Avoid slang, abbreviations, unusual collocations. Speak clearly and slowly.
This has to be constantly remarked. I think a good antidote for that is to learn a second language and talk to its native-speakers (besides, reasoning in a foreign language may reduce some biases).
BTW, I’m not sure if that’s just me, but one of the things that sometimes prevents me from engaging in a conversation with other person in her native language (not only English) is that, if I am too successful (e.g., if I mimic her accent or style), she often assumes I’m almost as proficient as her and ends up speaking twice as fast, with slangs only a professional rapper would know. So: even if a non-native speaker doesn’t seem to have an accent (= she speaks with your accent), don’t assume you can drop the “avoid slang...” advice.
This isn’t meant to be a criticism of you or your comment specifically, but it was incongruous to see “congrats” right next to “Avoid slang, abbreviations, unusual collocations.” It brings up the question of, is it a good idea to avoid literally all “slang, abbreviations” or does it make sense to still use some common ones? And what count as unusual collocations? Does “make sense” count or is it sufficiently usual?
True, some common abreviations are standard. But my remarks, and probably Dobroslawa’s, concern mostly oral conversations—that’s the context where non-native speakers are in a huge disadvantage, even if they are proficient.
I kind of enjoy reading unusual expressions or slang, because it gives me new data and time enough to update on—so if someone uses it in a conversation later on, I may have a better chance of understanding it. Perhaps that’s precisely the problem for skilled non-native speakers: we’re usually much better “trained” in the written language than in the spoken one, so that we’re often ignorant about some of their differences. Thus, writing “slang, abbreviations, unusual collocations” may actually have a net positive effect.
This is very true and it’s also something that I noticed, if you are fluent, people sometimes start speaking so casually that it’s impossible to understand them. I sometimes say to my English-speaking colleagues: “Whenever you see me just smile and not, it probably means that I have no clue what you have just said.” :)
What are some examples of unusual collocations? I wonder if some commonly used collocations, such as “get over”, “prefer x₁ over x₂”, “end up”, “break the ice”, and “come up with” might be more confusing to non-native speakers than expressions that are less commonly used or involve more complicated words but are more literal. I was surprised to hear that a non-native speaker friend of mine did not understand the construction “out of x₁, x₂ is the best”.
Thank you, and congrats for writing this.
This has to be constantly remarked. I think a good antidote for that is to learn a second language and talk to its native-speakers (besides, reasoning in a foreign language may reduce some biases).
BTW, I’m not sure if that’s just me, but one of the things that sometimes prevents me from engaging in a conversation with other person in her native language (not only English) is that, if I am too successful (e.g., if I mimic her accent or style), she often assumes I’m almost as proficient as her and ends up speaking twice as fast, with slangs only a professional rapper would know. So: even if a non-native speaker doesn’t seem to have an accent (= she speaks with your accent), don’t assume you can drop the “avoid slang...” advice.
This isn’t meant to be a criticism of you or your comment specifically, but it was incongruous to see “congrats” right next to “Avoid slang, abbreviations, unusual collocations.” It brings up the question of, is it a good idea to avoid literally all “slang, abbreviations” or does it make sense to still use some common ones? And what count as unusual collocations? Does “make sense” count or is it sufficiently usual?
True, some common abreviations are standard. But my remarks, and probably Dobroslawa’s, concern mostly oral conversations—that’s the context where non-native speakers are in a huge disadvantage, even if they are proficient.
I kind of enjoy reading unusual expressions or slang, because it gives me new data and time enough to update on—so if someone uses it in a conversation later on, I may have a better chance of understanding it. Perhaps that’s precisely the problem for skilled non-native speakers: we’re usually much better “trained” in the written language than in the spoken one, so that we’re often ignorant about some of their differences. Thus, writing “slang, abbreviations, unusual collocations” may actually have a net positive effect.
This is very true and it’s also something that I noticed, if you are fluent, people sometimes start speaking so casually that it’s impossible to understand them. I sometimes say to my English-speaking colleagues: “Whenever you see me just smile and not, it probably means that I have no clue what you have just said.” :)
What are some examples of unusual collocations? I wonder if some commonly used collocations, such as “get over”, “prefer x₁ over x₂”, “end up”, “break the ice”, and “come up with” might be more confusing to non-native speakers than expressions that are less commonly used or involve more complicated words but are more literal. I was surprised to hear that a non-native speaker friend of mine did not understand the construction “out of x₁, x₂ is the best”.