Even though I live, work, and study in Korea, I still use English to communicate with a fair amount of people. A lot of those people use English as their second or third language so you're bound to hear a few mistakes here and there (just like me when I speak in Korean). The majority of my friends are great at English, many having learned it since grade school.
However, there is one mistake that I hear frequently with my friends that kind of surprised me. Maybe it's common? I'm not exactly sure as I haven't been involved in the English teaching realm for very long. And also, I don't believe this is just a slip of the tongue as with native speakers accidentally mispronouncing words or substituting incorrect words.
This mistake is: the use of the wrong pronoun (namely he versus she, and him versus her).
Some conversations I have had with my friends become very confusing as they will interchangeably use he/she/him/her//they.
Example: "A" is the non-native speaker and "B" is me.
A: Yesterday I went to the movies with my friend.
B: Right, you said the movie was great. What did your friend say about the movie?
A: He thought it was great too.
B: How about after the movie? Did you do anything else?
A: I wanted to eat something, but my friend wasn't hungry so she just went home.
B: ...wait is your friend a boy or a girl?
A: Why? She's a boy!
B: ...Right...Anyway, have I met this friend before?
A: I don't think you've met her before...
B: You mean, "I don't think you've met him", right?
A: Him? I said I don't think you've met.
B: Your phone is ringing...
A: Ah! Look she's calling me right now!
B: ...He's calling you?
A: No...different friend...
B: (o.O)
I've had multiple experiences like this where following the dialogue becomes confusing due to the sex of people changing multiple times in the conversation. But then again using "they" too much and in instances where it is actually a singular person may be considered incorrect grammar as well (^.^).
Do you hear the same from your friends that are learning English or use English as a second language? Let me know :)
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Korean English learners tend not to use the definite article as a native speaker would. They also tend not to pluralize count/non-count nouns correctly. On the discourse level, they often take a loooooong time to get to the point.
ReplyDeleteYes, I've experienced similar things. What I wrote about happens with other nationality friends too, not just Koreans. So that's what was more curious to me.
ReplyDelete