English not your first language?

[Kerrigan Muldoon]

A minute ago I just read my first judging result and I'm quite happy with the commentary, it's both positive and helpful. The judge commentend on the fact that English is not my first language. Up 'til that moment I thought that at least 40% or so would have a different first language.

So just now I checked a poll from 2006 concerning our home continent (of the players, not the characters). The result was that only about 15% (of which half are possible from the UK) did not RP from America.

So now I am wondering, how many more active RP'ers are here who do not have English as their first language? How are you holding out on this writing site? Do you have much trouble keeping up with the native speakers?

As for me, I am from the Netherlands where I've received English lessons from my 11th to my 17th. Somehow I always have been interested in the English, at my 12th I read Lord of the Rings in English and I've played tons of computer games. At the moment I'm reading a book in the original English (I never promised you a rose garden) and watch movies with English subtitles if possible.
Other then that, dictionary.reference.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/) is my best friend, as well as Word's spelling check. And I try to re-read my posts as much as possible... though I still get commentary that I should do it more often ;).

I still find it hard to level with native speakers, but I guess that's natural.

Anyhow, fellow non-native speakers, share your misery here!

PS: Just wondering, are there any non-native speakers in the staff or highly ranked at this site?

[AdventWings]

Heya, Kerrigan. Asian guy here. Was with the ModWorks, now working freelance (aka unemployed bum). :p

I'm not quite sure how to say it, but I'm probably the person with the best knowledge of English in my area (saved for expats living around here). Six years in America during my middle school and highschool years gave me a lot of experience with using correct - and incorrect - English. From then on, I try my best to keep what I've learned and expand my vocabulary writing here on Althanas and working freelance by translating English academic papers.

I've worked as a Bazaar Mod and a Judge, but this language is still a little confusing at times. Then again, I really can't complain because my native language is a lot harder to understand sometimes. Hahaha.

Secondary languages are certainly a hard thing for most people, especially if you learn them later in life. I take solace in knowing that my language is at least understandable to most native English speakers, barring a few grammar errors. :p

[Relt PeltFelter]

While I myself am a native English speaker, I have to say that if you guys hadn't said anything, I never would have guessed. I remember back when I first joined the site, years and years ago, when every third new member was someone who, despite being a native speaker themselves, made absolutely zero effort towards coherence, and usually left within the week. The fact that their characters' names were usually something like "goku clouddracula035632" is besides the point.

You guys are awesome for going outside your comfort zone and working to be creative in another language. One thing I'm continually fascinated by is the internet's capacity as a tool to connect with people from other countries and other cultures. It makes me feel all fuzzy inside, you know? Good on ya.

[Letho]

Personally, I think that in one way or the other I've always been more attached to English than my native language. For me it all started with the movies all the way back when I was a kid. My best friend and me watched pretty much everything we could get our hands on, but in the time of VCRs and grainy pictures and 14k internet the choice wasn't that great, so we wound up watching the same movies over and over again. And little by little we caught on, a catchy phrase here, a memorable quotation there, a badass one-liner spoken with a really bad accent.

Then came games and computers, but way back then computers had DOS OS in which you had to type commands. In English, of course. And all games were in English as well. So you had to learn it in order to do something. By then I got some education in grade school as well, but for me English just sort of crept into my ear and remained there to this day. I never studied English, not even in high school. It came so naturally to me that I never had to and I always had an A in that particular class.

Of course, then I wound up on Althanas and realized just how much I sucked and how little I really knew about both the basics and the finesses of the language. I mean, when I look back now on some of my first posts here... :( So bad. But still, regardless of that I felt like I was where I meant to be, even if at the time some fourteen year olds on the site wrote much better posts than me, and I was like 20 by then. But you catch on. If you stick around for long enough, if you heed the advice of superior writers, if you steal a little bit of something from everybody and come up with your own style, you will improve yourself as a writer. I know I have. And I know I still have a lot to learn.

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to mention, I'm from Croatia. If you don't know where that is, look for the asshole of the world. We're pretty close to it.

[Damion Shargath]

I'm Austrian. I've lived in a minimum of 5 different countries I can think of right off the bat, and attended a myriad of international schools. I've always had stuff like this (english language sites) and english speaking friends to keep my skills somewhere in the region of understandable...

great story huh? wow...

and Letho, Croatia isn't the asshole of the world - Harbin may be...possibly even Astana. Cities some people may have never even heard of, and I'm glad not to have lived in them ^^

[Kerrigan Muldoon]

http://www.usingenglish.com/

That ^ site is an absolute miracle of a site. I normally don't advertise like that but it's a heaven for non-native speakers. They already gave a short summary of what the site contains so I'll just copy-paste it:


UsingEnglish.com provides a large collection of English as a Second Language (ESL) tools & resources for students, teachers, learners and academics. Browse our grammar glossary and references of irregular verbs, phrasal verbs and idioms, ESL forums, articles, teacher handouts and printables, and find useful links and information on English. Topics cover the spectrum of ESL, EFL, ESOL, and EAP subject areas.