Thread: ''What happened''

Originally Posted by Marcus

And this is very strange. English is not your mother toungue. How could you say it corectly if you did not know the rules? We learnt structure of English qestions and trained using them for a very long time. And questions with "who" and "what" were treated separately and much attention was paid to distinction between questions where "who" ("what") is a subject and where it is an object.

Yes, I want to echo what bitpicker said. His written English is like native, you can safely trust anything he says about English. In fact, because he's making the effort, his English is better than that of many English speakers (who are notoriously lazy about grammar, grammatical rules and even spelling.)

I suspect he probably has a noticeable accent when speaks, but that's not relevant in a forum. But basically, he's put a lot of time into it, he's an absolute ace with grammar and additionally his experiences are relevant for anyone learning English.

Remember that English is MUCH closer to German than it is to Russian, so it's been easier for him to learn than it's been for you, for example. In Western Europe it's also much easier to get exposure to English and native English speakers.

For me, it's the same thing although in Scandinavia we have even more exposure to English than in Germany. I started from a really young age and I've lived in the UK for 10+ years. Basically, I am confident about my English and if I make any mistakes here, it's because I don't bother proof-reading most of the time, and because I change what I want to say while I'm in the middle of writing a sentence.

Unfortunately I don't know grammatical terms well and I am not as good at explaining the reasons why a certain sentence structure is better than another, as Robin is. The only English grammar I can remembers studying, is verbs: "go-went-gone" and "I am, you are, he-she-it is..." The rest I simply learnt naturally.

One little mistake is not the end of the world unless it's for a professional situation. I don't even particularly agree with the idea that everyone should have to speak English as a second language... As can be seen in International Politics, Science etc - as long as you've got functional English and can articulate yourself clearly without sounding like a fool... that's all you really need. Anything else is "extras". You should be aware that native English speakers usually think that foreign accents sound cool and interesting and they generally believe that the foreign speaker is intelligent since he masters more than one language (at least that is the attitude towards white people...)

I agree with everything that Robin said, although I wouldn't have expressed it as well. Translationsnmru is another forum user who is not a native English speaker but writes in absolutely perfect English and gives great advice.

I am trying to apply the same principles that he's outlining to learning Russian (basically repeating what I did for English). But I'm not so sure my approach is correct; Russian is harder and more different to any other language I know. I have not had the same practical incentive (necessity) to learn it, and nowhere near the same exposure. So I am not sure that the "English" approach necessarily works for learning Russian.... I feel that my learning is far too slow although it got a big boost by my trip to Eastern Europe (which is coming to and end shortly).

And I have a vertical hole in my brain where the information about grammar should be. For some reason I seem unable to pick it up and remember it. It's a real handicap when learning Russian and I am so in awe of people who can confidently speak about grammatical concepts.

at least that is the attitude towards white people...)

And what about other people? I ask because I'm not very white.

Originally Posted by Marcus

And what about other people? I ask because I'm not very white.

This is funny. White, black and not very white I think the attitude is the same when your English is understandable.

Originally Posted by Marcus

And what about other people? I ask because I'm not very white.

Originally Posted by Lena.from.Russia

This is funny. White, black and not very white I think the attitude is the same when your English is understandable.

Lena, Hanna is correct about white, black, not very white... but it is even worse in the States. If you are Hispanic and don't speak English very well OR you speak it well but with an accent, many Americans ASSUME you are stupid. However, if you are white and don't speak English very well and have a "cool" accent, people will not think that. Americans love cool accents and white or light skin people. We are shallow.

Marcus, there is good news... the white skin is changing to a "what are you?" mixture. If you are a mixture of races and somewhat light skinned and people can't tell exactly what you are... are you white Hispanic, Italian, European??? What are you?? A multi-ethnic person AND on the light or a little brown, then you have it made right now. So, you dear Marcus, you might be an "it" person in the States right now.

The problem with being a mutli-ethnic person though, is that no one race will claim you. Sadly, you are not enough of one thing to be able to fit in.