• TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Yeah, this happens to everyone. Most people would quite literally translate how they would say something in their language to another. But in doing so, they still retain the grammar, character, syntax and words of their mother language to the foreign language they are trying to speak, which messes things up. I can kinda see it on people of foreign backgrounds when they speak English. It is amusing that I have an African colleague who says “I see you” to mean “hi”. In English, saying “I see you” sounds like you are watching and suspicious of someone, but in some parts of Africa, it means you recognise the person as an individual.