Are Anglos bad at expressing themselves?

[Lucas88]

I'm from the UK and my observation is that British people are terrible at conversation. Most of them have nothing intelligent to say, don't know how to structure a conversation, have poor delivery, and speak with atrocious grammar and a glaringly underdeveloped vocabulary. Moreover, many Brits don't even know how to greet people properly. I've read articles about how uncomfortable some Brits feel when meeting new people due to a self-perceived lack of conversational know-how.

In contrast, I am always impressed by the level of fluidity and ease with which Romance language speakers express themselves. I've lived in Spain and Latin America where I spoke Spanish daily for several years and I observe a certain frankness and precision in the conversation of Spaniards and Latinos that is absent from the speech of most Anglophones. I've also noticed the same qualities in the speech of other Romance language speakers such as Lusophones, Francophones and Italians. I perceive that Romance language speakers tend to have a better command of their own language than what the typical Anglo has over English. They also seem to have a better knack for communication in general.

I am not even a native Spanish speaker yet feel like I can have much better conversations with Spaniards and Latinos than with the majority of Brits, Americans and other Anglophones. The conversations run more fluidly and I am rarely misunderstood. With Brits, it's the complete opposite. Despite sharing a native language, our conversations barely flow at all. We have all kinds of misunderstandings. Certain words that I use aren't understood and I am forced to rephrase things so that my Anglophone interlocutor is able to understand. Many Anglos are uncultured dummies who have an incredibly poor understanding of their own language.

Why do I experience this difference in communicative quality between Romance language speakers and Anglos?

Are Anglos simply stupid and poorly versed in the area of communication? I'm not talking about IQ or the mechanical type of intelligence required for mathematics and logic here, by the way. I'm referring more to a possible deficiency of a cultural origin, like Anglos not giving much importance to communicative skills or the art of speaking well and therefore having less opportunity to develop in those areas.

Is the English language simply structurally inferior to the Romance languages? As a speaker of both English and Spanish, I am under the impression that the Romance languages are more direct, more precise, more fluid and better organized than English. I've always believed that they are simply a better vehicle for communication.

Curiously, even many L2 speakers of English such as Dutch, Swedes and Germans seem to be able to express themselves more fluently in English than many Brits, Americans and other Anglophones. Is there something about Anglo culture that limits communitive skills?

Do you perceive Anglos as bad at expressing themselves and, if so, what do you think the reason is?

[Outcast9428]

I think its actually because English is a much more direct language then Spanish is, but English speaking countries now are expected to speak in an indirect manner. Trying to use a structurally direct language in an indirect way is difficult to do.

[Lucas88]

I think its actually because English is a much more direct language then Spanish is, but English speaking countries now are expected to speak in an indirect manner. Trying to use a structurally direct language in an indirect way is difficult to do.

Why do you perceive English to be a much more direct language than Spanish? I speak Spanish and observe that Spanish is incredibly direct.

I'm not really sure what you mean by a "structurally direct language". The directness or indirectness of a language has less to do with its inherent structure and more to do with social conventions among its speakers. Japanese, for example, is regarded as a language which makes significant use of indirect speech patterns and often requires listeners to infer things through context or read between the lines (even the subject of a sentence is frequently omitted which can result in ambiguity regarding who the doer of an action is due to the complete lack of personal conjugations), but even Japanese can be used in an extremely direct manner if the user chooses to do so. A speaker can purposely remove all polite forms and be as blunt as he likes. The language structurally allows for that but the culture surrounding the language would deem such a communicative style impolite and socially unacceptable.

The social conventions among Spanish speakers permit a high level of directness. This is especially true in Iberian Spanish. Many Spaniards rarely bother with polite constructions like quisiera (I would like) or even say por favor (please) that often. For them, the blunt imperative is usually sufficient, even with total strangers. This is not even perceived as impolite. It's totally normal.

I do believe that Spanish is structurally more precise than English with its clearly marked personal conjugations, its greater quantity of tenses and its subjunctive moods among other things but this doesn't have anything to do with the level of directness.

[Outcast9428]

I think its actually because English is a much more direct language then Spanish is, but English speaking countries now are expected to speak in an indirect manner. Trying to use a structurally direct language in an indirect way is difficult to do.

Why do you perceive English to be a much more direct language than Spanish? I speak Spanish and observe that Spanish is incredibly direct.

I'm not really sure what you mean by a "structurally direct language". The directness or indirectness of a language has less to do with its inherent structure and more to do with social conventions among its speakers. Japanese, for example, is regarded as a language which makes significant use of indirect speech patterns and often requires listeners to infer things through context or read between the lines (even the subject of a sentence is frequently omitted which can result in ambiguity regarding who the doer of an action is due to the complete lack of personal conjugations), but even Japanese can be used in an extremely direct manner if the user chooses to do so. A speaker can purposely remove all polite forms and be as blunt as he likes. The language structurally allows for that but the culture surrounding the language would deem such a communicative style impolite and socially unacceptable.

The social conventions among Spanish speakers permit a high level of directness. This is especially true in Iberian Spanish. Many Spaniards rarely bother with polite constructions like quisiera (I would like) or even say por favor (please) that often. For them, the blunt imperative is usually sufficient, even with total strangers. This is not even perceived as impolite. It's totally normal.

I do believe that Spanish is structurally more precise than English with its clearly marked personal conjugations, its greater quantity of tenses and its subjunctive moods among other things but this doesn't have anything to do with the level of directness.

Well, based on what I remember from the high school Spanish classes I took which I’ll admit to not really deeply remembering. But I remember that the order that words were used in could change depending on what it sounded like and that occasionally a word would be omitted entirely. I kind of got the impression that Spanish and other Romance languages prioritize what sounds “musical” as opposed to be directly to the point or following the same rules every time. But then again, English breaks its own rules quite often with no explanation.

[Lucas88]

Well, based on what I remember from the high school Spanish classes I took which I’ll admit to not really deeply remembering. But I remember that the order that words were used in could change depending on what it sounded like and that occasionally a word would be omitted entirely. I kind of got the impression that Spanish and other Romance languages prioritize what sounds “musical” as opposed to be directly to the point or following the same rules every time. But then again, English breaks its own rules quite often with no explanation.

Spanish does indeed have a more flexible word order but that isn't really for the prioritization of musicality. More often than not a deviation from standard word order is done simply to emphasize a specific element of a sentence or even because the type of clause requires it. It's rarely done for musicality or poetic reasons. Spanish is able to do this thanks to its greater degree of inflection.

Spanish is a pro-drop language. Personal pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.) are usually omitted since all verbs inflect for person and it's clear who's doing the action from the verb ending alone. Personal pronouns are only used for emphasis. Many other languages are like that too. Italian, Russian, Turkish, etc.

I love the flexible word order of Spanish. It makes articulating one's thoughts so much smoother and more fluid. I find the lack of such flexibility in English quite restricting. In fact, my many years of speaking Spanish in an immersive setting have even rubbed off on my spoken English to some degree and I occasionally come up with some rather atypical word orders that sound unnatural to an outsider.

But the flexible word order of Spanish doesn't subtract from the directness of Spanish or prevent the speaker from getting to point. The speaker simply communicates the same information with a different word order.