What Students Actually Mean by the Word “Foreigner” (And What They Could Say Instead)
- “A foreigner asked me for directions.”
- “I want to make more foreign friends.”
- “There are some foreigners in my company.”
Do the example sentences above sound familiar?
You’ve probably noticed that our students use the word “foreigner” quite commonly. But why is this word so popular among our students from East Asian countries? And what alternatives might we suggest as a replacement?
What Our Students Mean By “Foreigner”
First of all, it’s helpful to understand what our students mean when they say “foreigner.” While the word technically means “any person from a foreign country,” in everyday speech, it refers to people who “look foreign.”
People from neighboring countries aren’t usually categorized as “foreigners.” Instead, they’re referred to by their (assumed) nationality. For example, in Taiwan, people often confuse Koreans for Japanese people, but they’ll never call either of them “foreigners.”
On the other hand, people who look like they’re from some other part of the world are likely to be called “foreigners.” This might seem strange to many tutors, but keep in mind that many of our students didn’t start interacting with people who didn’t “look like them” until they signed up for Engoo!
So it’s somewhat understandable why they divide the world population into “foreigners” and people who look closer to how they look. To them, it’s just a category, and like any other category, it can be:
- positive (“I like making foreign friends.”)
- negative (“I’m scared of talking to foreigners.”)
- neutral (e.g. a sign that says “Welcome foreigners! We speak English.”)
What Can We Teach Students to Say Instead?
Given that, to many native English speakers (often from places more ethnically diverse than East Asia), "foreigner" can sound strange or unfriendly, what alternatives might we want to teach our students?
As a point of comparison, instead of the sentences at the top of this blog post, most native speakers would say something closer to the following:
- "A tourist asked me for directions today."
- "I want to make friends from different countries."
- "There are some workers from overseas in my company."
Notice that in the first sentence, the fact that the tourist is foreign isn’t important and is simply left out. After all, both foreign and domestic tourists would need to ask for directions!
It would be helpful to point out that unlike the noun “foreigner,” the adjective “foreign” is a neutral description. That’s why phrases like “foreign tourists,” “foreign workers” and “foreign-born spouses” will appear in news articles without any negative connotations.
Wrap-up
We hope this has helped you understand why students use the word “foreigner” and what alternatives we might suggest.
Learners often find it interesting that the word in English has different connotations from the word in their native language. But it only makes sense that the study of language also includes learning about the culture from which it comes.
Once students learn some useful alternatives, however, they will not only be better English speakers, they'll also be better global communicators.
