My in laws were here for 50 years and you had to be familiar with them to understand their English. They immigrated moved into a Polish enclave and never really had to improve their English. My wife was born here,attended a Polish Catholic School and never really learned English untill she was 7 or 8 years old. Even now 50 years on her phraseology is still strange!
Well, here is just another thing that irritates the heck out of some and doesn't bother others at all.
Doesn't irritate me. However it was a challenge on my first smart phone, because you had to open a new screen and activate a keyboard. I often disconnected, or missed the next question, doing that. Finally got the hang of it. Now you can respond by voice on many sites.
LOL It works here, considering that English is our second language. It can be irritated for the most of English Native Speakers; It is a good and free choice for us - the Non English Native Speakers - either to press 1 (for English) or press 2 (for our native language).
When I am in a part of the country where Spanish (or some other language) is common, it doesn't bother me, but it's annoying when businesses in Maine do that. Except for some French Canadians in the Saint John Valley, along the Canadian border, and new Somalian immigrants in Lewiston and Portland, pretty much everyone in Maine speaks English, and most don't know any other language, so we shouldn't have to wade through a language menu for the rare foreigner who might be passing through. Although many do, I don't expect everyone to speak English to me in Mexico, so every business in Maine shouldn't be made to feel as if they were part of the United Nations.
Where are you Emilly... that English is your second language?...welcome to the forum btw !! It's odd isn't it, that here in England English isn't necessarily the first button to press on an ATM machine and usually isn't..... yet you say that in a country that has English as a second language the first button in English...how weird!!
The world seems still in order at my place at least as far as this is concerned. The native language is always automatically shown on ATMs. I'm not sure if there are buttons for other languages at all. Some homework for me. It's different with all technical devices like phones, TV, computers, etc. Here you'd have to select your language first.
Do go and have a look @Thomas Stearn at the ATM's... and let us know if German is the first choice... in fact look what I found...
Very interesting indeed. You get blinkers, you know. I don't bank with DB any more. I'll go and find out what ATMs at my bank are like. Should I film my withdrawal of money? I'm sure I won't remember it when it comes to the crunch. Without sticking my neck out too far, however, I'd venture to say that I don't have to select a language as shown in the video for DB ATMs. They have always considered themselves to be more international anyway. But I'm curious to see how it works on my ATM. It might be similar to what can be seen in the video that German and English instructions are offered simultaneously which I'm not aware of because I'm so used to it.
@Holly Saunders : Thank you for the welcome greetings! I'm in Indonesia. We also have Native English Speakers - as the expatriates who are working here. In case they do not master our native language, then the service will be a big help. Just trying to give another image through another perspective.
of course, and thank you, we enjoy having you here., , and even on this particular thread alone we have people posting from several states in the USA and explaining their way of doing things, another in Germany, Me in the United Kingdom, and you in Indonesia...so it's always fascinating to learn different ways of doing things
My native country is one of the Asian countries. I must say generalization leads to misinterpreted situation. Even in the well-advanced countries, there are some people who are "uneducated". For the English context, I have personally met Native English Speakers who were grammatically wrong putting some sequences in their phrases. They said "You are so meticulous" then laugh when I corrected them lol.
Thank you for having you all too. I love learning anything through different perspective; but focus on the similarity.
Precisely, and without a shadow of a doubt. I've personally met many foreign nationals who are far more educated than many British counterparts.., and I'm not referring to Intellectuals.. I mean the ordinary joe, the ordinary standard educated person, some even who had very little education .. those who have taken a great interest to learn and educate themselves about the world and it's people, to learn more than one language etc... to learn the history and politics of other countries other than their own . to be genuinely interested in what's going on beyond their own back door and to travel where possible and funds allow and live among the locals even for only a short time. I find it embarrassing for my country when I see foreigners come to live or visit this country and start a conversation in a pub or similar social place, only to find that they, the foreigner, is far more knowledgeable about British affairs and even language than the local person... and it happens often...
This applies to Americans as well. Foreigners learn our language as it should be spoken, but we, as native born, tend to fall into slangs and patois of different regions of our respective countries.