For people who use English as a second language - How frequently what you say/write is misunderstood :) ?

Edited for the reason of clarity (LOL)

Our spoken English were frequently misunderstood by our Swiss instructors back in early 1970s when we were undergoing three years training programme under their supervision. The problem was not of that magnitude in written English, but in spoken English since we used to think in our mother tongue (Bangla) and translate the sentence into English while interacting verbally when you have very short time to frame proper reply.

We were lucky to have English as a subject right from our primary education side-by-side with Bangla. Apart from our English lesson books, our Science books (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology & Hygiene and Mathematics) were written in English in Secondary level particularly in 9th and 10th grade and we had to find Bangla version for the specific topics which were not readily available in the markets in those days. In our exams we were allowed to write using either English or Bangla, but sometimes we had to write mixing Bangla and English (for the jargons only). So, we were a bit of bilingual right from our school days, out of necessity.

When I entered job in 1974 I had to deal with mostly Germans in the construction of a paper mill. But when I started my business in 1991 I had to first deal with Singaporean English and then Chinese English. Now I realise that my interactions with Swiss, Germans, Austrians, Singaporeans and some Americans (US citizens in Iran during Shah's rule working in Air Force) helped me understand how to express spending a few words than what we use to do with so many sentences (see the evidence here too, no much improvement though - LOL).

When we started export business in China since 2003, it is a new experience altogether. We now find that our English is a bit better in spellings, syntax and such finer points as against those from our Chinese counterparts, but definitely ours lack in comparison to from USA/UK English. We are now having problem with our Chinese written or spoken English being misunderstood by us (lol).

Hope above reply has been understood correctly!

Have a nice day / night too.

"English is my second and ONLY LANGUAGE". nobody seems to get this silly joke i coined. They always say to me "what is your first language?". what it is I am joking about is: In other words I have a hard enough time with the language that is my native tongue. I heard one Australian talk about an American who almost drowned while jumping in the ocean on a beach area near Sydney. He said he told him there was an undertow warning "but the guy was talking americanese and probably could not understand him, lol. I am an american critic of lots of things american, but as far as the english speech goes i think Australians accents and dialects sound more irritating to my ear than even thick deep south american speech. I know it is subjective but I like the older distinguished north eastern American speech just as much as or even more so than the most distinguished queen's english in "the motha country": i.e. Great Britain. If i didn't suffer iatrogenic ptsd, and did not have a speech and hearing problem i would love to be able to speak and write adequately in Spanish, Portuguese(writing almost the same but speech totally different), French, Russian, Arabic and Hindi(Indians and Pakistanis can adequately understand each others speech but their script or writing is totally different). peace, joy and love to all who know no one or nothing is perfect or the greatest and that our USA is not the greatest country on earth. there is no such thing as the greatest.the only thing i consider the greatest is unconditional love and the immensity and mysteries of the universe.(We Americans must dismantle the US empire and restore our US republic as a contributor, loving, peaceful member of the world's family of nations)

I hope I tend to make myself clear in writing. However, I have never been exposed to actual English speakers. Until I was given a laptop, the only way I had been studying English was random looking through my dictionary.

Mostly, my words are misunderstood if I...:

1. ...skip pronouns. I either skip them because of being tired or I think in Russian that very moment. Dumayu and dumayesh both mean "think". But the first word is for "I think", the second is for "you think". And if I write "think" in English it will not be understandable.

2. ...apply Russian idioms and catch phrases to English. For example, once I wrote "Why not" instead of "Why, I would not mind".

3. ...write something that is an actual English idiom, while I just mean what I say.

4. ...think in Ukrainian and translate the words as if they were Russian. The Ukrainian word kravatka (a necktie) sounds just like the Russian word krovatka (a little bed). So, thinking of a necktie, I can wrote "little bed".

If I met an English speaker now, "I vould spick in zis {or thith} vey end no one who spick English us his native lenguage will underrstend me wizout enorrmous efforrts" unless I would not be excited. When I am excited, I speak a way too fast, thus, I do not make myself clear even if I am talking in Russian. Well, maybe I would not turn w's into v's, and th's into s's and z's, but I would not be understood that easy anyway.

Well, have I ever confused you with something I said? If I have, please tell me so, it would be a sign that I need to work on my English :-)

That used to happen to me some 10 years ago when my verbal skills were still relatively poor, but I always managed in the end. Sometimes it was frustrating, sometimes it was quite funny and amusing.

edit: English is your second language? No way! See? Problem fixed. You fooled me LOL

Not too often. I got some English lessons in school for the first time at age 12 and I've been exposed to English movies and songs ever since. My Engish is not perfect, but I know what I say. I wouldn't often say something I know is not correct, unless I had no other way to say it. It's more often I have to ask someone that's talking to me what they mean, and then they don't believe I don't understand them because otherwise i understand them just fine! This is usually about expressions that are quite normal for them, but not for me. If I do make a mistake, other than spelling, it's the expressions.

The only things I can't talk about properly are things that are specific to my country, especially food and ingredients. I can't describe those and sometimes there's no word for it available. That's just a shame, I guess they'd have to taste it. I'm not too worried about that, as long as people know roughly what I mean.

I don't know too much about kitchen utensils or engine parts or animal names either. This is less severe, because I can often sortof describe what I mean. In the end, you just learn more words and get better at using your incomplete vocabulary to say as much as possible.

Day

Yes, actually English is my fourth language. I am a Chinese decent born in Thailand and went to Thai, Chinese, English school. My parents speak two different Chinese dialects, so I'm pretty mess up! Hee hee

Well, now I use mostly English and Thai and I have miscommunication probelems every now and then, it is the sense of language and grammars problems. However, I'm planning to improve it so that I don't have too much problems with work and personal life.

Actually even with English as a primary language people can't seem to understand . Yes it can be quite frustrating most of the time .

Sure, that happened when my English still wasn't good enough... But usually, at that time, I used so many words to explain what I wanted to say that finally my message always got through...

English, by the way, is my 3rd language after German and French. It's all a matter of practice - and READING. The more you read English books, the better your expression skills get!

Good luck! :)

Sometimes I want to quit this place (YA) for that reason. Believe me. Many people are intolerant to the errors or omissions, maybe they are perfect. The syntax in English and Spanish can be very different.

I'm spending more time in Yahoo Respuestas and you know what I found a bunch of extraordinary persons in the Spanish version of YA.

I want to learn Portuguese.

Sweetie, I didn't even know English was your second language until you said something a while back.

That said, I've worked with many students from a variety of countries, and I know they often feel misunderstood. Sometimes, their classmates make fun of them. It's frustrating for me because, while I know it takes time to understand what they are trying to say, I know it's worth it. But my students don't often see that. :(