RiotNrrd:

qwertz:In my opinion its no kind of rudeness to interrupt an English native with an request for Simple English or further explanation.

Generally, I don't try to simplify what I'm saying when I'm speaking to non-natives; I start with the assumption that they will understand me. However, I would never consider it rude to be asked to say something in a simpler way or to be asked what a word or phrase means. My goal isn't to show them how good my English is! My goal is to communicate with them, and if I'm using words or phrases that they don't understand, then *I* am failing in that goal.

I've also never been shy about saying "I don't understand what you just said" to anyone I didn't understand. Sometimes I've had to have people repeat themselves a couple of times before I could make out what they were trying to say. Sometimes I'll run into an accent that is thick and unfamiliar, and it'll take a bit before I can hear the words underneath. It goes both ways.

I full agree to that. I would add, that it even gets more harder to understand somebody non-native who grows up with i.e. Bavarian (German dialect). I.e. if parents move to Germany with their kids. I like that conjointly intercultural "figuring out"/finding out very much. It often gives an new view to my native language the way "why in German language ...". I had a lot of amuzing conversation during that and I like that play around of self-reflection.

darkweasel:

barat:Kiel varbi por Esperanto

Do you speak English?

The first one is old and never was funny, but I really like the second one.

I like the first one very much(Kiel varbi finvenkisme por Esperanto?). Okay, I hold a strong prejudice against movadopropagando.

And I dislike the second one because I neither did get the joke behind that video and nor I dislike videos what tries to enforce me laughing with a help of a background laughing machine. Sorry, if an joke needs an background laughing machine its obviously no good or solely a flat joke. I prefer to build my opinion by myself. That concerns laughing, too.

qwertz:
And I dislike the second one because I neither did get the joke behind that video and nor I dislike videos what tries to enforce me laughing with a help of a background laughing machine. Sorry, if an joke needs an background laughing machine its obviously no good or solely a flat joke. I prefer to build my opinion by myself. That concerns laughing, too.

I agree with you about the laugh track.... sometimes it makes you feel uncomfortable.. :/
As for the joke, maybe it's some kind of generalization that French people don't like to talk in any other language other than French with a tourist, even if they do speak the tourist's language... Some may say that they are understanding you very well but won't make any effort to be helpful if you don't try to talk to them in french...
Well , i'm not saying that's true, but that's what i think the video is about...

Rafo:
As for the joke, maybe it's some kind of generalization that French people don't like to talk in any other language other than French with a tourist, even if they do speak the tourist's language... Some may say that they are understanding you very well but won't make any effort to be helpful if you don't try to talk to them in french...

Okay. I see. Yes, I can confirm that some folks in France refuse talking/understand English if someones starts talking English instantly. (The woman at the regarding video is doing this). But its also some kind of respect to start at least with a "Sorry"-opener at the language onsite (i.e. French). That gives the counterpart some seconds to switch its native language to English language. Its an offer based at private initative to speak English, and not compulsory. And probably most non-English natives feel some kind of horror to speak English at business occasions. Someones can not expect that everybody speaks English. Currently that "Sorry" translations are 23x translations of official EU languages which should be not take that big efforts to notice at a piece of paper. Same concerns to "please" and "thanks".

So, I full accept that blind English refusal. Its the right answer to non-respectful demands. Even if I didn't encounter that habit with younger French folks. Some mentalities doesn't concern much of it (i.e. Netherlands, Germany), some do (i.e. France). As long any language including English is not official bridge language inside EU I personaly see it like that's their right to do so. But that also furthermore doesn't grant somebody the right to blame English native speakers.

Me by myself would not deny/disclaim my English language proficiency. Thats why I don't see some joke at the regarding video.

About the French refusing speaking English:

I think it is some sort of a regret. French was supposed to be international a couple of decades ago, well, it has lost its position, now it is English (supposed of course). They feel betrayed. So they refuse to help spreading this unwanted language. I also feel annoyed with English so I can understand them well. What happened to French will also happen to English. No language is "international" forever.

barat:No language is "international" forever.

Well, bits of them are at least

Mammoth (ru), bureau (fr), e-mail (en), lexicon (gr), amigo (es) (not to mention all those -tion/sion words from Latin)..

After each language loses favour, the most influential words, concepts etc (or even just random words for no unique or special reason) from it generally stay on in international vocabulary. I'm interested in what might happen with Chinese if that happens in the future though, an internationalisation of Chinese or any tonal language doesn't seem to have happened on a mass scale before...

ceigered:

barat:No language is "international" forever.

Well, bits of them are at least

Mammoth (ru), bureau (fr), e-mail (en), lexicon (gr)..

After each language loses favour, the most influential words, concepts etc from it generally stay on in international vocabulary. I'm interested in what might happen with Chinese if that happens in the future though, an internationalisation of Chinese or any tonal language doesn't seem to have happened on a mass scale before!

In the course of time, once popular words are replaced with new ones or they change considerably. Look at

Deveno de radikoj

Good heavens Jrhowa, where to begin. I'll have a stab at a list.

Irregular plurals of adjectives and nouns; irregular verbs; irregular spelling; in general all manner of 'exceptions' to 'rules'.

Arbitrary grammatical gender.
Fixed expressions - where the language theoretically offers several ways of saying something.
Opaque idioms whose meaning cannot be deduced from the components, or requires special historical knowledge of the language.

Words with a whole list of unrelated meanings - think of 'post' in English.
Words that completely change their meaning depending on the part of speech - think of 'train' in English.
Words with similar meaning whose usage is restricted to certain contexts - think of 'fast, 'quick','rapid', 'speedy' in English.

You could probably add to this list.

The natural languages develop in a largely haphazard manner, accumulating ever increasing historical baggage, and with no tradition of the preservation of systemacity.

barat:
Deveno de radikoj

Thanks barat. I see that like a very good learning motivation. I like that word stem background information.

sudanglo:
The natural languages develop in a largely haphazard manner, accumulating ever increasing historical baggage, and with no tradition of the preservation of systemacity.

International English and Engrish are practical excamples in the manner proof of the concept "Native English". (Btw, which ones? British, US, Kanadian, Australian etc.). That shows evidence, that language evolution can exclude historical bagage. In the view of non-English natives that historical bagage is treated like - hhm - "not worth of to be learned". Just to avoid the opinion that I blame English language. Thats definitivly not my intention. I often heard by non-German natives that they treat the German "eine, einer, eines" (English= "a") like no worth of learning. They simply don't use it, what is a kind of fact in the manner of "practical language baggage/garbage collection & disposal". Of course that depends at someones education and parental background. And it depends how restrictive primary school education is practiced. (In detail native language learning like grammar and spelling). That means, if pupils will be enforced to aquire a good primary school education. And that restrictive primary school eduction is possible in capitalism society, too. Doesn't relate to communism totalship only. I.e. Danish primary education system vs. former primary East-German education system.

Education Index

sudanglo:
The natural languages develop in a largely haphazard manner, accumulating ever increasing historical baggage, and with no tradition of the preservation of systemacity.

Yes and no. In general languages are developing in a "from hard to easy" direction. In Russian we now have no duals, no vocative case, only 33 letters (actually 32 now) instead of 38. They say in Esperanto letter ĥ is also have limited use now. You can tell the same about English language as well. I can only compare Shakespeare's language with modern variant, without comments.

qwertz:I often heard by non-German natives that they treat the German "eine, einer, eines" (English= "a") like no worth of learning. They simply don't use it

Well, it is really hard for a Russian to get the concept of articles. What they are and what they are used for. Just like the concept of the akuzativo is hard to understand for an English-speaking people. The problem is that Russians are used to forming sentences in a way that does not require articles. Similarly English-speaking people never need cases.