Teacher Discussion Forums

This letter is addressed to native speakers of English who communicate with Israelis in English in different contexts – in the workplace, in business/academic meeting, at international conferences, while trading’ travelling, encountering tourists, etc.

In his essay “Dispatch From Israel” (http://slate.msn.com/id/3816/entry/24422/) Mr Herbert Stein claims that

“(The Israeli) speech tends to be blunt. This has been explained to me as being a consequence of the Hebrew language, which is rather meager in vocabulary and does not allow fine shades of meaning. So, when Israelis speak English, they are translating in their minds from Hebrew, and a bluntness emerges that is not intended”.

I would like to know what you think about this matter.
Do Israelis speak English correctly?
Do you easily understand them?
Do they make grammatical mistakes?
Do they use prepositions correctly?
Is their vocabulary rich?
Is their speech blunt?
Does their English sound English? Etc.

Please, note your nationality.

Thank you!

They sound like Russians speaking English with American accent.

Can I recommend that you read these books

Canagarajah, A. S. (1999) Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Kachru, B. B. (1985) The Alchemy of English: The Spread, Functions and Models of Non-Native Englishes. Oxford: Pergamon

Enjoy...



Lottie

SINDY wrote:This letter is addressed to native speakers of English who communicate with Israelis in English in different contexts – in the workplace, in business/academic meeting, at international conferences, while trading’ travelling, encountering tourists, etc.

In his essay “Dispatch From Israel” (http://slate.msn.com/id/3816/entry/24422/) Mr Herbert Stein claims that

“(The Israeli) speech tends to be blunt. This has been explained to me as being a consequence of the Hebrew language, which is rather meager in vocabulary and does not allow fine shades of meaning. So, when Israelis speak English, they are translating in their minds from Hebrew, and a bluntness emerges that is not intended”.

I would like to know what you think about this matter.
Do Israelis speak English correctly?
Do you easily understand them?
Do they make grammatical mistakes?
Do they use prepositions correctly?
Is their vocabulary rich?
Is their speech blunt?
Does their English sound English? Etc.

Please, note your nationality.

Thank you!

About bluntness, I noticed this with an Israel woman I know.
I'm American.