and politely answered "Yes"

Ioane, never thought about a confusion between I and l. Thought the problem was the accent. Like pronouncing it like io an. Or like Johann.

My problem is the second letter of my name - O. They pronounce it ou or au although I recommend myself correctly and I really have an easy name.

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Originally Posted by D-Type

Imagine how I got on when working for a Japanese company. Being a formal people, the Japanese like to use surnames and they had, shall we say, fun with my surname. Just picture the response to an introduction: "Pleased to meeet you, Mr Rollo" - "Just call be Duncan" was my usual response and I then became "Mr Duncan". ...

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I had a similar experience working in South Korea. My surname can be difficult to pronounce, and downright cumbersome for an Asian.
I would tell my Korean colleagues to simply address me by my first name, so I became known as “Mr. Peter” :mark: .

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Originally Posted by D-Type

Imagine how I got on when working for a Japanese company. Being a formal people, the Japanese like to use surnames and they had, shall we say, fun with my surname. Just picture the response to an introduction: "Pleased to meeet you, Mr Rollo" - "Just call be Duncan" was my usual response and I then became "Mr Duncan". At which point I said to myself "Oh borroks!" and politely answered "Yes"

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In most email's I get from Japanese clients, i'm Janne san. Then replying to them I usually have to do an image search with their name to see what gender they are. ;)

Despite the claims of dunnell that I am a native english speaker, I am not and studied it in school since 2nd grade, if I remember correctly. Not that difficult of a language and I picked it up quite quickly, but lately I sense that I don't speak it as well as I used to, because I just don't get to speak it much these days. Some years ago I got to speak quite a bit of english with some clients and people thought I was a native english speaker, but these days this forum I probably the only place where I speak/write in english.

Garry is Italian your native language? :p :

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Originally Posted by pino

Garry is Italian your native language? :p :

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Unfortunately not, but it is one of those language I'd quite like to speak.

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Originally Posted by Garry Walker

Unfortunately not, but it is one of those language I'd quite like to speak.

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May I ask you which is your native language then ;)

Ancient Norwegian? :p

Så kan vi tale denne sprog sammen ;)

you both want to sprog together ? :eek: :p :andrea:

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Originally Posted by Garry Walker

Unfortunately not, but it is one of those language I'd quite like to speak.

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So you're French!

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Originally Posted by pino

May I ask you which is your native language then ;)

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If past experience is anything to go by, no you may not.

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Originally Posted by BDunnell

If past experience is anything to go by, no you may not.

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It's one of those forum mysteries.

Where did the Oily Oaf go?
Is anthonyvop a real person or Eki in disguise?
Is Mark in Oshawa actually in Oshawa?

Nobody will ever know!

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Originally Posted by janneppi

In most email's I get from Japanese clients, i'm Janne san. Then replying to them I usually have to do an image search with their name to see what gender they are. ;)

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Shouldn't it be Janne sun?