Do speakers of less-common languages find it harder to understand foreigners? [closed]
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I, as a native speaker of English, am quite familiar with the pronunciation quirks of people of many different nationalities when they speak English. I have heard in passing people from probably half or more of the countries in the world speaking English; be it in person, on television, at work or passing in the street. On occasion I've had to converse with people who have strong accents and less-than-fluent language skills (credit to them; I speak no other languages beyond a very basic level). I conclude from this that in general, native English speakers are likely to be familiar with a diverse range of people speaking English and are relatively able to understand them*
My question is: For people whose native language has minimal adoption as a second language around the world; does this noticeably impede their ability to understand a foreigner speaking perhaps a rudimentary form of their language, when they encounter them? In other words, where encountering non-native speakers of that language is rare, does this necessarily mean that most native speakers will find them hard to understand when they are encountered, due to lack of familiarity?
If so, what can the second-language speaker do to mitigate problems in mutual understanding, if such a generalisation is possible?
(*on the other hand, I noticed that even west coast Americans failed to understand a word I said on the first pass in my more-or-less standard southern British accent when I visited, so perhaps high intelligibility of English is far from a given)
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Why is it difficult for foreigners to know and use the new language well?
But, why is it so hard to learn a foreign language, anyway? Put simply, it's hard because it challenges both your mind (your brain has to construct new cognitive frameworks) and time (it requires sustained, consistent practice).What makes it sometimes difficult to understand native speakers of a language?
Lack of Overall Knowledge. Naturally, one of the main reasons why you may not understand native speakers is that you simply don't know enough of the words. Sure, this may sound obvious, but it's important to make the distinction between not grasping the spoken words and not knowing the words altogether.What are some of the challenges that foreign language speakers face when trying to learn a new language?
5 Big Obstacles to Learning a New Language- Doubt about your abilities. Have you ever said, \u201cI'm not good at learning new languages?\u201d This is your brain making a prediction about your skill set. ...
- Lack of practice opportunities. ...
- Fear of speaking with strangers. ...
- Loss of Motivation. ...
- Expecting it to be easy.
Why English speakers should not give up on foreign languages?
Beyond the individual benefits, 21st-century economies still need people who can function fluently abroad. Just as universal maths education creates a big pool of potential engineers, widespread language teaching does the same for business executives, diplomats, soldiers and spies.What Languages Sound Like to Foreigners
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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