In speaking with someone who is learning English, it is not necessary to speak their native tongue–but sometimes, it’s helpful. In a related note, did you know that in Arabic, they use the same word for “want” and “need?” We did know this, but we’d forgotten. So last night. Donn said to his friend, “I’ll be home Tuesday afternoon if you want to stop by” and the friend said, “Do you need me?” and Donn said, “No.” He saw an unmistakeable hurt flash across his friend’s face. And then, fortunately, he remembered his Arabic. “I don’t need you, but I want you to come,” he explained, going on about “need” vs. “want.” His friend smiled in relief.
Can you imagine? “Do you want me to come?” “No.” It’s funny and sad at the same time.
Planet Nomad 
3 comments
May 6, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Miss Footloose
This is fun! I had lots of these little misunderstandings in my expat life. One day in Kenya, when I was home, it began to pour rain. I noticed sounds outside my door, and there, below the overhang, two young Kikuyu girls were hiding from the rain. They’d been working in the maize field that started at the end of our garden. They didn’t want to come into the house. I asked (in English) if they wanted some tea. “I don’t mind,” one of them said. My instant thought was, Hey, you don’t mind? Don’t do me any favors!
Of course, I realized at the same time that this was not how it was intended. They were painfully shy. And I learned later that “I don’t mind” really means, “Yes, please.”
This is just what sprang to mind. Kenyan English, as well as Ghanaian English has lots of these phrases and words that have taken on a different meaning from the King’s English.
May 7, 2012 at 5:23 am
Kit
I wonder if that Kenyan phrase sprang from the English phrase “I don’t mind if I do” also meaning yes please, albeit in a rather oblique way.
It happens all the time when I’m proofreading for Italian clinets of mine – they come up with the most bizarre English sentences and I have to go back to what I think msut have been the oriignail Italian and then work out what was intended – like a linguistic treasure hunt!
May 8, 2012 at 8:48 am
Annie Wald
I often see things in the sea that start with C.
[I know that’s not the same kind of challenge as need and want but it’s the best I could come up with in two seconds…]
Then I think of the miscommunication I have with people who *do* speak the same language as I do!