Cheers to those brave enough to travel from their country to an English speaking land. Our language comes from all over the place, changes quickly, has different versions and spellings (British/US), and has a million rules that are all broken as often as not.

I really enjoy helping people with their english and have been able to do this every day so far.
So, yes, cheers to these brave souls…but I think it’s ok to have a little laugh over some of the things they say, eh?

Julie, my German travel companion, is a wee thing who expelled major wind last night. She looked at me and said, “Sorry, I pooped.” I knew she didn’t because she didn’t look as alarmed as someone would who actually sharted (a word we soon covered in the subsequent fart themed vocab lesson).

Sometimes I’m maybe not as much of a help as I should be with English. Sometimes they’ll ask me “why?” about a grammar question, and usually I have no idea. I told Agnes from France that ‘lounge’ and ‘tongue’ were spelled the same except the first letter. And then there was when poor Viv said ‘fucking’ at the dinner table. I looked the other way like I hadn’t heard, but I know it was my corruption that got him a lecture from our friend.

Many people pick up a phrase and pepper it into conversation much more than a native speaker would. For example, Javier from Basque country, would say ‘for example’ in almost every sentence. For example, I asked him to take in the laundry, and he said, “I take in the laundry, because, for example, it is dry.” Yes, Javie, this is pretty much the one and only example where you should take in the laundry.

Viv from France would inadvertently make me feel a little stupid by answering all affirmative questions with, “pfffff but of course.” And if the answer was no, it was always, “absolutely not” - even if the question didn’t quite warrant the staunch certainly of the answer. “Viv, would you like some tea?” or “Have you seen this show before?”
“Absolutely not.”

Jonne from the Netherlands spoke English amazingly well. Her favorite phrase, used all the time, was “to be very honest.” Every so often she’d throw it in and I would think, why would you be anything but honest about that? For instance, “It’s cold out today, to be very honest.”

Sonja, another German, would always say, “That’s the one.” I like it, so I have adopted it. I have also wholeheartedly adopted what is my new favorite phrase. “I can’t really be bothered.” It sounds so much better than “I’m too lazy” or “I don’t really care enough.” They use it all the time in NZ and also in the UK. I’m bringing it to the states, and considering how often we are lazy and don’t care, I am sure it will catch on like wildfire!