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language barrier

  • 11-02-2015 01:54AM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,434 ✭✭✭Robsweezie


    is this an issue that has affected you often? are foreigners really that hard to understand? in scenarios like placing an order in fast food joint or restaurant or working alongside them, I sometimes have to ask them to repeat themselves but not often enough to become a full on problem . oftentimes words and sentences are just phrased in different ways by different nationalities, and to be fair they are nicest people, in my own experience. how about yours?


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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Je ne sais pas pourquoi


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,011 ✭✭✭Tugboats


    Robsweezie wrote: »
    is this an issue that has affected you often? are foreigners really that hard to understand? in scenarios like placing an order in fast food joint or restaurant or working alongside them, I sometimes have to ask them to repeat themselves but not often enough to become a full on problem . oftentimes words and sentences are just phrased in different ways by different nationalities, and to be fair they are nicest people, in my own experience. how about yours?

    Where can I find friendly foreign staff in a fast food joint these days? Since the tiger ended I'm getting served more often than not by a miserable Paddy


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,113 ✭✭✭shruikan2553


    I can barely understand most Irish people, never mind foreigners.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,084 ✭✭✭✭Zebra3


    Robsweezie wrote: »
    is this an issue that has affected you often? are foreigners really that hard to understand? in scenarios like placing an order in fast food joint or restaurant or working alongside them, I sometimes have to ask them to repeat themselves but not often enough to become a full on problem . oftentimes words and sentences are just phrased in different ways by different nationalities, and to be fair they are nicest people, in my own experience. how about yours?

    Corkies, eh? :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,441 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    Robsweezie wrote: »
    is this an issue that has affected you often? are foreigners really that hard to understand? in scenarios like placing an order in fast food joint or restaurant or working alongside them, I sometimes have to ask them to repeat themselves but not often enough to become a full on problem . oftentimes words and sentences are just phrased in different ways by different nationalities, and to be fair they are nicest people, in my own experience. how about yours?

    Heh?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,848 ✭✭✭✭padd b1975


    I just speak really slowly in English, but with the accent of the person I'm trying to communicate with.

    Waving my hands around while I do this doesn't really help either.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,568 ✭✭✭✭Cookie_Monster


    It annoys me over here sometimes. Part of getting a visa was being able to speak a reasonable standard of English. Being from an English speaking country that not a big deal but we have to deal with plenty of Asian customers who barely have a word and stumble through conversation in near incomprehensible pidgin. I don't understand how they get a long term Visa if they can't demonstrate a decent level of English to the visa & immigration officers.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,840 ✭✭✭Calibos


    Imagine this. Your Polish friend arrives at your gaff in a Ferrari.

    You say. Whoja nickta karoff.

    He's says, Sorry what? I'm Polish not fcuking Serbo-Croat??

    ie. bit a slang, bit of an accent, spoken fast

    Doesn't sound like English at all.

    I once made the mistake of asking a Chinese customer, "How can I help you?" in Mandarin. They looked at me like I had two heads. Did not know wtf I was saying. I repeated in English and then they said, "Ah!! [To my ear, repeats exactly what I had just said in Mandarin]

    Obviously not to her ear though. There must have been subtle but important differences but enough to make the sentance incomprehensible to a native Mandarin speaker.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,373 ✭✭✭✭foggy_lad


    Robsweezie wrote: »
    is this an issue that has affected you often? are foreigners really that hard to understand? in scenarios like placing an order in fast food joint or restaurant or working alongside them, I sometimes have to ask them to repeat themselves but not often enough to become a full on problem . oftentimes words and sentences are just phrased in different ways by different nationalities, and to be fair they are nicest people, in my own experience. how about yours?



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,526 ✭✭✭Slicemeister


    Standing in an imbiss in Germany once chatting to my irish buddy in English only to be approached by a staff member, "In Deutschland spricht Mann Deutsch", and then basically told us to fvck off out of his joint.


    Looking back now I realise he was right.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,763 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Only foreigners I have difficulty understanding are in Three customer service in India...and they speak English.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 248 ✭✭LucidLife


    I bumped into a guy from Donegal in Vegas. I'm from Kerry. Not long after we were asked to leave because they assumed we were speaking a language other than English which is against the rules. This has happened me in Canada and Holland too at poker tables!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,294 ✭✭✭✭Mellor


    Robsweezie wrote: »
    is this an issue that has affected you often? are foreigners really that hard to understand? in scenarios like placing an order in fast food joint or restaurant or working alongside them, I sometimes have to ask them to repeat themselves but not often enough to become a full on problem . oftentimes words and sentences are just phrased in different ways by different nationalities, and to be fair they are nicest people, in my own experience. how about yours?

    Having difficulty understanding foreigners speaking English isn't a language barrier.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,395 ✭✭✭✭mikemac1


    kneemos wrote: »
    Only foreigners I have difficulty understanding are in Three customer service in India...and they speak English.

    Were you talking to John? Next time ask for the other John, helpful guy


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,763 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Mellor wrote: »
    Having difficulty understanding foreigners speaking English isn't a language barrier.

    Technically it is.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,434 ✭✭✭Robsweezie


    poor English is a barrier certainly.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,361 ✭✭✭Boskowski


    Standing in an imbiss in Germany once chatting to my irish buddy in English only to be approached by a staff member, "In Deutschland spricht Mann Deutsch", and then basically told us to fvck off out of his joint.


    Looking back now I realise he was right.

    We're a great bunch of lads we Germans. Friendly to a fault.

    Btw damn you mention the word imbiss. All I can think of now is curry wurst mit pommes.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,086 ✭✭✭TheBeardedLady


    Robsweezie wrote: »
    and to be fair they are nicest people



    Ohhh they are, they are! LOVELY people, the foreigners! Every last one of them! Lovely!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 111 ✭✭Jinonatron


    Boskowski wrote: »
    We're a great bunch of lads we Germans. Friendly to a fault.

    Btw damn you mention the word imbiss. All I can think of now is curry wurst mit pommes.

    Haha. I thinkk that is sarcasm. I live in Germany and can speak German but when I come across people like this I make a point to absolutely not speak German. It winds them up so much.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,641 ✭✭✭Teyla Emmagan


    Calibos wrote: »

    I once made the mistake of asking a Chinese customer, "How can I help you?" in Mandarin. They looked at me like I had two heads. Did not know wtf I was saying. I repeated in English and then they said, "Ah!! [To my ear, repeats exactly what I had just said in Mandarin]

    Obviously not to her ear though. There must have been subtle but important differences but enough to make the sentance incomprehensible to a native Mandarin speaker.

    What made you think she spoke Mandarin?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,808 ✭✭✭worded


    Do you speak english sketch
    http://youtu.be/rxUm-2x-2dM

    I like the one where they speak louder to someone doesn't understand them. Think it was Basil Faultly


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,507 ✭✭✭Buona Fortuna


    I can barely understand most Irish people, never mind foreigners.

    Huh?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 156 ✭✭Depraved


    I can never understand that language that they speaking in counties outside Dublin.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 19,777 ✭✭✭✭The Corinthian


    Standing in an imbiss in Germany once chatting to my irish buddy in English only to be approached by a staff member, "In Deutschland spricht Mann Deutsch", and then basically told us to fvck off out of his joint.
    I'd have responded with "Und wenn ich möchte mit Ihnen zu sprechen, werde ich Deutsch sprechen".
    Looking back now I realise he was right.
    He would be right were you expecting Germans to speak with you in English, but you weren't - you were speaking to a fellow Anglophone. This chap was clearly a bit of an Arschloch.

    The irony is that in his Imbiss, he was almost certainly serving such traditional Germanic delights as Doner and Currywurst.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,815 ✭✭✭SimonTemplar


    The worst is getting through to technical support who has a thick Indian accent.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,718 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    Ohhh they are, they are! LOVELY people, the foreigners! Every last one of them! Lovely!

    Great bunch of lads :)


    I actually do have trouble understanding some thick Irish accents. especially north side Dublin or Cork.

    A little bit is because I'm actually partially deaf. thanks to meningitis as a child i have trouble picking up certain types of sounds. I'm generally OK but thick accents just befuddle me. I like the Donegal accent but when i lived there I had trouble understanding a few of the locals because the accent was just too thick. The same happened with the local accent where I grew up in the midlands. for 99% of people i was fine but for some I was completely lost.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,718 ✭✭✭✭Grayson


    worded wrote: »
    Do you speak english sketch
    http://youtu.be/rxUm-2x-2dM

    I like the one where they speak louder to someone doesn't understand them. Think it was Basil Faultly

    there are times it all sounds a bit dago

    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11ppso_blackadder-and-dr-johnson_creation


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,252 ✭✭✭FTA69


    I'd have responded with "Und wenn ich möchte mit Ihnen zu sprechen, werde ich Deutsch sprechen".

    I'd have responded with "f*ck off ya gowlbag".


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,526 ✭✭✭Slicemeister


    I'd have responded with "Und wenn ich möchte mit Ihnen zu sprechen, werde ich Deutsch sprechen".

    He would be right were you expecting Germans to speak with you in English, but you weren't - you were speaking to a fellow Anglophone. This chap was clearly a bit of an Arschloch.

    The irony is that in his Imbiss, he was almost certainly serving such traditional Germanic delights as Doner and Currywurst.

    He wasn't an asshole at all. I was, I should've been using the Muttersprache in his home country in a public place.

    I'm a guest in his country as far as I'm concerned, his tongue his rules.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,252 ✭✭✭FTA69


    He wasn't an asshole at all. I was, I should've been using the Muttersprache in his home country in a public place.

    I'm a guest in his country as far as I'm concerned, his tongue his rules.

    So you can arbitrarily demand that people speak a given language in a public place when they're minding their own business? By your logic I could stroll up to a French tourist couple in a pub in a Galway and start angrily demanding they speak English (or Irish if I was a really pedantic bastard.)

    This "guest in my country" stuff has limits like, as if you need the permission of some sausage-seller to speak to your buddy just because you happen to be in Berlin or someplace. F*ck that.


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