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jishnumenona t1_je61a6c wrote

Ironically the contests are won by kids of non native English speakers.

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wakatenai t1_je6kgac wrote

non native english speakers often end up having a much larger vocabulary and much better at writing papers.

because we learn our english from our parents and other people and how they talk, what words they use.

most non natives learn their english from teachers and books and more "official" english. our parents english isn't college paper english, nor are they dictionaries.

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GeorgieWashington t1_je6u2wx wrote

And of course, learning a new language makes you more intelligent overall, which makes the process of breaking a word down much easier.

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DrZoidberg- t1_je6zmdv wrote

I'd say it's the same in reverse, at least for me.

My wife is Spanish and when I'm learning she says, "yeah it's like this. (speaks Spanish)" and I have to ask her "ok, but how would it be written in a book" because I don't want to sound dumb.

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wakatenai t1_je726m8 wrote

ya honestly a lot of americans who only speak english struggle a bit in english classes because they don't know essay english so they just write the paper how they talk and then get an F lol.

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DrZoidberg- t1_je7dq1e wrote

But y you gave me n F? Iwrite a good paper it's bcuz u hate me.

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RadimentriX t1_je723qd wrote

Learned the basics in school and the vocabulary from yt, movies and music. English is one of the easiest languages to learn imo since most content one comes across in the web is english

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Petrichordates t1_je788sj wrote

Do you have a source for these claims? Because I'm finding the exact opposite (in other words, the result you'd expect)

> In contrast, non-native speakers living in English-speaking countries for many years learn 2.5 words a day, over twice the rate of native speakers. Even with that breakneck speed, researchers found that adults know on average 10,000-20,000 words less than their native counterparts, or a native English speakers’ 8- to 14-year-old vocabulary level. 

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Samurai_Banette t1_je7q3hz wrote

I think the idea is native speakers have practical mastery of the language, with a huge bias towards words that have common use. If its a second language, outside of the words you absolutely need to get by the words you pick up might be more obscure or academic.

For example: Estalogical vs Vestigial. Native speakers will all know vestigial due to biology class, while a second language learner would have no bias on which to learn because neither are particularly relevent. They might pick up Estalogical instead, sound really smart, and no one would realize they never learned vestigial because its not used enough.

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iamavila t1_je8whje wrote

Dude I can't find estalogical anywhere, google suggests eschatological, is that what you meant?

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bigmac22077 t1_je7ej9n wrote

I used to work with South Americans all the time at a ski resort as they would come in on j1 visas. They always used “big” words where I’d think, you’re struggling to speak English right now, and you came up with that word?! It’s clearly from not learning the language through speech.

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CurrentIndependent42 t1_je6vnhu wrote

Depends where. But the kids themselves are usually native speakers, and there’s not much difference in level of language level based just on parentage. Socioeconomic factors that effect general education level make far more of an impact when it comes to level of literacy.

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ColonelMonty t1_je6y2kq wrote

They got to work twice as hard to figure out our nonsense language because they weren't born into it like native English speakers.

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TenWildBadgers t1_je729ir wrote

Yeah, they actually learned the rules.

Who among us with English as a first language actually uses the word "whom"? Because we're absolutely supposed to.

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BruceNY1 t1_je6v4ts wrote

That's what I was about to say: as a second language English is super-easy to spell...

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