6 ms·
I hear the English can speak English quite well
by dav-id 10y ago
I hear the English can speak English quite well
- dmoo 10y agoUs Irish also have some ability.
- T-A 10y agoYes, but then there is the "sun" part...
- Natanael_L 10y agoWe Swedes too, for that matter.
- astrange 10y agoI had the strangest problem with Swedes where they'd seem to speak perfect English, but repeatedly mishear me as saying something offensive and never stop to make sure. Actually I think I mentioned "cutting myself shaving" to someone and they apparently to this day believe I'm suicidal.
- Natanael_L 10y agoHaven't seen it myself, but I'm guessing it's a bit Dunning-Kruger effect + unwillingness to ask outright (the average Swede don't want to look silly, etc). While we have a significant exposure to English, few of us regularly have casual conversations with native English speakers, so our vocabularies aren't as good as we tend to think.
- noir_lord 10y agoAs an Englishman perhaps not as well as you would think.
- zerr 10y agoYes, when I watch some British TV shows I hear a lot of pronunciations I was taught was wrong in school.
- imtringued 10y agoBut it's not the same old english that mama used to speak...