Video About Parents Who Speak Broken English Reflects Sacrifice, Love

If your parents’ first language isn’t English, you’re bound to witness how difficult life can really be for immigrants, trying to make it in the States ― especially as you’ve probably tried to utilize your own language skills to help them. 
But their experiences also shape your outlook today, and this clip illustrates exactly that.





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I've been in a few situations like this, I always try to convey that I don't look down on anyone for not being able to speak English. I can see how some people would get the impression they're looked down upon for not, though.

I am glad i grew up in community where this didn't matter.

so many accents and languages. Really it was the generation before me that set the situtation up, the ones that came from post war Europe, but it meant so many of use grew up with parents or grandparents that had trouble being understood be they French Greek Croation Maltese etc. So when the Vietnamese, Turks and others came well they were just like us, slipped right into the Cultural melting pot.

I can remeber having to do an assignment on a family members and part of it was recording the interview, although my Pepere was speaking English(broken but thats is just Aussie) his accent was so strong, she had no idea what he was saying and asked if he was speaking French.

Im sorry BUT...

I really ...genuinely dont "get" this whole language thing

christ on a bike if I moved to foreign lands i'd learn the local language sufficiently for day to day use within 6 months...

NOW...I will admit that there is a proviso to that.....

I DO think I would struggle with the "tonal languages" though I dont know...never having had either the need or interest to try....

Lord Foul wrote:Im sorry BUT...

I really ...genuinely dont "get" this whole language thing

christ on a bike if I moved to foreign lands i'd learn the local language sufficiently for day to day use within 6 months...

NOW...I will admit that there is a proviso to that.....

I DO think I would struggle with the "tonal languages" though I dont know...never having had either the need or interest to try....

No you wouldn't, you learn enough to get by but there is a lot you dont use until you find yourself in a specific situation not knowing.
the big thing is acceptance of broken english if you are in a community that hs no issue with broken English than it is not a problem but if you got some wanker that stops you while you are trying to translate your thoughts to tell you, you broke some pedanctic rule from their local dialect it is a lot harder.

the biggest issue is accent.
my Dad understands english perfectly
doesn't mean everyone can get past his accent (which is now an mix of french and australian so no one understands)
and he has been here for 52 years

accent is a VOLUNTARY and changeable factor in language

(actually, you have to WORK to NOT change your accent when living somewhere different.....)

and are you really saying that australia is a country where most of the population is unable to communicate with anyone outside of their "local or even familiar" groups???

perhaps you need educators in the queens english to help you??????

Lord Foul wrote:accent is a VOLUNTARY and changeable factor in language

(actually, you have to WORK to NOT change your accent when living somewhere different.....)

and are you really saying that australia is a country where most of the population is unable to communicate with anyone outside of their "local or even familiar" groups???

perhaps you need educators in the queens english to help you??????

Nope we are a nation with less wankers that want to hear 'queens Enlgish' Of course there are some but they dont come from blacktown.

We speak 'Aussie' the most internationally understandable dialect of enlgish, cause we just ignore a bunch of rules

And over a Much much larger span we sound more similar than you do, we do not have the phenomon of localised accents because we travel more there is simply a scale from, city speak to country speak. the more city the less rules more open.

And accents when real are not chooseable , you are really showing you do not know immigrants at all,
no one that becomes Aussie as an adult ever gets the Aussie accent 100% but anyone born here has it.

You can tell China born or Aussie born as soon as they open their mouth (for example) let alone my dad nor most of my friends parents that have been here 50+ years have lost their accent compeletely, but most have returned to the birth nation for holidays etc at some point and had people comment they had 'aussie' accent.

I dont care what you recon...learning an accent is instictive ....part of blending in to your "surroundings"

you may not of necessity always get it 100% right, but you have to work NOT to get it...

I have, variously , had a yorkshire accent, nottingham accent, london accent, and apparantly now have aquired the local cheshire accent...oh and when I speak german...apparantly I have a munich accent like WTF...I've never been there...Berlin yes, frankfurt yes but munich...nope.... I can only assume I picked it up from my german teacher....yup accents are infectious....though I would love someone to explain why I speak french apparantly with a dutch accent....when the little dutch I speak is delivered so I'm told with a french accent......confused.com

Yeah whatever speak to me when you live in a nation with immigrants.

You oppose Multicultralism So dont pretend you have a clue about Migrant's issues.
the mere fact what YOU think, is oppposed by the Video of Migrants kids and myself, a migrant's kid, and my friends majority are first generation Aussie or migrated here as kids. 76% of the Community I was raised in is either a migrant or child of migrant.

And You wonder Why I have ZERO SYMPATHY for Whinging Brits that say Multiculturalism doesn't work

the mere fact you can give a bunch of names for 'British accent' shows that it is not chooseable.

Learning an accent is not always instinctive. I emigrated to Texas as a six-year-old and it took decades for the accent to seep into my speech.

The English are never going to get it, I've had times where getting my dinner depended on knowing my numbers in Spanish.

No the English will never get it. We are terrible at learning new languages or trying to - I don't include myself in that btw as I'm always the idiot trying to read the Italian menu, in erm, terrible-Italian.

As to the OP, never, ever would I look down on, or get irritated, with someone who was trying to speak to me and wasn't great with her speech. My opnion would be that their English is better than my attempt at their language.