Is English only a language of business?

huh?   Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:06 am GMT
Why do English speakers always assume that English is the only language in the world with lots of synonyms?
Guest   Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:35 am GMT
Because English speakers speak many languages and know how many synonyms each one has.
Another Guest   Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:40 am GMT
Your question implies that I said that English is the only language in the world with lots of synonyms, a statement which I did not make.
K. T.   Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:42 am GMT
didn't know that unripened blueberries looked red until just now. It's the kind of joke a kid would like.

-Dad, what kind of berries are these?
-Blueberries.
-Why are they so red then?
-Because they are still green.

That's what I get out of it. "Green" meaning unripe. If it has another meaning, I may be missing it. German isn't my best language.

Here is another German joke. I didn't make it up, so if you don't like it, don't laugh.

Mein Vater ist ein Graf. Ja, ich bin Fotograf.

My father is a Count. Yes, I am a photographer=I am the sun (photo) of the count.
K. T.   Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:59 am GMT
Maybe botanists made up both jokes.

Son/Sun/Photo
Edward Teach   Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:32 am GMT
Maybe you could use more entertaining jokes to highlight this?
K. T. (not a professional   Thu Sep 10, 2009 5:29 am GMT
What are you, a pirate king? Lookey o'er yonder-pieces of eight, pieces of eight! And a parrot too!
Edward Teach   Thu Sep 10, 2009 6:43 am GMT
I find such blatant discrimination of pirates to be highly offensive
K. T.   Thu Sep 10, 2009 2:58 pm GMT
What? We can't joke about pirates now? Whaddya gonna make me do? Walk the plank?
Edward Teach   Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:04 pm GMT
Pirates are people too!
In fact technically we are a minority group and you just commited a hate crime
Animateur   Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:56 pm GMT
I obscenity in the milk all pirates here or elsewhere in the world.
They are to be shot at sight!!
And to the hell with their parrots too.
Edward Teach   Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:00 pm GMT
And bringing the parrots into it!
Thats below the belt
WRP   Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:50 pm GMT
Silliness aside people who say English is the language of business are making a statement of fact about the way of the current world. There's nothing inherent about English that make it more suited to business than French, or Icelandic, or Navajo. What makes English the language of business is the number people spread across the globe who speak it in some way, shape or form. Likewise there's nothing not "soulful" about English, it just isn't everyone's native language. French doesn't sing for me the way English does, but that doesn't make it a language without a soul. It just isn't the language of my soul.
Another Guest   Fri Sep 11, 2009 1:22 am GMT
Actually, English is more suited to the role of the language of business than other languages, largely because it has been the language of business so long. Of all the new concepts that have developed in the last hundred years (computer, internet, etc.), probably the majority of the words for them have come from English, and the majority of the rest have been incorporated into English.

"I find such blatant discrimination of pirates to be highly offensive"
I find such usages of the word "discrimination" rather odd; they suggest to me that the user doesn't really understand what the word means, and thinks it is simply a synonym for "mistreatment" or something.
Edward Teach   Fri Sep 11, 2009 3:18 am GMT
Your post rather suggests that you are a jumped up little prick.
The point of the discriminationn post was "irony".
I am not really a pirate for fucks sake.