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Disliking English | ||
Tags: "Louche" Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4445 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes  Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 41 of 73 08 November 2013 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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The place I lived in many years ago was Hong Kong. Before the handover to China in 1997 it was in the
Commonwealth with English recognized as an official language. However, the education system allows people to choose between using Chinese in the core subjects with 1 English class / day or the other way around. People like us don't really have a problem with learning English as a job skill but the 2 people don't mix very much or intermarry (there are always exceptions). The place where we lived there were some English children living in the next building. There was a high wall separating the 2 buildings. It was a physical as well as a social barrier. Every once in a while the Chinese kids in our building would throw rocks over the wall as if we were fighting a war. There was a family in our building the father is Chinese & the mother is American. They spoke Chinese with their kids although they had a slight Americanized English accent. The demographics is over 90% Chinese with the Indians being the largest minority at barely 5%. The British ruled the land but we tended to look at them as foreigners living in China. Beside government officials there were few of them by population. In the 1980s there were a lot of people from Hong Kong who emigrated to N. America (US & Canada). The numbers peaked in the 1990s and many of them started moving back before and after the handover in 1997. There are many of us who are expats (at least 10,000) who lived in both places and are fluent in both Cantonese & English. Edited by shk00design on 08 November 2013 at 6:09pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Papashaw Newbie Australia Joined 4104 days ago 28 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 42 of 73 09 November 2013 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | ||
I forgot to add reflexive verbs with distinction between dative and accusative in German, heck, English lacks reflexive usage a great deal compared to other indo-euro languages. Who keeps on doing this? Where is the compensation? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflexive_verb If the language is not made repaired, then I will fire the language. Ah I can see myself as linguistic V broadcasting a linguistic ultimatum akin to the original graphic novel... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 43 of 73 09 November 2013 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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This sounds like the same reasoning why Dutch should have cases - we lost them, they were
introduced to sound more pretentious like in Latin or German - and then abolished again because nobody used them. English is English. It has its own peculiarities, no need to sound overly Germanic. Edited by tarvos on 09 November 2013 at 6:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Papashaw Newbie Australia Joined 4104 days ago 28 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 44 of 73 09 November 2013 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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It would not bother me so much, the cases and everything else, but how does German have these analytical
complexities such as much more complex word order and modal particles while all those other synthetic complexities such as impersonal passives, two more -wh words, genders, conjugations, cases, declensions, multiple ways to form plurals, etc. still remain? What does modern English have over German besides more verbal aspect? German is that video game class with everything that keeps on getting updated every patch, or that fictional Vulcan alien that has 3 times our strength, lifespan, and has natural psychic powers and all the Humans have is not much. Overpowered, strange choice of word, yes, but it is. Hence I call on native English speakers to be intuitive with evolving their language. I remember seeing a youtube comment with 50 likes saying that English is a stupid poor languages with barely any grammar and it could be learned in only 2 weeks which is why everybody uses it and a 100 posters started commenting with tons of agreement. It will be that way when English is watered down and stripped by their usage since natives don't bother maintaining it. Painting a bullseye around the bullet hole I say. I am starting to dislike English native speakers; they can't take care of their own language. Except for me and y'all of course. If I didn't know better I would also dislike the English language just like those other foreigners out of ignorance. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4666 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 45 of 73 09 November 2013 at 8:11pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, native English speakers do have lots of practice at hearing people struggle in our language with all manner of thick accents, incorrect grammar, and strange word choices and yet still making some sense out of it. Or perhaps these YouTubers spend their time speaking with fellow adepts of Globish rather than natives, and so overestimate their abilities. Edited by tastyonions on 09 November 2013 at 8:11pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 46 of 73 09 November 2013 at 9:40pm | IP Logged | ||
Why is having different grammatical features "less watered down"? Sounds like an entirely arbitrary way of looking at English. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4666 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 47 of 73 09 November 2013 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have never met anyone who called English "stupid" and "simple to learn" and had
anything more than a basic and clearly flawed command of it. Any language presents quite enough complexity if you want mastery rather than "good enough to be understood." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 48 of 73 09 November 2013 at 10:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Tell the "simple" thing to the foreigners who consistently fail to speak English on a
daily basis, those who struggle with it every day. English doesn't conjugate verbs so strongly or decline its nouns except for plural, but that doesn't make English a walk in the park. Edited by tarvos on 10 November 2013 at 12:07am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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