Problems faced by a person who doesn't know English 30 words)
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Answers
Explanation:
I have a missing brain cell…actually, there’s discussion between my family and friends that I might be missing more than one, but there’s a particular brain cell I’d like to talk about – the one that covers learning a language.
Ever since I first set foot in Spain, then Latin America, I’ve been trying, painfully slowly and with a great deal of difficulty, to learn Spanish. It’s not proven entirely impossible – I certainly know more than when I began (I didn’t even know the words for “hello”, “goodbye” and “can I have a beer please?” before I left England), but given the amount of time I’ve spent in the Spanish-speaking world, my lingo skills should be much – MUCH – better.
There are a billion reasons (literally a billion – it’s this kind of list building I tend to focus on instead of practising my verb conjugation) why I’m so bad at learning a language – Spanish and others included. And, it’s something I definitely wish I was better at…and had the motivation, confidence and discipline to be better at (that’s 3 of the billion reasons I suck at learning a language).
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After spending a month in Spain, in Andalucia, I was given the opportunity once again to try and get into my language-learning stride. And, on from there, I visited Germany, a country where I can barely count to three and say thank you. Most of the time I’m travelling, I’m communicating with people in circumstances where at least one of us is not using our mother tongue and I’ve come to realise that there are good and bad ways to communicate with someone who doesn’t speak your language.
From the mean middle-aged woman who scowled at her Polish waitress’ broken English in East London, to the Indian guy’s patronising approach towards a Japanese traveller who was too shy to speak, to the Mexican strangers who outright laughed at my failed attempts at Spanish, read this. Read my guide to how to speak to someone who doesn’t speak your language.
Answer:
Other difficulties in learning and using English vocabulary include fixed word collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms, proverbs and regional differences in vocabulary usage. There are differences in English usage in English-speaking countries in terms of spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar