I admire how well she speaks English

[hhtt21]

I would like to ask you this sentence: "I admire how well she speaks English." What does the speaker try to say by saying "I admire" ?

Source: Newbury House/admire.

Thank you.

 

[Rover_KE]

Here's the relevant dictionary entry:

http://nhd.heinle.com/Definition.aspx?word=admire

 

[hhtt21]

Here's the relevant dictionary entry:

http://nhd.heinle.com/Definition.aspx?word=admire

I also looked at that dictionary but this verb "admire" does not make much sense to me. How or by which way could one admire another person?

Thank you.

 

[hhtt21]

Do you not understand 'respect' or 'think highly of'? How did many people in the world think of, for example, Nelson Mandela?

But thinking of "how well she is using English" just would be "a thinking" so this does not make sense to me.

Thank you.

 

[Matthew Wai]

'Think highly of' does not mean the same as 'think of'.
http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/think_1?q=think
Scroll down to 'think the world, highly, a lot, poorly, little, etc. of somebody/something'.

 

[GoesStation]

To admire someone's skills is to have positive feelings about them. When you say you admire how well someone speaks English, you think that person speaks English well.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I take the thread title to mean 'I think highly of her spoken English' or 'She speaks English so well, and I respect her for that'.

 

[Raymott]

But do not say this on a US college campus, where it would seen as a microaggression. It indicates that you would not usually expect her to speak good English, and this would be taken as a sign of implicit racism.

 

[hhtt21]

'Think highly of' does not mean the same as 'think of'.
http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/think_1?q=think
Scroll down to 'think the world, highly, a lot, poorly, little, etc. of somebody/something'.

I have looked the link, read the definition and example and then thought that it means "to think positively about somebody."

Thank you.

 

[hhtt21]

To admire someone's skills is to have positive feelings about them. When you say you admire how well someone speaks English, you think that person speaks English well.

Does this process require saying the positive situation and feelings to that person or this would be "to praise"?

Thank you.

 

[GoesStation]

Does this process require saying the positive situation and feelings to that person or this would be "to praise"?

You can admire someone's skills without saying anything out loud. It just means that you think the person's skills are in some way exceptional. If you praise​ someone, you're saying something positive about them, either aloud or in print.

 

[hhtt21]

Is this "admire" in question synonym of "respect", "show respect", "approve of" and "look up to" ?

http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/ADMIRE
http://nhd.heinle.com/Definition.aspx?word=admire

Because I would like to learn its synonyms for the context.

Thank you.

 

[GoesStation]

No. You could replace admire with "am impressed by" in this case.

 

[teechar]

But do not say this on a US college campus, where it would seen as a microaggression. It indicates that you would not usually expect her to speak good English, and this would be taken as a sign of implicit racism.

:shock:
In my opinion, that's far fetched. The reason for "respect" could be anything.

 

[GoesStation]

It's true that members of the communities community* can detect micro-aggressions in the most innocuous phrases. I suppose I admire how well she speaks English could be one of them, but I wouldn't worry about it.

*This is sarcasm which I won't explain here.