Discussion Non-Native English Speaker Card

Grammar for Smart People is a good book.

 

what's the point when majority of native english speakers can't use proper english grammar or words even if you threaten to kill them.
i stopped saying i'm not native on the other hand and just went full native on my resume. fuck the discrimination. my english is better than most crappy americans (not all of course. but those that can't make a difference between your and you're)

 

cuz english what it write may differ to how to speak, mainly cuz it mix of bunch language lost on transition (localization to english) then not bother again~ go try read dictionary then see how a word properly pronounce on english~ how do you pronounce ae? th ssss with dismiss toward end blablabla
for accent well that variant on language so different stuff~
then last resort you know how pronounce cuz you used to say such word~ there only so much word will be use on daily or working environment unless it involve academic stuff

 

"NNES" here.
Not to be confused by the friendly neighborlake thingamabob that seems to end on "sy" from a certain Loch.

I don't have any memory of ever pulling a "NNES" card out. If anything I've pulled out a "pssh, my native language skills are shite since childhood, you think I'll get better at it now" card for my own...
I did correct my spelling from time to time with * or have a good laugh with the Grammar Ns of the days, but when it all died down, I was corrected less and less and I'm uncertain if it's because I've gotten better at English in general or if people just stopped caring because their brains are mush because of all the mistakes in translations. ... So, confidence level: A bit lower than I used to have when I got a C1 from Cambridge.

 

I am a non-native English speaker who's also an advanced level literature student; meaning you turn into laughing material if you use the card as an escape

But anyways I almost never use it, unless I feel inferior towards the creative/literary ingenious ness of the person I'm communicating with even when the person in question is a Native Speaker. I do admit to my accent being a weird mix of Americanised south asian thing but I'm not awkward about it because I obviously can't change the tongue I was born with. It's a part of myself and I embrace it.

All in all English is the last thing in my list of worries for before the world ends.
KUDOS!!!

 

That... would explain a lot. I am a native English speaker; I usually (try to! Bet there will be errors in this post) use correct grammar and spelling everywhere - even text messages! - because it's what I'm used to and what I prefer. And somehow, when I'm just going about my perfectly tranquil, grammatically-correct internet existence, I seem to attract a lot of accusations regarding how I'm being abrasive/aggressive/arrogant... :'(

More general point, on the internet I don't think it really matters to most people whether your language skills are less than perfect, so long as the message you're trying to convey is clear. (And it's possible to be accidentally unclear even if your technical language skills are flawless!) Anyone who's not a jerk will politely ask you to clarify your point if necessary. 99% of the time if someone makes a big fuss about another person's lack of grammatical correctness, they're doing so either because 1) they enjoy being "better than" someone else, or 2) they're losing an argument and have no actually relevant points to make, so they try and "win" by attacking style over substance. Either way, as I said, jerks.

...The remaining 1% of the time, those people whose grammar/spelling is consistently just so bad that it makes them almost impossible to understand, and really deserves to be addressed - in my experience, none of that 1% that I've ever met have been non-native English speakers. They have always been native speakers who are just too freaking lazy to make any attempt to type correctly, and rather expect everyone else to put in the effort of struggling to make sense of the garbage they write. NNES (and others who have genuine language issues, such as dyslexia) I've always found to be far more conscientious.

 

loch ness?
1) Yep. English is my 3rd language;
2) Kinda (?) My comprehension is on the higher side, and i can speak fluently. But my writing is littered with grammar-errors and typos though, especially in casual settings. Partly because i'm forgetful and my fingers are lame noodles that couldn't type properly even at gun point, partly because my english is kinda stiff and redundant and i'm not sure how to not sound so stiff, so i reduced the words yet it turns out to be weird in exchange . But i don't really mind as long as the message is successfully conveyed, though; language is merely a tool, anyway!
3) In some specific cases. In a casual setting though.. as often as i feel like it?
4) Of course! playing dumb is a privilege!

 

I’m a native English speaker and I’ve noticed that there are quite a few NNES people here who write better or just as well as native English speakers. Not everyone, but plenty.

 

none of you are incomprehensible though, so I doubt anyone can tell you apart from a typical English speaker on the internet as long as it's just text.

 

I am an NNES and i have never used this card

 

Isn't ESL (English second language) an easier acronym to use? Pretty sure that's what's used in most legal documentation I know.

 

I am a NNES and frankly speaking despite living in a country where speaking English is second nature to people, I still prefer speaking in my native language. Although people and TOEIC say that my English is good I am still not confident with my English particularly when I am expressing my opinion not because of my grammar or spelling (I don't really care about making misyakes in grammar and spelling) but because I am way too used in using native idioms and metaphors that sometimes, if not most of the time, do not translate well in English that cause others to misunderstand what I am saying and would lead me to using the NNES card even if I don't want to. Sometimes when people misinterpret what I said due to my words being lost in translations I would just let it be because I would have to explain a bunch of stuff (some history of the word and descriptions as to what the word meant) so people can understand it and I am too lazy to do that most of the time.

 

I'm pretty confident in my English, so I never bothered with mentioning whether or not I'm a native speaker.

If I make a typo, I just say "my bad" and move on.

 

I'm a NNES too nya~ But I started to learn English almost at the same time as my mother language nya~ So, it comes to me pretty easily nya~ The problem I usually face is finding the right words or using the correct idioms nya~ My English has grammatical mistakes here and there, but most of the time, they're overlooked nya~I sometimes make typos when typing fast, but I just go back and edit it nya~
Many of my peers are still struggling with English here tho~
One of the things that bug me the most is misuse or no use of punctuation and capital letters nya~ It gets really hard to understand what a person's trying to convey without them nya~

 

I'm a NNES but I've been taught to speak English for years. I still second guess myself and it always makes things worse.

 

I'm a NNES but for the most part, I'm quite confident with my English, so it would feel pretty embarrassing to pull out the card. However, I do quite often make spelling mistakes, mostly due to rushing and carelessness. However, people shouldn't really mind them since natives quite often make them too and it's a bit immature to point out others spelling mistakes

 

I am a NNES but I’ve never used this card . My grammar is pretty bad sometimes ,but you usually can get what I’m saying .

 

I am NNES and to be honest I have used this card whenever there is a mistake in my language
But if I use this card in my family or somewhere in front of my cousins
I-I-I will be murdered by them (they know that I started learning english before my native language)

 

Fixed that for ya~

Anyway there are generally two ways to use it the more common usage of this card is from people who have really good writing/grammar skills and seem to take it out for the slightest thing that they get wrong. They use the card retroactively oh btw I'm xyz and what not so that's why I'm allowed to make mistakes and you can't call me out on it! Which just comes off as really rude!

The other way is people who preface their writing with it. Which then comes into 2 different categories those who want to be called out and helped and those who want to write something without being criticised for poor grammar cause they know they haven't written it well/aren't going to write it well but still want the talk to be focused on the stuff that they bring up. This is much better since it's not reactive but proactive and often seeking advice rather than trying to weasel out of mistakes in a boring way!

Nah that's how ya can tell they speak English as their second language everyone knows that natives speak in incomprehensibly complex English mate.

 

I get off tracked every time a number of unknown Chinese words are mentioned in a sentence or a paragraph, that makes me reread the upper sentences one more time to hardly get some meaning, i dont get the meaning about NNES card but i have to use it many times when reading a single chapters