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I have a bad habit of speaking broken English when communicating with Khmer's.
Doesn't do us any favours & is just lazy on my behalf yet it gets the point through.
A friend of mine that I communicate with on a daily basis applied for an online job with no success because her English not good

you want eye?

Is English you're native language? Speak normally, but maybe just avoid using complicated words. There's no need to avoid tenses or cut out articles and prepositions either, with the whole "Me go cinema" that some pidgin English speakers use. Using the language normally helps them more than breaking it down into some sort of fake version of it.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:18 pm Is English you're native language? Speak normally, but maybe just avoid using complicated words. There's no need to avoid tenses or cut out articles and prepositions either, with the whole "Me go cinema" that some pidgin English speakers use. Using the language normally helps them more than breaking it down into some sort of fake version of it.

FFS! Agreed!

English must be very difficult for most as it's in reverse to most others.

Main thing is avoid idioms and slang.
If it helps, imagine you’re explaining something to a 7-year-old English speaker rather than to a foreigner.
As you said, speaking incorrect English doesn’t help on any level, it’s as liable to cause confusion than clear it up. The only exception is if you’ve observed a common feature of Cambodian English na.

I spent a short time in prison in Pakistan in the 70s. When I got out my mates were getting very annoyed when I spoke in pidgin all the time, even the Pakistani people i knew were laughing at me, it took a few weeks before i went back to normal.

nerdlinger wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 4:06 pm Main thing is avoid idioms and slang.
If it helps, imagine you’re explaining something to a 7-year-old English speaker rather than to a foreigner.

Better still…imagine you’re talking to upper management.

Cadence is the big killer after using over complicated terms. Keeping the voice level, speaking with a consistent tone, so that when tone is used for emphasis, it does actually do it.
Language barriers are a constant issue for us, and it’s not that often that’s it’s the basic English that’s the problem, but the delivery.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:18 pm Is English you're native language?

Der teufel steckt im details, so i've been told....

Kammekor wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:15 pm you want eye?

It's "you want me?". Close though. Nice try.

Yobbo wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:31 pm

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:18 pm Is English you're native language? Speak normally, but maybe just avoid using complicated words. There's no need to avoid tenses or cut out articles and prepositions either, with the whole "Me go cinema" that some pidgin English speakers use. Using the language normally helps them more than breaking it down into some sort of fake version of it.

FFS! Agreed!

Disagree!
Leave out the unnecessary past tense and passe compose if you want to ensure they understand you easier, because they jumbles into words and they often won't tell you they didn't understand what you said, pick up a few words here and there and design their own construction of your narrative. This can be particularly harmful if they miss a not or didn't. "Me go cinema" is sorted (assuming they know cinema). "I went to the cinema" "You go?" "No, I went" "When?" "I've been to the cinema" "You eat already?"
Think about when you are learning Khmer. You only know a few words and if other needless ones are incorporated, they have finished talking while you are still back at word 3. Learning Tarzan English saves a lot of time and confusion. For past tense, you simply add "already". Class dismissed. Class dismiss already. "Bye bye" works.