In addition to vocabulary shaped by environment, different languages also develop arbitrary differences in idiomatic expression. For just one example, modern Hebrew has a word pronounced "dafkuh" that does not translate directly into English. It is used to denote "just at that time," or "exactly that person," or "that very day" in a manner that suggests either irony, coincidence, misfortune, or even sarcasm, in the following manner: "I knew someone who died in the 9/11 terrorist attack; he had a job interview in the World Trade Center dafkuh on that day.."
3. International English in Intercultural Communications:
Native speakers of English routinely use phrases that have evolved in American culture or even in different regions of the country. While doing so is perfectly natural, it may interfere with the ability to communicate clearly with someone who learned English as a second language rather than through using the language in the United States. Some very simple examples of regional differences include variations of the word used for carbonated...
Despite the fact that, in the United States, it might be more common than the word it has largely replaced.
Likewise, even innocuous phrases that typical Americans use on a daily basis may cause confusion in communicating with non-native English speakers. The meaning of the phrase "come here a second" may not be immediately apparent to non-native speakers, because native speakers tend to omit the article for in the phrase (i.e. For a second), which makes it even more difficult for a non-native English speaker to translate literally. Already, the colloquial use of the term second to denote a period of time may be unfamiliar to non-native speakers, and actually, it is not a logical connection, in that it is impossible to go anywhere for (literally) one second. Likewise, the phrase "Give me a second please" may cause non-native speakers the same type of problem, because they are more likely to translate it as a request for "another" (i.e. A second) of something, eliciting the confused response, "give you a second what?"
REFERENCES
Samovar, L., Porter, R., McDaniel, E.(2006) Communication
Between Cultures (6th ed.) Wadsworth/Thomson Learning: Belmont
Samovar, L., Porter, R., McDaniel, E.(2006) Intercultural Communication: A Reader, (11th ed.) Wadsworth/Thomson Learning:Belmont
