Commodore Remix

I'm sure you have noticed in one forum or the other on the interwebs, that often people introduce themselves with an apology for their bad english. And most of the time, it is a German. So is this a German thing and why?

Your english suxxxors, you shud apologeyes.

When I was 13/14 and on a camping holiday with my family in England, we met lots of kids from other European countries. And both the Dutch and the Austrian kids were speaking very good English.

(Although there was a very discussion about the ZZAP! review of Last Ninja 2, and why the first one should have been called the penultimate ninja...)

In my experience on the net, it's the Americans who should apologise for their bad English.

Dumper wrote:In my experience on the net, it's the Americans who should apologise for their bad English.

True!

I'd say it's a German and Italian phenomenon. I think people in a lot of other nations aren't as brave in trying their "language wings" as Germans and Italians. For example, French people usually seem to have a very high level of English before even trying to post on an all English forum. (I don't mean to dis the French, or accuse them of cowardes. Just wanted to make that clear, as I have a history of upsetting French people. I could just as easily have used Spaniards as an example.)

Scandinavians are usually very good at English - and also we never apologise for how we do things, because we Scandinavians always do things ther right way, otherwise we'd do it some other way. Fact.

Makke wrote:because we Scandinavians always do things ther right way, otherwise we'd do it some other way. Fact.

Yep, if it doesn't fit through the door we'll just fit it through the window

LMan wrote:I'm sure you have noticed in one forum or the other on the interwebs, that often people introduce themselves with an apology for their bad english. And most of the time, it is a German. So is this a German thing and why?

This is a personal observation over many years. I found a greater reluctance to speak or write English in people that reside in countries where foreign TV is being dubbed rather then subtitled. There appears to be a higher degree of insecurity when said people have to speak English when they're not exposed to the language, dubbing prevents that. The apologetic tendency is being fueled by insecurities.

So just start subtitling, will ye?

My main language is Armenian, however growing up in Greece, I also Spoke and wrote Greek as well. Having moved to Canada, I learned English fairly quicky, but I dont apolgeyes for my pselling mistakes and baad grammar.

I speek a da engleesha bery good, as a mutter off fooct, my engreeesh emprooves over time.

Dis is a chair, Dis is a table, Open the vindow, clsoe da doro.

No excuses... no regret... I got it certified in written form that I am really bad at English. I just tend to warn people beforehand that an onslaught of gibberish is about to hit the fan. Or so.
Wait, didn't I say sorry for my English when I joined this forum? Doh!

Sleep you very well on your klapprig bettgestell...

I dönt apologys. I don`t brauche das ! My english is gut !

Heh

I have noticed that here and there, too. Funny fact, but most of time those folks apologise whose English is just alright. Not academic, but alright. No deadly attributes that they think they have...

In my opinion, I start apologising for my bad English when pu... er... kitties start singing

Obviously, my English suxxx as I'm not a native speaker and never lived there so I could never build an instinct-grade skill of that. Anyway, probably my English is several thousands percents better than other folks' Hungarian and my bad English is the sole reason that we can even communicate - and no one ever started apologising for his/her bad Hungarian so far who contacted me and that's right. So, we cool, I assume

NecroPolo wrote:Heh
Obviously, my English suxxx as I'm not a native speaker and never lived there so I could never build an instinct-grade skill of that.

Your English is actually very, very good, you even have a good grasp of several phrases and language puns that people not living in English environments usually don't get. And your English is several thousands percent better than the English of many Hungarians I know.

Having said that, I tend to agree with Marcel: countries where English (Hollywood) movies are dubbed seem to have a much higher percentage of poor English speakers versus countries where movies are subtitled. Hungary is a prime example: most everything gets dubbed there, and - perhaps not coincidentally - the country has a large percentage of people who do not speak English at all, and those who do tend to speak it poorly: bad pronunciation, poor grammar, etc.

And you are definitely the exception, Necropolo.

It's nice to say that

I just had good teachers I assume, like missus who is an awesome language teacher herself. I really admire her because she perfected our common profession and prepared so many students for successful language exams, all types and levels. In general, the number of folks who use quite decent English is quickly raising here.

After getting the degree I totally left language teaching and started to work in a pretty different field so most of the grammar theory (and practice...), the natural use of language and spec vocab faded away. That's why I 'suxxx', I can use much less than I was trained for

Probably my roadblock-level Engish kept developing during the years but considering speaking I'm rather rusty.

Talking English is quite an embarrassment for me... and to think of that I'm actually responsible for the translation of our webshops...

See Vosla, that's what I mean. Why?