It must be hard for a Foreigner to learn English ( American) ?

Doug · Sep 22, 2008

I'm talking about the expressions, shit like :

"It's raining cats and dogs"
"Heavens to Betsy"
"the bee's knees"
"none of your beeswax"
"doesn't have all his marbles"

and so many more

let alone English English ( like Winbet speaks).

I don't think you could ever learn this stuff, as a foreigner.

bellyputter · Sep 22, 2008

How about learning Spanish? "You want to fuk my sister?

steaktartar · Sep 22, 2008

bellyputter said:
How about learning Spanish? "You want to fuk my sister?

quiere joder mi hermana?

i think english is very difficult to learn not to mention you have words that have numerous meanings........crab that old man is a crab........i want to order crab........i like crab apples.....tough

Uno · Sep 22, 2008

how about a citizen the capitalizes "Foreigner"?

not that i should talk about capitalization.

HPark1 · Sep 22, 2008

Doug said:
I'm talking about the expressions, shit like :

"It's raining cats and dogs"
"Heavens to Betsy"
"the bee's knees"
"none of your beeswax"
"doesn't have all his marbles"

Yeah those are common expressions used every day.

What the heck does "the bee's knees" mean?

McCabe · Sep 22, 2008

HPark1 said:
Yeah those are common expressions used every day.

What the heck does "the bee's knees" mean?

kinda like the cats pajamas... i think. :think2:

ProPokerPlayer · Sep 22, 2008

I have many friends from Vietnam, Palestine and Iraq.......All speak better english than me. Everyone of them had to learn it in order to get an education and start a buisness, which by the way they are all self employed and to my knowledge none of them ever got a dime from the govt for anything.. They learned because they wanted to and had to. Yet i work around govt subsidized families everyday born and raised here who have kids that can put a complete sentence together......seriously i go to their house and they cant even tell me whats wrong with whatever im there to work on, all they can say is "its broke" or "lemme call my mama"...Ive even picked up a few words here and there from all of them just being around them.. Learning anything is not hard IF YOU WANT TO DO IT....Keyword= IF

Doug · Sep 22, 2008

HPark1 said:
Yeah those are common expressions used every day.

What the heck does "the bee's knees" mean?

I think it has a positive connotation, but I'm not entirely certain. That one is obscure.

Everybody born in USA knows what "Its raining cats and dogs" means.

Would a foreigner every get that ? I'd think they'd be looking for pets to be falling from the sky, or something ?

English to American is way different, but we get it. I can tell a Brit in two seconds, and they could tell an American in the UK just as quick.

I doubt I could ever learn good Japanese, but I could learn Spanish w/o too much trouble.

bigtendominator · Sep 22, 2008

Doug said:
I think it has a positive connotation, but I'm not entirely certain. That one is obscure.

Everybody born in USA knows what "Its raining cats and dogs" means.

Would a foreigner every get that ? I'd think they'd be looking for pets to be falling from the sky, or something ?

English to American is way different, but we get it. I can tell a Brit in two seconds, and they could tell an American in the UK just as quick.

I doubt I could ever learn good Japanese, but I could learn Spanish w/o too much trouble.

My parents were born and raised in India and speak great English, but many of the sayings that we grew with in the states are completely foreign to them.

There were certain sayings I didn't even know, because we never used or heard them at home.

Doug · Sep 22, 2008

ProPokerPlayer said:
I have many friends from Vietnam, Palestine and Iraq.......All speak better english than me. Everyone of them had to learn it in order to get an education and start a buisness, which by the way they are all self employed and to my knowledge none of them ever got a dime from the govt for anything.. They learned because they wanted to and had to. Yet i work around govt subsidized families everyday born and raised here who have kids that can put a complete sentence together......seriously i go to their house and they cant even tell me whats wrong with whatever im there to work on, all they can say is "its broke" or "lemme call my mama"...Ive even picked up a few words here and there from all of them just being around them.. Learning anything is not hard IF YOU WANT TO DO IT....Keyword= IF

You can learn proper technical English/American and be fluent... but you can't learn the slang/local terms and be comfortable with it, you'll always be a foreigner.

I could move to London, and twenty years later, they'd know I was from the states, and I'd still not be convincing using stuff like "the dog's bollocks".

You just can't learn that stuff as an adult.

I could know multiple languages like English,Spanish,French,German,Italian, be technically fluent in all, but only really be true to the first one, in a local sense. I don't think you can ever speak two languages well enough, that you pass as native in both.

bigtendominator · Sep 22, 2008

Doug said:
You can learn proper technical English/American and be fluent... but you can't learn the slang/local terms and be comfortable with it, you'll always be a foreigner.

I could move to London, and twenty years later, they'd know I was from the states, and I'd still not be convincing using stuff like "the dog's bollocks".

You just can't learn that stuff as an adult.

I could know multiple languages like English,Spanish,French,German,Italian, be technically fluent in all, but only really be true to the first one, in a local sense. I don't think you can ever speak two languages well enough, that you pass as native in both.

Doug,

You are right about that. Most sayings and slangs are learned as kids and teenagers. I have a couple of friends from Africa and I have learned to change to some of my verbage, because they have no clue what I am saying sometimes, because they have not learned certain terms.

SportSavant · Sep 22, 2008

whats that cop show where the israeli agent is always messing up the sayings?

steaktartar · Sep 22, 2008

SportSavant said:
whats that cop show where the israeli agent is always messing up the sayings?

NYPD Jew?

SportSavant · Sep 22, 2008

steak tartar said:
NYPD Jew?

NO,

she is a hot chick playing an israeli.

it is in NY tho

Doug · Sep 22, 2008

bigtendominator said:
My parents were born and raised in India and speak great English, but many of the sayings that we grew with in the states are completely foreign to them.

There were certain sayings I didn't even know, because we never used or heard them at home.

IMO, such people could never pass as American-born and raised even over a telephone. I don't care if they are brown, I don't care about that.

My point is that you can never fully lose your roots. I've dealt with many Indians, no problem ( I like them), but I can tell the too proper English.

Shit, even in the US.... take a guy from NYC, move him to Texas... 20 years later, the Texans will know he is not from there.

Doug · Sep 22, 2008

When I was in LV bout a month ago, I was talking with a guy from Luxembourg for a good while, at a BJ table. I enjoyed the conversation with him. He thought his English was poor, it was good ( fluent), but sorta rigid ( technical). He could never in his life move here, and lose that quality, but he spoke about 5-6 languages.

Only a Canadian (IMO) could pass as American ( if they desired to do so, for some reason), IMO., or the reverse

You just can't do it otherwise.

I think a Mexican visiting Spain, could be identified as a non-local,very quickly, even with speaking Spanish... my guess is it's very different Spanish ?

Doug · Sep 22, 2008

That's the bomb !.... American slang meaning good... wouldn't translate well.

AdamSelene · Sep 22, 2008

Every language -- or rather dialect -- has many expressions that a non-native speaker will rarely learn.

You think English is bad, pick up a dictionary of Russian profanities. It's like 100 pages of words prohibited from print by the Soviet Union. They have single words that take several sentences of English vulgarities to describe.

Try watching movies filmed in South-Western Ireland. The movies are in English and still require English subtitles to be understood.

Doug · Sep 22, 2008

Adam Selene said:
Every language -- or rather dialect -- has many expressions that a non-native speaker will rarely learn.

You think English is bad, pick up a dictionary of Russian profanities. It's like 100 pages of words prohibited from print by the Soviet Union. They have single words that take several sentences of English vulgarities to describe.

Try watching movies filmed in South-Western Ireland. The movies are in English and still require English subtitles to be understood.

I have a young Russian couple as neighbors ( 25ish), they speak good enough English, could almost pass as American-born, but not quite. In 20 years they might pass as native born, good people.

They ( Europeans)all say their English is not very good, when it really is very good.

SportSavant · Sep 22, 2008

SportSavant said:
NO,

she is a hot chick playing an israeli.

it is in NY tho

The show is NCIS

It must be hard for a Foreigner to learn English ( American) ?

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