Reply With QuoteWhat about a Yorkshireman telling Tintin that something isn't in a can. " 'Tint in tin Tintin" .
You may well have seen this, but I think it is great.
So everyone sould speak English right? Because of course, it's so much easier to lewrn than any othr language... Imagine ging back to class and trying to explain the rationale behind the differences here:
1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture..
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'?
What about a Yorkshireman telling Tintin that something isn't in a can. " 'Tint in tin Tintin" .
F.T.F.A.
Very good. I remember our English teacher at school encouraging us to come up with examples of words that are pronounced differently to how you might thing. I.e why is "plough" not pronounced "pluff" when compared to the spelling words like "tough"
It is said that English as a foreign language is very hard indeed to learn expertly.
It's words that have no logical reason for being pronounced the way they are that can really catch foreigners out.
Things like lieutenant, colonel and Worcester.
Or explaining he puts oil in his car and has 'an oil in his jumper'....Originally Posted by magirus
What about a Yorkshireman telling Tintin that something isn't in a can. " 'Tint in tin Tintin" .
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Hahaha!
True, so true. But we struggle on.
Dutch TV shows US and UK series in the original language and always has subtitles. From when I was a kid, I (and all of my generation) are (were) used to hearing the English language and reading the Dutch subtitles. That helps a lot when learning English at school.
For me, the language has a few other pitfalls: when to use the correct tense: e.g. simple present, present continuing. The Guardian test a few weeks back on the forum was really impossible for me to solve! I often use idiom I've picked up here, found on the internet (checking spelling etc) and my wife is Canadian, but she speaks Dutch.
According to her, English is easier than Dutch! In Dutch, every verb has its own conjugation when used with personal pronouns... And the postition of the p/p in the sentence also influences the conjugation... And then there's the matter of articles in front of the nouns... we have three different nouns and there's no logical system to determine what sort of article you have to use. My wife always picks the wrong one ;-)
Finally, in English you use the p/pronoun 'you' in an informal way (friend) or formal way. It's sentence and situation related. In Dutch, we have two p/pronouns: an informal 'jij' and formal 'u'. Using the wrong one can lead to tricky situations... it's considered very impolite when you use the wrong pronoun...
Menno
extra points if you can say Ghoti correctly
Fish.
The points are yours sir!
I gather Hungarian is all but impossible to learn - so I'm not going to.
I am attempting to learn Welsh, has similar p/pronoun formal/informal/feminine/masculine silliness, and no end of 'well, there's no explanation for it, you just have to learn it this way'
I like to see there, their, and they're, used correctly. It always amazes me how many people get these basics wrong. Also your, and you're.... Oh well.
The problem with Welsh, is that many native speakers will disagree what is correct!
Only really between north and south... there is less dialectical change than, say, the English spoken in London and that of Birmingham. Also, no-one cares what they do in the Valleys ;)
Or the scouser agreeing the police do a wonderful job.
"Ah, dey do dough don't dey dough?"
Wow. Hats off to you!
"Wonder" and "wander" always amuse me.
Wonder -- pronounced "wunder"
Wander -- pronounced "wonder"
Or if something isn't onlineWhat about a Yorkshireman telling Tintin that something isn't in a can. " 'Tint in tin Tintin" .
"Tint on t'internet"
I will never understand English comma placement (among many other things)but being German this seems perfectly OK...
But compared to German, English comma placement is very easy. But thats probably because it is more similar to Swedish comma placement.I will never understand English comma placement (among many other things)
I have read German for six years in school, and still I can not understand a thing a german tells me. Isn't that odd? English I have heard everyday on TV since I was a kid (in Sweden we use subtitles, not voice over), and I can understand pretty much any conversation and speak semi-fluent. (with an accent of course)
English certainly have some quirks but it is the easiest foreign language what I have studied (eng, swe, ger, fra). We too have subtitles and watching a subtitled programs and movies can be a very good support when learning a new language. My weakness is my writing skills, especially this kind of informal writing. My listening and reading comprehension skills are very good.
I agree, informal (on forums etc) writing is probably the hardest part.
It always confuses me as to why we have "Extent" and "Extension" rather than "Extention"
In the pre-internet era (the dark ages of the 20th century...) I had to go to Sweden to source parts for my classic Saabs. So twice a year, I took a camper van (RV) and headed north. I realised that learning Swedish would give me an advantage. So I took a course in Swedish during the winter months and continued the next year. Swedish isn't very difficult to learn when it comes to reading. But the pronounciaton of certain words are totally different from what you read! That makes understanding more difficult that simply learning the words and the grammar.
During the 80s, a lot of Danish football players came over to Dutch clubs like PSV Eindhoven and Ajax. These guys learned the Dutch language within weeks. Danish and Dutch have a lot in common.
Finally, a friend of mine started his automotive career at Renault. Being Dutch, he had to learn French as quick as possible. He went to a special 3 wks training course in the south of Holland. There you can learn a foreign language within weeks, but at a price! Very effective training. http://www.reginacoeli.com
(He's currently holding a position within the highest ranks of Peugeot - the other French car manufacturer)
Menno
I have always thought that reading books without dictionary is the easiest way to learn foreign language but recently I've found writing is even better. When you read something you can catch the clue without understanding every single word. When you speak you can say something really wrong or stupid and it just passes away. But when you write you can and must think about it, pay more attention to spelling, grammar etc.
English is maybe easy to learn for simple comunication but every foreign language is very hard or even impossible to master.
Who knows how many stupidity I wrote in just few sentences above?
Swedish is probably not the easiest language to learn when you are an adult. Pronunciation can sometimes differ from writing (mostly in southern Sweden) and some letters can sound different depending on how they are used. Luckily most Swedes speak rather good English! :)
You think English is hard, try Hungarian!
I spent some time working on a contract in Glasgow and some of the people in the office had such heavy regional dialects I could understand about one word in three sometimes. Coupled with the fact that many of them spoke quickly , it really was hard work understanding at times.
I did quickly pick up that " awee an gen sum fud" meant " I'm just popping out for lunch" :)
You are correct. Writing is a very good way to learn the grammar and it gives a deeper understanding of the language. Verbal knowledge is many times enough if the learner just wants to speak the new language, for example in holidays. I just find this kind of informal writing the be my weakest link. In my school and university years I wrote papers in English but I think it was somewhat easier to do than this is.
Last edited by Keke; 15th October 2013 at 18:25.
I think there are a lot of variations on a similar phrase possible yn Cymraeg, I have found first hand the chap from Caernarfon will say the same phrase in a completely different way than the chap from Anglesey ( for example) Our tutor confirmed as much.
Its easy to say there are a lot of ways to say the same thing in English. You may not notice it as a natural speaker, but you sure notice as a learner.
Last edited by sestrel; 15th October 2013 at 20:09.
In my experience, traditional ESL/EFL teaching methods were heavy on language base (sometimes excluding pronunciation, sadly) and light on language skills. They piled on the goddamn present perfect and all the synonyms in the world, but students had no real grasp of register or idiom and could not communicate efficiently. Then came the do-gooders with their "communicative approach". That was even worse.
Anyway, English as a second language. Seems easy. It isn't.
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