English Is the Best Language in the World

rightie   Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:32 pm GMT
<<Even more tragic is the way some of them think they are back home on their own roads in their own countries when they suffer some kind of mental blackouts and drive off on the right hand side of the road and it's all too obvious what happens then.>>

Sounds like this problem is easily solved -- just come up with an EU-wide regulation requiring drivers in all countries to use the same side of the road.
Russkiy   Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:17 pm GMT
<<
As far as I know there is anti-German sentiment only in UK among the European countries (probably in Russia too, but I can't confirm).>>


Strangely enough, Germany is often considered Russia's best friend in Europe. Germany is one of Russia's largest trading partners, their companies are rebuilding a lot of Russian infrastructure and there are a lot of Russian immigrants there.
In general, Germany, France and Italy are seen as rational countries who you can do business with. The UK, Eastern European countries and the Baltics are seen as anti-Russian, self-righteous and antagonistic.
Edward Teach   Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:26 am GMT
yes, I am quite aware the British empire is gone, armada.
You are the one who is deluded with visions of past glory.
But then, thats all you have left, isnt it?
V2   Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:45 am GMT
Freedom for the hero of Lockerbie.
Taylor S   Wed Aug 26, 2009 2:30 am GMT
"english is a poor and primitive language.

example:

"my friend is english"

- Who the hell is your friend? male or female?

get a f.cking gender from Spanish if you dont have one.

it should be:

"my friend(o) is english" male

"my friend(a) is english" female"

Not having BS arbitrary gender marking makes English PRIMITIVE in your eyes? LOL
Damian Petersfield Hampsh   Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:17 am GMT
***"my friend is english"

- Who the hell is your friend? male or female?***

That's one of the fun bits about the English Language.....its apparent androgeny. You either have to ask to be told about the gender of the friend or wait with baited breath until you set eyes on him or her.

Think how much easier it is for us native English speakers not having to worry about trivial things such as whether a noun is feminine, masculine or neuter....a book is a book, a table is a table and a pomegranate is a weird sort of fruit full of irritating little pips I just cannae be bothered with.

I suppose it comes naturally to speakers of all those other Languages where case and gender are vitally important and I imagine they automatically know that it is "la" for that and "le" for the other, and that a German would have no problems at all knowing that it should be "Ein armer alter Mann sah einmal eine shone Dame und einen kleinen Jungen" but I daresay the learning of all these definitions are all part and parcel of learning their grammar in primary school.

For us in the ESW plain all "the" will do for everything, and thank heavens for that....no confustion with either "der" "die" or "das", but as I say native speakers will somehow know which to use simply by means of second nature awareness.

Even so, certain objects in English are traditionally described in a particular gender. For instance many people refer to their car in the feminine gender, certainly here in the UK they do....."Och....she's a really beauty!" for example. The same always applies to ships, invariable described as a "she". Even entire countries are similarly referred to in the feminine case......the best illustration of this is "Mother Russia" I would say.

In short English must be quite easy peasy for all learners of our Language...no gender howlers as would be the case for learners of most Continental Languages...."le table"? Non! "Das haus"? Ja!

Mind you, one of our native UK Languages also has similar gender rules...Welsh. You really have to make sure you use the appropriate gender form if you wish to speak it properly, unlike in English. To a Welsh speaker it would sound ridiculous if you use the wrong form, so in many ways Welsh has a lot more in common with Continental Languages than it does with the Language of their immediate neighbour to their east....they even share the same word for the same object in many cases.....I'm sure you can work out what these Welsh words mean: Mur, fenster, llyfr, eglwys - yes, you're right: Wall, window, book and church, although the last two will probably make you ponder a wee bit until you recognise similarities with other Languages.

Languages are such fun aren't they!

English is primitive? Well, it isn't really - except in parts of Glasgow, where it's absolutely primeval, and among certain sections of the ethnic youth of many London inner city districts where they mostly communicate by means of unintelligble grunts intermingled with ghettospeak, all of it by conscious design, all so jealously guarded by them. Apparently many officers of the London Metropolitan Police operating in those areas undergo classroom instruction in the comprehension and use of this form of speech.