Languages with the most forgiving native speakers

General discussion about learning languages
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dylan413
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Re: Languages with the most forgiving native speakers

Postby dylan413 » Wed Apr 26, 2023 8:57 pm

Azerbaijanis, Turks, and Uzbeks have all been extremely forgiving pretty much without exception. I have quite a lot of experience butchering these languages, so this is something I can attest to with high confidence. Ukrainians are also very forgiving.

Russians can be anywhere on the spectrum. I've had Russians praise me undeservedly when I was A1 and I've had some whose Russian was literally worse than my own tell me I speak the language poorly because I have an accent when I had already passed the notoriously difficult TRKI 3 Exam (C1). In almost all instances they were extremely positive about my Russian, but in most cases this was more than well warranted.

Interestingly enough, the least forgiving native speakers I've met were Russian-sector Azerbaijanis. They don't seem to understand that Russian is a native language for them even though it's their primary language that they use in most cases at home and in all cases at school (by definition). They distinguish themselves from the rest of the country in many but not all cases as more intelligent because of this. I assume this because often times people drop out of the Russian sector who don't speak it at home, which leads to them making the assumption that those who don't speak it perfectly are stupid.

My Russian, unlike every other language I have studied, is not quite as good as it used to be, but it is still excellent. I speak it every day at home and often with friends, but I no longer use it in a university setting, so I've gotten lazier about it. In any case, I have an accent, and I never made enough of an effort to master the intonation. Even still, this is a small minority of cases. I just fixate on it because I find the relationship between the Azerbaijani and Russian sectors fascinating.

I still haven't visited Italian or spoken to many regular Italians in Italian since I started learning it, so I cannot comment on their attitude. I studied French in high school for about a year before visiting France for a short visit and I didn't encounter any of the stereotypical snobs that one hears about frequently. I also didn't receive any form of praise, which is completely logical, because I absolutely didn't deserve it considering I was only an A2 at the time.

Overall, my experience is that people who speak languages that are rarely studied by foreigners from a western background to a high level of fluency are very forgiving. This is not always the case for all backgrounds however. Many Russians are very unforgiving to the millions of people who speak it quite well from other parts of the former USSR while simultaneously praising westerners who fail to speak it at even an A2 level.
Last edited by dylan413 on Thu Apr 27, 2023 7:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Khayyam
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Re: Languages with the most forgiving native speakers

Postby Khayyam » Thu Apr 27, 2023 12:01 am

I've had no interactions with Persian speakers yet other than on this forum (can't really count that), but one reason I chose Persian over Arabic is that I read that Persian speakers tend to be touched that Westerners want to learn their language. Arabic is more practical for business and for getting along in the Middle East in general, while Persian is spoken in a more limited region and is often unnecessary even there, since many Persian speakers also speak Arabic (according to this poster). So, if I ever visit Iran, I'll cheerfully expect a positive response from most Persians even if I somehow mess up their easy grammar. (Whether I get a positive response from all Iranians will, of course, be another question.)

My Austrian ex told me that most people in the German-speaking world are favorably inclined toward Americans and enjoy the American accent. I hope that's true, because enjoy my grammar they will not.
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Re: Languages with the most forgiving native speakers

Postby jimmy » Thu Apr 27, 2023 3:28 pm

Irena wrote:Native English speakers are very nice.


And this is one another stereotype. Exactly.
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Re: Languages with the most forgiving native speakers

Postby Gaoling97 » Thu Apr 27, 2023 11:00 pm

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I find Germans are relatively forgiving of non-native accents and errors. Yes, they'll probably switch if you're at A1/A2 level, as will people from pretty much every country except for the monolingual ones where they have no choice but to entertain you, but beyond a certain level, they will be happy that you are speaking German, and frankly many will even expect you to if you can. "Overjoyed" would be an exaggeration, but they'll at least speak it to you and won't be like e.g. the Dutch, who go on constantly about how useless their language is.
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dml130
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Re: Languages with the most forgiving native speakers

Postby dml130 » Fri Apr 28, 2023 2:16 am

Khayyam wrote: Arabic is more practical for business and for getting along in the Middle East in general, while Persian is spoken in a more limited region and is often unnecessary even there, since many Persian speakers also speak Arabic


Are you sure? My understanding is that, although they might learn a little bit about Arabic for religious purposes, most Iranians are not conversant in Arabic.
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Re: Languages with the most forgiving native speakers

Postby Axon » Fri Apr 28, 2023 2:58 am

Irena wrote:If I may highjack this thread just a little bit: does anyone have experience with Poles? I have this secret (I suppose it's no longer that secret) wish to learn Polish. But I'd like native speakers to be nice to me... What happens if you unleash ~B1 level Polish on a native Polish speaker?


You are a native Serbian speaker and know other Slavic languages quite well, so you will probably make completely different mistakes from a typical Romance or Germanic speaker. All I know is that I traveled around Poland twice in 2015/16 with pretty rudimentary Polish and it was absolutely necessary. Since the people I was talking to didn't have enough confidence in their English to use it with me, they were happy and enthusiastic about the fact that I was working on Polish.

In many countries there's not as much tolerance for ambiguity compared to countries that get a lot of immigration and are used to hearing foreign speakers of the language. In Vietnam, for instance, most people never hear a foreign accent in Vietnamese and are unlikely to understand you at first - but they'll probably be very happy if they can speak to you successfully in Vietnamese. In Indonesia and China, people are more used to hearing different accents in the national standard language, so a learner's speech is more easily comprehensible (though people are still often happy that they can communicate easily with a foreigner).

I've also had good experiences with easy, friendly communication in France, Germany, and Russia, even though my French and Russian have always been rather poor (and my German never perfect either of course).
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Re: Languages with the most forgiving native speakers

Postby Khayyam » Fri Apr 28, 2023 2:53 pm

dml130 wrote:
Khayyam wrote: Arabic is more practical for business and for getting along in the Middle East in general, while Persian is spoken in a more limited region and is often unnecessary even there, since many Persian speakers also speak Arabic


Are you sure? My understanding is that, although they might learn a little bit about Arabic for religious purposes, most Iranians are not conversant in Arabic.


I'm not at all sure, actually. I was just going by what that one poster said. A quick duckduckgo search which I did just now revealed that you are right and I was wrongetty-wrong-wrong. Which I suppose is good news in a way, since it means learning Persian is more practical than I thought.

Edit: Although it can be argued that for an American to visit Iran in the first place would be insane, so maybe not so practical.
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dml130
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Re: Languages with the most forgiving native speakers

Postby dml130 » Fri Apr 28, 2023 6:58 pm

Khayyam wrote:
dml130 wrote:
Khayyam wrote: Arabic is more practical for business and for getting along in the Middle East in general, while Persian is spoken in a more limited region and is often unnecessary even there, since many Persian speakers also speak Arabic


Are you sure? My understanding is that, although they might learn a little bit about Arabic for religious purposes, most Iranians are not conversant in Arabic.


I'm not at all sure, actually. I was just going by what that one poster said. A quick duckduckgo search which I did just now revealed that you are right and I was wrongetty-wrong-wrong. Which I suppose is good news in a way, since it means learning Persian is more practical than I thought.

Edit: Although it can be argued that for an American to visit Iran in the first place would be insane, so maybe not so practical.


Regarding your last point, I'm not sure if any of the following would be better options, but there are other countries that speak Persian - Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and parts of Uzbekistan (Samarkand).
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Re: Languages with the most forgiving native speakers

Postby Dtmont » Fri Apr 28, 2023 9:46 pm

dml130 wrote:
Khayyam wrote:
dml130 wrote:
Khayyam wrote: Arabic is more practical for business and for getting along in the Middle East in general, while Persian is spoken in a more limited region and is often unnecessary even there, since many Persian speakers also speak Arabic


Are you sure? My understanding is that, although they might learn a little bit about Arabic for religious purposes, most Iranians are not conversant in Arabic.


I'm not at all sure, actually. I was just going by what that one poster said. A quick duckduckgo search which I did just now revealed that you are right and I was wrongetty-wrong-wrong. Which I suppose is good news in a way, since it means learning Persian is more practical than I thought.

Edit: Although it can be argued that for an American to visit Iran in the first place would be insane, so maybe not so practical.


Regarding your last point, I'm not sure if any of the following would be better options, but there are other countries that speak Persian - Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and parts of Uzbekistan (Samarkand).


You forgot Tehrangeles!
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