I'm ITALIAN!!!

[reviews_and_ramblings]

I'm Italian, my first language is Italian not English, in my profile there is the evidence that I live in Italy, I have never said that I studied English in a professional way, I always alert my English friends when I have to meet them that I don't speak fluently in English...

so please could you stop to leave nasty comments about my foreign languages skill?

IF you want to comment to help me, to warn me about a grammar error, to alert me if my sentence was bad phrased so much that what I want to say is not clear, you are welcome to do so.

BUT if you only want to be offensive, than go in another blog. First I didn't ask you to come here, if you did, it was your choice. Second, how many foreign languages do you know? When I was in school, I had 10/10 in Italian, literature and grammar, plus above the average vote in History. I graduated in Economics with 103/110 in 3,5 years when the time lapse was 4, and when the average in my University (one of the best Economics facutly in Italy) was 7...

Do you have the same results as me? If so, you are allowed to leave nasty comments, IN ITALIAN, on my LJ. We can play at the same level.

Comments

[arieltachna.livejournal.com]

Your last sentence is what I always say to people when they criticize the language skills of non-natives. "When you speak/write as well in their language as they do yours, then, and only maybe then, do you have the grounds to criticize them." Of course, by the time you get to speak a second language as well as you speak English, you know the work that goes into it and so don't criticize.

I lit into a group of students once because they snickered at a comment in a set of test directions that said the test had to be answered in English. "Just because you only speak one language doesn't mean the rest of us share that handicap." They were more than a little surprised. Didn't know what to say to that. :)

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

> "Just because you only speak one language doesn't mean the rest of us share that handicap."

I like that! Need to remember it next time. Elisa

[arieltachna.livejournal.com]

Feel free! I've used it several times since then, always with the same effectiveness. People simply don't know what to say without making themselves look stupid in the process.