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#201
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I see. You think the cute troglodyte works better for you?
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#202
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#203
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You're a a good little H?hlenmensch, shadows. (Just trying to get us back to languages.)
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#204
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"English is a Stupid Language" by S. Singh
They say English can be confusing, but some just say....
English is a Stupid Language (A Poem) Lets face it English is a stupid language. There is no egg in the eggplant No ham in the hamburger And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England French fries were not invented in France. We sometimes take English for granted But if we examine its paradoxes we find that Quicksand takes you down slowly Boxing rings are square And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. If writers write, how come fingers don't fing. If the plural of tooth is teeth Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth If the teacher taught, Why didn't the preacher praught. If a vegetarian eats vegetables What the heck does a humanitarian eat!? Why do people recite at a play Yet play at a recital? Park on driveways and Drive on parkways How can the weather be as hot as hell on one day And as cold as hell on another You have to marvel at the unique lunacy Of a language where a house can burn up as It burns down And in which you fill in a form By filling it out And a bell is only heard once it goes! English was invented by people, not computers And it reflects the creativity of the human race (Which of course isn't a race at all) That is why When the stars are out they are visible But when the lights are out they are invisible And why it is that when I wind up my watch It starts But when I wind up this poem It ends. |
#205
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I thought some of our language enthusiasts might find this interesting.
Riding home on the T yesterday (the T is Boston's trolley system), I had occasion to help an elderly couple with some directions. I could tell they were lost. The man asked the driver for help a couple of times, in English, but wasn't really getting the information he needed. Then he would carry on the conversation with his wife. I could tell they were speaking another language (which sounded Germanic), but I couldn't hear it very clearly until I moved to the front to offer some assistance. When I asked the man if he needed some help, the accent of his reply immediately told me he had been speaking Yiddish. So, I spoke Yiddish to him. His wife chimed in, and after I helped them with directions I sat and spoke to them for another 15 minutes before they got off the trolley. It turned out that the wife did not speak English (or barely), and they had lived in the United States for nearly 20 years! This is highly unusual. |
#206
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I don?t find this unusual. I can?t speak for USA, but I guess you?ll find more of long time barely English speaking people in the immigrant quarters. In the case of Boston the most would be Italian or Spanish speaking.
Mostly they are female, married, don?t work, under average income household, and in my experience some kind of religious. You don?t need to speak well to buy the usual supplies. For doing the paperwork or dealing with authorities, the husband, children, or a friend have to assist. They don?t integrate and stay most of the time in the quarters, this is because it seems to be an exception, but I?m sure there are quite a lot of them. |
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