Why do non native English speakers say “My friend” when they want someone’s attention?

r/

Native english speakers never say this phrase to each other so I’m curious where they got it from

Comments

  1. unserious-dude Avatar

    It comes from the specific cultural background. Little to do with native language.

  2. DotAffectionate87 Avatar

    Because its more polite than “Yo, Bitch!”

  3. Journo_Jimbo Avatar

    BLOODY FUCK YOU

    my friend

  4. Dear_Musician4608 Avatar

    Because they want you to know they are your friend, my friend.

  5. Few_Promise_5154 Avatar

    ‘Eyo why tf arent you listening??’ doesnt really seem polite

  6. Many_Collection_8889 Avatar

    So do English speakers. Bud, pal, bro, man – they all translate to friend. So imagine what they see every time they watch an American movie or TV show translated. They do it because that’s what they learned from watching us

  7. Disastrous_Cup6076 Avatar

    there’s a load of these politisms I’ll call them. I think it’s a) cos English was spread first through the British empire, so a lot of places have an English that’s older and more formal and b) because their native language has certain social conventions with politeness that are being translated that way. 

    a lot of non native (and native but of Indian English or whatever)  speakers use things like “dear” and “mam” as well

  8. ForceDeep3144 Avatar

    because their language probably has honorifics prefixes and titles they’d usually structure sentences around, but english really doesn’t anymore.

  9. Remarkable_Table_279 Avatar

    My best friend is a native speaker and she says it “hello my friend”…maybe it’s a Wisconsin thing tho.

  10. BumbleBeezyPeasy Avatar

    My dude, we say it, too 🤣

  11. Normal-Check-848 Avatar

    Non native English speakers learn the proper phrases. Instead of bro and bud they say friend.

  12. sucram200 Avatar

    Probably the same reason non native speakers say “touristic” when they mean “touristy” or expanding it into “made for tourists” or “too many tourists”. I’ve never once heard a native English speaker use that word but someone has tough all Europeans that it’s the way that sentiment is said.

  13. ArtistFar1037 Avatar

    It’s timeless and communicates effectively. In the west our greeting change constantly.

  14. theluckyfrog Avatar

    Idk, I’m a native English speaker and I say it all the time. Mostly to my patients, though.

  15. Jazzlike-Week799 Avatar

    English is my native language and I will sometimes use that expression

  16. artemis_sg Avatar

    I’m learning Ukrainian as a native English speaker and I find it funny how people get the attention of a stranger by saying man, woman, girl, or boy.

    Literally something like “woman! You dropped your wallet”

    I guess if I was Ukrainian learning English I might say something like that because it’s normal in the native language

  17. robbob19 Avatar

    Because most languages speak in a different order to English, what they’re trying to say is “come over here my friend”, but their native tongue would have the order friend come over here.

  18. UnfortunateSyzygy Avatar

    Depends on the culture. Arabic speakers often say “brother / uncle” or “sister/auntie” , depending on your relative ages .

  19. Vroomped Avatar

    I don’t want to categorize ALL non native speakers, I think that’s a bit brash and when you reflect I hope you realize you interact with the same few people often and are experiencing selection bias.

    Otherwise, it’s likely the default phrase they learned in school as a good go to. 

    In contrast my coworker from Portugal first learned English from surfers. He unironically had Cali accent where every vowel is a question and said things like “Hey there, crispy morning. I’ve uploaded sanitized user data to your X: drive. Stay dry.” 

  20. SoImaRedditUserNow Avatar

    gotta love the use of “never”

    native english speaker here. I use that phrase all the time. “My friend? you dropped your wallet”. “My friend? its your turn”. Its a good way of being friendly when getting someone’s attention . Its literally just a more formal way of saying “Hey buddy”.

  21. LazyScribePhil Avatar

    Because they’ve not got familiar enough with the language to say “mate”?

  22. ParamedicExcellent15 Avatar

    An Arab told me that Habibi translates as ‘my beautiful friend’

  23. horsetooth_mcgee Avatar

    It’s like how if you receive an email that says kindly respond or kindly click on the link. Apparently they’re all taught that kindly is the exact equivalent of please, which it’s not, in typical American usage, and which always lets you know it’s a scam. My friend, kindly give me your bank account information.