I grew up around a lot of Hispanic people and one thing that caught my attention is that, despite most of them being 100% fluent in Spanish and primarily speaking Spanish at home, they seem to only use Spanish when speaking to adult family members, but when speaking to their friends, siblings, or cousins who are also completely fluent in Spanish, they'll speak to each other mostly in English.
Why is that? Is this what naturally happens as different cultures immigrate and assimilate into American culture? Is it a conscious thing? Did the large immigrant groups prior go through the same process?
TLDR; How does a mixed race person living in Tokyo respond when fellow Americans compliment their English?
I am half-Japanese, half-white, living in Tokyo. I get compliments on โhow good my English isโ, mostly from Americans. The thing is, I was born and raised in California, I am absolutely not fluent in Japanese (my mom moved from Tokyo with my dad and never bothered to teach me or my sister), and Japanese people think I am full white.
I used to just thank people because I didnโt want to embarrass them. Like, I look vaguely Japanese and Iโm living in Japan, so naturally they (the non-Japanese complimenters) would conclude I am full Japanese. But then it turned into natural questions of โDid you study abroad in America?โ or โDo you study English at [my Japanese university]?โ and even more compliments like โYou have no accent!โ or โYou sound like a native speaker!โ I would have trouble coming up with reasons why I have a perfect American accent while speaking English, and it would basically become very apparent that I was lying, and it would make everyone, including me, extremely uncomfortable.
Recently, someone complimented me on my English, and instead of thanking them, I said โOh, English is my first language, I was born and raised in Americaโ and laughed a little. My friend pulled me aside later and said I had been rude about it. I just donโt know how to handle this compliment. AITA for saying English is my first language?
EDITING FOR INFO because people are getting confused and I didnโt include that much detail because I didnโt think this many people would read this:
This was an interaction between a fellow American friend (letโs call her Sally), who lives in Japan, and their American friend (Tabitha) who was visiting Sally, and me. I met the two of them today to do a little sightseeing because it was Tabithaโs first time in Japan, and people think I am fun company. There was a slight lull in conversation. And then this is how the conversation went:
Tabitha: โWow, your English is perfect, itโs so impressive!โ Me: โOh, English is my first language, I was born and raised in America! Hahaโ I forgot what Tabitha said exactly in response to this, something like โoops my bad hahaโ but Sally quickly changed the subject and I thought everything was fine.
Later we were near Senso-ji (a famous temple) walking down the street with all the tourist shops, Tabitha was looking around and Sally stopped me and like whispered to me that I was an asshole
... keep reading on reddit โกMeaning, does it bother you if someone says, โthe child is autisticโ / โthe autistic childโ rather than โthe child with autismโ / โthe child has autismโ ?
EDIT; thank you everyone for your input. Iโm in college right now to be a teacher, then I want to get my Masters to be a Speech Pathologist, and many of them work with kids with autism (my younger brother for example), and many professionals in education and speech pathology focus on promoting person-first language, but they never provide feedback and opinions from actual individuals who may be impacted by using or not using it.
by lisp i mean any language of lisp family.
other languages (any language that is not lisp family)
people that didnt learn lisp as first language also can answer what they think about other syntax styles.
but if you do then please mention it.
A little pointers to help you read it correctly.
โGโ in the middle of words sounds like a โkโ.
โDโ in the middle of words sounds like a โtโ.
The word โnhรฎโ is pronounced โnee huhโ, and โdhiโ is pronounced โdee heโ.
โลโ is pronounced like the โlโ in โclueโ.
โล โ is pronounced like โshโ.
Mazdin:
Naiiโyinรญโtaรกdo naiiโinรญ, katna aiโdaa nhรฎ aiโinลaโnasdรญhรญโhalagi bei dhi haลกgi.
Common Translation:
Do not fear me people, though I die I will live forever in the land.
This is turning out to be one of the hardest languages to create for my world. It took me a long time to make this sentence. Iโm very excited about the future of this language in my world.
- truthful
- upfront
- unreserved
- candid
- blunt
- honest
- upfront
- forthright
- straightforward
Thanks!
My second language in progress is Japanese. If I speak to someone I always speak Japanese to, I can easily progress the conversation.
However, if the person Iโm speaking to usually speaks with me in English, and they suddenly try to speak with me in Japanese, I have a harder time talking to them, whether we just struck up a convo or had been talking in English the whole day.
Do any other second language learners or speakers experience this?
Like a sub where someone can submit their best effort and Redditors who speak and write English well go through and edit it for maximum readability, then the poster picks their favourite and can use that in their post. If there isn't one, it would be really cool sub to have and would give those of us who like proofreading and editing to sharpen our skills. It would be a win-win all around.
EDIT: Since there doesn't seem to be any sub devoted to this, I've made a new sub for it over at r/EnglishAssistance . Let's hope it becomes a vibrant community.
Like I always see people saying that non English speakers speak better than people who grew up with English as their only language. Do people all around the world also make this joke? Like if a person who speaks French as their first language sees someone who says โsorry French isnโt my first languageโ and then proceeds to use almost perfect grammar and punctuation, do they make they joke?
I assume that since English speakers grew up with English, we learned all the โshortcutsโ of the language and sometimes mix it in with our speak. People who learn the language learn only the proper way and not all of the abbreviations and stuff.
How do people invent new languages, and how do people spread information in that language about new languages. For example, the first language on Earth, how did people explain how to speak English?
