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Bad language habits


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Maybe you are wondering what I mean by ''bad language habits'', right?  I will explain myself by telling you about my bad language habit. 

I'm the kind of person who enjoys writing proper English, even when I'm just ''talking'' to my friends online.  Yes, I'm serious when it comes to that because I believe that's a bad language habit. And instead of being just the exception, this habit might become he rule later on.  That's why is better not to indulge in this kind of habits, because when you least expect it you will find yourself forgetting how to write certain words or certain prepositions and so on.

I do, however, have a bad language habit that I can't seem to be able to get rid of.  My bad language habit is...  not putting enough effort into my pronunciation when I'm with people who are close to me. Like for example my boyfriend and his family!

I was well aware of this  bad language habit, but it wasn't until I watched a video of myself in which I was speaking, that I realized how bad this habit has become.  I was perplexed because I knew there was a problem, but I didn't know it was this bad! I know I can speak a better English, that's why it shocked me  to see and hear that media version of me speaking with such a heavy accent  :laugh:

What about you, do you have bad language habits?

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Maybe you are wondering what I mean by ''bad language habits'', right?  I will explain myself by telling you about my bad language habit. 

I'm the kind of person who enjoys writing proper English, even when I'm just ''talking'' to my friends online.  Yes, I'm serious when it comes to that because I believe that's a bad language habit. And instead of being just the exception, this habit might become he rule later on.  That's why is better not to indulge in this kind of habits, because when you least expect it you will find yourself forgetting how to write certain words or certain prepositions and so on.

I do, however, have a bad language habit that I can't seem to be able to get rid of.  My bad language habit is...  not putting enough effort into my pronunciation when I'm with people who are close to me. Like for example my boyfriend and his family!

I was well aware of this  bad language habit, but it wasn't until I watched a video of myself in which I was speaking, that I realized how bad this habit has become.  I was perplexed because I knew there was a problem, but I didn't know it was this bad! I know I can speak a better English, that's why it shocked me  to see and hear that media version of me speaking with such a heavy accent  :laugh:

What about you, do you have bad language habits?

Hehe, somehow sounds cute, though.

I also got some bad language habits ;(

As most of you already know, I study sinology (Chinese). However, I did not take part in any language-related classes recently, so my conversational did not get better to say the least:=) You could already call that 'Bad language habit Nr. 1'. To make matters worse, when speaking to my Chinese friends here in Switzerland, I often switch back to English/German rather than speaking Chinese all the time. Especially when I feel tired, I am really having a hard time to continue speaking in Chinese, so in this case, it often happens that I stop speaking Chinese to them. I would call that 'Bad language habit Nr.3'. I am pretty sure I could come up with some more, but let me think about it first, please  :grin:

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My worst language habit is that I'm lazy. I'm lazy as in whenever I speak, I don't speak long and elaborate. I tend to speak short, and straight to the point. Sometimes, people don't understand what I'm talking about because of this and I have to repeat myself which kind of negates my effort to speak less. This is something I'm working to change because I realize that speaking once clearly is better than speaking multiple times short sentences.

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Sometimes (I do this before I realize I am doing it) I take on the inflection of the person speaking to me.  I am a "yankee" (raised in the Northern United States) and when I am speaking with someone from Texas or the South, I can start picking up their "drawl" and have even picked up the "Valley girl" affect when talking to some from Los Angeles.  I am not mimicking or teasing, it just is something that sort of happens.  Sometimes the other party picks up I am doing it, but I usually hear it after the fact from a friend who overhears the conversation.

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My worst language habit is writing as if I was talking to someone on the street. It's not a great habit considering the fact that in a few months I might be getting a job as blogger somewhere. Hopefully, I am going to change that, observe the grammar rules and use 'proper' English.

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Sometimes I'll write informally so as to give my sentences a sort of different structure/meaning. It's a bit hard to explain, but in doing it I've started to do it regularly and I think that's a really bad language habit. I would recommend always sticking to proper English rather than text language!  :wink:

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I say "like" very often, which seems to be a common problem. I also use words like "actually" and "literally" far too frequently and often out of context.

In general though, I like to think my spoken english is quite good.

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Interesting conversation. I too often use too few words, in wanting to get to the point. I assume that people know what I am talking about, but they don't always and it can be very confusing.

I also sometimes go into a Southern drawl type accent when saying certain things. It's a personality thing that I think I do semi-consciously, but I sometimes fear that people will think that is my real accent when it isn't.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I like to what I call "germanify" a lot of things, which means I take English words and turn them into a hybrid between German and English. A whole new language has evolved in my home due to this bad habit of mine. And only those who know me very well, can actually understand these words when they occasionally slip out during conversations.

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Hehehe, so you are doing something very similar to what latinos are doing in USA? hehehe!  They have Spanglish over there, I find it completely irritating, why can't they pick one of them?

I think your habit to germanize is cute :)  It reminds me of my grandparents...  It's good people who know you well understand what you are saying tho, because not many people are lucky enough to have that  :wink:  I might do something similar if I move to the Netherlands  :laugh:

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Interesting conversation. I too often use too few words, in wanting to get to the point. I assume that people know what I am talking about, but they don't always and it can be very confusing.

I also sometimes go into a Southern drawl type accent when saying certain things. It's a personality thing that I think I do semi-consciously, but I sometimes fear that people will think that is my real accent when it isn't.

Ugh, I do the same thing!!!!  I try to explain something, but then I get a bit lazy and then I say something like ''you know!'' and move my hands a bit in hopes they'll know what I mean, lol.  But they rarely do.  I guess I assume they should know what I'm trying to say because what I'm trying to say is quite simple! Wrong... they rarely get it, unless they are my mom!  She gets me all the time!

I should learn to express myself in a more correct way, be more eloquent and clear.  I often leave so many words and ideas out, because in my mind I have said it all, hehehe. 

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I often end my sentences when speaking with 'you know?' - It's becoming worst and I need to do something about it.  :shy:

Jesus... I just wrote a post about that to another poster here, lol.  I'm using that exact phrase a lot as well, also ''like...''.  It's a  really bad habit I thought I'd never have to deal with, but I guess that as you age things just change.  Maybe something is going on with my brain... I'm also starting to use a lot words like: kinda, lotta, gotta, etc. 

Not a good habit, this post reminded me of the fact I need to start working on expressing myself in a correct manner...

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Hehe, somehow sounds cute, though.

I also got some bad language habits ;(

As most of you already know, I study sinology (Chinese). However, I did not take part in any language-related classes recently, so my conversational did not get better to say the least:=) You could already call that 'Bad language habit Nr. 1'. To make matters worse, when speaking to my Chinese friends here in Switzerland, I often switch back to English/German rather than speaking Chinese all the time. Especially when I feel tired, I am really having a hard time to continue speaking in Chinese, so in this case, it often happens that I stop speaking Chinese to them. I would call that 'Bad language habit Nr.3'. I am pretty sure I could come up with some more, but let me think about it first, please  :grin:

Don't worry :)  When I am really tired I even seem to forget my own mother language, hehehe! But seriously, when I'm tired I also tend to switch to my mother language.  I guess I will have the same issue with Dutch.  I think this kind of ''bad language'' habit is really common, no matter how long you have been studying a language, so don't think a lot about it :)

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