2 min readfrom Language Learning

There's just nothing more pathetic than making fun of someone trying to learn a language.

I was in a conversation with a group of native speakers of my TL. I'm at a level of "fluency" where I can get by in most conversations but I still make some simple grammar and pronunciation mistakes here and there which I'm trying to fix.

I was shy but decided to say a few words, but two sentences in one of the native speakers picks up a word I pronounced wrong and repeats my mistake to others while laughing. At that point I didn't really care, sometimes language learners make funny mistakes without noticing and if it makes the crowd laugh so be it. But the thing is after they laughed, I asked them "how are you supposed to say it?" once, two, then three times but each time I got ignored as they thought it was much funnier to laugh at my pronunciation before moving to a different topic.

It left a really bad taste in my mouth and I just felt like it was mean for no reason. If they had laughed and then corrected me, it would just be a silly mistake like any other, but instead I felt belittled because god forbid I don't have a perfect command of their language after spending the rest of my life speaking a different one.

If people understood the endless hours of study it takes for someone to even grasp the basics of a language maybe they'd think twice mocking others who have diligently worked just to be able to understand them. But until then, I guess it's just an easy way to look down on others.

submitted by /u/Leather-Ad-6294
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Tagged with

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There's just nothing more pathetic than making fun of someone trying to learn a language.