Foreigners

[Nebulous]

Foreigners, well that is a strange word to use on a forum since we're pretty much global. We come from all over. BUT we're mainly all from English speaking countries (or where English is commonly learned/spoken as a 2nd language).

Have you ever come across someone who's struggling to learn English but is trying to communicate effectively on an English speaking forum?

Do you try your best to understand and help these people? ...or?

 

[DrLeftover]

Yeah.

Me.

I could take English as a 'foreign language' and have trouble passing because I have no concept of how to "Diagram a Sentence", can't explain the difference between an adjective and an adverb, and have trouble with the plurals of some words other than knowing that an apostrophe almost NEVER makes something plural but is the "possessive".

 

[Jazzy]

Yes, one of our members when she first came to Off Topix was very shy and was reluctant to post on the open forum. She was just learning English and asked me to 'correct' her when she didn't phrase or use the right words. These conversations took place via PM's. Not sure how long this went on but before I knew it, she was communicating with me using damn near perfect English. I was very happy to help her and I'm very proud of the progress she's made. Before you ask, I will not be divulging the name of this member.

 

[~KAGE-008]

Back when I started joining sites in 2009, my English was very terrible and had a tendancy to use translators to post. Then in late 2011-early 2012, I did several grammar improvements, making it better than it was.

 

[Sinon]

To be honest, most non-English people I've met on forums have had a better grasp of the language than people I know who live (and were born in) England themselves.

 

[Evil Eye]

I could take English as a 'foreign language' and have trouble passing because I have no concept of how to "Diagram a Sentence"

I can't do this for any language, so far it has failed to stop me.

As per the above, I'm fairly convinced most people aren't all that good at their native language. At least not as good as teachers seem to want them to be.

 

[Nebulous]

To be honest, most non-English people I've met on forums have had a better grasp of the language than people I know who live (and were born in) England themselves.

Lol, yeah it seems that way for some, doesn't it?

 

[beowulf]

one forum i used to frequent an awful lot til it closed was truely global......had memeber all round the world and most of the 'foreigners spoke excellent english as well as their own language......ones i remember well were mexican, finnish, german (he ended up as a mod) and south african (still in contact with him through facebook although when he comments in afrikaan with his fellow Saffers i have to use google translate lol)

a model forum i go on a lot is predominantly british with a handful of mainland europeans.......two stand out as not having english as a fluent language (croatian and catalan) but they manage to get across what they want to say ok, and no doubt participating helps them improve

 

[Shido-kun]

English is a foreign language for me,hah.

It is easy to communicate in english..

 

[~KAGE-008]

English is a foreign language for me,hah.

Same here.

 

[Smiley]

Have you ever come across someone who's struggling to learn English but is trying to communicate effectively on an English speaking forum?

Yes. I also came across native English speakers who constantly use the most complicated words in an English language they can find to express themselves. I've noticed that even the other native English speakers don't understand them without reading their posts a couple of times and maybe even consulting Thesaurus, or some other dictionary, to translate their big words into normal words everyone else uses.

Do you try your best to understand and help these people? ...or?

Usually I do, but if I see that the person on the other side isn't cooperating, but prefers to play dumb instead, like someone stubbornly posting in their native language without so much as running their words through Google Translate before posting them, I give up. It takes two to Tango & Cash.

 

[BioWarfare]

One of my very first forums had a member from Malaysia. He could not type English very well, but he tried to be my friend and converse with me. I understood him, but his grammar was not very good. Any other forum probably would have removed his posts on the basis of "low quality posting," but since my forum was very small, I did not mind. He eventually left and never came back.

For the most part, foreigners on forums struggling with English just need a few tips from a native English speaker and they'll learn pretty quickly. Most of them just struggle with spelling and light grammar issues.