Hendrik Boom said on Thu, 17 Aug 2023 15:07:38 -0400

>On Thu, Aug 17, 2023 at 03:45:44PM +0200, Arnt Karlsen wrote:
>> On Thu, 17 Aug 2023 11:14:17 +0700, Alif wrote in message
>> <b5657b14-5b3e-c899-aa27-91d667c4a1a9@???>:
>>
>> > I want to help you but I have problem with English because it is
>> > not my native language.
>>
>> ..you're not too bad, I've seen native English speakers do waaay
>> worse.

My experience is that the average European speaks more correct English
than I do, and I've lived in America my entire life. Now I live in
Orlando, Florida, and a lot of the people around here butcher the
language so badly that learning to understand them is a skill.

One of the most shameful things in my life is that I took 3 years of
German in high school and cannot communicate in German. I lived 18
years in Southern California and can't communicate in Spanish.

About my only weapon in speaking other languages is this kind of thing
while pointing to something:

Como se dice _________ en Español?

Wie sagt man __________ auf Deutsch?

And just in case the person knows a little English, I can ask the
following questions about a word they spoke that I didn't understand:

Como se dice _________ en Englais?

Wie sagt man __________ auf Englisch?

And of course:

Habla despacio por favor.

Sprechen Sie bitte langsamer.

In 2013 I spent a week in Mexico City and had to walk around and go
shopping. You guys would have laughed hysterically at my attempts to
handle my affairs. Luckily, I got to teach my course (to Cisco) in
English: Every single technologist in my course spoke fluent English:
Some spoke English better than I did.

I'm forever in awe of all you multilingual people. Keep up the good
work!

SteveT

Steve Litt
Autumn 2022 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/thrive.htm