S/o s/o funny mistakes American Israelis make

chanchy123

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 4:32 am

chanchy123 wrote:

On Shabbat my son was sad because his friend’s family “drived” (הם נסעו)

Why the hugs?
I feel like someone just automatically hugs all my posts - it’s so frustrating.

Bnei Berak 10

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 4:39 am

Question to call here who have English as their mother tongue and you live in Israel: Do you correct your kids when they make a mistake? Just curious Smile

ora_43

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 4:46 am

salt wrote:

My DS once thought he was being so accurate - he was saying something about a 'thig' - I didn't know what he meant - he said 'you know a תאנה', - he thought it was with a TH and he really made the effort to say it properly.

That's adorable.

ora_43

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 4:50 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Question to call here who have English as their mother tongue and you live in Israel: Do you correct your kids when they make a mistake? Just curious Smile

Yeah within reason. Like, if they're worked up about something, I won't jump in to correct grammar, I won't correct them every single time, and I'll pick and choose my battles (eg will correct a 6-year-old on 'they wented' but not on pronouncing chocolate as 'chok-lick', would correct a 10-year-old on both). And I'll correct more if they're actively interested in improving their English than if they aren't.

But I'll correct everything at some point, because being able to speak English like a native speaker can be a very helpful skill.

salt

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 4:54 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Question to call here who have English as their mother tongue and you live in Israel: Do you correct your kids when they make a mistake? Just curious Smile

I think sometimes I don't even notice - like 'or this or that'.

I often correct grammar, eg, if they say "When I been in school.." (don't know why they say it like that) - I correct them, but not too many corrections in a go - that just gets annoying.

PinkFridge

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 8:31 am

Why are we mocking people?
If it was just laughing at ourselves that would be one thing. But anyone else uncomfortable? (Note: I haven't read all the threads.)

amother

Pumpkin

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 8:53 am

This seems harmless and entertaining. We are not shaming people and saying they are stupid, we are chuckling at their linguistic errors. Many of those involve kids and we certainly have no issues in talking about the "cute things" our kids say. For the record, I routinely corrected my children's grammar in English in the US as my mother did for me. It was important to me that they spoke grammatically and sounded polished. English is our first language as it was for my mother. I'm not a hater of those who speak other languages. Despite being born in the US, my father's first language was Yiddish and he managed to learn grammatical English and earn a PhD in the US.

PinkFridge

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 9:03 am

amother Pumpkin wrote:

I have to think about this.
I actually thought I was starting a new thread. Not sure how it ended up here.

amother

Junglegreen

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 9:24 am

My son came home from Gan singing
כאן זה בית כאן זה לב ואותך אני לא אוהב
Wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.
(Popular Israeli song two years ago....
Supposed to be אותך אני לא עוזב)
(For non Israelis the really words are:
Here (Israel) is my home, here is my heart
Any you I will not leave!
My son was singing: and you I don't love Crying

Rappel

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 9:42 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Question to call here who have English as their mother tongue and you live in Israel: Do you correct your kids when they make a mistake? Just curious Smile

I'm worse than they are LOL

mostly I don't hear the oddities. But if I do, I only correct mixed-up Hebrew + English sentences, so they don't have any language troubles as they get older. Everything else can be learned from exposure.

BrisketBoss

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 9:44 am

Rappel wrote:

I'm worse than they are LOL

(Meant to reply to Bnei Berak as well)

I probably wouldn't, definitely not for young kids, because the way language acquisition works is that they learn from hearing language modeled and they do not learn from being corrected.

amother

Gardenia

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 9:47 am

I thought this thread was so cute! I laugh at myself plenty when I think about the crazy mistakes I made in Hebrew when first speaking to natives. And this made me smile because it reminds me of my Israeli family. Some of the speech patterns are so normal to me I don't think about why they say it, in my head it's just 'Israeli English'. Like 'why he has more than me?' It's not a bad thing to skip the 'does' in that sentence because there is no moral failing in not speaking English perfectly when it isn't your first language.

dena613

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 10:12 am

I don't think it's offensive at all.

Just like the threads of cute things kids said/did.

These are things American Israeli kids say because they speak English, but not fluently.

dena613

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 10:15 am

amother Gladiolus wrote:

Not sure whats funny about this one? Teachers often say that in the UK...

Really? Okay, it's definitely strange to an American's ears.
We'd say "girls." No one even says, "students." (Ok, Hebrew teachers will say "talmidos.')

amother

Scarlet

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 11:22 am

dena613 wrote:

The Israeli teacher who taught Israelis English was announcing each day, "Good afternoon pupils!"

Reminds me, (I'm American/living in US) when I speak to real chareidi Israelis who know some English, and they'll say Jerusalem, as in "are you staying in Jerusalem?" I find it so funny, in my chassidish American family we only call it Yerushalayim, even when speaking English.

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Dec 13 2022, 11:27 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Question to call here who have English as their mother tongue and you live in Israel: Do you correct your kids when they make a mistake? Just curious Smile

Tes, we correct because having an english speaket saying things incorrectly sounds terrible and for the future, when these english speaking teens become adults, they want to speak correctly.