As a native English speaker, do you hate it when you hear foreigners speak bad English?
I can't say I'm a 'native' English speaker, but I've been speaking the language since I was born. I went to an English speaking school, I speak to my friends in English, and I've lived in and out of the UK, living in it as of now. I've pretty much fluent in in English, and while not my 'mother tongue', it is my first language, or language of choice. I've met people in the UK, and abroad who try to speak English. I don't hate them, and I don't regard them as 'idiots'. I applaud them for trying, and I remember that they know another language fluently too (while I was born speaking sinhala, I've lost track of it pretty much and have a hard time reading or writing it). Most native English speakers aren't great at other languages. They speak one of the (or generally the) most recognized and spoken language on earth and don't feel the need to learn more languages- something which modern government are working on fixing.The person who I remembered and thought about to write this answer is my maths teacher. She's from Romania I think, and while she's not the greatest speaker of English, we respect her because she's 'nearly' fluent , and she conveys what she should do, and only stumbles on small things like the placement of 'he/she', as I deduce, in Romanian, the general term of address is 'he'. If we think of her as stupid, we know we are the stupid ones, she's lived more years than we ever had, is as skilled in maths as is possible to be a teacher, so we look past her discrepancy in English and learn what she's actually trying to teach us, not worry about some stupid not-politically-correct error she made while talking to us. In general, western society is very respectful of people who try and make an effort to fit in and learn! As for those who don't respect or tolerate your lack of ability to speak English fluently - they aren't worth your time.
What is the most appropriate way to ask English native speakers’ teacher to take a picture with you?
I would simply say - “May I please take a picture with you?” or “Would you mind if we took a picture together?” Both are very polite and respectful. <2
Would you, as an English speaker, mind if a non-native English speaker makes grammatical mistakes when communicating with others?
No, I would not and do not mind when non-native speakers make grammar mistakes. I would like to add two points to the copious, apt answers already given. 1) Non-native speakers, you are the majority. It is generally estimated that non-native speakers of English outnumber native speakers of English by a ratio of 3 to 1. (David Crystal is usually cited as the source of this estimate.) It is courteous of the non-native speaker to be concerned about the feelings of the minority. 2) No matter how many mistakes you make, native speakers of English will almost always be able to understand what you are trying to say.I came upon this second insight in two ways. Some years back there was a test circulating on the internet: a dozen or so sentences in English with every word in the sentences misspelled. I, and just about every native speaker of English I imagine, could identify the correct meaning of all twelve sentences. The insight was reinforced by the thousands and thousands of language mistakes I have corrected over the years. It eventually dawned on me that in order to correct someone’s grammar I had to be able to know what the writer intended to say. In other words, the grammar mistakes didn’t prevent me from recognizing the intended meaning. It was a very rare occurrence that I could not understand what a student was trying to say because of grammar mistakes.Having learned a couple of foreign languages over the years and witnessed various reactions to non-native speakers of English, I would say that the strongest and most inappropriate reactions tend to come from people who are unilingual. Many unilingual individuals are slow to recognize that a non-native speaker of English is a linguistic superior to the person who can only speak one language. Unfortunately, for some people anything that is different from what they are accustomed to is perceived as inferior and/or threatening. On the other hand, anyone who has learned a second or third language is likely to be empathetic and sympathetic with the non-native speaker of English.Also, non-native speakers of any language have to get used to a double standard. As soon as you are perceived as a non-native speaker, people begin to take note of your mistakes. If a native speaker of the language made exactly the same mistake, people tend not to notice or explain the mistake away; i.e, “he was being funny.”
Do native English speakers mind when foreigners have a bad English accent?
Generally, not at all. But it depends on their personality. Small-minded people want as little disruption and demand in their lives as possible. This kind of "effort" can extend to parsing a language that they understand, when it is spoken with an unfamiliar accent.This is not limited to English speakers. There are twits in all nationalities. But most people are not bothered, in my experience.There are some interesting results, even when the person does not think unfavourably of foreign accents. Just as some people cannot hide an accent at all, even after years of fluency, some listeners seem to really struggle to understand a foreign accent - it's an individual quirk. This can embarrass the foreign speaker - but they really are not to blame. Still, this is a very limited problem. Because English is spoken so widely as a second language, it is more commonly heard with an accent than most, if not all, other languages. So English speakers have a lot of practice in comprehending accented English. English speakers who don't speak a second language are often easily confused by the foreign syntax that is often translated directly, so they themselves may need to be treated with a little more patience.Enjoy arousing interest with your accent, while it lasts. It is often a mitigating factor when you need someone to listen to you properly. Also, it is generally disarming to hear one's own language spoken by a foreign speaker - they have made a huge effort to learn it and most listeners appreciate this fact. I noticed this with my meager collection of Russian vocabulary - when I travelled there, Russian and Ukrainian people were very sympathetic towards me!
People that are non native English speakers do you get annoyed that English is taking over?
I'm native Javanese and Indonesian and I'm fluent in English (been learning it since the age of 6) No, not really but It's annoying when native-English assuming everybody else speak English! and It makes native-English (especially American) lazy to learn other languages.
Native English speakers, could you please help me with this issue?
1. In an episode of the 'Criminal Mind' series, I heard the following extract: "You spent the last of your money to come down here. That's not someone who is throwing it in the 'TOW' (or 'TAU'). That's someone who wants another chance." And the sentence "That's not someone who is throwing it in the TOW'" was translated as "That's not someone who is giving up." However, I don't think the word 'tow' is correct. So, given this context, and clues, do you have any idea of what could be the 'missing word'?