Don’t laugh at other people’s accent — or are you sure it was just the accent?

No matter what language, I guess.

Some native speakers might laugh at other people’s accent or grammar mistake, or some who are not native speakers but already mastered the language would laugh at the other beginners. Of course this is not nice, and you shouldn’t be laughing at the others when they are still learning. No one is born with skills, some may be more talented but we all have to learn.

But sometime a funny mispronunciation or grammar mistake can be laughable, and the others who are laughing are not laughing AT you, but laughing WITH you. If you always think people are bad to laugh at you, feeling inferior, this mentality will stop you from learning.

You can’t really blame people laughing sometime. For example, in my last job, the office is a complete German-speaking environment. At that time I have learnt German only for 7 months, and I was not even a year in German yet. It was a summer afternoon, one of the co-worker turned a fan on. I asked him “are you hot” in German:

Me: Bist du heiß?*
He: (funny smile on his face) Ja….?
The other co-workers burst out laughing. I had no idea.
Another coworker: Kylie, “Bist du heiß” means “are you horny”