Laughing at broken English

[Chedney Honks]

Before the story breaks the mainstream, what do you think about this question?

[Glebe]

Is veddy good thread Mr. Chedney!

[confettiinmyhair]

Ken Jeong in the Hangover movies, Hashu from the latest series of The Circle playing Uncle Syed("What the bloody?"), the older characters in Man Like Mobeen have all made me laugh.

[jobotic]

What story? What's Corbyn done now?

[Buelligan]

We're all laughing about the English, broken or not, just doing it behind our hands because we're polite.

[Dr Trouser]

But who here hasn't watched the video for Comin' on Strong without laughing  at it?

[Chedney Honks]

In answer to the poll, my Mandarin, Italian and Spanish are conversationally fluent and I've no great interest in Arabic. I don't mind if people make fun of my language competence. I will sometimes make deliberate errors when talking to native speakers because I know it will sound funny or endearing. That's how I feel about broken English.

[Retinend]

You can do it in a nasty way or in an affectionate way. As an English teacher to Germans, I can routinely get a laugh if I comically imitate broken English that mirrors the structures of German (e.g. "I was yesterday there", "good is that the sun shines", "he is working by us since two month") , because they inwardly cringe at the knowledge of how it comes across. I sometimes follow it up with a parallel mistake that I would make in their language, in order to make sure that they know that mistakes are relative to what is normal for any given person.

[idunnosomename]

Is very nice!!!!!

[sevendaughters]

my english is how you say inperfect

[Harry Badger]

 

[JesusAndYourBush]

Waiter, this rice is rubbery!

Fankyouverymuch!!

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

I will sometimes make deliberate errors when talking to native speakers because I know it will sound funny or endearing.

Just like Henry McGee!  https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1d0mh

**** FUNNY VIDEO  BRIT HUMOR ****

[El Unicornio, mang]

I live in Newcastle so I laugh at broken English all the time.

[Chedney Honks]

Just like Henry McGee!  https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1d0mh

**** FUNNY VIDEO  BRIT HUMOR ****

Sorry, I meant in their languages so they think I'm cute

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Good moaning!

[lankyguy95]

Eng Lish

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

Sorry, I meant in their languages so they think I'm cute

Oh. You sound like one of the PC brigade!  😂😂

[Largely Babble]

I don't find laughing at people attempting to speak in a second language funny. Good on them for trying. I'd hate to be laughed at if I were trying my hardest to communicate with someone in another language. However, badly translated signs and foreign snacks with unfortunately rude names in English are very funny. I'm not sure where the line is. Or which side of it I'm on with this opinion.
And yes, I can't embed images.

https://images.app.goo.gl/mUzi38e1zXcLEy6j7

+ NSFW one...

https://images.app.goo.gl/1LEm97xy9zfu8v2F9

[El Unicornio, mang]

I always feel sorry for people who get subtitled even though they're speaking English very well. Imagine spending years learning a language and the BBC goes "can't understand half of what this cunt's saying, subtitle him"

[Buelligan]

Going the other way too - you swallowed a faaking dickshonary or wot mate?

Because, of course, the only tolerable way to live your miserable life amongst humans is to mirror them precisely.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

I hate making the "As an X, I think Y" post but as someone with cognitive issues with language, who constantly mis-speaks and frequently uses the wrong languages syntax, is dyslexic and makes sponsands of thoonerisms and inappropriate substitutions : please laugh. This is hilarous. Language is messed up and we're too respectful of it. Sapir-Whorf is a crock of shit.

I think laughing at a non-native speaker's language is fine if its unintended second meanings and bad if its just "haha, can't speak the language". Does anywhere else in the world find lack of fluency to be funny in and of itself, it seems like something only monolingual residents of anglophone countries think.  Even notoriously xenophobic Japanese media seems to be more focused on the rudeness of Europeans/foreigners than lack of fluency. I watched a Japanese comedy special a while ago which was mocking tourists and business travellers from all over the world, it got a bit racist at times but I don't think lack of fluency in asian language was laughed at once. In the UK a special with the same theme would be milking broken English from the get go.

[thenoise]

Yes its only funny if they accidentally say something rude.

I give a little smile every time a foreign counts on their foreign fingers and inadvertently give me the English "2-fingered salute".

[Buelligan]

Not wanting to be a pedant or shit but it's the at or with thing that counts.

I speak a second language (and a third) in my daily grind.  Both badly.  But even with poor comprehension, the difference between someone enjoying your attempts and trying to help or closing and tutting is obvious as fuck.  And the nasty ones, being nasty when you're so vulnerable, so strange, friendless and they're totally enfranchised and safe, they need a brisk wake up call, they are cunts.

[bgmnts]

The idea of people laughing at those who are speaking a second language, who don't even have mastery over their only one, is amazing.

As someone who struggles with understanding words, accents and languages, I am in awe of multilingualists, even if they speak very basic.

[Chedney Honks]

I wish you were in awe of my shmup skills instead.

😂😂😂

[Blinder Data]

i fondly recall meeting a (eh)Spanish guy at a party years ago who got very angry when talking about about the legal situation in his country in English.

"the yustice! the yustice does not fonction!"

(this was in France and I spoke good French at the time so it's fine for me to laugh)

[Dayraven]

I don't think lack of fluency in asian language was laughed at once. In the UK a special with the same theme would be milking broken English from the get go.

I have heard a 'westerner speaking Japanese as voiced by a Japanese person' voice in a few different things, though — sounds kind of like a hammy Italian accent, plus wrong stresses and the vowels that are supposed to be elided being pronounced.

[Buelligan]

It's, almost always, the same when you hear an English or American person pretending to speak French in a film, they always seem to shout and babble over the words, I don't know why they do it. 

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

When I was about 20 I went off on a volunteer archeology dig just outside a small village in Norfolk (mainly to bolster my CV) and made friends with a couple of Spanish lads who were there.
They had public viewings on Sundays for the locals to have a look at the site, and one of the Spanish lads asked me "When will the village people arrive?"

After I'd finished laughing I explained why I found it funny to him.