Interpersonal Skills Stack Exchange
Interpersonal Skills Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [language-barriers]

Questions for where a person lacks the required proficiency in the language to communicate effectively in a situation. For more general questions, please use the [language] tag instead.

20 questions
52
votes
8 answers

How to remark politely that you are not an idiot, just not fluent on english language?

As a foreigner in an English speaking country, I meet people in several situations, business and social. As you are introduced to conversations, you sometimes get lost because of lack of fluency in the English language. Sometimes you feel your…
Rogelio Triviño
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26
votes
5 answers

Asking someone to use their native language without being rude

Sometimes, I find myself in a conversation with people who can't speak English (or some other language) with standard pronunciation. Of course, not everyone has good speaking skills to begin with, and I believe it's more of an issue with my hearing…
Ramon Melo
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22
votes
8 answers

How can I get Americans to speak more slowly after I've already asked them once?

I'm from East Asia so my English is not good compared to people from Western countries who use English or its Indo-European siblings as its native language. In most cases, it is fine to talk with fellow Asians (East Asian and Southeast Asian), and…
Blaszard
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21
votes
4 answers

Best way to tell colleague that chat is not a channel for direct response?

Me and colleague X communicate in English, but we're both non-native English speakers from very different countries. X's English is not very great and we sometimes have trouble understanding each other. My company uses Slack and Skype to send…
Summer
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18
votes
5 answers

How do I decline conversation in my native language?

I often meet people who do not natively speak my language (German) but are learning it and would love to practice it by speaking German to me. General Situation The problem is that I talk in a slight dialect (Norddeutsch), speak very fast and often…
SomeRandomCat
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18
votes
5 answers

How do I talk to someone through a translator?

I am a private piano teacher. I recently accepted a student who has only been living in the US for a couple weeks and does not know English. Her mother sits next to us during the lessons and translates. I struggle particularly with getting the…
JETM
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16
votes
3 answers

Is it rude to post on an English site when my English needs a lot of improvement?

I've been learning English on the internet for many years, but it is still very difficult to understand me sometimes. I know that using English daily is best, and especially on Stack Overflow. I've improved a lot, and I'm really thankful. However,…
PRASHANT P
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15
votes
4 answers

What are some other ways to speak to a deaf person without ASL?

One of my friends online is deaf, and we met on a game and made friends through in game communication. We've set up to meet, but I realized I may have made a critical misstep in that I don't know American Sign Language (ASL). For background, he's…
Anoplexian
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13
votes
6 answers

How to ask roommates not to use so much of common spaces for personal meetings

I live in a large shared house with with several roommates. The company that owns the house tries to rent it out to international people (however I am not international myself). Many people I live with do not seem to make an effort to speak English,…
user16097
9
votes
1 answer

Stop disrupting behavior from a complete stranger

I recently started learning a new language. Together with studying it, I am also attending a conversation group, where people learning the language and people with native proficiency in the same language meet and talk. The conversation group has two…
Kuro Hikari
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7
votes
1 answer

How to overcome nervousness while welcoming English-speaking clients?

I'm from China, currently doing my internship in an art gallery founded by a French art dealer. Our gallery exhibit artworks from a variety of countries and have broad social relations abroad. As an intern, I'm engaged with welcoming visitors and…
Awakening Flute
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7
votes
3 answers

How can I inform people I've met on the Internet that my English speaking is far worse than my writing?

Occasionally, the people who I meet on the Internet ask me to hang out. But my English speaking is far more terrible than my written English, and some people look quite disappointed to hear my poor speaking English skills once we meet. I always…
Blaszard
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6
votes
3 answers

How to deal with non-answers to simple, direct questions, from people doing their job

Background I've read this question and this other one. My question is about a different situation, because it's the other party's paid job to answer customer questions. Examples (over email/text) Me: Hi, I found your property on [site]. Is it…
Dan Dascalescu
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6
votes
3 answers

How to request people to help me speak a language without imposing it on them?

I'm an Indian student who recently moved to the Netherlands to study. I'm intending on it becoming my permanent home at some point. While I was in India (and when I briefly moved to the US with my dad), I practiced Dutch through Duolingo and…
NederlandsZitVolGevaren
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6
votes
1 answer

Dealing with language barrier in social gatherings

I moved to a new country last year for the end of my studies. The local language is English, which I can read, write, speak and understand without too much effort... at work. I have absolutely no problem in professional contexts, or in a small group…
Mowgli
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