Miriam BooshRemember, if someone is speaking English to you with an accent, they are probably, by default, smarter than you because they speak two languages. Don't patronize them.
RKipling 
@Miriamm Why not, I'm Italian :-)
John Caveney woke is meπ οΈ@Miriamm my daughter speaks perfect English, and German. And Spanish. And French. And Luxembourgish (yes, itβs a language) and makes me look like an idiot, having said that my own late mother found it difficult to understand my spoken English and we were both born in Manchester! ππ
@jaycee wow thts incredible and here's us with only one! Haha I'm from Ireland and I don't understand half the Irish either
@Miriamm my late mother, like me now, was stone deaf (Irish descent too!) my best mate called me mumbling man, he wasnβt known for his subtlety! So she had no bloody chance, indeed my wife of 50 years is struggling these days and she can hear a pin drop 4 doors down! ππ
Giliell
Rita
PJ "Vote Green" Coffey@Homebrewandhacking @ritawho @Giliell @Miriamm Bush asked if the French had a word for entrepreneurs! π
@ritawho @Homebrewandhacking @Giliell @Miriamm my English is poor, and Iβm born and bred Manchester! πππ
@Miriamm @Homebrewandhacking @Giliell @ritawho π³ nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition! ππππ
bookzombie
RobertWT@Miriamm Diolch, merci, meur ras, danke, go raibh maith agat, grazie, obrigada, dginkwie, gracias, spasibo, tac, shukron, ohias.
Thanks for posting this. π
RobCornelius@Miriamm I only speak English. I am from Somerset and I am proud of my accent. When I am in Ireland many people struggle to understand me.
Queen of Anxiety@Miriamm Anybody who learns English not as their native tongue has my undying respect. Iβve studied Russian, Chinese, and Welsh, and they all have so few exceptions to rules that itβs worth remembering them. English is a mash-up of some many languages that the βrulesβ have so many exceptions as to be useless. Every time some American says immigrants should learn English, I want to bop them on the nose, especially as they have likely never studied another language!
Nick Kelly@Miriamm every time Iβm out with my neighbors they keep apologizing for their poor English, Iβm continuously reminding them Iβm the idiot who canβt learn more than just English.
the roamerSpeaking stylistically near-perfect English, but with the thickest of German accents: that's me! The accent is part of me and it remains, after decades of living & teaching in England. Some subconscious bridge to my origins, perhaps?
In earlier generations, this happened a lot among emigrants from Nazi Germany and Austria. Ernst Gombrich, Hans Keller. Listen:
Keller:
https://youtu.be/7QVxfe2qItQ
Gombrich:
https://youtu.be/ea3j-kTnfeU
Keller on FurtwΓ€ngler Part 1
Heyman@Miriamm π But, but they steal jobs no one wants! π€‘βsβ¦π₯ (Go worship your guns.) π₯
Colonel Cat Tumnus@Miriamm I work with a lot of people who aren't native English speakers and as someone who is I always feel guilty correcting their spelling or grammar in the client reports they write during the QC process. I am in awe of what they can do on a day to day basis.
Hazzardous@Miriamm intelligence for speech is different than inventions.
tikistitchβ· has movedThis.
Also, you're probably an American. Despite having an excellent education in the States, my French is limited to "there is an elephant in the courtyard."
TransitBiker@Miriamm or just be kind to everyone regardless.
Doug Baker - Elbows Up! π¨π¦@Miriamm βI admire a man with an accent- it means he speaks two languagesβ.
Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Matthew J@Miriamm that'd be contradicted by all the irish, scottish, jordies, etc I know who definitely have accents but who definitely don't speak more than one language lol. everyone has an accent. Its not indicative of multilingualism
Tareef Mando | Ψ·Ψ±ΩΩ@Miriamm learning a new language is not about smartness
Eugene@Miriamm And as a professor who survived the Holocaust taught on the first day of class: if you find my verds hard to ΓΌnderstand, remember that Iβm not ze von with the accent but you are.
David Goldfield
William Conner@Miriamm Absolutely correct. However, especially for customer service staff, many seem unable or unwilling to speak more slowly and with more volume when told the customer has a hearing problem. It is not just the accent, the voice pitch counts, too.
HarpSilver@Miriamm @lisamelton trust me I'm impressed with Japanese peeps talking English I couldn't do the reverse
πΌk πβ΄π ππ«Γ€πππ’π«ππ’π―g
Frankie Saxx
Edelruth, PBS Passport HolderAlthough if you are in Dublin, they may just be from Cork - or Belfast.
I totally agree with your point, but there's a 5-yr old lives in me and she gets out sometimes.
@Miriamm lol anglos think speaking two languages is impressive
-most of the world
@Miriamm this is such a bad take for so many reasons
Charming Malcontent@Miriamm
what if they're speaking in an English accent?
what if they're speaking in an English accent?
DaniΓ«l Franke π³οΈβπ@Miriamm I used to have an unconscious bias against heavy accents (being multilingual myself, but have little-to-no Dutch accent when I speak English). I didn't realise it until I moved to here, and it took me a while to really lose that toxic part of myself.
KΓ©vin β@Miriamm This happens a whole lot more in French, even from people who are bi or tri-lingual and should know better.
The amount of times I've got lectures about using the wrong sex for a word, then started a full out war between a group of French people because none of them have even the remotest idea of what sex the word actually is, could fill a couple volumes of encyclopædias.
Mis-pronounce a word and be ready to receive an apocalyptic firestorm.
Use the subjonctif and watch chaos unfurl
The Laughing Muse@Miriamm -=At least=- two languages. And English is such a linguistic dog's breakfast...
James π¦ #FBPE 
@Miriamm Same goes for people speaking Spanish, Italian or French with an English accent, right?
Jennifer@Miriamm you are exactly right! I took four years of French in high school and forgot all of it. I took Spanish in college and never became anywhere near fluent. I have to turn on subtitles when I'm watching British dramas. I really admire people who are bi or multi lingual!
Cyberspice@Miriamm @pearlbear There are lot of people in England who have English as their first language and donβt sound typically βBritishβ. There are also those who are British and their families have been here for centuries and English is their second language. Welsh, Scots Gaelic to name two. Assumptions about people because of the way they speak English are just a demonstration of ignorance.
Max Pearl@cyberspice @Miriamm I boosted this from my US perspective, where monolingual USians often assume that people who speak with foreign accents are dumb.
@pearlbear @Miriamm Understood.
@pearlbear @Miriamm Right now Iβm in a Chinese restaurant in Spain with a Polish family to the left of me and Scandinavian group to the right English is used as the universal language. The Chinese staff here can speak about five languages though. I always try and speak Spanish as I am embarrassed at how bad the Brits are at languages generally.
ThisLeeNoble@Miriamm Are you Yorkshire?