Challenges of English for international SEMO students

People from different parts of the world come to SEMO. For some of them, English is their second or a foreign language, and it causes some difficulties in understanding native English speakers.

One of the main difficulties SEMO international students face is American slang.

Dr. Irina Ustinova, coordinator of the MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program, said that there are three major ways American slang is formed.

“From my point of view, Americans are really ‘addicted’ to acronyms or abbreviations. You heard a lot of these words. Instead of a laboratory- lab, instead of ‘as soon as possible’- ASAP. Second, blending will be very popular. Blending is when two parts of the world come together, like in "’deepfake’ or ‘Barbiemania.’ And then we have a lot of clippings. You know that Americans love to use short names, even for presidents instead of William Clinton, everybody called him Bill Clinton,” Ustinova said.

In addition to this, America is a big country where every state has linguistic peculiarities.

Master’s TESOL major Jannatul Ferdaous said she finds it challenging to understand people from different parts of America.

“Each state has their own sort of jargons and accents and way of talking, culturally each state is different. That was difficult for me. I am from Bangladesh, and we used to study in the British curriculum. So there are some word differences,” Ferdaous said.

Language is constantly changing. Another problem foreigners face is that some words were not in the English dictionary when they studied English.

Master’s English language and literature major Arabindu Dash said that the meaning of some usual American words is not clear for English learners.

“Ghosting is a standard term that is used by Americans. Also using technology related words like selfie. It has emerged as a word in English, but it wasn't in our English dictionary. Sometimes I find it difficult to understand what they [Americans] are referring to,” Dash said.

English learners face difficulties even online.

Freshman business administration major Ana Yamakawa said that to understand videos, she has to check other users’ comments.

“Some videos that I watch have some memes and I do not understand what it means. And then I have to watch comments to find what is written here,” Yamakawa said.

Native English speakers also notice that English might be confusing for foreigners.

Master’s TESOL major Kaitlyn Domagni said that sometimes she feels a language barrier between her and her husband.

“My husband is from another country, so English is not his first language. And I noticed when I use slang terms or shortened versions of words or even American idioms, he becomes very confused, because they're not common in his country,” Domagni said.

Despite all the challenges, English is still the language that helps people from different parts of the world understand each other.

“English is unique. English established itself as a means of communication for people all over the world,” Ustinova said.