Timeline for How to tell speakers that their English is terrible?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
28 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 9, 2017 at 0:53 | comment | added | Tgr | Just tell them. I am going to guess that you are from the US; compared to other western cultures, American is unusually non-confrontative. In many other cultures giving constructive criticism is entirely OK, even if you don't spend half an hour making up fake praises first. (Making it clear that you are trying to help and not just being mean is a good idea though.) As a non-native speaker who has spent a lot of time stressing over whether I am being understood, honest feedback is quite helpful. Even more so if you can give some specifics (too silent, too fast etc). | |
| Oct 8, 2017 at 4:22 | answer | added | user14717 | timeline score: 1 | |
| Oct 6, 2017 at 15:23 | comment | added | Darren Ringer | FWIW sometimes after three or four lectures you may start to intuitively understand and not even notice the heavy accent as you did at first. In my experience both frequency and duration of exposure to any, er, "dialect", have an effect on one's ability to comprehend. Although, depending on how severe it is, an hour or two a week may or may not be enough. Perhaps you could watch some youtube videos of other people with similar speech patterns? (I think that really may have some effectiveness despite striking me as an almost silly thing to suggest) | |
| Oct 6, 2017 at 7:05 | comment | added | user80866 | @DanRomik I didn't make an answer because there are already 12 of them, and they're mostly correct. The assumption that she isn't aware of this is most likely incorrect. I just wanted to convey how difficult this can be to fix. One of my best friends is a speech therapist and she works with clients for years to fix their speech. She has taught me exercises to improve my accent (like reading books out loud, with my husband, and having him correct my pronunciation and then listening to him read the same thing), and even with her professional help it's very slow going. | |
| Oct 6, 2017 at 6:56 | comment | added | Dan Romik | @stanri it sounds like you have good insight into the situation of the speaker. Given your perspective, what is your view about OP's question? | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 20:28 | comment | added | user80866 | I am a bilingual speaker who has a horrible accent in my second language. I've been married to a native speaker for 8 years and lived in a town which primarily speaks it for 5. Nonetheless, my accent is horrible, and I am fully aware of it and have worked on it in many different ways. For some people, and for some language combinations, this is a very time consuming and difficult process. There were times when I just gave up for a while because it was too hard. Fortunately for me, my husband, his family, and our friends have all been very patient and understanding with me. | |
| Oct 5, 2017 at 16:15 | comment | added | m4n0 | You don't. Don't speak, write more. Let all your works be presented on your website. You can edit it even after ages and are open to constructive comments from the viewers ;) | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 21:05 | comment | added | rob | This answer of mine to a similar question would fit perfectly well here. One of my cleverest colleagues has an impenetrable accent. If this person has been successful despite their communication issues, it's probably worth your while for you to figure out what they have to say. | |
| S Oct 4, 2017 at 17:59 | history | mod moved comments to chat | |||
| S Oct 4, 2017 at 17:59 | comment | added | ff524 | Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 12:58 | answer | added | user80454 | timeline score: 9 | |
| Oct 4, 2017 at 12:54 | answer | added | Dilworth | timeline score: -4 | |
| Oct 3, 2017 at 9:00 | vote | accept | Plumpie | ||
| Oct 3, 2017 at 7:44 | answer | added | Three Diag | timeline score: 10 | |
| Oct 3, 2017 at 2:02 | answer | added | Heisenberg | timeline score: 9 | |
| Oct 2, 2017 at 21:24 | answer | added | Stephan Branczyk | timeline score: 6 | |
| Oct 2, 2017 at 21:07 | history | protected | ff524 | ||
| Oct 2, 2017 at 21:06 | answer | added | user73076 | timeline score: 16 | |
| Oct 2, 2017 at 20:14 | answer | added | Dan Romik | timeline score: 47 | |
| Oct 2, 2017 at 19:43 | answer | added | Massimo Ortolano | timeline score: 117 | |
| Oct 2, 2017 at 19:01 | answer | added | Elizabeth Henning | timeline score: 10 | |
| Oct 2, 2017 at 18:58 | answer | added | aparente001 | timeline score: 54 | |
| Oct 2, 2017 at 18:25 | answer | added | Laurent Duval | timeline score: 1 | |
| Oct 2, 2017 at 17:46 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackAcademia/status/914909530168991744 | ||
| Oct 2, 2017 at 16:31 | history | edited | aeismail | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
deleted 20 characters in body; edited title
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| Oct 2, 2017 at 16:02 | answer | added | Giuseppe Biondi-Zoccai | timeline score: 2 | |
| Oct 2, 2017 at 14:11 | review | First posts | |||
| Oct 2, 2017 at 14:25 | |||||
| Oct 2, 2017 at 14:07 | history | asked | Plumpie | CC BY-SA 3.0 |