English - Second Language?

Discussion in 'About the Members' started by jinchilla, Apr 15, 2004.

Page 1 of 4
  1. jinchilla

    jinchilla Registered Abuser Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    211
    After seeing a lot of posts with very poor grammar and many spelling errors, I was wondering: For how many people posting is English a second language?

    Not to be judgemental as my typing prowess is often displayed in spelling errors and missing punctuation. 'Sides, I have no second language.
     
    jinchilla, Apr 15, 2004
    #1

  2. Guest Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. Ozymandias

    Ozymandias Unregistered User Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    799
    English is my native language ... it could be lazy people causing spelling errors. It happens to the best of us.
     
    Ozymandias, Apr 15, 2004
    #2

  4. Guest Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. SmilingMadness

    SmilingMadness Registered Member

    Messages:
    29
    Engish and Armenian-- first language.

    I type veery fast (~60 wpm) with 2 fingers (my two index fingers) and my thumb-- that accounts for the spelling mistakes.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    SmilingMadness, Apr 15, 2004
    #3

  6. Guest Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. storni

    storni topological frog Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    168
    English is my second language, not my favorite though.
     
    storni, Apr 15, 2004
    #4
  8. curioucity

    curioucity Unbelievable and odd Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,429
    The thread is mine *evil grin*
    lol
     
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2004
    curioucity, Apr 15, 2004
    #5
  9. Kunax

    Kunax Sciforums:Reality not required Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,385
    3 languages + minor knowledge of simular languages.

    English is not my primary which should be quite visible in my spelling, on the other hand my spelling in my 1st language suck to, thats the price for not paying attension in school

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    p.s.
    dont get stuck on gramma, it the point of the msg that counts
     
    Kunax, Apr 15, 2004
    #6
  10. spuriousmonkey

    spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

    Messages:
    24,066
    English my second language. Although my main language of communication nowadays is English I have the slight handicap that I don't actually live in a English speaking country.

    I think I actually had to dumb down my English skills when I arrived here, because I was using too many difficult words (which prevented efficient communication). It is difficult though to reverse this process. I'm stuck now on this level.
     
    spuriousmonkey, Apr 15, 2004
    #7
  11. curioucity

    curioucity Unbelievable and odd Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,429
    To tell you the truth, I've been speaking English to a point that I have started misusing them...... or in a more specific term, misspelling. For example, there have been quite a few words I invented based on an actual word, simply for either twisting the original word's meaning, or just for fun. If that's not enough, I've started making new phrases too..... go figure (my favourite 'new' phrases are "the moon is in the air" and "to write zs in the air")
     
    curioucity, Apr 15, 2004
    #8
  12. jinchilla

    jinchilla Registered Abuser Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    211
    SM, 60 wpm with three digits? That's incredible!

    I'm impressed by the intelligent and intelligible posts by those who are multi-lingual. (and those who aren't)

    Curioucity, if your first reply meant you posted this thread before, my mistake. Didn't look first.
     
    jinchilla, Apr 15, 2004
    #9
  13. Padma

    Padma Spankologist Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    205
    Hey Jin, great thread. English is my first language; however as a small child is spoke French as well. I like learning new languages, although not successfully, I've tried to learn several. Btw, Arabic is the most difficult to learn.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    Padma, Apr 15, 2004
    #10
  14. Kunax

    Kunax Sciforums:Reality not required Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,385
    languages are intresting, i learned some korean sometime ago playing online games with them, I kinda liked those yellow bastards, they had the funkies english and at the time they also had some kind of hated thing going with americans which involved everybody speaking english, giving me they funniest chats in a long time

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    18
     
    Kunax, Apr 15, 2004
    #11
  15. curioucity

    curioucity Unbelievable and odd Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,429
    Uh, sorry..... looks like my mischief went awry...
    I actually meant that the thread suits me very well, since English is my second language....
    Don't feel bad about that...... as long as mods don't say there's been a copy of a thread, just pretend you're starting anew...

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    curioucity, Apr 15, 2004
    #12
  16. Semon

    Semon Howdy, hi and hello. Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    285
    ME. cantonese chinese and english

    It is hard for me write such an long essay like others here but I will work on it.
    any chinese here~?
     
    Semon, May 2, 2004
    #13
  17. curioucity

    curioucity Unbelievable and odd Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,429
    race, yes, but unlike most of my family, I can barely speak Chinese.... my mum and dad are Chinese experts, my uncles and aunts speak Chinese almost constantly...... makes me wanna go

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    curioucity, May 2, 2004
    #14
  18. jadedflower

    jadedflower observer Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,477
    Yep, English is my second language too.

    What about making a poll so we can see?
    Oh, and my first is (obviously) Portuguese.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    I dabble in other langs too... but nothing special. And I can understand Spanish, French, Italian and whatnot... some Latin too, when it's written

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    mwhahaha that's fun.

    Ta ta
     
    jadedflower, May 2, 2004
    #15
  19. Semon

    Semon Howdy, hi and hello. Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    285
    ABC? I like english the most altough My english is underdeveloped.
    improved a bit since come here
     
    Semon, May 2, 2004
    #16
  20. curioucity

    curioucity Unbelievable and odd Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,429
    Wow, sciforums = online Englich class!
    *puts an ad*

    About what I know about Chinese, well, some basic phrases only.......... Sometimes I'm even mixed up with good morning, day, evening etc.... duh...

    And jaded, wouldn't it be obvious that if you speak Portugese you can speak Latin too? Or wait..... is the word Latin now only considered Spanish-based only? Nah, dun think so..... ask Brazil..


    Come to think of the thread, where's jinchilla? I scared sumbody again eh?
     
    curioucity, May 2, 2004
    #17
  21. airavata

    airavata portentous Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,352
    Technically, english is my second language. Im as comfortable with it as I am with Tamil though.
     
    airavata, May 2, 2004
    #18
  22. jadedflower

    jadedflower observer Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,477
    Ahhhhh!!!!!! Cleanse yourself for you have been ********!!!

    Portuguese is NOT!!! the same as latin.

    Latin is a language.

    Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian... are all Latin-Based.

    So where the hell does Spanish based come in??

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!





    and WTF? Ask BRAZIL?? What do they have to do with anything???
     
    jadedflower, May 2, 2004
    #19
  23. Fraggle Rocker

    Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    It's not difficult for a native speaker to tell the difference between another native speaker who just happens to be spelling-challenged and a non-native who hasn't mastered the language.

    For one thing, people who study English in non-English speaking countries learn the spoken and written language at the same time, unlike native speakers, so their spelling skills are often better than the graduates of our government-run school system.

    Non-natives tend to give themselves away more often with syntax errors -- not putting a complicated sentence together with the right words in the right order.

    But in my experience, most of all they are befuddled by our articles and prepositions. Articles: why do we breathe air, but birds fly through the air? My brother seems to be deep in thought, but I just had a thought? We're not even consistent among ourselves. An injured Brit goes to hospital, but an American goes to the hospital. Prepositions: words like on, at, by, for, in, to, with, etc., mean almost nothing! We could get by just like the Chinese do, with one single generic relationship word: "deh." They are for the most part just placeholders in our sentences. But if somebody uses the wrong one in the wrong place, even though the meaning of the sentence is still crystal clear, we know he's not a native speaker.

    English is my native tongue. But I use a lot of Spanish and Portuguese, and some German, on the web. With a dictionary I can delve into Italian and even French, but it ain't pretty. I speak a modest amount of Mandarin but I can't read and write it. I am fluent in Esperanto and have many correspondents in the language, a few of whom now have e-mail.
     
    Fraggle Rocker, May 2, 2004
    #20
Page 1 of 4

Share This Page