Job Discussion Forums

[sidjameson]

I'm trying to make a list of the most common mistakes. For example, I often hear "I went to the hospital" when it would be more natural to say doctors. I always thought, oh dear whats wrong? only to be told, "i caught a cold"

"I played with my girlfriend would be another" still makes me smile that one.

Any more?

[wintersweet]

I think the first example is a question of cultural, not linguistic, knowledge, and isn't a mistake at all. In many countries, "the doctor" is at the hospital, so that's where you go regardless of your ailment. It's only a mistake in the sense that a listener from certain other cultures might assume the speaker had a more serious health problem than s/he did. So it's definitely something to explain, yes.

There are a lot of papers on error patterns common to Japanese speakers of English, if you check scholar.google.com or similar.

Anyway, in terms of sharing sticking points, I can't seem to convince my Japanese classmates that (in American English) you don't "join" a conference or a birthday party (you "attend" or "go to" it).

[ripslyme]

[Brooks]

"I went to the hospital" is correct in American English.
Japanese often learn American English.

[eslstudies]

Chinese do very similar things.
My Japanese students' ability to murder the "r" and "l" sounds interests me. Flying pans and fright attendants are two examples.

[Brooks]

And there are people at music stores who think Eric Crapton plays guitar.

[Zzonkmiles]

"I go to shopping."

I'm surprised that wasn't the first one on the list.

[Sweetsee]

Right after that would be: "Where are you born?"

[furiousmilksheikali]

[TK4Lakers]

I'm not sure if this is a mistake, but I often here "ex" when I think "former" would be more correct.

For example: (what Japanese speakers often say / what I think is correct)

ex-prime minister / former prime minister

ex-teacher / former teacher

ex-owner / former owner

I try to tell them that "ex" is used for relationships, such as "ex-boyfriend" or "ex-husband."

[sidjameson]

I didnt know that Americans use hospital to mean doctor. Hmm think I have to apologize to my students.

[Sweetsee]

Must be a cut above the rest out there TK because I have never heard a student say ex-anything in all my years here, or prime minister for that matter.

[bornslippy1981]

"I went to the hospital" is correct in American English, but I would never say that unless I went there for an emergency.

Anytime I was sick and told my friend about it, I'd say, "I went to the doctor."

I've been here almost two years, and I still chuckle when a Japanese person says, "I have a cold. I need to go to the hospital."

I've had the same physician back home for about 15 years, so now I'm thinking that Japanese people go to any doctor, rather than one that they know and have been seeing for years? Correct me if I'm wrong.

The first time I had to go to a doctor in Japan, somebody said, "Go to such & such clinic." Hearing "clinic" sounded strange to me as well, probably because in America if you go to a clinic it's likely you don't have private insurance.

Also, I'm not sure if, "We Japanese" is correct. Personally I think it sounds arrogant, and I would never say, "We Americans," rather "American people." However, I told a private student about this, and he showed me in some textbook where it says, "We Americans."

[furiousmilksheikali]

[canuck]