Weird English.

[Quivorir]

Tongue...

 

[Procrastinator35]

Metaphors seem to stump alot of foreigners, learning ESL.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

You mean somerhing like pineapple?

Might be a marketing issue. I think "an anus" has a different meaning in English. Nobody would buy a can of "ananas rings".

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Metaphors seem to stump alot of foreigners, learning ESL.

Understandable really, there are probably metaphors in their own language but having to do the translation and then spot the similarity - often with different grammatical rules - could be tough.

 

[The_Reaper]

how do you pronounce the syllable "ough"?

Cough = "off"
Rough = "uff"
Bough = "ow"
Bought = "or"
Though = "o"
Through = "oo"
Thorough = "ugh"
..............................

So next time you laugh at a migrant's poor attempt at English pronunciation, have some sympathy.

I actually reckon ABC's given FOB (fresh off the boat) Chinese immigrants more shit for shitty English than anyone else

 

[Scotland]

Metaphors seem to stump alot of foreigners, learning ESL.

A mate from Switzerland cracked me up talking about learning English.

'These ****ing idioms... "it's raining cats and dogs" what ze ****...'

 

[Procrastinator35]

A mate from Switzerland cracked me up talking about learning English.

'These ******* idioms... "it's raining cats and dogs" what ze ****...'

Tried to explain to an Indian couple one time, what was meant by 'He kicked the bucket'.....Tried a good half dozen different ways to explain it, but nope.....they just weren't having it.

To this day, they thought I was trying to 'pull their leg'. ....And when you think about the literal translation, then who can blame them?

 

[Scotland]

Tried to explain to an Indian couple one time, what was meant by 'He kicked the bucket'.....Tried a good half dozen different ways to explain it, but nope.....they just weren't having it.

To this day, they thought I was trying to 'pull their leg'. ....And when you think about the literal translation, then who can blame them?

It's the little nuances that get lost in translation when you are talking to ESL folk, even if they are fluent.

I was talking to a girl who I forget isn't a native speaker and casually said 'potayto, potarto' and just looked at me blankly.

 

[Procrastinator35]

It's the little nuances that get lost in translation when you are talking to ESL folk, even if they are fluent.

I was talking to a girl who I forget isn't a native speaker and casually said 'potayto, potarto' and just looked at me blankly.

Did you get a look at her yams?

 

[akkaps]

My grandfather uses the phase '**** and bull story' a lot.

It's funny when he used this phase in India, the hotel receptionist had no clue what he was on about.

 

[HBF]

David Schwarz should read this thread. He always brings up examples of how the english language confuses him.

 

[Scotland]

A lot of things confuse David Schwarz.