Do Americans notice how someone learned English right away?
Posted by Edi-Iz@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 204 comments
As a non-native English speaker, I’ve always been curious about this :) What are the biggest signs that someone learned English from different sources like movies/TV, gaming, school, language apps or everyday conversations?
Do native speakers actually pick up on these differences quickly when someone is speaking or writing, or does it all just blend together over time?
I’d love to hear your perspective.
Someguyinamechsuit@reddit
You can tell if someone learned English as a second language even if they don't have an accent because they either make too many mistakes or they don't make enough mistakes. It's a weird middle ground to actually sound like a native English speaker. Native English speakers abuse and twist the language so much that if it was a person social services would have taken them away. And we do this in a way that most people who learn it as a second language just can't quite capture.
greatteachermichael@reddit
I'm an English language teacher and I have zero idea how someone has learned English unless they tell me directly. I can sometimes tell when their sources were made based on what idioms or cultural references they know.
zachthompson02@reddit
I can sometimes tell if someone learned American or British English, but not more than that.
PvtDipwad@reddit
I had a coworker from my previous job that learned English from American television. He still has a habit of quoting old shows over and over. Funny enough, he gets the accent down pretty well when he's quoting something, but you can tell English isn't his first language in everyday conversation.
greatteachermichael@reddit
That's a great example. I had a student who picked the English name Joey and acted like the character from Friends. He once yelled out a quote fromnthe show and it was pretty obvious despite being 20, he was watching it.
virtual_human@reddit
I'm in Germany right now and some Germans sound slightly American and some sound slightly British. Not sure why, but I would assume it has to do with where they leaned English, or what English language media they have consumed.
LingoVille@reddit
Honestly this thread is so reassuring. I always worry people can tell I learned English mostly from YouTube and Reddit instead of actual classes, but apparently nobody really notices or cares lol
killproof@reddit
a friend of mine learned English this way, and my mom fully did not believe me that he was from Czechia when he visited us in the US because his English was so fluent to her. in my experience both meeting non native speakers and learning other languages, you get a MUCH more natural way of speaking from learning socially like that. don’t worry about it at all :)
stealthninja_o1s@reddit
Reminds me of my Dutch fiance. Dude is more fluent in English than me and corrects my spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes, hell even my pronunciation. I was reading a middle school level book and couldn't figure out how to say a word and without needing to look at the book he just told me how to pronounce it. Granted everyone around me thinks I'm dyslexic so may have a low bar to set on that one XD
Skwarepeg22@reddit
I was in a meeting in Amsterdam many years ago and there was another American there I didn’t know. We chatted after the meeting, when I learned she was Dutch! Her English was so devoid of accent that I couldn’t hear one even after I knew and listened hard for it…!
devilbunny@reddit
The natural Dutch accent is fairly close to TV News Anchor American. If they’re gifted with accents it’s not hard to imagine they could easily pass for American.
LingoVille@reddit
that's insane. Dutch people are honestly on another level with English. meanwhile I've been learning English for years and people can still tell within 5 seconds that it's not my first language lol
LingoVille@reddit
lol your fiance is living every language learner's dream — being better at someone's native language than them. that's goals honestly 😂
stealthninja_o1s@reddit
I like to say English is my second language as an excuse since I was adopted from China, but I was only a year old so it doesn't really count XD
LingoVille@reddit
haha that's awesome, your friend gives me hope. thanks for sharing this
jackaroo1344@reddit
Honestly that's going to make you sound more natural than someone that learned exclusively from school. No one talks like a textbook in everyday life, so YouTube and reddit are better representations of casual conversational speaking.
The only way we could tell is if you use a lot of phrases or humor that are "internet humor" that people don't use in offline conversations.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
If you can learn English that way, I’m impressed! There isn’t a better or worse method if it meets your needs.
My French stepmother learned English from watching American television, which is inconceivable to me. I have a B2-level of fluency in Spanish, and I still cannot understand Spanish television. 🤣
I’ve had the same experience with French. The listening in another language is the hardest part for me.
anneofgraygardens@reddit
it might help you to remember that there are more non-native speakers of English than native speakers. If you're an English speaker, you're going to be interacting with non-native speakers constantly. Even if it's not in person, there are non-native English speakers in the media regularly. The result is that accents are extremely common and not something people think about much beyond "oh this person isn't a native speaker". It's not really interesting or worth considering.
i don't know what your native language is, but if it's one without a lot of learners, it will just be a very different experience. my best second language is Bulgarian and people in Bulgaria were always shocked to meet someone who spoke their language imperfectly. (I was about high B2.) I got asked soooo many times how I learned Bulgarian. People regularly assumed I was a heritage speaker because the idea that I had learned it from scratch was too unbelievable.
Native English speakers aren't going to think about that kind of thing. We're barely even going to notice, tbh.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Even if I could tell (I probably can’t) I would give a rip at all. Learning a new language is hard so any source of learning is fine by me.
I mean I keep my Spanish up to date through TV, YouTube, and movies even though I originally learned it in school and from work.
LingoVille@reddit
CupBeEmpty@reddit
It a ton. A lot of times I just watch stuff with Spanish dubbing. Perdida was one I watched but it’s really hard to follow a lot of the more complex stuff. I’m getting a lot of the story mostly from context clues.
Honestly if anyone has a decent Mexican Spanish series that isn’t just relationship drama I would be super interested. I’m sure there’s a sub out there on the topic.
LingoVille@reddit
same honestly, context clues carry me through most shows too lol. I haven't watched much Mexican Spanish stuff but I've heard Club de Cuervos on Netflix is really good and it's not relationship drama — it's about a football club family rivalry. might be worth checking out. and yeah r/Spanish or r/learnspanish probably has recommendation threads for this
CrownStarr@reddit
I think it’s not hard to tell when it’s not someone’s first language but I would have no idea how they learned it, unless they used a lot of outdated language because they learned from watching 1940s movies or something. We also are generally not very precious about our language and aren’t going to look down on someone for not speaking it perfectly!
Return_Of_The_Whack@reddit
We notice but we %100 don't care. Americans are just happy to have someone to talk to. I think it's actually so cool that you learned English as a second language. This shit is hard as fuck and it's my native language. I'm from the south so lack of contractions, y'all's, or aints is a huge huge indicator someone isnt local but that just makes me wanna teach people weird southern idioms and our strange colloquial expressions.
lisasimpsonfan@reddit
We respect the effort. English is not an easy language to learn for many foreign speakers.
LingoVille@reddit
lol that's reassuring. okay but now I'm curious — what's the weirdest southern expression you'd teach a non-native speaker first?
UbeKatsu_711@reddit
As an Asian American if it’s an Asian with a half American half Asian foreign accent I’m going to assume international school
Somethingnewmexican@reddit
Yes. It is very distinct. The way people use English very properly (husband learned from old books) or fun slang from TV (friends learned from Friends) is very different. Especially when written.
Setkheni-itw@reddit
I don't even think about it unless they comment about it themselves, honestly.
Comedeorologist@reddit
Ages ago I met a Dane who clearly learned English from a variety of sources. Her English was great! But she had British, Canadian, American, and Australian pronunciations and vernacular, so I had to ask how she learned it. She said I was not the first person to point this out, and attributed it to teachers from various Anglosphere places, but also media exposure.
I noticed, but I didn't judge her. Far from it. Her English was miles ahead of my own grasp of any of the two languages I'd studied.
Related: my kid is in a language immersion program, and a mom with older kids in a different program (but the same language) mentioned that her kids were described as having a specific accent. Clearly a teacher in their formative years had major influence.
It happens...
Technical-Tear5841@reddit
As people age their brain becomes accustomed to the sounds we hear. People think they are pronouncing words correctly but they are off by a bit. A native speaker can instantly hear that. I watch videos made by Romanian guitar player. He has his friends as vocalist, they are students of a singing school. On most songs the words are fine but on songs with certian words it is like "clunk".
Dramatic-Blueberry98@reddit
I can’t always tell where or what they learned it from specifically, but I can sometimes tell if they’re from certain countries where certain phrasings and pronunciations are common.
That gives me enough of a clue or beginning to guess how they learned it.
MotherofPuppos@reddit
For me, the universal tell outside of accent is often grammar. Either confusion about it (because English grammar isn’t as uniform as that of other languages) or using technically flawless classroom grammar that doesn’t line up with actual usage— stuff like refusing to end sentences with a preposition even though it makes more sense for what you’re saying.
aceparan@reddit
I only know how someone learned English when they tell me
zac3244@reddit
The question doesn’t make sense to me. How are native speakers, or any person in the world, able to tell what source someone learned English from? Non-native speakers learn English from different sources, whether it be movies, language apps, everyday conversation, or school. It’s not just one source, it’s multiple sources.
RexMori@reddit
Other languages do have very specific dialects used in very specific situations. You might often hear about people speaking Japanese "like a yakuza" or "like a Manga character" based on the media they consume while learning.
Ive also heard some people get blasted for learning Korean from kdramas.
It's not so much a thing in English though.
Regular_Efficiency61@reddit
I have heard the Japanese can tell when people learn the language via anime.
I think they tend to use phrases that are not as polite and wouldn’t be used in casual conversation.
itsatrapp71@reddit
People who learned it in school tend to be use less idome than people who learned it from other sources.
Suppafly@reddit
This, even when they say something like "I learned english watching american tv shows" they don't literally mean that was the only source of their learning.
Persimmon_and_mango@reddit
There are some languages, like Japanese, where you can often tell when someone learned the language from watching TV instead of in a classroom. They use certain idioms, expressions, and formality levels that you just don't use in real life. It's a little bit like if a non-native speaker learned English by watching old Batman episodes and then went around saying things like "to the Nissan Sentra, chum!" and instead of "let's get in the car, dude."
Pretty-In-Scarlet@reddit
learning English from books or from pop/hiphop songs definitely teaches you very different vocabulary. I say this from experience as an ESL student
MajesticBread9147@reddit
I mean we can generally tell which dialect they based their studies, or whether it's a combination of everything.
Like, I find it kind of funny when there is a very obvious combination of British and American phrases/words that they may not realize aren't generally used together.
Mag-NL@reddit
That's interesting.
I find it funny when native speakers, regardless of which country they're from, don't understand international English because it's a mix of different English dialect from different countries combined with international words.
ByronScottJones@reddit
The person you're responding to did not say they wouldn't understand those words.
Mag-NL@reddit
I didn't say they would. I said that there is also a reverse funny observation in this.
ByronScottJones@reddit
But that's not a reverse observation. Nor funny.
lavasca@reddit
same
zac3244@reddit
I think OP meant to ask if native speakers can tell whether someone’s first language isn’t English.
FluffyNerve7415@reddit
English must not be your first language because OP explained it very clearly.
rainidazehaze@reddit
The person they were responding to didn't get it, don't be a dick to them for being the person that did get it
crazy_fox-insox@reddit
I’ve noticed that people who learn English in a strict school setting really don’t know a lot of slang or idioms. They’re more likely to ask questions about sayings like, “it’s raining cats and dogs outside”. Or they’ll know the “proper” term like horse but won’t know that if I say “foal” I’m referring to a baby horse.
As far as learning from other media I’d say it depends on if that media was varied. I once met a Korean lady who learned English by watching old antebellum films (think gone with the wind) - she had a heavy Hollywood “southern drawl” and used certain expressions that you don’t really hear outside of, well, antebellum films. But I do think that was a unique situation.
Outside of that I’d say as long as you’re learning English from multiple media sources and not just one tv series or time period you’ll probably get enough exposure to different accents and figures of speech that you’ll be able to converse easily. You also will have a greater likelihood of being exposed to more idioms and slang so hearing them out in the wild won’t feel as jarring.
The biggest giveaway that someone isn’t a native English speaker is usually accent more than the words or phrases used. There are sounds in English that just aren’t in other languages in the same way and it’s really easy to notice those not being pronounced correctly as a native English speaker. My suggestion if you’re learning English is to really work on the sounds in English that you don’t have crossover with in your native language. Some common ones off the top of my head are “th”, “f”, “z” versus “x” versus “ss” sounds, and hard “r”s. These may or may not apply to you depending on which language you speak!
Good luck! I know English can be a weird language.
ChickyBaby@reddit
If they carefully enunciate every single letter and syllable they learned from a school. If they easily roll from word to word, omit some letters and swallow the ends of certain words they learned from the movies.
jvc1011@reddit
Obsolete or misplaced slang and idioms, or very specific vocabulary (usually from gaming), are the only ways to tell that they got their English from a pop culture artefact (shows, music, gaming, etc.).
Otherwise, it’s easier to tell what the first language is than where they learned English.
LetterheadClassic306@reddit
i notice it sometimes honestly. the biggest tell is usually phrase choices or idioms that come straight from textbooks versus shows. someone who learned from movies might drop casual slang that sounds a little dated but still natural. school learners tend to be more grammatically perfect but less fluid in conversation. it all blends after a while though and most people just appreciate the effort.
NabIsMyBoi@reddit
Not quite what you asked, but this one works on native speakers too: if someone knows a lot of obscure words but not how to pronounce them, you can generally infer that they read a lot
pisspeeleak@reddit
Have you ever watched the hyperbole? It’s even BIGGER than the Super Bowl 😂
Ok-commuter-4400@reddit
This is sort of a class screener, too, because it tells me that while you were exposed to many words through reading, you weren't surrounded by a community of similarly-educated people who used those words in daily conversation. You are likely someone who came from a lower class background than the one in which you currently live.
Skwarepeg22@reddit
Disagree. It really isn’t if you hope to be accurate. ;)
Generally speaking, most writing is more formal than our everyday speech. An incongruence here is more likely to be for that reason if one takes an Occam’s Razor approach.
Also, there are just some words that are used in books but not in speech. (See another post in this sub about the word “niggling.”)
I grew up upper middle class to educated parents who read for pleasure and education. I couldn’t count the number of times I’ve heard someone say they’ve only read the word and weren’t positive of its correct pronunciation.
orcas-@reddit
My mom is dyslexic, my sister never learned phonics (though is a brilliant doctor of phys therapy) - but yeah no phonics. So i saw the GOT series before I read the books, my sister read the books first. I wont give you all the terms, but she referred to our favorite hand of the queen as Tyrone Lenester (rhymes with molester)
YoshiandAims@reddit
Cadence of speech. The sentence structures often reflect their mother tongues structure. (Which is my problem in other languages, too. Not just the words, but how I combine them.) Very informal or formal language out of place. Using an outdated vernacular.
I can't tell you how they learned.
I mean, if you learned from tik tok and speak with a... I'm not sure what to call it... the way influencers/content creators "online speak", which has a cadence, accent, pattern, vernacular all it's own. I could hazard a guess.
Or if you speak like a 1960s-70s cowboy, I'd wager you watched a lot of old westerns.
Otherwise, without an extreme, no. I wouldn't be able to tell how you learned English.
Relative-Cricket-543@reddit
My husband learned basics at school but honed it watching Friends.
I definitely could tell with the way he spoke!!
Plato198_9@reddit
There are easily dozens (if not More) accents spread across the US, If someone sounds a little Odd I usually just assume that they are folks from somewhere in the country I've never been. only time I even guess they may not be native born is when I hear a stereotypical Foreign Accent (French, German, Eastern European, etc.)
AdelleDeWitt@reddit
No. I'll notice if someone learned a different dialect of English. Some of the younger Indian students at my school have British accents, and some of our Indian families use British vocabulary, but that's it.
I'm wondering though, other people learning your language via some specific media that has an obvious tell?
Pernicious_Possum@reddit
I don’t give how a second thought, I’m just impressed they learned it. Unlike my lazy mono-lingual ass
Prestigious-Dog-2150@reddit
They notice if your grammar or your pronunciation is wrong, but they don’t know how you learned it.
bonir_hunter@reddit
sometimes, if they use a books-only type of word vs quote a kanye tweet or something
Erikkamirs@reddit
I don't really know how a person would have learned English? Usually I can kinda pick out that someone learned English as a second language if they have an accent, "foreign" name, or use unnatural word structures or incorrect grammar.
Even then I'm not great at it. Like a classmate in my engineering class has a Russian accent, but I couldn't figure that out initially (I guessed German or Eastern European lol).
Appropriate-Food1757@reddit
I’ve ever thought about it
Illustrious-Set-7907@reddit
Not really. I think the only thing that comes to mind is if someone is using very formal textbook English then it sounds a bit odd and I'd assume they learned from a textbook.
TheKiddIncident@reddit
Yes, always obvious when someone is a new speaker.
English is a very difficult language to master. It has tons of inconsistent rules and you really can't learn it out of a book. You need to use it daily.
For example, the title of this question is incorrect. Obviously written by a non-native speaker. Not a problem, I understood what the OP meant. But not the way we would phrase it. We would say "Do Americans notice if someone is a new speaker?" or similar.
Things that give away new English speakers:
1) Accent. No way your accent is perfect after only a few years. Your inflections will be slightly wrong.
2) Use of contractions and slang. I know many non-native speakers who speak "correctly" as in they use all the grammar rules correctly when speaking. We don't talk like that. We use slang, we us contractions, etc.. You sound funny if you say, "I did not do that" we would probably say "I didn't do it." The first is correct but a bit stiff, not the way a native speaker would talk.
3) Pronunciation. We pronounce "foreign" words randomly. So, I live in the Bay Area. We correctly say "San Hosay" for San Jose but incorrectly say "Los Gatis" for Los Gatos. No reason, just the way we say it. No way to know that unless you live here.
etc.
Hard to sound like a native speaker if you are not one.
HiddenWallflower13@reddit
I can tell if they’ve learned British-English or American-English- the ‘h’ is more ‘hache’ for the Brits English.
Tricky421@reddit
Never thought about it, but I do know one guy that learned it from reading the newspaper.
CollegePretend8708@reddit
I can tell some things but not all.
With writing it's pretty easy to see if they learned British English or American English. A little slower spoken, but I can still tell. This tells me a little about where they learned it/who they learned it from.
Inconsequentialish@reddit
I once bought a car from a Korean guy, and another Korean guy was sort of acting as the facilitator and translator. Korean guy #1 did not have very good English skills, and selling a car is a complex task.
Korean dude #2 did not have the slightest trace of an accent. He sounded like someone from southern California.
This all took some time, and at some point while we were waiting for some form or other to be filled out, I asked KD#2 where he was from, fully expecting "San Bernadino" or "LA".
I was floored when he replied that he was from just outside Seoul, Korea, and had been in college in the US for less than a month. Basically, he had always loved American TV, and had learned English from TV shows, which are mostly produced in southern California.
By the time we got everything sorted out, it was apparent that he had a fair bit of missing vocabulary; obviously buying a car includes a lot of words and concepts you don't encounter on TV. Since I then understood what was happening, I was able to explain in "TV English" and he increased his vocabulary. He was an old pro by the time we got all the paperwork done. And not once did he show the slightest trace of an accent.
Missing vocabulary, (or TV-only, or now internet-only vocabulary, or worse, kids who can only speak brain rot...), is also something you often find in younger Americans too, of course, so honestly there was not one particular thing that would have tipped me off unless I had been making small talk with a guy I figured was from SoCal.
It is noticeable when folks have learned English from British people; for example, people from Hong Kong often speak with a unique blend of Chinese and British accent, or people from Zimbabwe who grew up in British-style schools.
non_clever_username@reddit
No, we’d have no idea. Unless maybe you’re using catchphrases from whatever show you learned it from. Which would honestly be kind of hilarious.
rainbocado@reddit
I read a book recently where a character learned English from scooby doo and said things like “zoinks!” and “jenkies!”
AndrasKrigare@reddit
I vaguely recall reading a book where someone learned English from watching Disney and talked like Mickey Mouse (until they got bullied and stopped talking. I remember it being a sad book.)
rake66@reddit
That sounds hilarious, what book is it?
Kilordes@reddit
Is it really possible to only learn English from or even primarily from a single source? It's such a ubiquitous language that most people who learn it are also going to be hearing and seeing it everywhere their whole lives (regardless of whether they chose to learn it or not).
mcculloughpatr@reddit
I feel you can usually tell *where*, I had a comp Sci teacher who grew up in India but moved to the UK, was educated there and moved to the US. Her accent is a very interesting blend of an English accent, American, and her native language. It is very interesting and unique.
mcculloughpatr@reddit
Unique to my south central PA suburban ears, at least
Diligent_Bison_9000@reddit
I moved to the US as an adult but most people assume I grew up here and are surprised to find out that I moved here a few years ago, always saying that I have “no accent.”
SippsMccree@reddit
If it's not their primary language it often remains more rigid than native speakers in my experience
Objective_Prune_748@reddit
Not specific to how, but where, yes. British English is 99% the same as American English, but that 1% is common every day words that are just different. Trolley/tram/blunder/telly/mate.
OutsidePainter3548@reddit
We may be able to tell which dialect of English you learned based on your vocabulary and accent (e.g. American, British, Australian), but beyond that I wouldn't hazard a guess.
sighing-through-life@reddit
As someone who has studied English for decades, I typically figure it out by a number of different ways. Speaking cadence, word choice, misinterpretations, and more, can give away where someone learned English. However, the same is true for native speakers. Some people use a lot of internet vocabulary, or gaming vocabulary, or spoken txt speak, gang slang, etc, and, just like with slang, you can tell what a person's environment was as they were learning. That said, I couldn't possibly know how someone learned unless they told me. I can only get a rough estimate, and only if I'm paying attention.
whatafuckinusername@reddit
Well, if you didn’t say so in your first sentence, I’d have guessed that you’re not a native speaker because “how” should be “if”, assuming it’s not a typo
smallpineswamp@reddit
I cannot tell where someone learned English without them telling me. I also don't think formal courses are the only "right" way to learn. If something helps you in the process of learning, then it's valid.
sean8877@reddit
I can't tell where they learned it from and don't care. As long as you can communicate in some way with the people here you'll probably do alright, no one care how you learned the language.
Available-Egg-2380@reddit
I don't think we're paying that much attention tbh
Capable_Suit_7335@reddit
I can’t tell where someone learned English nor do I give a shit. Learn it, don’t learn it, I have a translator on my phone so either way it’s not a problem
GreasedUPDoggo@reddit
It's common to notice when someone with an accent uses a phrase popularized in movies or other media. Oftentimes, people with surface level knowledge of the US will bring up companies, like McDonalds or Starbucks.
I generally assume people from Commonwealth nations have had access to English in school. But slang is picked up on social media.
Those are the sorts of stuff you notice.
JustSomeGuy_56@reddit
I have worked with a number of non-native English speakers. In almost every case while their speech was occasionally difficult to understand, there writing was flawless. I suppose it’s because they learned it in school from a professional teacher and didn’t pick up bad habits from relatives or the media.
One prime example is the (mis)use of pronouns. Every day I hear native English speakers say something like “her and I went to the store”, but someone who studied English in school will say “she and I”. When I see this on a TV show or movie, I wonder if the writers are trying to present a specific character trait, But when the character is well educated, I believe that neither the actor or the writer knew the difference.
JenniferJuniper6@reddit
I’ve never given it a single thought.
West_Guidance2167@reddit
I would have no idea how they learned. So many accidents in the United States that I might not even know the accent is foreign. It’s such a big country that words and phrases are used in one region and another region has never heard them.
Ghoulish_kitten@reddit
We have so many accents here and many of us were born and raised around them.
I don’t know, and it’s honestly not a thing that comes up unless I know you and we have a conversation about it.
AfterAllBeesYears@reddit
I can tell if they were from a former British colony, because the "a" is distinctly different. Like an American accent saying "rather" vs a British accent saying it. That's about it though
Extra_Routine_6603@reddit
Most of the time no though do know someone who learned most of their English originally from tv shows and movies and rest from people who played an online game with him when learning so he picked on on some of their mannerisms and uses stereotypical text or speaking patterns sometimes found in movies or shows.
MarionberryPlus8474@reddit
Accents are the major tell. Many educated people from the British Caribbean or India speak English better technically than most Americans but people can still generally tell they are not American. Idioms and slang are also a pitfall for non-native speakers.
It’s interesting that you mention movies and TV. Years ago the company I was working for was opening a call center in India. They paid to bring the Indian employees to our US call center in an attempt to get them to speak more “American”, the curriculum included watching American movies and TV shows.
Really, as long as you are understandable, most people don’t really care where you are from or what accent you have. With that said, there ARE people who do care, and unfortunately can be really nasty about it, especially if you’re non-white and/or have a Latino accent or name. But big cities especially are melting pots with people from all over, or at least, their PARENTS are from all over.
DuelJ@reddit
I might notice if you're really good at grammer, but need a moment to figure out what uncommon words mean.
Though all I'll guess based off that is that it isn't your first language.
breadlyplateau@reddit
I can tell when someone has learned English through gaming or YouTube Let's Players/Twitch streamers.
Proud_Grapefruit63@reddit
I can't really determine how someone learned English, but apart from accents alone, the word choices they use to phrase their sentences may point to which language is their first. Also revealing is what variety of English they studied (e.g., British or American.)
TooManyDraculas@reddit
The closest thing would be you can sometime catch where some one learned English. Like you can kinda quickly catch if some one is from Hong Kong. If they learned English in Hong Kong. Because their accent will be distinctly Chinese, but also kinda Britishish and they'll use British English. Cause they learned British English and pronounciation. Hong Kong having been part of the UK Commonwealth for a good long while there.
You'll sometimes pick that sort of thing up from Europeans as well. As a French person learning English in France is typically going to be learning British English and pronunciations as well. And of course anyone learning English after relocating, is gonna learn the local dialect and pick up the local accent. So say a Japanese immigrant with a Australian accent is definitely a thing I've run into.
I don't think there's much in the way of a tell on how they learned it. Cause it's largely using a language with the people around you that genuinely teaches fluency.
oswin13@reddit
I don't care how they learned it, I just care that we can understand each other.
GSilky@reddit
Couldn't tell you. That is how Americans learn English. It's mostly social learning.
darw1nf1sh@reddit
Not really. The US is enormous, and the disparity of dialects and accents reflects that. There are areas of the US that I can go and not understand a word they are saying even though it is in English. You can see this in smaller countries too. Britain is highly diverse for its population. China is so diverse they have entirely different languages spoken in areas, let alone dialects.
crunchyfoliage@reddit
I've never considered how someone else learned my language. I'm just impressed that they put the work in to do it.
lemonprincess23@reddit
The only clue I get that they learned from movies/tv/games is that they drop a LOT more curse words in conversation compared to those who learned it in school or something lol
stinkyman360@reddit
Usually I can't tell, although I did know a guy that learned English working construction and he cussed more than anybody I've ever met
orcas-@reddit
When I met my husband (Brazilian, in construction in the US) he’s ask me how do you spell joist/ soffit/ pergola and i’d have to explain I DONT KNOW WHAT ANY OF THESE WORDS MEAN
MarcusAurelius0@reddit
Its easy to know who learned it from schooling by word choice, more often than not they learned British focused English.
OceanPoet87@reddit
I don't know how they learned and I don't want to assume unless they tell me, but we can tell it's their second language.
Kumlekar@reddit
One thing we (Americans) do notice is if English is taught in your home country with a British origin. Often people from India and some areas of Africa pick up a bit of a "proper" British accent mixed in with their normal accent because that's what's taught as correct for English in their home countries. Generally you don't hear the same thing coming from Mexico, South America, or most of (not all) of Asia.
alaskawolfjoe@reddit
You can often tell if they learned from American or British teachers by the words they use. (Do they call it a lift or an elevator?)
The slang and usage tell you more about who they are speaking with now--not where they learned it.
Champsterdam@reddit
No idea how, but the accent lets you know they’re not native.
We are American and moved to Netherlands with five year old twins a few years ago. We go to a local Dutch school down the street but since it’s so international here the native language of the kids in our classes is Dutch, Italian, Ukrainian, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, English, Polish. The kids were born here usually but speak their native language at home.
What I’ve noticed is at age 5 less than half the kids knew any English so I would say very broken Dutch to them or just not at all (classes here are very open, I’m at school all the time and know all the kids). By age 7 now I would say virtually all the kids can communicate to me in English and a large number have extremely fluent English and pronounce things amazingly. I have had parents laugh when they hear the kids talking English with me “I don’t even know where he learned that, must have been YouTube”. Or a Dutch mom once was flabbergasted saying she heard her daughter playing with dolls in the other room and she was speaking English the whole time there alone. She didn’t even know her daughter knew English at all.
They just soak it all up. Our kids have to take Spanish lessons at school starting at age 4 and it’s interesting because they are totally learning it but they don’t even realize. They’ll tell me they don’t know anything in Spanish but then will start singing songs or saying things off the top of their heads when they’re not really thinking about it.
brzantium@reddit
My kid's in kindergarten at a bilingual elementary school where the curriculum is mostly in Spanish. The district's closing the school after this year. We have the option to transfer her to the next nearest bilingual school or the nearest English-only school. We were going to go with the latter because it's much closer, her test scores haven't been great, and she's mostly unresponsive when we try to use Spanish around the house. But now I'm starting to rethink that because this past week she started telling me about conversations she's been having with one of her classmates who doesn't speak English. Which tells me she's starting to understand Spanish even if she can't generate it on her own...or she's quite imaginative.
304libco@reddit
My mom tells me when I was five she picked me up from the babysitter and heard us talking and assumed it was gibberish and the landlady told her. Oh no, that’s German. Can I speak German now? No. I assume it’s in my brain somewhere though.
MamaMidgePidge@reddit
My daughter attended a preschool at age 3, where she was one of only two children who did not speak a fifteenth language at home.
Every single one of those kids could speak English without an accent. I was especially impressed with a Dutch child who came in after the start of the school year, knowing zero English. But the end of the school year, you'd have never known. He sounded just like the rest of the kids.
Most of the kids were Indian or Asian. University town.
Blahkbustuh@reddit
No idea. I'm in the Midwest. Usually the accent is strong enough that I'm not listening at the fine-tuning level. Also people on TV and movies speak the same as real life. The artificial announcer voice and the way actors and actresses talked in B&W movies went away by the 60s.
I'm learning French as a hobby and never heard this sort of thing brought up in French-learning stuff, other than the divide between "textbook" French and real world spoken French.
Back in college I did have professors and interact with some foreigners who I could tell learned British-style English or their teachers were British and they were now in the US with us. The people I noticed that the most with were German as opposed to South Americans or Asians.
Remarkable_Table_279@reddit
I can tell if they didn’t learn from American teacher/sources. But that’s about it
jmwelchelmira@reddit
Americans themselves learn to speak English from watching TV and movies, and lately, games and anime. Take it easy on yourself, Americans don’t as a rule have that level of insight or — and this is important— care.
getElephantById@reddit
If every time you say a few sentences, an owl in a track suit comes out and congratulates you, that's a clue that you learned from Duolingo. We pick up on that kind of thing. Beyond that, no, we generally don't know.
tussentweewindmolen@reddit
How they learned? No, why would that be obvious to anyone? It’s still the same language. That they learned it as a second language? Yes, of course. I have yet to meet a non-native speaker without an accent.
Equivalent-Cicada165@reddit
OP's native language is likely one where that stands out
For example, native Japanese speakers say it's fairly noticeable when a person learns from anime
Anxious-Run-1454@reddit
Thank you for this comment. I was very confused by OP's post, but this makes sense to me.
MamaMidgePidge@reddit
Really? I know a lot of non- natives who speak flawless English, no accent. From different countries too.
Anxious-Run-1454@reddit
I've travelled in Europe a lot and, in my experience, many people spoke flawless English (or close to it), but almost always have a clear non-native accent. I've met a few in Germany and Netherlands who I could have sworn were just Americans, but they told me they mostly learned from American tv/movies.
304libco@reddit
I have no clue. I’m just happy they speak English.
94grampaw@reddit
I can only really tell if some one learned written english first. They make different mistakes. They tend to have very good spelling but bad pronunciation.
If you have better spelling than I do but obviously sound foreign you learned from a book.
dariamarie13@reddit
I don’t think we Americans care much about how a person learned English as you seem to think we do. 🤷🏻♀️
NormanQuacks345@reddit
I picked up that this Italian person learned English in Australia because she spoke with this weird Aussie-Italian fusion accent.
tootallforshoes@reddit
I’ve noticed an influx in nonnative speakers using an American accent more than their own native accent while speaking English.
jackofspades49@reddit
There is no singular american accent. We have so many regional accents.
MattFlynnIsGOAT@reddit
There's no need to be pedantic. All of the American/Canadian regional accents are similar enough as to be distinct from other English accents or the accents of typical non-native speakers.
ByronScottJones@reddit
That's not even remotely true. A Cajun accent, Appalachian, and a few others are quite distinct. The reason that Australian, New Zealand, and Scottish accents are so easy to identify is because they are fairly uniform.
MattFlynnIsGOAT@reddit
Again, this is being pedantic. Yes, there are many regional accents, 1.) but you know that all those accents are American even if they're different 2.) the original comment was saying they noticed non-native speakers are using an American accent, rather than what would be their normal native accent. A Chinese person who learns English as a second language speaking any American regional dialect would be notable. 3.) A vast swath of America speaks a close to standard American accent, and this is becoming more true as regional accents are becoming less prominent.
TeamTurnus@reddit
And yet any of those accents would be a singular example of an American accent.
terryjuicelawson@reddit
Bear that in mind if you ever speak of an English accent, Scottish, Irish, French, German or anything else. Something that is a recognisable basic voice you would pick coming from that country.
tootallforshoes@reddit
“ tv American “ how’s that.
IanDOsmond@reddit
Not a bad term for it. The technical term is "General American" or "GenAm", but it really only became as prevalent as it is after national broadcast television network news anchors.
Money_Display_5389@reddit
that's mostly Californian
donuttrackme@reddit
No it's not.
Weary-Astronaut1335@reddit
The American accent on TV is closer to a Midwest accent than a California one.
tootallforshoes@reddit
Not at all.
trackshoes@reddit
I live in a non-English-speaking country, and I can tell if someone there has previously spent time living in the U.S. by their cadence and word choice when they speak English to me. They just sound more comfortable, even if they still have an accent. Otherwise, no, I can’t tell.
Salarian_American@reddit
I think the best I can do is to tell which country someone learned English from specifically.
LIke, it they learned English from the actual English/other UK countries/Australia/Canada, the accent can sound very different from someone who learned English here in the US.
Sometimes I have to listen for how they pronounce very specific words, but sometimes it's really obvious.
Like with someone from India who speaks English as a second language, I've noticed that their accent is distinctly different depending on whether they learned English in the UK or in the US.
Alert-Willow3458@reddit
I can kind of tell a difference between only learning through schooling/textbooks, mostly when they speak it very properly. But when I hear them say things like “could’ve” instead of “could have” or “isn’t” instead of “is not” it shows that either they’ve been surrounded by English speakers for a while or they probably casually consume content in English like movies, books or social media
PollutionAwkward@reddit
I can’t tell how, but you can definitely tell where, UK vs US etc..
Asparagus9000@reddit
We can usually tell if it's not their first language, but not how they learned.
Unless they're really into linguistics or something.
throwa1589876541525@reddit
I knew an Indian guy who learned a lot of English from news shows. He used their over-dramatic word choices in normal conversation. For example, if there was an explosion at a chemical plant, he would say it was rocked by an explosion.
spandexcatsuit@reddit
I mean if someone from China is in the UK and speaking English with an American accent I might notice and think oh they learned American English. That’s as far as it goes for me.
nearbysystem@reddit
Those are literally the sources that native speakers learn it from, with the exception of language apps.
brokenman82@reddit
I always just assume they took lessons in school or something.
kurai-tsuki@reddit
The only sense of where someone learned English that I've ever noticed is when they spell things like color, neighbor, harbor the British Commonwealth way or the American way.
CannonFodder141@reddit
This reminds me of a time I met some Chinese English language learners, and most of them used the same clear but choppy vocabulary and diction. However, one young man spoke very fluidly, mumbled his words, and swore fluently. I asked him how he learned English, and he said he was a big fan of hip hop music videos.
jph200@reddit
Not really, but I work with a lot of people based in India, and they tend to speak (what I consider to be) a very formal version of British English. So like, they will use words like "fortnightly" which are not commonly used in the US. I'm assuming that is learned at school?
SabresBills69@reddit
non- native speakers usually have accents. non- natives who learned English as a kid in school have subtle accents or word usage or spelling. Canada/ British English has some word spelling differences like words ending in -er are -re like center/ centre and -or words are -our like color/ colour. they also pronounce sch- differently like in schedule, American it’s hard sk soungpd while others do do it as sh spund
7carne7@reddit
I think the only time I have been able to really tell is with some teenagers I can tell they have learned english through social media especially through how they type. Normal english learning quirks + tiktok/viral vocab.
No_Entertainment1931@reddit
You’re either fluent or you aren’t. There is no bias as to how someone achieves fluency.
Accent bias vary with region.
ZombiePrepper408@reddit
Im pretty good at figuring out someone's accent with how they pronounce their vowels.
rawbface@reddit
No. We can always tell when English is not your first language. That part it obvious.
But what do Americans know about learning languages? Lol. We have no idea how you did it.
Sufficient_Cod1948@reddit
Not right away, but spend enough time with them and some tells will appear.
Someone who learned only in a classroom will have grammar that is a little too perfect. No one speaks in grammatically correct sentences 100% of the time.
It might be apparent that a person learned British English rather than American English.
When someone has learned from TV, they'll have an accent that doesn't line up with where they are from or where they are currently living. For example, I used to work with a woman who moved from Cambodia to Massachusetts, but because she learned to speak English from TV she sounded like a California valley girl.
gleaming-the-cubicle@reddit
I once met a German who learned Australian English and that was quite the accent
Endy0816@reddit
Can somewhat tell if they learned British English or formal, textbook English.
Get a vague sense if someone uses a single slang term excessively.
Am more appreciative of them making the effort than anything else tho. Fluency tales time.
jackofspades49@reddit
I don't know how they learned. It would be incredibly rude to ask. If they're trying, great. They're doing a hell of a lot better in English than I could in any other language. I'm not going to judge them for doing their best. Even if there are sometimes communication gaps.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
I don’t think it’s incredibly rude to ask if you ask in a polite way.
If I found someone using catchphrases from a show a lot I might ask “your English is really good but did you learn it from [show]?”
Non judgmental just genuine curiosity.
I get a little bit of something like that with my Spanish. I have had people ask if I learned Spanish in Mexico (polite). I have also had people ask “what are you, some kind of Mexican?” (Not so polite).
Decent_Historian6169@reddit
I’m from a place where lots of people have a native language other than English. Most people retain an accent and or have trouble with syntax when they speak. It’s often hard to put your finger on what is different per say but it just sounds slightly different than when English is your first language. However even though I definitely notice most of the time I never mind.
JayRandom212@reddit
In my narrow, anecdotal experience, people who use swear words too often are more likely to have learned from movies. Characters in action movies swear more than real people do. Also, people who learn from movies may not realize how inappropriate that language is.
Antioch666@reddit
Like no. I can usually tell between a native and non native English speaker. And tell if they have been in a particular area long enough tonpick up local slang.
But no I can't say specifically that this one learned from duolingo, that one from online gaming, and those from movies and tc shows.
Most likely it'll be a combination of multiple sources.
ToxDocUSA@reddit
Having had a few professors who self-taught English without ever hearing it pronounced, just reading it in books, I can sometimes tell that just by listening.
Otherwise it would never occur to me to try to identify learning from a game vs a movie vs classes. Partially because I just don't care, but also because I assume it would be multiple of the above.
wise_hampster@reddit
People who learn s language from TV/movies are generally more comfortable with common euphemisms, slang and depending on the focus of education a better sense of the rhythm of speech.
Current_Poster@reddit
The only time I can tell, usually, is that someone who learned English as a second language sometimes will overconstruct their sentences a bit more than a native speaker. They'll put together a sentence in a way that is grammatically correct but which feels put-together as a sentence. For contrast, almost all native speakers, except in the most formal circumstances, will cut corners, put ums and ers and stuff in, that sort of thing.
Hey-Bud-Lets-Party@reddit
How would anyone know that unless they communicate purely in TV catch-phrases?
FuturePrimitiv3@reddit
It's more than accent that gives it away, word choices are also a big tell. I don't mean just slang or regional dialects, there are subtle phrasing and word choices that are likely influenced (subconsciously maybe) by other languages they know.
I've also noticed a lot of non-native speakers not using contractions. While not using them is still 100% correct grammatically, it's not typical for a native english speaker and stands out.
1029394756abc@reddit
Overuse of the word “guys”. And yes I know native speakers use guys a lot too but native Spanish speakers tend to use guys more when learning.
RRNolan@reddit
I'm not sure about everyone else but I can tell when a non native English speaker learns American English as opposed to the British pronunciation of English based on certain words and phrases they use as well as the accent in which they speak it.
LainieCat@reddit
A coworker told me she learned English from watching Seinfeld. I never would have guessed it. Did explain some things about her sense of humor.
AKA-Pseudonym@reddit
The thing about being an English speaker is that you get very very used to hearing people speak it as a second language. Hearing somebody speak with an accent or use awkward phrasing doesn't really even register.
Ms-Metal@reddit
I wouldn't have any clue how somebody learned English, this even includes members of my own family lol.
gdubh@reddit
I don’t think this is ever apparent to any listener.
Rimurooooo@reddit
Sometimes you can tell by the accent. One guy learned through daytime radio and his accent was just like that, strong enunciation, enthusiasm, etc. most of the time there aren’t tells like that if it’s just through an amalgamation of media, but if they have a special kind of media they use, it’ll likely influence how they speak
Return_Of_The_Whack@reddit
It's always how comfortable they are with swearing/slang. I'm also blue collar/service industry so I haven't been corrupted by gladhanding professional office censorship culture, which I'm assuming is how the majority of English as a second language speakers learn it.
"Bruh what the fuck" "Y'all some stank booty ass bitches" "it's as hot as two rats fucking in a sock" "I'm gonna kill myself" "clock it" "girl you about to piss me off" "Jesus goddamn Christ what the fuck did y'all do?" "Dude she's been tweaked out all morning bouncing off the fucking walls and I can't deal with this shit anymore I swear to fucking god I'm about to blow my shit smoove off if she doesn't shut the fuck up" "fuck you guys I'm gonna shit my pants and go home"
All direct quotes from just today at work. Non native speakers will never reach this level of casual profanity. You can be the most eloquent well spoken person on earth but your use of shit and fuck ís always ALWAYS gonna let me know what kinda person you are. The most versatile words in the English language.
Maleficent_Button_58@reddit
I only know if they tell me. I've known people who have taken classes and people who have learned on their own. They all speak English better than they think they do.
WhoWouldCareToAsk@reddit
I’ve heard one guy, a preacher from Africa, whose speech was full of “thou art” and other artifacts, so it was obvious he learned English from KJV Bible. I didn’t ask him, though, so maybe I’m mistaken ))
ImGoingToSayOneThing@reddit
I would say for the most part if you are from a white nation, and you can speak English without a thick accent most Americans aren't going to necessarily assume that you learned English or that you are not a native speaker because America is a nation of immigrants.
There are so many combinations of pronunciations here and so it's hard to pick up
If I watch a show and I found out later that the actor was British, I can then pick up the parts of their speech that makes them sound like non-native American English speakers. But if I don't know beforehand, I kinda just assume that it's some other dialect accent of American English.
Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of bad American English accents out there and it usually has to deal with like Rs and glottal stops. Those are easy to spot.
Even me as someone who learned English second, but I've spoken it their entire life. I have an accent, but most people would never ever spot it. A lot of people who spoke Spanish first also have like a very slight accent, but most people wouldn't spot it.
Western-Finding-368@reddit
It’s pretty obvious when someone’s native language isn’t English. That’s not “bad” or an insult, it’s just a different thing. (Personally, I’m SUPER impressed by anyone who has speaks English in a competent manner without growing up with that as their language!)
No clue where you got it, though. Could be a classroom, could be your grandparents’ basement was a “no [native language] zone, could be they watch a ton of PBS, etc.
Historical_Tax6679@reddit
I can tell by their accent in combination with any colloquialisms they may have picked up in the area of the US in which they learned to speak English. For instance, if they refer to a soda as "pop", they've learned English in the Midwest. If they refer to a soda as "Coke," whether the actual brand is Coca-Cola or not, they learned that nonsense in the southern US.
ProfessionalGrade423@reddit
This has never occurred to me to even think about.
MamaMidgePidge@reddit
I only notice in written communication. I don't speak to a many of my international coworkers on the phone, but we email. I can pick up Indians by their excessive use of the word "kindly" and "do the needful".
Some of them even adopt English- sounding names for use at work, but the way they write gives it away.
IanDOsmond@reddit
It never even occurred to me to wonder. And I wouldn't know unless they told me.
tetlee@reddit
I can tell if someone originally learned English from the TV/foreign school or living in England. Met 3 ESL people now in another country and been "you have a British accent" - sure enough
thisislyncanthropy@reddit
I’ve interacted with a lot of non-Americans online in fan spaces so I don’t have to guess too much. Depending on what or who they’re a fan of you can tell that manner of speech rubs off on them. I have noticed quite a few of them say “y’all” lol it’s funny.
Theslowestmarathoner@reddit
Oh I have absolutely no idea and would never care. Id never think to ask either
tabidots@reddit
Only if they used some really colloquial expressions like “stick it where the sun don’t shine” but still had a noticeable accent.
Other than that it’s not really possible to tell, and it also varies a lot by language. Scandinavians speak amazing English thanks to early exposure to American TV shows, while the kids of affluent Vietnamese families speak amazing English because they go to international school.
bren3669@reddit
nope
devstopfix@reddit
My wife had learned English in school, but pretty soon after moving to the US she was working in a corporate environment. So, she picked up a lot of corporate-speak and used it in everyday settings.
That was a long time ago, so now her vocab doesn't sound like a corporate consultant.
SavagePengwyn@reddit
The formality of their vocabulary can give clues, especially if there's a difference in the level of fluency that someone has points to more academic learning environment. Like, if someone is not fully fluent but they always say automobile instead of car or telephone instead of phone I'd assume they learned English at school. But I think most people learn those little things pretty quickly if they are speaking or listening to the language actually being spoken a lot.
forestinpark@reddit
As a foreignern I can tell. When I was learning English in the middle school, British or Quren's English was thought. I came to USA and asked to be pionted towards trousers, lady at JC Peny had no idea what I was talking about. Had to say Levi's ...ooh you are looking for PANTS.
So when I hear proper english, I imagine they are fresh of the boat and learned overseas.
Appropriate_Copy8285@reddit
Bro, we all speak different variations of english. We usually cant tell unless the english is choppy, has an accent or is overly precise with how they speak. We have great english speakera, and we gave englush speakers that you cant even tell they are speaking english.
Frito_Goodgulf@reddit
Only to the point if there's a discernable accent. To that point, long ago most non-native English speakers tended to have "British" accents. Because their teachers usually came from the UK, either directly or through those who trained the teachers. Also, the BBC offering global service.
That's less common, due to American cultural imperialism spreading American English.
Beyond that, no. No idea how I'd even differentiate among those mechanisms.
killproof@reddit
honestly, I’ve never had the thought of where someone learned English from, it’s more picking up on certain mannerisms as “oh, this might be their second language”. I would say it blends together more and for a native speaker, you don’t notice minute details that might flag how someone learned English for other non-native speakers.
I’m bilingual and like learning a bit of other languages for fun, so maybe I notice it more, but if someone speaks formally or without contractions I assume they’re newer to English or learned from textbooks - because I have the same experience LOL
Chance-Jellyfish-302@reddit
I would notice through the flow of the conversation, and the accent in which they’re speaking.
dhrisc@reddit
After a bit I will usually notice if someone learned British or US english and if someone seems to have more of a textbook education that hasn't been applied.
Sujnirah@reddit
I never know where they learned it, I can just tell it’s not their first language because of their accent or even the cadence of their speech (unless they learned when they were really young).