As an immigrant and talking with other immigrants, international students, and foreigners, we have discussed about how many times we could not understand English speakers for many reasons. It could get so difficult than even when you try to go to buy a hamburger is an odyssey. They ask you how if you want to add cheese, and if you want to add soda, and when you think they are not going to ask anything else, they will ask: “How are you paying?”. The questions are never ending, and you are standing right there and saying: Please give me the normal, no it is ok thanks. Perhaps, you lost a sale and you did not notice.
There was a time that an immigrant’s mom, a senior, was in the airport, and they asked her to open the suitcase to CHECK IN. She thought they were asking if she was bringing food. “No chicken, no chicken. I don’t bring chicken with me.” They let her pass anyways, and she finally told them. “But I like chicken.”
Perhaps you never experienced something like these ones, but you probably have your own anecdotes.
Sometimes, pronunciation is all. You may know the worlds very well, but the pronunciation is way different than what you are going to hear in an academic environment. I learned from the cashiers that receipt is pronounced without the “p”. That happens here in Northern BC, Canada. There might be others variations according the country you are in.
These are the reasons why you could say: Could you repeat again please?
– First of all, a lack of English knowledge or vocabulary is key for not understanding. If you have not pass this level of basic English it is more likely you would not understand a lot of words and sayings.
– English speakers talk too fast. It is normal that if we recently arrived to a country, we think they talk too fast. Some of the people that learn our first languages say the same thing about us talking very fast. It is just about time, and practice, practice, practice.
– They use shortcuts for phrases. Oh no! The academic school perhaps did not tell you about this short cuts. “Howchu doing?” , “What’ve you been up to?”, ” I’ll help(h)er.” You could get upset why they are not clear, but remember other languages do the same, and sometimes we don’t even notice we do it.
–The pronunciation was different than what you thought it was. English words are mostly composed by 1 syllable, 2 or 3 syllables. However, more than 3 syllables is not common. Also, the pronunciation of vowels has more variations than other languages. So two words may sound very similar to non-native speakers, but they could be completely different. I still a little bit of difficult pronouncing correctly beer, bear, bird and bear.
–The use of idioms. “He came out of the blue” “I am up to my ears” are only a few. If you get to know more idioms, you would be more successful at talking to people in daily life.
–An accent. Yes, sometimes people think they do not have an accent, but they do. British and American’s accent is a very clear example.
–Insights. You have to live in a place for a while to understand they said something to refer to a famous advertisement and made a joke. That is normal. This one is about time to get more involved into the country’s culture.
What kind of experience have you had in this situation? Do you know another reason why you could not understand an English speaker?
New to Prince George 