Foreigners speaking incorrect English.

October 26, 2019 | 0 comments

Foreigners speaking incorrect English

Swiss english learners

Foreigners speaking incorrect English

Are you Swiss, German or even Italian, do foreigners speaking incorrect English make you smile. There are many foreign people that pick up Anglo English speaking ways. Take the Swiss for instance, the following words mean something different to them than to English people.
Oldtimer

In Switzerland, this term refers to a vintage or classic car, whereas in England an old timer refers to an old ageing person.

Handy

Handy is one of the words Swiss German speakers use for mobile phone. In England we use handy when we refer to a useful

Shitstorm

In Switzerland you can see this word in magazines, papers, signs and it means controversy, whereas in England it is not a nice or polite word to use.

also the Swiss make mistakes when speaking, see these sentences below:

I came with the train

I will email you until next Friday

We see us next week

I invite you

Can you give me some informations

Here below are some more mistakes with the explanations:

1. In the near of

In English we would say.
“I live near you”
Or
“the Bank is near the supermarket”

2. In our English class we are 5 people

There were five people in our English class. This is how we would say it in English

3. I feel myself happy

I feel happy/sad/tired etc. It’s simple in English.

4. The cat of my friend

We would say in English
My friend’s cat.

So what is the answer, can these mistakes be corrected or is it too ingrained In the Swiss way of speaking. For instance as a teacher I took ages to correct some students to say ‘I woke up at 6 am’ instead of ‘I stood up at 6am’ I stand up or stood up is used to say that someone is getting up from bed.

another big mistake is the way the Swiss use funny and fun.

they use funny when they want to say they had a great time. ‘It was really funny trekking yesterday’ rather than saying ‘trekking yesterday was so much fun’.

I love the Swiss because they are really hard working and meticulous English learners and this article is not saying all Swiss learners make these mistakes, advance and proficiency learners rarely make these mistakes. The intermediate students are more likely to make them.

At English Study online we have many Swiss German speaking students. If you are a foreign English learner, we can help you to speak English like a native speaker.

find us on Facebook and start to speak the correct english

https://www.facebook.com/englishstudyonline