Keep Toytown for native English-speakers only!

I was one of the people who kept telling Editor Bob that he should allow non-native English speakers to post, as I thought it would add to the TT atmosphere. I am starting to understand now why he was against the idea for so long. It would be a real shame if we all had to dumb down the humourous posts just for the sake of the minority who don't understand them.

ok - well lemme be the devil's advocate here for a second. perhaps the whole point is, because we are living "amongst them" and have to live by "zee roolz" for most of the day, it is not unreasonable to declare a small virtual "native-free zone" where we can have a moan and post "funny" stuff without the risk of offending people because of cultural differences and then go back to being relatively normal, relatively well-adjusted expats / immigrants / husband / wife / girlfriend / boyfriend-of-german-persons / [insert category as appropriate]

I think every expat in Germany must have had their sense of humour warped a bit, so maybe sometimes when somebody makes a post thats meant to be funny, others misunderstand it. I think the misunderstandings are more likely to happen if Germans are allowed to post here (sorry Germans!). I spend all day hearing Germans, and if I want a bit of a rant, here is a good place to come. Other expats might understand a bit more than locals, who might think take offense to a good-natured rant. Like if I needed to slag off the gutteral, disgusting language they speak that makes me want to cut out their vocal cords. An expat might see that I have had a bad day, and had an overload of a foreign lingo, whereas a German may get offended. I've forgotten the point of what I was writing now. Oh well.

I only get offended about football - good English genes.

I just wanted to add that I think that however good a native German's english is (works the other way tround too of course), it is very difficult to understand or rather register written sarcasm unless you have a certain feel for the language which almost only comes with being a native speaker. (did that sentence make sense??) What I mean is that when you are speaking, you have body language, tone of voice etc to help you notice if someone is taking the piss for example. When it's written, you can only rely on certain expressions or words which might help, or on knowing the people or on this certain je ne sais quoi feeling!

On top of that, there is the problem than a few people have already mentionned, ie, that we ex-pats come here to rant and often generalise, as in "The Germans do this..." or whatever. I think it's pretty normal for a German to want to defend themselves in that situation. (I do it too when people start going on about "The English...")... only it's not what the expats are looking for. I know when I rant, I want to hear "Yeah, you are so right, that annoys me too" or whatever... If I wanted to talk to a German about it, I have my very own pet native here at home.

Talking/meeting speakers of my mother tongue is EXACTLY why I joined this site. I was desperately in need of an english fix after seven years here.

Its this sort of banter that you miss in Germany. To ease the stress, to get away from your relationship, for whatever reason. Turn off, shoot the shit (as you US-citizens would say).

I have some German friends, they are a nice bunch generally (the german youth, that is). The girls are nice.

I know what you mean. Its good to have "banter". To be able to go and talk crap with people who will appreciate it and participate in the conversation.

I'm still new here but good old ribaldry and sarcasm defines the Brit sense of humour, along with the ability to laugh at ourselves, and I think it's essential to preserve and maintain this little cultural identity.

Anybody going off in a huff has surely got the wrong end of the stick since for most of us it is the gentle humour, spoken safe in the knowledge that it will be alright in the morning, that keeps us sane.

Having said that what am I doing up at 5am hoovering up insects?

I sense trouble.

Auslaender raus!

"Native English-speakers only"... it's written right under chat forum on the front page. Why?

Because it's for native English speakers only?

Expanding on that slightly, the site's policy is strictly native English speakers only, and anybody who is not native will be asked politely to leave, or can't join in the first place. My attitude toward this is simple - it ain't my website, and so it's up to the owner of the forum to set his own limits. Personally I wouldn't be quite so strict, but then personally I wouldn't run a web forum either so there you go.

Read the rulez...


I personly would alow anyone so long as they speak/post in Englisch. However, as Jimbo rightly points out, if one duzen't agree with the rulez then one can start ones own forum and do as they pleaz.

When I first joined this site last year, my personal view was that anyone should be able to join. Now I am more inclined to say that only people who can post in good clear English should post.

It's really irritating when some Non native English speaking people post on here who cannot write clearly what they are trying to say and then take offence when they are corrected. (I am sure some of them know who they are)

Sorry just want to point out that this is not meant towards recent misunderstandings between some of the native speakers.

I find this topic rather interresting since I was first shocked when I tried to join the forum. I did it despite The Rule and it ´s working ! you all guy understand what i say or what i wright don´t you ? - and I welcome any correction 3Lions. I think nobody should care about this rule as long as the access to the forum is not denied cause of none english mother tongue. What do YOU think editor Bob ?

Houd

i say we string her up and throw her in the river. NO FRENCH ALLOWED!

btw: I got kicked out of a German chat room for typing in English. (my first post there)
Don't remember which one cause I quickly erased it from my memory.

for what its worth, i think the 'restriction' to native english speaking people is a (successful) means of inviting/maintaining a group of posters from a fairly similar cultural background to discuss life in this here Toytown...

by definition if they are native english speaking, they ain't from round these parts...

as for other peoples who ain't from round these parts and don't speak english as a native language, they are likely not to have been influenced by the same music/tv/comedy that those who do have have... and so may not get or appreciate all of the content here...

does that make any sense???

furthermore, i think i have said b4 that i find when posting on such a board your manner can either be conversational or confrontational... two (or more) people can have opposite views and yet have a very long and constructive conversation about them... but as soon as anyone becomes (or is interpreted as becoming) confrontational... it all goes to pot fairly quickly...

...the likelyhood of misinterpretations rises swiftly as the ability of a poster to post in a given language diminishes...

...i, for one, would never dare to go on a predominantly german language board and try to have indepth discussions like those that go on here, i simply wouldn't be able to do it, and similarly i would be slightly annoyed if people who's english wasn't up to it came on TT and started firing off comments, particularly ones that might be (mis)interpreted as confrontational...

I've been away from the UK for a while now and am relatively new to this site and don't make so many postings, so am not sure you all may feel i am qualified to comment but for what it's worth...

the thing that i find refreshing about this site is that it is a Native English Speaking site. if it wasn't, i wouldn't find it appealing.

after you've lived away from the UK for a long time, it's like balsam to the soul to be able to read Native English.

I love Germany, and have many non-native English friends but have too often felt that I've been used and abused by those wanting to improve their foreign language skills at my expense. as far as i'm concerned, I came to Germany to improve my language skills, not to help a German person, French person, Dutch person etc etc improve theirs. If I meet anyone from a different nationality in Germany, then I think the common language used should be German. otherwise what's the point?

what's more, it's a chance for people to escape from the broken English they hear I'm sure day in day out at work, at home, wherever - which is fine, of course as we do after all live abroad - but there are times when you think, after hearing various mangled forms of English, that yours is on its way out too. this site offers Native English Speakers if at the very least a break from that.

well said ellewood all in all. maybe you knocked the nail on the heads around here..which part of NATIVE SPEAKERS ONLY is it so difficult to understand??

but ultimately i suppose its down to the sponsors (who do a lot for charidee) without whose help this site would cease to exist?? they dont care what sort of speaker you are as long as you are using their services, drinking in their bar etc..

you pays your money you takes your choice.

Do you want all Germans, Dutch, French to cancel their account? Or will Editor Bob does it?

karen, if you would do it yourself it might save bob some time...

right, i'm off, i don't need a coat, spring is coming... have a nice weekend... no matter what language you'll be speaking...

First they came for the Germans, and I said nothing because I am not German.
Then they came for the French, and I said nothing because I am not French
Then they came for the Dutch, and I said nothing, because I f**king hate the Dutch...

I, for one, am disgusted by the entire concept of this "Native English Speakers Only" forum.

Who on earth do the editors think they are, creating a website that's targetted at a specific group of people and then trying to restrict their members to people within that group? It's an outrage, I tell you.

It's not just this site either. It just shows how bad the moral decline of the world has become when you can have 100s of thousands of websites on the internet, each catering to a specific demographic. Why, only last Tuesday I was denied membership of a cat-owners' forum for the simple reason that I don't own a cat and I wanted to discuss botany.

It's fascism, pure and simple, and I refuse to stand by any longer and just let it continue to happen here, right in front of my own self-righteous eyes.

Rest assured, I shall be writing to my local politician first thing on Monday morning, and I urge you all to do the same. With a bit of pressure I'm sure we can get this filth removed from the internet in no time at all.

What Toytown means to me (today)
It is a newspapaer. Plain and simple. I come here almost every day to get headlines, look up concerts, look up movies, see what's happening in my city.
There are personals, apartments for rent, activities to ponder about going to and time to be spent from the office on meaninless activities. All this makes it a very wonderful newspaper/blog/place to be.

It happens to be a newspaper with 1000 contributors.

To keep things in order they must all post in the same language. And the people who started this whole site wanted to help other english speakers learn, live and love Germany and this is their vehicle to do this. Just as any other paper would always have every article or headline in the same language.

Regardless of your level of English, you are INVITED to post in English. Who cares if you are from Zimbabwe or your mother tongue is Daf Zingbats. Here we speak English because we CHOOSE to. Many of us speak 2 or 3 or 6 languages, but who cares? English is the lingo of this paper.

I, for one, think it is extremely proper and 'classy' to be upfront about the language qualification.
If you don't like the team, get out of the stadium.