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It's one thing to compliment a person's proficiency in a foreign language, it's another thing to say that they suck at speaking the language.
I can think of a few occasions where my accent was insulted, but only one in which my proficiency was really insulted. An Ecuadorian or Peruvian vendor in Monteverde, Costa Rica told me, in English, I believe, "your Spanish needs practice".
It's one thing to compliment a person's proficiency in a foreign language, it's another thing to say that they suck at speaking the language.
I can think of a few occasions where my accent was insulted, but only one in which my proficiency was really insulted. An Ecuadorian or Peruvian vendor in Monteverde, Costa Rica told me, in English, I believe, "your Spanish needs practice".
Sometimes people want to help you to improve the language. If that is the case ask them to help. It works.
Sometimes people only speak one language and have NO idea how difficult it is to become fluent, takes several years to even become proficient. I have been learning Italian for 7 years and still am not fluent and yes some Italians have looked at me with disgust when I make a mistake LOL. But I have thick skin and not shy so I don't care if I look like a fool .
Several times, mostly from Mexicans with a similar or even worse pronunciation than mine. Ironic.
I don't think I've had the same issue with native English and French speakers.
Not me, but my mother. She can speak a bit of Mandarin, which was helpful in China. To me it sounds like she's fluent, but often in China people will say things like 'your Chinese is very basic', 'I can tell you're not from here' - they're very direct like that, the Chinese.
Sometimes people want to help you to improve the language. If that is the case ask them to help. It works.
Sometimes people only speak one language and have NO idea how difficult it is to become fluent, takes several years to even become proficient. I have been learning Italian for 7 years and still am not fluent and yes some Italians have looked at me with disgust when I make a mistake LOL. But I have thick skin and not shy so I don't care if I look like a fool .
Good luck with your studies (if you need help don't hesitate to contact me) and don't bother with stupid people.
Overall in Italy I found that Italians are quite friendly to foreigners (above all tourists and non immigrants) who learn or just try to speak Italian.
Most times people don't realise how hard can be to achieve a certain level of proficiency in a language.
Ha. Yes. I remember trying to borrow a stapler at an Internet cafe in Paris and I didn't know the French word for it. I had to describe the object in a roundabout fashion and the proprietor clearly wasn't pleased with me not knowing that one single word in the language. He pointed his chin to a student sitting at the far end of the cafe and said, "his French is better than yours, huh." mistaking me for a student in Paris and seemingly satisfied that he had demoralized me. I shrugged my shoulders and replied, "but I'm just a tourist."
I speak Spanish reasonably well but I do make a lot of mistakes but Spanish speakers are always patient with me.
I also speak very rudimentary Italian and German (similar level in both languages) but for some reason Italians are much more patient with me than Germans. Germans don't seem to want to hear me even try to speak their language.
I once had a French tourist in the hotel I worked in mock me for not knowing French, then tell me that Americans are the only people in the world who don't speak more than one language, and that everyone else in the world laughed at us for this.
I immediately snapped a slight bow and told them in Japanese that they were a degenerate idiot, and told them to f'off.
Since they had absolutely no idea what I'd just said, I told them I spoke Japanese. They threw their head back, laughed, and then asked me why I didn't learn French...
Imagine being a Mexican-American who doesn't speak Spanish....
Family members who are more connected to Mexico will hate your guts! lol
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. I have been learning Italian for 7 years and still am not fluent and yes some Italians have looked at me with disgust when I make a mistake LOL
. But I have thick skin and not shy so I don't care if I look like a fool 
.
