Posted on 02/13/2024 7:21:59 AM PST by OneVike
However, I would appreciate a complimentary visit to my website, if you are so inclined. After all, my work is done for free, because other than one small link to my wife's hairdresser's website, there are no overwhelming adds that will drive you crazy. I do what I do for the enjoyment I get, not for profit."
If you visit my webpage,"trfmf.com," would let me know what you think, and if you have some constructive criticism, I am one to consider ideas that could make my site even better.
Yes I know my archive links down the page to the right are broken, but I am in the process of trying to fix it, but I lost my support technician, and now I must learn the workings of the software before I can fix what is broken.At least the top dropdown venues are now working.
Most difficult languages are Navajo, Finnish and Hungarian.
Interestingly they all originated from the Altai mountains of central Asia.
To paraphrase Kelly Bundy, regarding her poor grades in English, “So what? Like I’m ever gonna go to England.”
it is said that the English Language is the only language that allows one to say exactly what they mean...
Words do mean things, and words do mean things.
enjoy that one
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“Stop a head” it’s a trick... there is no head
“Fine for littering” again, a trick, it’s not fine to litter, it will cost you!
“No, U-turn” once again, a trick... do not turn! You get a fine! And you didn’t even litter!
“End roadwork” (who allowed protestors to put protest signs up like that on busy roadways anyways?)
Try Mandarin sometime. Each word can mean at least 5 different things.
For example Yenjing (sp) can mean eyes, eye glasses or penis plus a couple others I forget.
[[words do mean things]]
Only to the easily offended (ie democrats)
All true. But I have found Slavic languages to be impenetrable.
A.ot of our words are very similar to German and also to other languages like Spanish. German though is kinda close to English for many words
Brazilian Comedian Rafi Bastos has a pretty funny take on English:
I passed Latin and German proficiencies back in the day, mainly because I had a decent memory for vocabulary and was fast with a dictionary. I learned neither as a spoken language. I do not pretend to any expertise in linguistics.
That said, my layman’s response when this comes up in conversation is that English is an easy language to learn to speak semi-passably; varieties of pigeon English seem to crop up spontaneously, almost like an invasive weed, everywhere from remote Pacific islands to sub-Saharan Africa to Appalachia to urban ghettos.
English is an great linguistic stew agglomerated through waves of conquest of the British Isles amplified by centuries of colonial and commercial expansion. Declensions and conjugations ... dustbin of history. Hard rules of structure ... dustbin of history. Vocabulary ... completely open. Etc.
We are left with an amalgam that lends itself to improvisation but that is so open that it cannot really be “mastered.” How do you “master” something with so few rules? As it stands now, it is the world’s best language for humor, for irony, for wild creativity, for indirect and hidden meanings ... and for misunderstandings among even fluent English speakers, let alone the pigeon English speakers.
Using English with precision requires extra care. And understanding one’s audience is a high art. I don’t think any other major world language has this character — though I wouldn’t bet against something from India coming close.
American English especially keeps 'em guessing.
There's not using normal procedures. They're using some kind of code.
So many UPS!
Then can you believe it? Word of the *Deliverer* has gone out throughout the camp, so what does the Dark Side DO?
It goes after the *deliveries.*
Foolish porch pirates.
Well, if you have plural spouses, it can get spicy.
“Why Can’t the English” (From My Fair Lady)
Oh, why can’t the English learn to set
A good example to people whose
English is painful to your ears?
The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears.
There even are places where English completely
Disappears. In America, they haven’t used it for years!
Currently, I enjoy using Duolingo daily. German, Welsh, Spanish, Italian, Gaelic, Irish, Japanese. German gets the most use as I don't want to lose the original proficiency. I finished the Welsh course. It is since been enhanced, so there is room for another round to grow vocabulary. The Scots Gaelic voice synthesis is not great. Sentences are spoken with discrete words "pasted" together. Words spoken by males and females of different ages. By comparison, the German and Welsh synthesis are very good.
A couple moved in next to us. He was a Senior master sergeant in the army and she was a Russian who worked as a translator for the UN. They met in Japan where they were both stationed. She spoke several languages fluently. Her English sounded a great deal like Audrey Hepburn’s character Eliza Doolittle after she had received training from Professor Henry Higgins. I asked if she had seen the movie, My Fair Lady but she had no idea what I was talking about.
Her husband was sent abroad for a year and she went back to live in Russia with her parents in Vladivostok during that time period. When she and their child came back the toddler was bilingual with an impressive vocabulary. She would talk to us in English and then get on the phone with her grandmother and prattle away in Russian.
A friend from work commented that the penalty for bigamy is two wives.
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