Are you offended by this passage?

From the "Why learn English" article at http://www.antimoon.com/other/whylearn.htm:

[In English] words are easy to learn. In French, it's "la fille" and "le chien". In German, it's "das Mädchen" and "der Hund". In English, they're just "a girl" and "a dog". And that's all you need to know.

No, but it is a bit over the top. Of course English it's the most "useful" language at this point in time. I learn it not because it was aesthetically pleasing to me but because of the advantages it offers in knowing it. But it sure does help being enthused in learning it. Trying to learn something you do no enjoy is a hard task to do.

The author of the text assumes that the human mouth has a genetic predisposition towards the English language and, therefore, all human beings should have spoken English from their first day anyway. All other languages would be a mistake or an error. I suppose that's a plain joke. If anyone is an expert does this have a name in the world of the mind and domination?

every baby in the world has a predisposition for every language in the world. After a few months he has lost it, because he has grown up and has only heard "noises" from the language where he is from. That's stupid to think you have predispositions for that language especially. It's just a question of the environment where you are living, if you are spanish, oyu will only hear spanish "noises" which affects your perception. After that, when you must learn another language your hears must be educated. That's the diffenrence between a mother toungue and a foreign language. How the author can proove english is easier when you know there are many and many languages in hte world. Does it mean he speaks japanese, chinese(s), french, spanish, italian, german, dutch, romaninan, polish, czeh, bulgarian, indian(s), arabians etc etc etc

So, a guy who's abble to think that is only a "cretin"

It's not offensive. I'm not even sure precisely what you're worried about -- is it specifically the choice of "girl" and "dog" as your contrasting examples that seems potentially offensive?

Jordi, maybe the word you have on the tip of your tongue is "ethnocentrism"?

Yet, you have misunderstood the text. The author states the fact that German and French articles have genders, whilst English articles have not.
This is not offensive, this is just true.

But the author (Tom?) doesn't mention the fact that in English, contrary to French and German, articles must sometime be used and sometimes musn't, which is more confusing than easy.

Correction : "in English, contrary to French, articles must sometime be used and sometime musn't".
I don't know how the articles are used in German, so I'll stick to a comparison between French and English.

i have to the the link :

"English is easy to learn
English is not only the most useful language in the world. It is also one of the easiest languages to learn and to use:

Simple alphabet — no special symbols such as é or ä. Type in sweet, part, film on your computer. Now try süß (German), (Polish), (Russian). Which is easier?
Easy plurals — simply add s to a word. One car, five cars; one telephone, two telephones... There are very few exceptions.
Words are easy to learn. In French, it's la fille and le chien. In German, it's das Mädchen and der Hund. In English, they're just a girl and a dog. And that's all you need to know.
Short words. Most of the basic words are short: run, work, big, go, man. Long words are often shortened: sitcom = situational comedy, fridge = refrigerator, OS = operating system. Speaking English saves you time. :-)
Words don't change. But in many languages, one word has many forms:
English: The man is blind.
German: Der Mann ist blind.

English: This is a blind man.
German: Das ist ein blinder Mann.

English: I see a blind man.
German: Ich sehe einen blinden Mann.

Call everybody "you". You can say "Do you speak English?" to your friend or to your teacher. In other languages, you have to use the right word for the right person. In English, everybody is equal. :-)
English is everywhere. You can easily access English-language television, music, websites, magazines, etc. You don't have to learn from boring textbooks. You can learn and use your English at the same time. Using your English is especially important because it increases your desire to learn.
Get satisfaction"


In fact what they say is stupid, because they mean that's easier to learn english. But it depends for who! I mean if you are german it will be easier for you learn dutch ; the same for a french it will be easier to learn italian etc etc. Theire view is ethnocentric and to simple. A language will be easier for a certain type of culture but not for another one. Especially if you think about the asians who have a real different perception of language and noises wich are 10000000 miles away from our perception.
They say it's easier because of "le chien, la fille etc". But they don't mention why. I mean for somaeone who has a latin language (and some others) who usually use feminine or masculin, even he speaks in english a car will stay femini in his mind like the sun will stay masculin.

This is the kind of ideology which is typically fascist and want to show us how uneffective are the other languages. The problem is, it's not a quastion of being easier or not.

>>English is not only the most useful language in the world.>>

As a communication tool, English is unmistakably the most useful one due to its widespreadness. Here Tom is right.


>>It is also one of the easiest languages to learn and to use>>

I have to disagree here, since it has one of the most difficult pronunciation. No other language has a similar one. Compare Italian and Japanese and you will see what having a very similar pronunciation means.
There are also other arguments which make it not so easy, but I keep them for later. On the plus side, though, English is widespread and it's very easy to find ressources for your learning.


>>Simple alphabet — no special symbols such as é or ä. Type in sweet, part, film on your computer. Now try süß (German), (Polish), (Russian). Which is easier? >>

English has integrated foreign words which needs those symbols:
- Café
- Attaché
- Tête-à-tête
- Déjà vu
But I have noticed the Americans seldomly write them. Only some British seem to be attached to do so.
So, here, Tom is right.


>>Easy plurals — simply add s to a word. One car, five cars; one telephone, two telephones... There are very few exceptions. >>

That is true. But in Spanish you always pronunce those final S the same way, whilst you have to pronunce them S or Z in English, according to the word. Yet, it's rather easy to feel when you should pronunce it Z, as most of time it is when you find hard to pronunce it S.
So here again Tom is right.

>>Words are easy to learn. In French, it's la fille and le chien. In German, it's das Mädchen and der Hund. In English, they're just a girl and a dog. And that's all you need to know. >>

No, that is not all you need to know. When should I use the and when shouldn't I?


>>Short words. Most of the basic words are short: run, work, big, go, man.>>

True.

>>Long words are often shortened: sitcom = situational comedy, fridge = refrigerator, OS = operating system. Speaking English saves you time. :-) >>

If Tom means that it saves more time than other languages do that's wrong. The other languages have not waited for English to make their own shortcuts and to use initials. If Tom means that English is one of the languages that save your time (and I think that is what he means), he is right.


>>Words don't change. But in many languages, one word has many forms:
English: The man is blind.
German: Der Mann ist blind.

English: This is a blind man.
German: Das ist ein blinder Mann.

English: I see a blind man.
German: Ich sehe einen blinden Mann. >>

Right.

>>Call everybody "you". You can say "Do you speak English?" to your friend or to your teacher. In other languages, you have to use the right word for the right person. In English, everybody is equal. :-) >>

Actually this is not completely true. Are you considering someone your equal when you call him "Sir"? But you will rarely call someone this way and I think Tom was just making things shorter here.

>>English is everywhere. You can easily access English-language television, music, websites, magazines, etc. You don't have to learn from boring textbooks. You can learn and use your English at the same time. Using your English is especially important because it increases your desire to learn.
Get satisfaction" >>

Very true, and I think this is the main reason why English is so easily learned.







This said, I will now explain why I think English is NOT that easy:

Spelling -- enough, psychiatrist, measure, debt, doubt, ... The spelling is not phonethic and contrary to French there are no rules due to its many foreign contributions. So words are NOT easy to learn, especially if you learn them trough written sources.

Grammar -- Like too much languages, English is very strict regarding what sounds right and what sounds wrong. Many words you expect to be correct if put together are NOT correct.



Conclusion:
English, a very usefull language? Certainely.
English, a very easy language to learn? Hell, if you are satisfied by your awkward grammar and (mis)pronunciation, that's right. But if you want to speak proper English, you will have to be very demanding, just like Tom had to be.

And the final word: is the former sentence offensive, no, because Tom, in my opinion was just stating that English was an easy language to learn, not that it was easier than any other language.
But even if he were, that would not be offensive, that would just be wrong.

Pronunciation is part of the writing system not the English Language.
All the Mispronunciation problems with English come from an Archaic Spelling System.
Spelling in English is ridiculously inconsistent and is never brought up to date.
It is using the Roman Alphabet.
We got rid of Roman Numerals a long time ago, why do we hold on to Roman Alphabet for a Germanic Language.

Check out the Shaw or Shavian Alphabet, to see how simple and easy it could be made to spell English.
Even just using the ASCII Alphabet would make learning English a lot easier.

Regards, Paul V.

<<<<
They say it's easier because of "le chien, la fille etc". But they don't mention why. I mean for somaeone who has a latin language (and some others) who usually use feminine or masculin, even he speaks in english a car will stay femini in his mind like the sun will stay masculin.
>>>>

That's like saying "Serbian is easier to learn than English because if you speak Croatian, you can learn Serbian in two weeks". Come on.

Jacob -- yes, I was thinking about the girl/dog thing. I didn't expect to be called a fascist because of my discussion of the advantages of English, but hey -- every day on this forum is a learning experience.

Do you think I should change the examples? I got a message from someone about that. At first I thought it was a joke. Then I thought "No way am I gonna succumb to that PC nonsense". Now you've identified the same thing as potentially offensive.

I'm convinced that we all post to an English language forum because we enjoy and love the language. To me it's a refreshing experience because I don't presently live in an English speaking world although I happen to have been a fluent English speaker as a child and teenager in Australia and through my University studies, which included lots of English.
This said, one loves his mother or most native tongue above all. As a speaker of a lesser used Romance language that I learnt at home from my parents, Catalan (spoken by some 8 million people, which is as much or as little as one needs) I can tell you that, as far as I'm concerned, Catalan is the easiest and most beautiful language in the world. It is, after all, the language I use with my wife and two children, with my neighbours and some of my closest friends, with brother and sisters, uncles and aunts. The last words I heard from my granddad were in Catalan, and boy did I love that man who had so much culture and love within him! It is "the language" that makes me turn around if I'm far and away and I suddenly listen to its sounds. That has happened in several occasions all over the world and I've been thrilled to the bones. I don't even have the same feelings towards Spanish, the other official language where I live, which I've never spoken at home although I'm also a fluent speaker. Or English or French, which I'm lucky enough to master quite well. Language can be a matter of communication but it is also a matter of love and experiences. And, by the way, excellent English is as difficult to find as any other excellent language in the world and far too often do we find native people who don't master their own language. It is true that more and more people speak basic English all around the world. Would you call that level of English all a human being needs to evolve and fulfill himself? Let us use English as a world language of communication but let us be realistic.

It seems harmless to me; I wouldn't change it. I was wracking my brains just to imagine what anyone could find offensive about this. You're not EQUATING girl and dog, and you're not suggesting any interaction between girl and dog, so I don't think it's a problem.

The only thing I can imagine is that, when gender is being discussed, the natural opposite to dog is bitch (literally a female dog). So when you set up a dog / girl pairing it somehow relates girl with bitch in the reader's mind. Really far-fetched. Probably already we've devoted too much thought to it.

Jacob have you read the whole article?

http://www.antimoon.com/other/whylearn.htm:

This is what we are on about, the whole article not just the small portion Tom posted from it. I don't think is offensive but the article gives you the impression that it is the only language worth knowing and if you were unfortunate enough not to be born a native speaker you better learn it in a hurry.

My original question was about that one passage.