this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
1855 points (94.2% liked)

Memes

45753 readers
996 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 85 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Ahh yes the blanket shit on Americans post.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Not sure why their are doing it, could of made fun of anyone.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Make a joke about the British, they're like "Yeah we do drink a lot of tea did a lot of imperialism, and our food sucks"

Make a joke about the French, and they're like "ho ho, we are rude and love wine non?"

Make a joke about the Italians, and they're like "Ay, we do love a pizza, and can't fight a war!"

Make a joke about Americans, and there's always the "WHY DO YOU GUYS MAKE FUN OF US! NO FAIR! WHY DO PEOPLE THINK ITS FUNNY TO HATE US?!?"

load more comments (13 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Speak for yourselves. As a Latino born from Mexican immigrants, I speak English and Spanish poorly 😢

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago

My 3 favorite experiences with language as an American:

(1) My Jamaican coworker who I couldn't understand for the life of me and my Ukrainian coworker who my Jamaican couldn't understand at all, the Ukrainian coworker understood the Jamaican coworker just fine though and I understood my Ukrainian coworker just fine. Basically it turns into a fun game of telephone whenever we need to talk.

(2) My former coworker from Haiti who no one but the hiring manager and I could understand, the best part about this is that I didn't know he had an accent. I just didn't hear it somehow. He was a great guy, he went back home a few years ago when his mother passed. Got stuck due to the pandemic and never came back to the company. I hope he's doing well.

(3) My former coworker from Guatemala insisting English wasn't my first language as to him it sounded like English was my second language at best. I've been working on it since then. I still suck at it.

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Um, plenty of Europeans speak 3 or more languages. Native language, language of the country you're living in, and English.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

German, Bavarian and English 😁

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (10 children)

This. I think european and asian should be swapped in this meme. I think its rarer to see asian speak 3 languages than seeing european speak 3 languages

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

Surely that depends on where in Asia you're looking at as well? On average, the number of languages people speak is quite different between, say, India and Japan. Or Switzerland vs Romania in Europe.

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Americans have trouble with any accent that isn't the blandest, nails on chalkboard accent.

Once had one ask me if I was speaking English when I spoke to him (for context I am Irish, the north bit)

[–] Lucidlethargy 44 points 1 year ago

Lol yeah, it's just the Americans that don't understand you. Sure...

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Well fucksake mate, when someone asks yous where you're from, yous go "NornIrn"

Naecunt can unnerstaund thon

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Bland and nails on chalkboard? That's like the opposite of bland. Not great, but definitely not bland. Bland is blunt and flat. Nails on chalkboard is shrill, sharp, and grating. I just don't understand how you can believe both at the same time.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Excuse me, but as an American I take offense to this meme. I speak 4 languages, English, Southern, Bostonian, and Spanish /s

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (20 children)

Well, as an Indian with a love for anime, I speak 3 languages and am learning a 4th (Japanese).

मुळात माझी मातृभाषा मराठी आहे. आणि मी बरीच वर्ष महाराष्ट्रातच राहिलीय...

लेकिन school और दोस्तों के वजह से हिंदी भी बोल लेता है. और तो और, इन दोनो की लिपी एक जैसी ही होने के कारण पढणे मे भी दिक्कत नही आति.

わたしはあにめがすきですから、にほんごをべんきょうおします。今は、にほんごのうりょうくしけんのN5できました。今年の12月にN4できますよ。

And I plan on learning more soon 🙃.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (5 children)

That's just one language - the language of funny symbols.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (19 replies)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Oh look, it's the same old reposted garbage meme that I have seen on Reddit hundreds of times.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Oh look, it's the same old reposted garbage comment that I have seen on Reddit hundreds of times.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Oh look, it's the same old comment complaining about another comment that I have seen on Reddit hundreds of times.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] BudgetBandit 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

The only good thing that the Americanization brought is, that, except the French, the world can communicate with each other in English.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even if the French could communicate in English, would anyone want to have a conversation with a Frenchman?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

I know you are joking but based on my purely anecdotal personal experience, the French (at least in Paris) can now speak and are willing to speak in English much more than a few decades back.

The first time I went to France, almost 25 years back, I had a rough time communicating at restaurants or even buying tickets at the Paris metro stations. Not sure if the latter was an ability or willingness issue because even holding up two fingers and saying "two tickets" was apparently indecipherable. Had to muster my school days French and say "deux billets" to produce instant results.

Edit: And no, the two fingers I was holding up were not the middle finger of each hand :P

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Many indians speak 4+ languages easily , and we dont even notice that 😅

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 year ago (7 children)
[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Last I checked.

Fun fact: when you say "Asian" to an American, their first thought is East or Southeast Asia, but a British person's primary association with "Asianness", for lack of a better term, is India and Pakistan.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (12 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Many Americans actually are bilingual or are studying another language to become bilingual.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] iterable 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hey we speak two languages...English and Bad english....

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

I'll never understand this attitude that Europeans have towards Americans. I thought we were friends.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

North Americans and Europeans are only friends when someone from a different continent is in the room.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Some of my collegemates know 6 languages(India)

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

The nice thing about language is, if enough people are wrong they eventually become right.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

damn, bro. It's almost like America is bigger than all of Europe and shares one language, and it's hard to become fluent in a language when there's no one to speak it with. If you are asian or european you can hop in the car or on a train to practice your french or vietnamese, but unless you're practicing Spanish or some specific language kept in your area(Polish in Chicago, Pennsylvania Dutch, German in some parts of Wisconsin) you have no way to practice.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Not only this, but I've met one German speaker irl since german class about 15yr ago. Many times "bilingual" in europe means "X and English," do German people oft go 15 years without meeting another English speaker? Seems like there'd be one on every corner.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have never been in an English speaking country. We learn it because of cultural hegemony

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

面白いね。メキシコがアメリカの近くにあるのに、アメリカの大分がスペイン語を全然はなせないねw!私もスペイン語が習いたいけど、日本語もうPainintheassだよ!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I understood "pain in the ass", did I pass the test?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Kecessa 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Include anglo Canadians in there too!

Complaining about bilingual (english + french) positions in the public service is a favorite hobby of anglo public servants, as if the french ones didn't need to learn a second language to get the job... Heck, it's not rare to see/hear one argue that french Canadians should just start speaking english and stop bothering them about their "unique culture"...

But hey, it's not racism... Or so they say 🤷

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›